You Know You Are Somewhere Cool When . . .

you receive an e-mail like this.

WARDEN MESSAGE
U.S. Embassy Athens, Greece

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 16, 2009

U.S. Embassy Athens and U.S. Consulate General Thessaloniki wish to alert American
citizens in Greece of the potential for large demonstrations throughout Greece on
Tuesday, November 17. Demonstrations are expected to take place in Athens in the
afternoon and evening in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy, and in Thessaloniki in
the area of the U.S. Consulate General, as well as in and near university campuses.


We wish to remind American citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful
can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. November 17 is the
anniversary date of 1973 protests against the then-ruling junta, and is often marked
by demonstration activity. In the past, some demonstrations on November 17 have
included violence and destruction of property. Americans are therefore urged to
avoid the areas of demonstrations, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of
any demonstrations. The Embassy recommends that Americans in the Athens
neighborhoods of Kolonaki and Ampelokipi avoid leaving their residences between 4 pm
November 17, 2009 and 6 am November 18, 2009.

Traffic and public transportation in the vicinity of demonstrations are likely to be
adversely affected. American citizens seeking Embassy or Consulate General services
on November 17 should be aware that the Consulate General in Thessaloniki is
planning to close at 2 pm and the Embassy in Athens may do so as well. Many offices
may close earlier should circumstances warrant.

For up-to-date information regarding Embassy or Consulate General closures, please
visit http://athens.usembassy.gov/ or http://thessaloniki.usconsulate.gov/. In case
of an emergency when the Embassy or Consulate General is closed, an American in
Greece can call (210) 729-4444 or (210) 729-4301, and ask to speak to a consular
officer.

American citizens in Greece should also monitor the local news, and for the latest
security information, Americans living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor
the Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs website at http://www.travel.state.gov,
where the current Worldwide Cautions, Travel Alerts, and Travel Warnings can be
found. American citizens may also obtain up-to-date information on security
conditions overseas by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States or
Canada, and 1-202-501-4444 from overseas. These numbers are available from 8:00
a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal
holidays). American citizens living or traveling abroad are encouraged to register
with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate through the State Department's travel
registration web site at https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/.

For up-to-date information on current security conditions, Americans may also
contact the U.S. Embassy in Athens or Consulate General in Thessaloniki at the
numbers below. Please pass this information on to other Americans.

U.S. Embassy in Athens U.S. Consulate General in
Thessaloniki

91 Queen Sophias Avenue 43 Tsimiski Street

Tel. 210-721-2951 Tel.
2310-242905





This email is UNCLASSIFIED.


I'll let you know how everything goes. Hope it is not overrated.

Congrats Adam. . . Can't Wait to See You

hey buddy,

congrats on the finishing of your fire season. hope your party went well. i can't wait to see you at christmas.

love
ian

I don't want to be a secret weapon; i want to be an exposed weapon.

well, keith is the only one to have posted on the last entry and he is the last one that i thought would be interested in coming asdfgsehwsedfasdfaf . . . lefty has taken over . . .

keith has asked that i give him a dream itinerary for a week and a half trip to thessaloniki, so i put this one together. I think that it is pretty ambitious, but everything on it is worth doing so we could pick and choose easily.

10 days:
day 1: Arrive, relax, coffee, dinner

day 2: Walking tour of thessaloniki, coffee, dinner with my friends at the house

day 3: Up to anapoli for lunch and a coffee, down to the center for the evening for a walk, a giro, and a good drink

day 4: Day trip to olympos

day 5: Relax, trip to the white tower museum, to soula's house for good food
and drink

day 6: To town for a trip to the big market in the center and a taverna in the market

day 7: Trip to meteora

day 8: Trip to vergina

day 9: Trip to chalkidiki

day 10: Relax and go for a drink and then to the airport

Best Drink: There are many, but perhaps thermaikos
Best hiking: Olympos or meteora
Scootering: Chalkidiki

so, cometh i say; cometh and partake of the wonder and splendor that is thessaloniki. I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER, I WANT YOU, I NEED YOU, I LOOOOVE YOU!

come and see,
"howling mad"

as promised . . .

so my parents are planning to come visit me in june; since this is the case, and since i would like more people to come visit me, i am going to post a couple of blogs on traveling to greece and things that you should know and be aware of. i'll try to cover things like, what airports to travel through, things to do based on different trip durations, things to do based on different interests, when to come, a few cultural tid-bits that i have noticed, expenses, and i will try to answer any questions that i get on the comment screens. it'll be like my own little guidebook.

so we'll start from the beginning, flying. first we'll begin with buying tickets and what they should cost.

-tickets are pretty easy, basically you will most likely get a ticket that has two stops, one in the states and one in europe. now as far as cost is concerned, depending on where you are flying from, how inconvenienced you care to be, and when you want to travel, prices can differ by literally hundreds of dollars.

good price: 800-900, if you find prices in this range quit your job sell your house, rob a bank, whatever you need to do, come and visit.

bad price: anything over 1300, i am really not worth this much money; buy yourself something pretty.

-ok next, where to fly to, from, and through.
>best airports
cleveland- small, easy, and on time
columbus- amazingly nice and comfortable
vegas- big but easy
washington d.c. (kinda dingy and dirty, but organized)
munich- small, beautiful, and german efficiency
athens- easy, clean, and good location
thessaloniki- tiny and easy

>worst airports
jfk- disorganized, epically huge, and consistently late (unfortunately a major hub of east coast delta
rome- italian, ummm . . . yeah (sorry if you are offended, there are just a lot of problems; however, it has been redesigned since i went through so it could be a bit better)
frankfurt- hopefully sarah won't hurt me but it is old, dirty, dark and too small for the volume of flights

every other airport i have been to lies somewhere in-between. and this list does not mean that everything will be perfect at the good airports and that everything will go poorly at the bad airport, these are just my observations.

now for the airlines
>best airlines
delta- delta is not actually that great but it is one of the main airlines that flies to athens or thessaloniki.
british airways- nice airline good food (they do charge for multiple bags and they are sticklers about one carry on)
aegean- great all around airline

>worst airlines
olimpic- epically bad (under new management, could be better in a couple of years)
alitalia- again epically bad. they will loose your baggage.

again, these observations really mean nothing you can have good experiences on bad airline and a bad experience on a good airline.

there is the start, you can now shop for tickets with ease and peace of mind. haha that is if you trust my judgment. maybe we'll do important places to visit in greece next. don't feel like you have to wait though, come and see me, i'll give you the personal tour.

peace love and happiness

Just a Quick Something to Think

This is not mine, but i don't know whose it is. it was a comment on a video i was watching and i thought it was interesting.

...what do you call it when a dog shamefully slinks away from a counter he just stole a sandwich from? Or when an ape at a zoo protects a child that fell into an exhibit until it can be rescued? etc?

Isn't it convenient, that you call THOSE actions "instinct" but call it "conscience" when people do it?

More fun. Man I love long weekends . . .

yep four day weekends are great. more fun at the crag. this time in litohoro with dimitri thomas and oscar. school is going well and i am close to buying my motorcylce, well sort of but yeah close. hope you are all doing well. miss you all.

New Climbing, New Friends, New Pics

what's the beta? this is a really cool shot taken by one of my new friends, aliki (she took all but the last five pics on this entry). The guy climbing is niko, a friend of ours who incvited us to Xanthi to climb. Super cool.

Looking especially strong for my lady friend. I have lost a bit of weight since the beginning of the summer (that pic on mom's blog of me at the beach no longer applies). Still need to get rid of the love handles.

a super sick 7c. it climbs up the side of a cave onto the ceiling. it looks like just another climbing pick until you realize that i am completely horizontal.

another guy we met this weekend was giorgo. super cool, super strong climber, he was our tour guide. really nice.



this was at the other area we went to. the climbing was awesome. this climb is called african twin. we climbed with the same group of people all weekend, really nice climbers.

oh sweet knee bar.

this was one of the guys we climbed with. he was german, he wore black spandex only, chain smoked cigarettes, he is about 6'7" with an ape index of maybe +3, and his soulders are about twice as wide as mine. HUGE!!! and really strong and really a smooth climber.

giorgo

beauty

more beauty

my new friend, tenodera aridifolia sinensis

it was a great weekend. Tons of new people. i one hung a 7b and a 7c; not really good, but for climbing during the week at an indoor gym i am pretty happy. i am hoping to be able to go more often, especially when i get my motorcycle (in about a month). the climbing was great and the people are wonderful. Hope everyone is well. let me know how things are going and keep in touch.