It’s all Greek to me – Athens, Greece

I’ve always wanted to say that phrase.  But really, Athens has Greek written everywhere.  Luckily it’s a huge tourist attraction and most people speak English too.  Otherwise you would be ordering and just pointing to something because I can’t even begin to pronounce any of these.  My Greek knowledge is limited to the popular sororities and fraternities at UGA. 

As I said most of the people spoke enough English for us to get by.  Some of the taxi drivers did not speak English well. There was also only a 50% chance that you would get a reliable one.  The good news is that cabs are extremely cheap in Athens.  I’m not sure why this is, but we were so relieved to get rid of the crazy German cab prices.  In Wiesbaden if Sam and I want to take a cab downtown it is 10 euros each way.  This is at max a 8 minute cab ride (Maybe the charge is because of the giant hill?).  In Athens the apartment we rented with a group of friends was around a 6 euro cab ride for 20 minutes.  Needless to say we felt like ballers the whole weekend and went everywhere.

Here is the view from the apartment we rented with a group of friends. Do you see the Acropolis on the hill on the left?  And the Mediterranean past that?  So cool!

 Look at all of the housing!  At night it looked like there were little twinkling lights everywhere.  Unfortunately my camera wasn't good enough to capture it.

We did have an amazing time in Athens.  Our first day there we started with the usual sites of the Acropolis.  We ate breakfast for reasonable prices right at the base of the sites.  It was a great view, and the food was yummy. 

Our view of the Acropolis at breakfast.  Construction began in the 5th century BC! 

Here are a few of our pics at the Greek ruins. 

Our friends stretching for their marathon this weekend.

The Parthenon.  

Our crew in front of the Erechtheum. 

Sitting on some ancient steps!

Seeing all of the sites took only about 1-2 hours.  We felt very accomplished and were wondering what we would do for the afternoon and 2 days that we had left in the city.  We visited a few more ruins around the city and then ended our afternoon with visiting the market shops followed by drinking Greek beer and eating great food! 

Temple of Olympian Zeus.  The construction began in 6th century BC but wasn't finished until 2nd century AD.  During Roman times it was the largest temple in Greece.

Temple of Haphaestus.  This is one of the most well preserved Greek Temples.  It was built in 449 BC.

On a side note, we also saw a lot of stray dogs and cats.  They were all docile and some really old, but they were everywhere. They looked well fed and healthy, too.  There are mixed reports on the internet about the reasons why the strays are everywhere and who feeds / takes care of them (government or locals).  Here are some cute pictures!

One of the evenings we took a trip to the waterfront.  I had to see the Mediterranean for the first time.  It was nice to walk around the town of Piraeus.  We found a great restaurant with tapas style food and live music.

Holy relics of St Nicholas were once in this church.

The Med!!!

Greek Food!

We also visited the The National Archaeological Museum and saw tons of marble statues that were taken from around the city.

Here's the much smaller Varvakeion Athena built by the Romans in order to remember the original Athena that was removed by the Romans.  Did you know that you can see a full size replica of Athena and the Parthenon in Nashville, TN?  It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessean Centennial Exposition due to its nickname "The Athens of the South".  

A Siren!  Remember learning about these in freshman English Greek mythology?

One of the main reasons we visited Greece was that our friends signed up to run the original marathon.  You know the one where the guy ran all the way from marathon, Greece to Athens, Greece to tell them of the victory?  After muttering the words of the victory he collapsed and died.  Luckily all of our friends are still alive, yay!  We had a great time cheering them on at the finish line in the original Olympic stadium.  No, Sam and I did not train to run a marathon.  This is our second time being spectators though.  We enjoy being on the other side of the race and are trying to set a record on how many marathons we can spectate.

 Champs!!!

 This guy appears to have run the whole marathon with no shoes on, but I think his feet would be a bit more bloody, don't you?  Still this is awesome!

This is what drinking wine out of a plastic bottle will do to you.

This is Sam’s co-worker who every year sets goals for herself on her birthday.  This year one goal was to do a marathon…crazy, right?  Well, she’s amazing and did it!  So proud!  I loved hearing at the end of the race how she made it through.  Whenever she felt like she couldn't do it, she looked down at a quote she had written on her hand, “One day I will not be able to do this; Today is not that day.”  J

All in all we did love Athens and at the end of a 4 day weekend we felt like we knew it pretty well.  I have to admit that if you want to only see the Greek ruins, this city can be done in one day.  The plane tickets can be quite pricey to Athens, so I would suggest doing a Mediterranean cruise with a stop in Athens.  That way you can just spend one day on the ruins and then the rest of your time on a Greek island soaking up the sun.  I still feel like I didn’t see the picture that I had in my mind of Greece, and will definitely be back to see the islands. 

Here’s a short video of the marathon atmosphere!  One of my new favorite songs too!

Christmas chandelier

Finally, a DIY project on the blog!  You were beginning to think I just wrote that in the "about" section as a filler.  All this traveling has left little time to do any DIY.  I feel like I spend most of my time collecting supplies around town and storing them for when I have time.  I have so many little projects waiting to be done.  Luckily this one was done within time for Christmas.  
Okay, so the horrid "boob" lighting.  Yikes!  I'm not sure if many of you have had the opportunity to live in such amazing apartments that include this lighting, so here is a picture of what they look like.  You see it's one boob not boobs.  Well, unless you hit the jackpot like us and have multiple "boob" lights in one room.  We have a full set of boobs plus one in this tiny apartment all within viewing of the living room.   Scary, right?

I searched to the end of the DIY internets and Pinterest for a chandelier project (because you know I am more of a copy cat kind of DIY'er), but couldn't find anything except the Faux Capiz shell chandelier tutorial made of wax paper to mimic the one sold at West Elm.  I contemplated it, but I think if I tried this it would actually look like I hung wax paper from the ceiling.  There is also a lot of time involved in this project, and I didn't want to be disappointed at the end of the project.  Maybe when I'm super bored you'll see me attempt it. Remember when I finally found my throw pillows that I had been looking for?  Well, the inspiration for this light fixture came from my favorite store here, Depot.  They are a lower priced Pottery Barn, and I want everything they carry!  They love hanging things from the ceiling, and their displays are super elaborate.  I love just walking around and oohing and ahing at everything.  My friend and I do it practically every Wednesday, since the shop is located so close to the market.

I found these gems there, and they were even on reduziert (our favorite German word to say), so I decided to buy them.  

The wine bottles were a bit too heavy, and I didn't want to make any holes in the ceiling for anchoring.  So, for this month I decided to add Christmas bulbs to make it look more like a chandelier.  What do you think?  

Here is a brief tutorial: What you'll need:  Branch circle found at Depot (Find anything that works for the size you need) Ornaments Ribbon  Twine Quilter's clear plastic White fabric Mod Podge (the answer to every craft project) Staple gun Hole puncher 
**Step 1** Remove your "boob" light and see what you're working with.  My light fixture has three places to attach my new structure.  I marked these on the branch circle and wrapped twine around these areas leaving a loop in the middle to attach it to the light fixture.  Along with tying the twine to the branch circle, I used the staple gun to secure it.  Make sure you allow enough space for the air to circulate and the heat to dissipate.

**Step 2** Outline the inside of the branch circle on your quilter's plastic and cut it out.  Iron your white fabric.  Then use your mod podge to adhere the fabric to one side. 

After it's dry, make holes in it using a hole puncher.  I made the holes so they would be where I attached my twine on the branch circle, and used twine to attach it to the circle.

Okay, so this is what I was left with, since the wine bottles were too heavy.  I was disappointed with my DIY project at this point, and was wishing I had done the faux capiz chandelier.  Pretty Booor-to-the-ing, right?

Insert Depot to the rescue with their creative displays here.  

**Step 3** Now take your ribbon and use the staple gun to attach it, and tie on your bulbs and whatever else you find to add to the mix.  The ribbon makes it look a lot fuller.  Depot has some to-die-for ribbon that is white and says Merry Christmas on it, so I used that along with a glitter ribbon that shimmers and twine.

Remember how it looked before.

And now (ignore dog with cone-of-shame who still wants her picture taken).

I'd say it's a success.  At least for the month of December.  Do you have any other ideas for what I can hang from it for the other 11 months of the year?

Madrid and a little bit of science

*disclaimer:  I was not paid by Bio-Rad Laboratories, INC to promote their product.  These experiences and opinions are entirely my own.*

I have to admit I didn't see much of Madrid while I visited.  I was lucky enough to be asked to do a presentation on one of my projects during my post-doctoral fellowship.  For this research I used a high throughput instrument developed by Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc for the detection of syphilis.  They knew I was moving to Germany, and invited me to speak about my results at their BioPlex 2200 User Meeting.  

Finally, a chance to talk science!

It was a great networking opportunity for me, since all of the attendees were from laboratories in Europe.  I enjoyed learning about all of the different diseases the instrument can be used to test for.  They even have an assay developed for celiac’s disease.  I am so grateful to have been offered the chance to speak at the conference.  I haven’t talked science in 4 months, and have missed my first true love (sorry Sam, we had a connection long before I met you).   I also met two successful professional women, and they restored my faith in the idea that you can be a successful professional woman and have kids too.

Okay, enough about me and my love for science.  Here are a few pictures of my hotel!  I stayed at the Intercontinental Madrid.  It's located in the business district, but it wasn't too far from the sights.  The staff was really welcoming, and it's one of the nicest rooms I've had the chance to stay in a while.  

So cozy!

To try or not to try....

Too bad Sam wasn't here to enjoy this huge patio.

Loved the view!

I loved, Loved, LOVED Spain!  I studied Spanish in high school, and always dreamed of visiting Spain. Woohoo, now I can check the box of dream come true ;).  I'm hoping we visit Spain as often as possible while we are stationed here in Europe.  I feel way more at home speaking my mixture of German - Spanish here, which is crazy since my German knowledge is so little.  Here are a few pictures of my sightseeing during a break in the conference.  

Plaza de Colon - This plaza commemorates the explorer Christopher Columbus, and is home to the biggest flag in Spain.  Gigantic!

Puerta de Alcala - Built in 1778 as a monumental gate in the city wall in order to get rid of the drab medieval city walls.   You can find it in Independence square.

Ciebeles Palace - One of the world's most beautiful city halls.

There is much more to see in Madrid, and I hope to return to see the Temple of Debod, and the Plaza Mayor.  In 1968, the Temple of Debod was donated to Spain by an Egyptian state for gratitude in helping save the temples of Abu Simbel.  It's one of the few Egyptian architectural works that can be seen outside of Egypt.  The Plaza Mayor is a famous plaza where bull fights, soccer games, markets, and executions took place in the old days.  I saw this on a bus ride in the city, but I would have loved to walk around and take it all in.

I was lucky enough to eat at the famous Flamenco dancing restaurant Corral de la Moreria.  Flamenco is a traditional Spanish dance that involves singing, guitar playing, dancing, and hand claps.  I was mesmerized the whole time, and this goes on my list of best performances ever seen!

I took a few videos to share with you!  Enjoy!

Commissary Rewards?!?

*disclaimer:  I was not paid by the commissary rewards program to promote this service.  These experiences and opinions are entirely my own.*

As if there could ever actually be a reward for going to the commissary, right?  Unless you feel rewarded when standing in long lines, weaving through aisles jam-packed with carts, hearing the occasional screaming child (no judgement to all my parents out there...I'll feel your pain one day), or standing in a check out line that resembles Best Buy on black Friday.   We never used the commissary at Ft. Campbell as much as we do now.  I never felt like going through the hassle of driving 20 minutes when Kroger was five minutes from our house.    Now that we are living in Germany the commissary has become my new best friend.  One day when I was spending some quality time with my new BFF in the self check out line, I noticed the Commissary Rewards Cards sitting in a stack.  I had seen a couple of commercials on AFN about the card, so I went home to do some research and see if there were any coupons I would actually use. 
I'm such a bad Army wife.  Am I the last person to find out about this card?

A while back I attempted to play the whole coupon game, but I gave up when I realized I was just buying random things that I never actually would have purchased.  I also didn't have enough dedication to put a whole binder together like some of those savvy couponers out there.  Luckily, the commissary rewards card is so easy to use and has coupons for items you would normally buy. 
I have to admit this is a pretty rewarding view from our commissary.

It's all done online, so you don't have to keep folders for all of your coupons and fumble through them at the check out line.  The card actually stores all of your coupons.  I've seen a few reviews on the card saying that it didn't work when they were in the check out line, so I was a bit reluctant when I used it for the first time.  I asked the cashier to see if it always worked, and he said he has never seen it not work.  Just remember this isn't like other grocery store cards because you have to actually go online and load the coupons you want on your card.
It's pretty amazing.  I even found that one of the items had a paper coupon next to it in the aisle.  I wasn't sure if it would work at check out, but I decided to pick it up and see what happened.  The cashier said sometimes it accepts the coupons and sometimes it doesn't.  It must have been my lucky day because it did! 
The mobile app for this is really well put together.  You can even add coupons to your card while you're shopping.  For example, I remembered I needed batteries while I was shopping.  The mobile app allows you to search for coupons using a brand name, so I tried a few names and found a coupon for $0.50 off.  Score, so easy! 
A few of my commissary rewards: Fabric freshner:  $0.75 off Batteries:  $0.50 off Frozen pie crusts:  Save $1 on 2  Refrigerated baked goods (because my cookies from scratch suck):  Save $1 on 2 
My favorite reward so far: Body wash:  Originally $2.99.  CRC coupon $2.  Coupon in aisle $0.50.  I paid $0.49!!!
So, it turns out there is actually something that can give you a rewarding feeling after you make it through the lines.  So, go and pick up your card at your local commissary. Register it online here.   Click all of the coupons that are useful to you.  Then download the mobile app because it's so useful and almost makes it more like a game, not to mention it's something else to do besides check your IG for the 10th time that day (or is that just me? #waytoomuchtimeonmyhands). Good luck friends!  
Did the card work for you?  I'd love to hear your favorite deal and experiences.