You say poTAto, I say potaTO

Yesterday I was off work, after a strenuous 2 days in a row. I went to see a softball game-USA v. China. USA won, I think. I had to leave at the 7th inning because I had already lost 1/3 of my body weight from sweating. But they were ahead by 5-0, so I"m assuming they won. My plan for the rest of the day was to go in search of wine.

Summer wine. Have you ever heard this song by Nancy Sinatra? Strawberries, cherries and an angel kissing spring-my summer wine is really made from all these things. It's really a cheesy song and I"m guessing it's from the 60's. I heard it the other day while I was shopping at the 5 aisle grocery store. Heard it in English. And I sang along, not real loud, but just enough to cause the other 3 shoppers to avoid my aisle. Now the song is stuck in my head. I have heard music here that I don't think they even have the tracks for in the US. I heard the following songs recently on the radio (not even in a store musack system)-Private Dancer by Tina Turner, You Light Up My Life (a personal favorite from 1977) and a disco version of Killing Me Softly. Anyways, I digress again. Back to Summer Wine. Once that song got stuck in my head, I realized there was actually a message there-DRINK WINE. Why didn't I think of this before? They make wine here. I'm not talking about ouzo either, I'm talking about vino, fruit of the vine.

I read in my guide book that there was a wine festival in the town of Dafni from mid July to mid September. Also, there happened to be some ruins from a Byzantine monastery that were supposed to be fabulous. And wine. The book said if you buy a ticket to the site, you get to sample all the wine you want, which is more than 100 vintners. That works for me. I was quite sure I couldn't fine anyone to tell me about the wine festival, although I was certain it would be obvious when I got to Dafni. And the guide book said how to get to Dafni. So, from the softball field, I set out for Dafni. The trip there was going to involve a bus ride that was supposed to be 10 km or less from the metro station. No problem. I would have a glass of vino in my hand by 1 (current time was 11:30). So I took the metro to the designated station and when I got out there was a little information kiosk there so I asked where the bus station was. Bus station?, the guy says, like it was the craziest question he had heard all day. He goes to ask the ticket man who says "where you going?" I tell him I want the bus stop for bus A16 to Dafni. Dafni, he says, there's a metro stop for Dafni, it is much quicker. Hmm, I wonder why the guide book didn't mention this. So I get back on the metro and schlep all the way out to the Dafni metro stop, which was nowhere near where I was. I get out at Dafni and there is a bus stop there so maybe I'm in the right place. Except no one in the bus stop area speaks a word of English. So I wander around. Maybe I will see this Byzantine monastery from just walking around the block. It's got to be a pretty good size or at least there will be a sign. No sign. I walked into a store selling flip flops and Indonesian art. Luckily I found the one person in Dafni who spoke some English. After perusing the 50 sq ft store, I casually ask the clerk where the Monastery is. Monasteriki? she says. No, Monasteriki is a Metro stop, I'm looking for the Monasterio (I made up that word since she didn't understand Monastery). I told her I was looking for the Dafni Monastery. She says, ooooh, that's in DafNI, you are in DAFni, people get them confused sometimes. REALLY? I can't believe it. People get those confused? You have a word with 2 syllables and you name 2 different towns with that name and you distinguish them by calling one DAFni and the other DafNI? I cannot imagine why that would be so confusing. So, I go back to the bus area planning to spend the money on a taxi to take me to DafNI, no matter what it costs. I spent almost an hour going from taxi to taxi- "catalavenete aglica" "do any of you clowns understand english?" None of them claimed to understand english, but they would all point to a younger taxi driver and when I would get to him, he would claim to understand but never heard of DafNI Monastery. So I gave up and got back on the metro and went back to the original metro station and just decided to walk around until I found the bus stop, which took another hour. By that time, I had sweated another 1/3 of my body weight so I was delirious and the wine wasn't sounding so good after all. But I was going to DafNI, dammit. I found the bus stop and waited. A16 eventually showed up (it only runs every 30 min). The bus stopped at every loose person in the street waving their hand, whether it was a bus stop or not. I'm not sure this was part of the route, but what could I do? The guide book had said to get off at the stop called "Psychiatrico" since there was a psychiatric hospital across the street from the Monastery. I guess that would have been a capital idea if you had any way of knowing the name of the bus stop except to see it as the bus flies by and hope the first letter looks like a pi sign. God forbid the driver would actually annouce the name of the stop. So, I"m diligently looking for Psychiatrico and this greek old lady with no teeth and one eye sits down next to me and starts speaking to me in greek. I tell her in greek that I don't understand greek, but I think this was unconvincing to her because she continued to speak to me and unfortunately she asked me the one phrase in greek that I know the answer to (how are you doing) so she was convinced I really could speak greek. She kept saying something that sounded like "poo pah, poo pah". Sorry lady, in english that means something totally different than whatever I bet you're trying to say. (I later figured out she was saying where are you going-which is not quite poo pah). Luckily the sign for DafNI Monastery popped up and I pointed to it and she got very excited and motioned me to get my ass off the bus. So I did. Followed the signs to the Monastery. It looks really cool from what I could see. Too bad it was closed. No signs for hours of operation, although it was 3:30 by then, almost 4 hours from when I left the softball game. Exasperated, I talked to the 3 dogs and 2 cats on duty and then went back to the bus stop to go home as there was no other visible signs of life near the place and I wasn't willing to walk around looking for wine. While waiting for the bus (38 min) a Nigerian guy sat down and he spoke english and lived there. He said the wine festival is in September. Huh. I guess I'm 3 hours late and a month early.

The only good thing that came out of that day is that the area from the bus stop to the metro station is lined with little streets that have tavernas (spelled tabepna in greek) and cute restaurants all the way back. I stopped at one for lunch/dinner and had this awesome baked feta with olive oil and sesame seeds-with fresh bread to spread it on. Also, grilled chicken with yogurt and honey. It was probably the best meal I have had so far. And since it was 4:30 and no one eats dinner before 9, I was the only one there and I actually got decent service. So I might even go back there and try some more places to eat. But I think the Monastery will have to wait.

PS: To Dennis who sent all the Athens recommendations-thanks very much. Some I have already found, the others I will definitely investigate.