Today's BIG news is that Nicole arrived for her spring break. Yay!!! Thank you Jim for getting her safely to the airport.

Kim and I decided we'd take the city bus out to the airport. I was worried about getting there before Nicole got off the plane, and never having taken the bus I wasn't sure how long it would be, so of course I kept rushing Kim whn we had plenty of time. The worst part was standing out on the street waiting for the bus. They come every 20-25 minutes. We must've just missed one: we waited 20 minutes.

We got to the airport with plenty of time. We asked "our" driver to meet us there. We didn't want Nicole to have to ride the bus back to the apartment after a 10 hour flight, so we splurged and paid for a car/driver. It's about the same price as a cab. We hired him with Beth and Trish. He' someone Mark and Martha know and use. Very nice guy.

We dropped off Nicole's stuff, had a little breakfast (her plane got in at 9 a.m.) then headed downtown on the tram. We were going to walk around. We visited the Plaka, snacked on various foods, stopped in shops (Nicole tried on Greek sandals) and watched the changing of the guard. The picture is just some random souveneir shop. They sell everything. It's easy to kill a few hours just wandering.

We caught the tram back to our neighboorhood to sit out at the shore and have appetizer "lunch" (about 3 p.m.) as we had twice before (that's become the "special meal"). Just as we were finishing up it started to get cloudy and the wind picked up. Nicole was in short sleeves so I told them to head back to the apartment to get a coat while I waited to pay the bill, then we could walk to another coastal establishment for coffee and dessert, which we did.

It was nearly 6 by the time we made it back to the apartment. Nicole slept only a very short time on the NY to Athens flight, so we decided to just stay in this evening. We all plan to turn in early tonight. Mark and Martha have generously offered to drive the three of us tomorrow to Delphi on an overnight trip. That means there will definitely be NO blog entry tomorrow.

I wanted to let you know what I read in the paper yesterday. They had a story about home prices. According to Global Property Guide, housing prices in Athens are the 14th highest in a list of 112 cities worldwide. The numbers are based on "average prices of used apartments in good condition in the center of each city and in areas where foreigners would consider buying." Athens average is 6,125 Euros per square meter. Our apartment is not in the center, but it is in an area where foreigners would buy. If the numbers hold for us, the apartment we're renting would sell for more than a half-million Euros. Top Ratings:

Monte Carlo: 37,000 Euros/sq. meter

Moscow: 16,000

London

Tokyo

Hong Kong

New York

I'll just close with a few seconds of guard changing. Maybe by the time we leave I'll have an entire video.