Clapboard - Full Frontal Nerdity

I made it to Athens, survived the 4-shows-in-5-days nonsense and managed to spend a couple hours this morning at the top of the hill in the Acropolis.  It's small enough to wander all over and shoot photos even in a couple hours.  The part of Athens that's right around the base of the hill is really picturesque, actually, and probably worth a walk back this evening for dinner.  We'll see.

The obvious advantages of getting there as the place opened (temperature, crowds) were in full effect here, since it allowed me to wander around the lower grounds on the South side of the hill without feeling like I was going to die of heat exhaustion or be engulfed in crowds.  No amount of postponement, however, could keep me from being pulled to the top of the hill and noticing with chagrin how little I remembered from my Humanities classes 17ish years ago.  There was a time when I could have told you not only when each building was built but who designed it and particulars about each building.  Sadly, that's not true anymore.

Absurdist musings  and a picture of the Parthenon after the break.

Istanbul was way cooler than I thought it would be.

Maybe it's because I'm a guy (I heard that some of the girls on our tour dealt with sexism that would miss me entirely) and maybe it's because I had just come from Cairo, where literally everything was either falling down or being put up and the people were pretty much unaffected by all of it, maybe it's because Takumi had a friend who was willing to drive us around and play tourguide, or at least tour facilitator, but whatever the cause, I was impressed.

More nonsense after the break.

No Egypt update today - I took the day to just chill, write and catch up on work-stuff.

But HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

I appreciate you all the more when I'm away like this.  I'm going to break my alcohol fast now and drink a couple of beers.