As we travelled through Europe, we became accustomed to cats everywhere. Most of them are feral, many are cute, and megan tried to make friends with almost all of them. All of them except a certain type of kitty that we encountered on Ithaka in Greece. This type we named the "drippy kitty." We were enjoying a meal in the picturesque town of Frikas (supposedly named because the people in this town are "frika" which stands for freak or horrible). At the table were a bunch of friends from Seattle: Leah, her dad Mark, Austin, Becky, Ian, Megan and myself. Of course the cats are combing around our feet looking for any scraps that we might drop. In a close by flower box a little kitty was snuggled up enjoying the afternoon rays. To get a better shot at the sun, he moved his head a little and exposed the nastiest lesion running the length of the underside of his neck. It was way too gross to look at, but it was one of those things that made it hard to divert your eyes. Ian, who was sitting next to me was wondering why I was so distracted and started to look in the direction of the kitty. I told him not to, but it was too late and he let out a growl as he saw the mutilated kitty. We then noticed that other kitties around the table had this defect. We started to loose out appetite, but the yumminess of the cheese pie, the spinach pie, the perfect tzaziki, the tender calamari, the baked lamb, and the chicken souvlaki kept us going. Without too much incident, I noticed that Austin was standing in the mediterranean, (which was right next to the table) kind of splashing his feet around. We asked him what he was doing and he replied "oh just walking in the water." He was trying to save us from the horrible truth: One of the cats (which looked like it was about to die that evening) had dripped on Austin's foot.
I'll let you figure out where the drip came from, but needless to say, Austin didn't feel like eating anymore. We never did see anymore drippy kitties after that, but when we cruised around as a pack on our scooters and dune buggy, we called ourselves the drippy kitty gang. Don't mess with us or we'll ruin your appetite.
Ithaka is the land of Odysseus. In theory (it depends on whose theory you look at) it is the beginning and the end of Homer's Odyssey. Either way, It has been inhabited for a very long time.
We went for some hikes while we were there and would stumble across an ancient village from the 16th century (now in ruins), but you could sort of get a feel for what the town was like. Of course, there are places all over the island named for things in The Odyssey. Who knows if they really are, but it is cool to imagine it. Here is a photo of Megan and Becky in front of the Cave of the Nymphs. This is supposed to be where Odysseus hid his treasures while he went and took care of (killed) all of the suitors who were after his wife. We walked around the archaeological site of what was Odysseus' palace.
We swam on beaches which I'm sure Odysseus swam on. We saw dogs that must be descendants of Odysseus' dogs. And then there were the goats.
For those of you who don't know, I sort of have a goat obsession. At some point in my life, I will have a goat farm in Utah because I think they are just the coolest creatures. Ithaka is covered with goats. They are everywhere and it makes me quite happy to be around them.
Who were the people we were with? The story goes like this. Our friend from Seattle, Leah Kiveat, has a family house on Ithaka. Her grandparents bought a piece of property on Ithaka back in the 60s when they were on a Pan Am world tour. I think it cost them something like 500 dollars.
When Leah's Dad started to get close to retiring, her decided it would be nice to build a house on the property. When he looked into building on their land, he discovered that since there is one olive tree on the property Ithaka law states that you can only build a 300 square meter cottage on the property. That is just too small for the Kiveats (if you know the Kiveats, you will certainly understand). So they worked with a Ithakan architect to find another piece of property on the island. They ended up with a piece of land in the town of Vathi. This land is on a very steep hillside. Ithaka building code is very strict. In order to build you have to start all the way down at bedrock (In 1953 there was an earthquake that destroyed the entire island, so now everything has to be earthquake proof). You also have to build x amount of meters above the road. The Kiveat's property is on a very steep hill. Therefore, the house is three stories tall. Since they wanted to have a house that had a largish single floor plan, they ended up with a structure that is enormous. The bottom two floor aren't finished (the kids will inherit these floors to finish as they will).
Leah was planning a small trip to Ithaka, and in typical Leah style, she started to invite all of her friends. Soon there were 7 of us heading to Ithaka to enjoy blue waters, white churches, lots of old stuff and a good dosage of Leah's cooking.
Besides Megan having some sort of stomach bug (more on that later) it was a great week with great friends.
Eventually our week was up. So we got up at 5 am to catch yet another ferry (if I don't take another ferry for a few years, that will be a o.k.). Drove the most exciting expressway ever towards athens (it is a two lane road that greeks drive like it were a four lane road- some sort of code involving blinkers and light flashing keeps you from slamming into the cars that are coming the opposite direction in your lane). Took a plane to london, spent a night in an airport shopping mall (thank god for overstuffed starbucks chairs) and then flew back to Denver to pick up our van and continue with our indulgent adventures.
The days usually consist of waking up when the sun hits the van (around 7:30 or 8), making coffee, read for a bit, make breakfast, drive to the park, climb, drive back to the grasslands, 
make yummy food (so far we have created pasta with cream sauce and brocolli, sloppy joe corn bread pizza, quesidillas, maple glazed chicken over lemon rice, and something else I can't remember). Then we watch some Alias on Megan's computer, maybe read some more and fall fast asleep.
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