It's never too late...

Okay we are starting our blog in the middle of our trip but it's never too late. So far we have been to Athens, Crete, Rhodes, and now we are in Santorini. Our favorite is Crete thus far because it felt the least touristy. Santorini was the most hyped up spot and it is really scenic but so far it feels like Europe's Mexico. We're in Fira the main town and all we've seen are shops all selling the same exact thing! We're hoping Oia (a smaller town) will be a little different.

Alright that's it for now. We'll write more later to catch you guys up on what we've done so far.

Now, we need to go grab breakfast overlooking the Aegean sea. Yeah it's a tough life!

Why are there American Indians in Greece?

We were walking around Old Town Rhodes which is the oldest inhabited medieval fortress in Europe. As we were walking around we saw a big crowd gathered so we stopped to see what was going on. We thought there would be some medieval renactment going on like knights fighting or something. But to our surprise everyone was gathered around to see native Indian Americans! We're not sure what they were doing there in Greece but the crowd was really into it. We wondered if we started using our old IASA show skills and did a mini-Raas Garba if we'd get the same reaction! I'm not sure if the crowd knows this but since there was more than one "native American-Indian" there they could've just been Puerto Ricans dressed up in feathers.

Rahul cheats on Sami

A man and his dog! We all know how much Rahul is infatuated with Sami. By Day 2 of our trip, Rahul got Sami-withdrawal-dementia and started calling me Puppoo and continually talks to me as if I were Sami.

There are many stray dogs throughout Greece. We resist the urge to pet them since we don't know if they might have rabies and other diseases.

In Rhodes we were faced with a challenge and we failed. In the absence of Sami (both of us missing her) we saw a litter of puppies. They were huddled and keeping each other warm with no mother in sight. Temptation pursued as they ran up to us and looked at us with puppy eyes. We couldn't resist.....we cheated on Sami!

In search of hot sauce...

We need to write about Rahul's quest to find spicy food in Greece. Some of our highlights include Rahul's never-ending pursuit to find Sriracha (sp?) sauce in Greece. We haven't yet found it but after the first two days of eating Greek food, on Day 3 we went to McDonald's for lunch. Of course...McDonald's is not spicy, but it does have cheeseburgers! As far as Rahul is concerned McD's IS the U.S. embassy. To top it off, dinner that night was Pizza Hut. We thought for sure we would find crushed red pepper here to satisfy Rahul but all they had was black pepper. On Day 4 after watching Rahul agonize over choosing a place to eat lunch....I caved and we went to McDonald's again for lunch. I posed a question to Rahul.....since when did we become our parents???Eating Pizza Hut on our trips! At one point....Rahul was like "kichri sounds so good right now"....of course with some athanoo (mango pickle)...... We're still searching for spicy food and will keep you posted if we end up eating kichri on our trip.

Indian or American???

As some of you know, Rahul and I discuss the age old question of how you respond to "What nationality are you?" "Where are you from?" "Are you Indian?". Rahul (guy who hung an American flag in his dorm room freshman year) of course responds with total "American". I, on the other hand, say "Indian".

Well we have been asked some form of this question several times. Many Greeks have been to India and we've had some great conversations with them about it.

Athens has many Indians and Pakistani residents. As Rahul says...Indians go where the business is!

You can imagine when someone asks us what we are....the person who answers first (Rahul or I) gets to set the stage.

One night at dinner in Athens we were asked this question by our waiter to which Rahul promptly responded "American". I did not want to start a heated discussion about this so I let it pass.....

30 mins into dinner a man is running down the street chased by another waiter from a different restaurant. Our waiter proceeds to tell us that the man has stolen something and got away. He continues to talk about how "these Pakistanis and Indians come to Greece and they steal from the tourists". As the waiter walks away...I turn to Rahul and say...it's a good thing you said we were "American"....