OPA

---

Breakfast in Barcelona, lunch in Munich, afternoon snack over Slovenia (according to the pilot) and dinner in Athens.

Will, Marika and I took the Germany detour to Athens thanks to booking through points, while Kim flew straight to Athens and hung out with a very close family member, Despina Meimaroglou - first cousin of Kim's father and Despina flew to Ottawa to come to Kim's and my wedding in 1999. (Despina is an artist of international reknown - lots of multimedia stuff - I have spent some time experiencing her work online over the past months and highly recommend it.... (http://www.meimaroglou.com/ ).

So the guy beside me in the airport in Munich asked Marika where she was from. I then asked where he was from - Chicago - we talked about Chicago since I was there last fall to enjoy my friend Evan's 50th in the city of his choosing. Anyway this guy in the Munich airport was on his way to visit his folks in Athens. Talk went on and I said my wife's folks lived in Edmonton. He asked the last name - "Meimaroglou" I said. His head whipped towards me "Harry???? HARRY Meimaroglou ??? Harry helped me and my friends when we first went to Edmonton". And then the real conversation began - Will and Marika couldn't believe he (Niko) knew their grandfather and grandmother so well - and their Uncles Greg and Theo to boot!!!! He said that whenever any of their gorup of 20 something new Edmontonians from Athens was in a jam - "Harry would call the 'council of elders' in the Greek community together and they would help us figure out a solution".

Despina took good care of Kim and we were lucky enough to spend some time with her this afternoon - we will all have dinner tomoorrow night and I finally get to meet Despina's husband George and one of her sons - Yannis.

The hotel in Glyfada Kim snagged is like a resport - different pools and waterfalls and it is right on the Mediterranean. George is wonderfully kind to loan us his car for our following adevntures in Greece starting Tuesday morning.

Tomorrow off to the Acropolis!!!

---

Comments

[Elaine]

WOW! Nice outfit!
Looks like you guys are having SO MUCH FUN! Love the outfit Marika! Love, Elaine