Home Again

About half of my vacation was in Greece and the other half was in Italy. Greece and Italy, two countries extending southward into the Mediterranean Sea, are surprisingly different. Both are basically Christian countries but one is Roman Catholic and the other is Eastern Orthodox.  Churches in both countries are lovely and smell of candles and incense. Both use tomatoes and olives and wine. Greece used more feta cheese while Italy uses Parmesean. Both countries have archaeological ruins museums, beautiful art, movies and books. Children are admired and treasured in both countries. In Italy restaurant staff will take your fussy infant into the kitchen to give you a break so you can eat in peace. In Greece a lovely child will be smiled at and spit at three times. Seriously, people spit at kids in Greece to protect them from the evil eye. The spitting is more sound-based than actual saliva delivered to a kid.  Honest to Pete, it is a hard thing to get used to when you are holding a darling girl and strangers come up, pat the head, caress the curls and make the "ftou, ftou, ftou" sound. My vacation is definitely over. I am so grateful to have had this experience and to miss most of January in Minnesota. To cap off the vacation, I was greeted with seriously cold weather. How cold was it?  It was so cold that when the plane landed the jet bridge was frozen solid. We had to wait on the plane wile the luggage was removed. Eventually our plane was towed to another gate so we could leave. It feels great to be home!