50 and Counting!

Today I turned fifty years old....in Greece. Not a bad way to start my second half a century! We ate dinner with friends, the McLaughlins, in an outdoor cafe in Athens in the Plaka. There were Cliff's Lamb in a clay pot, Debbie's moussaka, John's humus, the boys' spaghetti bolognaise, and my cheese toast (which turned out to be a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich). I was still so full from our lunch. Then we wandered the streets shopping and getting gelato and pastries. It was very chilly and we were glad to get back to our hotel.

We spent the majority of the day in Delphi at the ruins. These countries don't believe in anything on a plain so again we climbed and climbed to the top. It wasn't too bad since we stopped to listen to our guide every few feet. She, Vicki, really knows her stuff and told so many stories from history. When you are standing in a structure thousands of years old, 50 doesn't sound so bad!

We stopped for lunch at a lovely restaurant and had grilled bread with olive oil, cheese pie (several layers of various cheeses in a flaky phylo dough), greek salad, souvlaki (pork shiskabobs), fried potatoes, and vanilla and chocolate ice cream for dessert. At one point they came out with some sort of cake with a big candle that looked like the number one. The whole restaurant sang happy birthday to me with a big "OPA" at the end. The strange part about it was that after I blew the candles out, they whisked the cake away. I assumed that they were going to put it on smaller plates for my table. But....no....I don't think they understood the American birthday cake thing! We laughed until we cried over that! It was a great birthday for any birthday but perfect for a milestone birthday! We have decided to repeat this celebration the same way every year!