Athens...

With a few battlefield tours under their belts, DJ and Justin returned to Brussels, and our group hit the road once again.  This time, we had Hellas in mind.  We boarded our plane amidst daily news reports of protests against European austerity measures and the strikes and mobs that go hand in hand with that sort of social unrest, but more than anything we were just hoping not to get arrested, stranded by a shutdown transport system, or worse.
We only had two days in Athens, so once we got checked into our hotel we hit the ground running.  We arrived at night, and from the hotel's rooftop bar we had a great view of the Acropolis, which helped us get the lay of the land.  The next morning we made the rounds of the incredible, millennia old ruins throughout the city; the Parthenon, perched on top of the Acropolis with it's majestic white marble columns; the incredibly well preserved Temple of Hephaestus and the rest of the old agora, and many more.  Despite all the unrest and the social upheaval, the Greeks certainly have done a good job of preserving their heritage.
As it does for all our trips, the planning for our Athenian excursion consisted about 50 percent of tripadvisor.com reviews and 50% from guidebooks, and it didn't steer us wrong.  During her research, Jen found a hammam in Athens that had great reviews.  Jen and Cara thought it sounded like a great idea.  None of us guys had ever been to a hammam.  We didn't really know what a hamman was.  And, frankly, we weren't all that interested.  But as often happens in situations like these, the ladies won out.  And I'm glad they did.
If you've never been, a hammam is a Turkish bathhouse, and traditionally all the stinky people of the city would come to these hammams to clean themselves.  Prior to the advent of running water, going to the hammam was a big deal, helping to reduce the chances of sickness and providing a social gathering place.  Our hammam was located on the site of an original ottoman bathhouse and it consisted of two main rooms.  The first, the hot room, was exactly what it sounded like; a large, circular room with marble seating surfaces around the edges.  Next to each seat were two spouts, one for cold water and one for hot water, and there were copper bowls spread throughout.  The idea is that you sit on your towel on the hot marble, in a room that's heated to about 100 degrees F, and you pour a mixture of hot and cold water into your bowl, then pour it on yourself.  We started by pouring it on ourselves, then moved on to throwing it at each other.  Luckily we were the only ones there.  The other room, the cool room, was a normal ambient temperature, but leaving the hot room it cooled you down fairly quickly.  It was very relaxing (except for the water fight part) and it was a really unique experience.  Good work Jen and Cara.

The mighty Acropolis!

The crew

The Parthenon

Waiting for the show to start.  Turns out we missed it by 2000 years.

Who will help me protect this house?

Matt and Cara

The ladies

Protestors in Syntagma Square

Greek Parliament building on Syntagma Square

Don't miss the sign to the right comparing Sarkozy and Merkel to nazis.  Wow.

Joinup with the Hoags in B-town

After our little trip down south to Croatia, Jen, DJ, Justin and I made our way back to Brussels to rest up for a few days in anticipation of our next adventure.  DJ and Justin decided to make the most of their time and caught a train down to Normandy.  Meanwhile, Matt and Cara were winging their way east to join up with the crew here in Belgium.  We spent a few days wandering the cobbled streets, eating french fries and sampling some of our favorite brasseries.  They even got to witness a belgian oddity.  Instead of freaking out when the siren song of the ice cream man fills their neighborhood streets, Belgian kids lose their minds for the waffle man.  I'm not kidding.

Croatia: Zadar

We were flying out of Zadar, Croatia so since we had already rented a car we decided to make the drive from Dubrovnik to Zadar.  Croatia has some brand new, beautiful highways and other than a short stop at the border checkpoints at the 10 mile stretch of Bosnia you have to cross, the trip was quick and easy.  We were running a little low on fuel leaving Dubrovnik, but we decided (ahem, I decided) that we could just stop for fuel later.  Procrastination is the mother of frustration, and as I frequently do, I put off the gas stop a bit too long.  At least that's what everyone else thought; I was just doing proper fuel planning.  As the fuel gauge needle dropped into the red mid-rainstorm, and the little digital "fuel remaining" counter ticked down to 5 miles, I set the cruise control to what I guessed was Max Range in a Toyota Versa (87 kph).  Due to my excellent fuel planning (or luckily for me, depending on how you look at it) we found a gas station just before we hit empty on the gauge.  Although everybody knows when that happens you really have a little bit of gas left.  Right?  I was more than a little relieved when I pulled into the gas station without having stranded us on the side of the road in Croatia in a rainstorm.  That would have been bad.
We continued north to Zadar and since we were getting in to town with a few hours to kill we decided to do a quick tour of the city.  It was a very nice town with much of the same limestone architecture and port city feel of Split and Dubrovnik, but it's not quite as grand as those other two.  We did, however, find a little market that was selling some awesome hats.  Jen found one that she liked, and although she didn't get it that day, I'm pretty sure that if we go back she'll buy one.  Oh, and there's a military base near the airport with an Mi-8 (or is it an Mi-17?) parked near the gate.  Cool.

Bosnia: Mostar

After a full day in Dubrovnik, we rented a car and headed across the border and into the mountains to Mostar, Bosnia.  Our good friend Rick Steves had sung its praises so we decided to check it out and take another walking tour since we'd really enjoyed the two we'd taken in Split and Dubrovnik.  Mostar was a picturesque, if overly touristy, little town and our tour guide was again extremely knowledgeable.  Score.  The town sits astride a small river and there's a beautiful 16th century stone bridge in the center of town that connects the two banks.  The town was razed and the bridge destroyed during an 18 month siege of the city in '92 and '93, but most everything has since been reconstructed.  We also had a tour of a mosque in the town, and got to climb the minaret for a great view.  DJ was going to do the call to prayer but he'd lost his voice.  Just kidding.  The best part was we had absolutely no problems at the border in either direction.  Score.

Croatia: Dubrovnik

After our day in Hvar, we got on a ferry back to Split.  Then we got on a bus and drove through half of Croatia.  Then we drove through some of Bosnia.  Then we got back to Croatia and finally made it to Dubrovnik.  Again, well worth the trip...
Dubrovnik seems like a city frozen in time.  The limestone streets are impeccably clean and the stone buildings are incredibly well preserved.  Huge walls protect the town from everything but tourists (who invade every day from 8 am until 8 pm), and all the shopkeepers and restauranteurs are polite and friendly (apparently they're clued in to the fact that tourism is their bread and butter).  The walk around the city walls is a must do, and the views of the city and the sea are jaw droppers.  We also took a very informative walking tour and learned a lot about the history of the town, including that many of the buildings were destroyed during the war in the early nineties, which was very surprising because it was impossible to tell by looking at them.  There are two bars outside the walls perched on the rocks above the sea, and we spent a few nights out there enjoying a cocktail and marveling at the moon shining off the black water.