Seeing Cats In Greece, 2011

My name is Naomi and I'm a crazy cat person. I proudly admit this. Jon is, too, though he probably wouldn't call himself "crazy." Because of this, we were very excited to travel to Greece. Sure, we were looking forward to seeing the ruins, eating the wonderful food and learning more about the culture, but we also wanted to see the cats. Because the Mediterranean is warm all year long and is by the water, it's a haven for feral cats. They probably traveled on the shipping boats long ago and are now plentiful in every Mediterranean country from Greece to Israel. In Greece, at least, many people treat them like pets so for the most part, the cats are semi-tame. Sure enough, we saw kitties everywhere! It was a cat lover's paradise. When we dined for lunch, they'd mill around the outdoor restaurants asking for food. One kept eating and eating the scraps we gave him and never seemed to get full. We named him Greedy Cat. Another cat and made herself at home in my lap. I called her Frisky. We hit the jackpot in Oia when we stopped at a cliffside cafe for dinner. The restaurant was located on a "cat highway" of sorts that led between the private homes and stores so about a dozen cats wandered through the eatery that night. One made friends with us so we named him Charlie. Some organizations are thankfully trying to do something about the cats and are having them spayed and neutered. Others feed the animals. Happily, all of the cats we saw -- 93 in all, yes we counted -- all looked healthy, especially the ones who hung out by the restaurants. We'll never forget the furry friends that we met while traveling around Greece. They made our trip even more purrfect.

Katten Kabinet Cat Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2012

Amsterdam is full of great museums, but we didn't visit many of them. Oh, we will eventually, but during this trip, we spent most of our time outside. I loved walking around the city and taking in the beautiful views of the canals and old buildings. I'm sure that the museums are wonderful and some of the best in the world, but time time around, it was Amsterdam itself that was our "museum." We did stop by one actual museum, though: Katten Kabinet. I'm not ashamed to admit that Jon and I are both crazy cat people. We have a cat named Maya and we're always on the lookout for feline friends on our journeys. We got to know a friendly neighborhood cat called Ebby in Wellington, New Zealand and befriended dozens of kitties in Greece. We said hello to a market cat named Marianna in Mexico City. We stopped to "chat" with a meowie baby by a church in Iceland. That said, we were, of course, going to see a whole museum dedicated to works of art featuring cats! Katten Kabinet's location is an interesting as its exhibits. It's in an old house on the edge of the canal and is still filled with what looks like original furnishings. So amidst the cat statues and cat drawings and cat sculptures, you have many Victorian antiques and ornate light fixtures. It feels a bit like Grandma's House -- only the knickknacks all have to do with cats. Here are some photos:

Upon entering, we were greeted by the bemused looking young man who worked the ticket booth. I guess he was a little tired of seeing crazy cat people, and really, who else would go to this place? We then ventured to the exhibit upstairs and spent the next hour admiring cat paintings, statues, cartoons... any cat thing you can think of. They even had a cat mummy, a cat made out of cat fur (kinda gross) and a cat made out of fabric printed with cats. It was amazing! At the end of our time there, we went to the small gift shop and there was a live cat! The ticket guy informed me that her name is Lily and I proceeded to make friends with her. Apparently there are at least two other kitties living there, but we only got to see one, unfortunately. Still, we had a wonderful time at Katten Kabinet and I encourage you to check it out, even if you're not that into cats. The art really is beautiful and the house is really cool. Next time we're in Amsterdam, I'd like to check out many more museusm -- but we'll definitely make another trip to Katten Kabinet.