Today is my sister’s birthday. I wish her happiness but she already knows how to do this. She is one of my greatest friends and has the biggest heart. She is both my little sister and my older sister. She is my little sister because she is always fun and playful (and actually younger) and she is my older sister because she looks after me (and usually has more money than me too). Ain’t I lucky?
Mon, May 26, 2008
The Doric temple of Hephaestus, Agora of Athens
You know what this is
Temple of Hephaestus
Stoa (arcade) of Attalos, Athenian Agora
Byzantine church of Holy Apostles in the Agora. More than 10 centuries old and still standing.
Thisseio area
The cafe in Monastiraki had great music and 100 different kinds of coffee. Also, the kindest waitress ever.
My son was mortified because I bought this parasol and kept parading it around. Everybody carried one on Sunday, the weather was so hot and the parasols were so cheap.
There is a little store in Monastiraki that sells beads. I bought a couple and made this in the car, on the way home.
I got some old postcards too. My son bought some old German banknotes and now we are rich.
The unavoidable flower
The main reason I decided to post my Sunday walk photos was that last night a fear of imminent death came upon me and the first thought in my head was: " If I die tonight my last post will have been the one about James McAvoy. I am going to be remembered as the girl who had a crush on an Scottish actor. " So I posted the pictures. I don’t know what is worse; Fear of death or internet angst.
Sat, May 17, 2008
James McAvoy
I could post a poem but I decided to post James McAvoy’s face instead. Somebody clone this man please and keep the accent too.
Wed, May 14, 2008
I am going through this misanthropic phase at the moment, which inevitably occurs when I am in contact with a lot of people for a lot of the time and for lots of reasons. Because people become not simply obnoxious but disgusting too. Human nature can be wonderful and disgusting in equal portions.
You know what it feels like when you are in love and everything is splendid and wrapped in a warm and sweet haze? Well, it’s the opposite now. I’ve fallen out of love with people. They look terrifying to me, and instead of a warm and sweet haze, they look sharp and pixelized.
Whatever I have to say won’t make much sense in the long run, because the truth is –as the British ambassador said once while presenting this wonderful book- that it is only through people that we become people. I don’t intend to live apart from people, it is just that right this moment they smell bad. I imagine that this goes both ways.
As for how this feeling came about, I can say with certainty that it happens by approaching too much, as I usually do, and that’s when I notice a side that is not so much dark as it is beige and slimy. One is disgracefully stingy, so much so that they are funny in their attempt to save their pennies. The next is navel gazing so miserably and so continuously that they lose touch with reality. And another one has a problem taming the control freak inside of them and unleashes it against the innocent. Do you remember how Peter Sellers lapses into an involuntary nazi salute in Dr. Strangelove? Something similar.
Mon, May 5, 2008
House in Makrinitsa
The cafe
May got off to a bumpy start. The countryside is nice (I went to Makrinitsa, a beautiful village on Mt Pilio to celebrate the coming of May) but not so nice when you have a toothache that could kill ten fat horses and there is not a pharmacist’s in sight. I had never experienced this kind of pain before. It was a whole new level. I actually wondered if death is underestimated as a cure of pain. At one point I told my son to call his father if he sees me pass out.
Anyway, it was a crappy trip. I am glad to be back and in the dentist’s chair again. Dentists are good. Countryside is bad.
I have nice pictures to show you but not nice feelings to share. Actually, it would be good to stay in bed all day, moaning and pretending the outside world has disappeared in a haze of painkillers and antibiotics. If you have sent me an email, I am going to write soon, because I need some friendship and a shoulder to drool on.
Tue, Apr 29, 2008
We celebrated Greek Easter on the 27th of April. We mainly eat lots of food somewhere in the country and crack eggs which are mostly red. They symbolize Christ’s blood (I think). Read more about Greek Easter food and the food I found in Nafpaktos here. For new readers there are other Easter posts (from previous years) here.
We stopped at Delphi first. Did you know it’s the centre of the earth? And the Universe? That’s what the ancient world believed. This is the theatre. It’s an amazing place. Truly sacred.
This is the Treasury of the Athenians in Delphi. It was built after 490 B.C. with spoils form the Battle of Marathon.
We spent Easter in Nafpaktos, a beautiful seaside town about 3 hours away from Athens. However, door knobs are scary in Nafpaktos. Maybe they don’t like visitors?
Monastiraki, a small fishing village near Nafpaktos
Nafpaktos, the harbour
The statue of Miguel de Cervantes at the harbour. Cervantes was wounded in the naval Battle of Nafpaktos, serving in the Spanish infantry, on Oct 7 , 1571.
The castle
Castle gate, one of many
Good Friday -a usually solemn affair- in Nafpaktos is even bigger than Easter day. They celebrate with fireworks, they light the sea wall and they hang a cross above the sea which is later set alight..
Easter Mass in Nafpaktos. On Saturday night, the service begins in darkness until midnight. Then, the priest lights a candle from the eternal flame, the light that never goes out, as I call it, which is spread to everyone. Then we all kiss each other. If you even find yourself in Greece during Easter, limit the kiss to people you actually know, although in some parts of the country, people simply kiss those who happen to be standing next to them.
More Delphi, Nafpaktos and Easter photos on my Flickr stream.
Mon, Apr 21, 2008
I remember my mum breast-feeding my sister in a dark room. I was standing at the door. I was three.
I remember jumping in rain puddles with my friend Aki and his sister Fotini. I was three.
I remember my dad giving me lunch in the forest, at the fox’s den. There was no fox but I used to wait for her every day. I was two or three.
I remember my dad bringing me a chocolate dessert in the shape of a little mouse. I was three.
I remember choosing storybooks at the bookshop with my dad. I was four.
I remember asking my dad why he was bald. He used to say the wind took all his hair away.
I remember my uncle driving his big lorry and parking it outside our house. In my eyes it was huge. I was three.
I remember my mum hanging the clothes out to dry and wearing flip-flops.
I remember my fruit cream bowl. It was shaped like a boat.
I remember my yellow mini dress and my white knitted shawl.
I remember my hair being pulled behind into a ponytail. It hurt sometimes.
I remember going swimming with my mum. She used to wear a floral swimming cap. I was three or four.
P.S What is your earliest memory?
Thu, May 29, 2008
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