Thing #3 I Like About Greece

I know, I know, I am such a terrible blogger!!


But I promise to make it up to you over the next couple of months.


Starting with thing #3 I Like About Greece: frappes.




Powdered Nescafe, a little bit of milk, a little bit of sugar, ice, and a blender: separate, they not much, but together, they are a winning team. They are the unofficial Greek national drink, and they are delicious. Hell, they even have their own Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_frappe_coffee.

I drank so many they started making me ill, and I had to go to frappe rehab. That nescafe is surprisingly strong stuff. Now I'm only allowed to drink half of the frappe before I have to give it over to Tim.

Update to Civil Unrest

So, courtesy of the International Herald Tribune, here's what I ran into yesterday:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/26/europe/EU-Greece-Firefighters-Protest.php

I'd thought those protesters were all kind of oddly dressed....turns out they were firemen!

So, not too bad. All is quiet this morning. Looks like we're headed for a gorgeous spring weekend!

The Porter Square post office could learn a thing or two from ELTA

Last Friday, I had to send out my first invitation order from Athens. I was nervous. Would it cost a fortune? Would it get there on time? Would the people at the post office understand how I wanted to send it? Would the post office be a mad scene and would I be there for hours?

Well, I have to say, the Greek postal system is actually quite good! Perhaps given a bad name by it's famously unreliable neighbor the Italian post, I would say it might even best the efficiency and organization of the US postal service (ok, so it's not that hard to do).

The nice, blue and yellow modern post offices are all over the city.


In great contrast to the dreaded Porter Square post office back in Cambridge I was used to, with often one person working, and lines snaking out the door, their system is very organized. When you walk in, you take a number--there are 'A' numbers and 'B' numbers depending on whether you are sending a parcel or just letters--and then just take a seat in one of their very comfy chairs while you wait for your number to be called. How civilized!

Once I got up to the window, the woman was very friendly, and I had no problem sending my parcel at all, even though her English was basically nonexistent. It cost about the same price as it would have coming from the US to Greece; the biggest perk, however is the very reliable and detailed tracking! Not only can I enter the tracking number on the ELTA website, and see it's progress within Greece, but it carries over to the USPS website where I can see that it cleared customs at JFK on Monday and should be in Atlanta in only a day or two! Amazing.

Just one of the ways in which Athens constantly surprises me with its modernity.

An evening in Australia?

Last night (Saturday night) Tim and I went with Dreya to the British School of Classical Studies' Carnivale party. The theme of the party was, oddly enough, Australia. (*NB: Tim and I happen to have three Australian parents between us.) Dreya told us we didn't really need to wear costumes or anything, so I must say we were quite surprised to arrive and find a heap of British & American classicists dressed as some wild variations of 'Australia'. Not to mention the decorations, with a life-size paper-towel-roll-and-duct-tape kangaroo greeting us at the door, posters like this one plastering the walls:




...and snacks like these paprika-flavored mini kangaroos.




They even decorated their statues.
(The cork hat is very Australian.)




Unforunately, the low light didn't allow me to get any pictures of the great costumes. The winners of the costume contest included all the members of AC/DC, two 'dingoes' carrying around dead babies and a pavlova. (Half the people there were dressed as convicts--I guess it was too cliche to win any kind of prize.)

Anyway, it was a fun time, if a little weird, having just arrived in Athens, to find ourselves in Oz.

Thing #1 I Like About Athens

There are orange trees full of large, juicy, ripe oranges everywhere.

How novel: city trees that produce a useful foodstuff in addition to looking pretty!

Book I: Arrival

Tim, Anna and Bea are now located here: http://tinyurl.com/dj2t85

Below, some pictures from our first few days in Athens.

Bea's morning walk down Nikis Street:



















And to the National Gardens (watch out for stray dogs!):

In front of the Zappeion:

Street view of our little balcony :


















First home-cooked dinner in our apartment: