Clean Monday

Last Monday (yes, I know, I am a week behind in posting...) was the first day of Lent. In the Western Christian tradition I know the first day of Lent as 'Ash Wendesday' but here in Athens it is 'Clean Monday' or 'Kathara Deftera', as in the 'cleaning' of ones sins away. It brings to an end what had been a week of Carnivale, which is not much celebrated in the US outside of New Orleans, but is definitely a weeklong event here in Athens, which involves lots of dressing up in costumes, staying out late, and in the morning finding confetti covering the streets. (I was also hit on the bum with a large squeaky plastic bat by quite a cheeky little 10 year old one night, which was met with great laughter from his parents.)

Clean Monday is quite a festival in Athens. It is a public holiday, and we ventured out along the stone walkway that shadows the Acropolis towards Filopappou Hill where we came across lots of people, and street vendors selling food, balloons, cotton candy, popcorn, and of course, kites. Because for some reason I have yet to discover, the traditional activity of Clean Monday is kite-flying. It is supposedly the only day of the year that Athenians fly kites.

And it is wonderful!! What a gorgeous view from the top of Filopappou, with all of the kites dotting the sky over the city.



The great mess of people.

Looking up at all of the little people on top of the Acropolis.



At the top of Filopappou Hill.

Kite fliers!

The beautiful view of the sea from the top of Filopappou.

Our lunch; not your usual street fair fare!

A little video of the kites:

And an almost 360 degree tour from the top of Filopappou narrated by Tim Barnes:

(sorry about the poor quality of the videos; I promise to take my HD camera next time!)

A Note on the Weather

A lot of people have asked us what the weather here in Athens is like. Several have assumed we are whiling away the days sunning ourselves at outdoor cafes. Well, the truth is....yes and no. It was quite cold when we arrived in mid-February, actually. Luckily I had checked the forecast and brought several sweaters and a coat. Tim brought several sweaters but no coat (he ended up buying one here on a great sale, luckily). Some days last month the thermometer did not get out of the 40s (that's farenheit, in case you were wondering), and the lows dipped into the high 30s. Still, compared to Boston, we've been pretty happy. But Athens just seems like a city built for heat. All of the empty outdoor chairs and tables in the squares, at the tavernas seemed rather lonely.

But it is now March, and they say Spring comes soon. Last weekend was our first taste of what it might be like when the weather really starts to warm up. There were a couple of gloriously sunny days in the 60s, and we enjoyed a long Sunday lunch sitting outside in the sun at a taverna (while the East Coast was being pummeled with snow, I hear).

It's cooled off again, and this morning I woke up and had to do a double-take at my little Yahoo! weather widget, which I've set to Athens. The little image for the current weather was something I had never seen before:


I ask you, does that not look like a little fingerprint?? How could the image for the weather be a a black smudge???

I clicked further to receive more detail on the current conditions, and was greeted with a picture of the sun being enveloped by a very unpleasant looking cloud of brown smoke: "DUST" the detailed report said. I have been outside a few times today, and indeed the air is very "dusty". It looks hazy, but more than that the air seems to be filled with granular particles. (I tried my best to breathe as little as possible of it in.) Athens is not a very clean city, and it is quite traffic-congested (I will expand on the topic of traffic later, for sure). Although I do hear it is much better now than it was 10 years ago, due to the great Olympics clean-up effort.

Luckily, the forecast calls for this to pass tomorrow, and for sun and warmth ahead.

I don't think Tim will get too much wear out of his new coat!

Thing #2 I Like About Greece

Is Mezedopolion Filistron, a restaurant we went to this past Saturday night.


It is located in the Thisio area of Athens, and was a lovely 15 - 20 minute stroll from our apartment. The restaurant is listed in both our Athens guidebooks and the New York Times travel section. It was moderately priced (50 Euros for a meal for two, including tip, tax and wine), with great food, lovely atmosphere and a fantastic view. When the weather is warmer the rooftop garden opens up and is supposed to be quite a lively spot--our guidebook suggests arriving around sunset, and sitting with a drink (or two or three) and noshing on various mezedes (appetizers) all evening long.



Our new obsession is the 'Gigantes Tiganti' (this blogger has a nice picture & recipe): extremely tasty deep-fried beans, served at Filistron with a slightly spicy tomato paste sauce. The Gigantes are definitely something I am liking about Greece.

If you come to visit us, we can go here.

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.

We're Still Here!

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy working on fufilling some invitation orders for my little business venture http://www.bythecard.com/, as well as exploring Athens art and craft supply stores to see what kinds of paper, cardstock and adhesive supplies I can get here. I basically had to take down all of the invitation offerings I had up when we were in the US and am gradually working on overhauling the offerings based on what I can work with here. Luckily, I've found some of the same papers, plus a new line of beautiful colored Italian papers that are readily available (by which I mean I can roll out of bed to the store literally across the street to purchase them). Good quality adhesives (κόλλες) and envelopes (φάκελοι) -- two Greek words I know very well by now -- are a little harder to find. It's been tough to have to almost start from scratch, especially just when By The Card was just starting to take off, but I'm hopeful that the new incarnation of the site will be back up and running very soon!

In the meantime, I've had some domestic successes: I finally figured out how to set up our wireless router despite my lack of knowledge of Greek (!) and ran a successful load of laundry. Which doesn't sound like much, but believe me, our little washing machine is nothing like the ones I am used to in the US. Her name is "Candy" (no really, I'm not making that up, that's really her name):

I was quite worried when we first arrived, and I opened her up to see a teensy weensy amount of space inside:

What could I possibly fit in there??!? Two pairs of socks and a t-shirt, I reckoned.

Luckily, our landlord's wife (have I mentioned how lovely and nice our landlord, Yannis, and his wife, Bessy are?) was kind enough to come over one afternoon and give me a tutorial on how to use the washing machine. She showed me how to actually open the steel jaws of death, where there is actually quite a lot of space for clothes.

After a trip to the local supermarket, where I spent ten minutes trying to figure out which laundry detergent might be the least likely to cause a sudsy disaster, a successful load was completed. In the end, the biggest problem turned out to be where to hang everything to dry. (The answer: all over our apartment, tying Bea's two leashes together to form an extra makeshift clothesline. I decided it was too embarrassing to have images of our wet underwear on the internet, so thankfully you are spared any pictures!)

As you can see, I have been quite busy.

Greek Word of the Day

My go-to phrase the past week, anytime I enter a shop or encounter a person on the street, has been:

"μιλάτε αγγλικά;"

which is pronounced: me-LA-te ahg-li-KA?
*note that in Greek the question mark is written as a semi-colon. strange, yes.

Can you guess what this means? Say it a couple times out loud. Go on, take a guess.

....

No peeking, now.

....

Keep scrolling down for the answer.

....

Really, just try your best guess.

....

Did you guess "Do you speak English?" If so, you are correct!

Yes, that is probably my most utilized phrase these days. Most shopkeepers do speak at least some English, enough to get along. (The other day, a woman in an art store did respond by asking me if I spoke Spanish, since she did not know English. Good news is, I was able to buy a pair of scissors in Spanish.)

Problem is, I feel a little bit embarrassed every time I have to say this phrase. It doesn't really seem fair that I should expect people here to know my language (ok, ok, I know it is kind of an 'international' language). It makes me determined to improve my Greek!

Sunday Walk

After sleeping off our late night in 'Australia', we decided that long walk would be a brilliant way to spend a Sunday late morning/early afternoon.

We took off through the Plaka, and after about 15 minutes ended up in the maze of alternately rundown and beautiful (sometimes both at once) Athenian houses at the foot of the Acropolis. It was quite amazing, as we snaked higher and higher up the hill, to realize we were actually walking on this great monument.

We could see the little tiny tourists at the top.

Needless to say, the views of Athens were breathtaking.

After about an hour of meandering through the tiny streets, we made our way home, agreeing that Bea was quite a lucky dog, to have such a grand place for a Sunday walk!