Cookies

Our week of house/kitten sitting has ended as our neighbors returned home today from their trip to central Greece. I took full advantage of the kitchen in the west house while they were away, baking cookies as well as zucchini bread for the rest of the students. I will miss the kitchen, but we have been asked to house/kitten sit again in December and I'm already looking forward to it. Baking in Greece has been a unique experience. It has forced me to learn a lot of Greek words such as sugar, butter, vanilla, baking soda, salt, etc. Also, it's a bit tricky to bake in different sized pans with an oven that operates in Celsius. Alas, my cookies were a hit and I'm feeling a bit more round today! :)

All Things Mastic

Mastic is a resin that comes from evergreen mastic trees that are primarily found on the North Aegean island of Chios. When it is extracted from the tree the resin hardens into a sap that has various uses throughout Greece. Most famously, Mastic is used in a liquor as a post dinner digestive. Recently, I found Mastic gum as well as Mastic flavored soda water. In fact, there is a store near Syntagma Square in downtown Athens that sells Mastic products such as chocolate, cheese, coffee, even cosmetics!

Yellow Oranges

It's been almost a month since I posted the first photo of the oranges growing in trees around the city. They are getting bigger now and some are starting to turn yellowish in color. A quick web search tells me that these bitter oranges are most likely Biondo Commune or "common blood" and grow throughout the Mediterranean basin.

Accident Prone

I must be accident prone in Greece. I usually don't have too many incidents in the US, but I've had three 'accidents' since being back in Athens. First, a few weeks ago while trying to core an apple I managed to cut right into my palm resulting in a desperate yell to Rob for lots of band-aids. Second, while walking down the street my arm was poked by a random piece of metal sticking out from an air conditioning grate. I was actually able to peal my skin off of the piece of metal (gross!). Finally, today I managed to shut my fingers in the bathroom window while trying to move the toilet paper roll that was holding the window up. Eek. I now have three bruised fingers. :( I sure hope we don't have a repeat of today's photo. It was taken just after I smashed my hand in a wall underneath the Acropolis nearly two years ago. I still have the scars...

Gnocchi

I've been taking full advantage of the kitchen in the West House for the past few days. On Monday I baked some chocolate chip cookies and gave them out after dinner. The next day my friends were all asking for more! Tuesday afternoon I decided to make use of a bag of potatoes by making gnocchi. I had never made them before, but I found it surprisingly easy. I didn't put in the effort to put the 'traditional' gnocchi marks on them but they still tasted great. Oh, and sorry for the late post...I was having internet connection problems yesterday.

Oliver

This week we're kitten sitting for our neighbors above us in the West House at Loring Hall. They rescued a little kitty a few weeks ago and while they are away on the Regular member trip we will be taking care of their kitty. They named her Oliver and she's definitely a cutey.

Syntagma

Rob and I took a walk over to Syntagma Square this afternoon to survey the riot damage from this past week. Just a few days ago the square was filled with thousands of protesters, but today is was business as usual. In fact, besides the broken metro signs and the chipped marble facades of a few buildings you may not have known that such violent clashes took place. Greece amazes me like that. One day all hell is breaking loose and the next day people are having their daily coffee like nothing is even wrong.

Pig Roast

Rob and I came home from vacation just in time for a pig roast being held by school members in the gardens behind the library. The piggy is currently being basted and stuffed with extra bacon and should be ready to eat in an hour or so, but I'm not too sure I'll be able to eat it myself. Something about seeing it cooked whole makes me just want a hot dog instead.

All Good Things Come to an End

Is there such a thing as too much time in paradise? Rob and I think so. We decided to go ahead and purchase airfare to take us back to Athens tonight. Although we really enjoyed our island adventure we both feel like it's time go get back to both reality and work. If we don't fly, the first boat back to Athens from Mykonos is scheduled on Sunday afternoon but that is only if the seamen don't declare the fourth consecutive 48 hour strike. Any way we added it up it was going to cost us a bit more than we had planned. So, we took a nice long walk around Mykonos saying good-bye to our new friends, like Petros the Pelican. We spent a little extra time admiring the windmills and Little Venice before our driver takes us to the airport at 7:30 p.m. So long from the Cyclades!

 

Paradise

Today Rob and I decided to rent a car and do some exploring of Mykonos outside of Chora (the main town). Actually, we got a Smart car and got a chance to see the Panagia Tourliani Monastery, many of the island beaches, and the Mykonos Starbucks! The monastery is in a village near the center of the island called Ano Mera and is only about 7 km from Chora. It is known for its baroque iconostasis made in 1775 by Venetian artists. After driving around the island for most of the morning we stopped for lunch at a beach called Paradise where we spend a few hours under the umbrellas admiring the view out to the islands of Paros and Naxos. We didn't bring our swimsuits today, so I think we're going to head back to Paradise via bus tomorrow.

 

Delos

On our first clear morning we joined a handful of tourists for a 30 min ferry to Delos island just southwest of Mykonos. Although the island is very small--only 5km long and 1km wide--it contains both an expansive sanctuary to the god Apollo with numerous religious and secular buildings and sculpture, as well as the remains of a large merchant city containing houses adorned with wall paintings and mosaics.  Because Delos attracted Greeks and others from all over the Mediterranean, it is comparable to Delphi, Olympia--even Pompeii--in its size, historical and archaeological importance. For Greek history buffs, Delos gave its name to the so-called 'Delian League', the military alliance Athens formed with its allies at the end of the Persian Wars (post 479 BCE), and the League had a treasury here until it was notoriously transferred to Athens in the mid 5th century BCE. At present, the French School of Archaeology in Athens (www.efa.gr) digs at Delos and has just updated its site guide (in French), should you care to investigate further, plan a trip or brush up on your French (P.S.--the Blue Guide Greece: Aegean Islands has a good overview of the site as well, in English). No trip to the Cyclades would be complete without a stop here, if only to escape the quasi-artificiality of Mykonos for a few hours. After our trip and lazy siesta, we enjoyed a wonderful sunset by the famous Mykonos windmills.

 

Mykonos

Hello from soggy Mykonos. Zeus and Poseidon must have it in for us because the past two days have been cold, cloudy, and rainy. We are looking forward to sunshine and lower 60's tomorrow with a trip to Delos in the works. We've been making the most of our time in Mykonos by making friends with the locals, who are actually Athenians waiting to close up shop for the season and head back to the mainland. Despite the weather there is a good amount of tourists coming off cruise ships, still gawking at t-shirts and over priced jewelry. Today we had fun watching the waves crash against the seawall at Little Venice. The clouds managed to break long enough for us to catch a few rays of the sun as it set in the early evening. In other news, additional strikes in Greece this week are forcing us to extend our travels in the Cyclades by a day or so. As it stands, there is a boat going from Mykonos to Athens on Thursday but every form of public transportation in Athens will be on strike, leaving us stranded at the port. I think we might catch a ferry back to Syros instead of Athens and then try for Athens again on Friday. Who knows, maybe the ferries will decided to extend their strike as well...we may just have to take up residence here in the islands. :)

Tinos

Rob and I left Tinos this morning having only spent 24 hours on the island. We were originally going to spend a few days on the island but because the ship union will be on strike for the next three days we had to leave early in order to make our reservation in Mykonos (GWA). We had a great time, ate great food, and heard great music. Tinos Island is known for Our Lady of Tinos, or Panagía Evangelistria tēs Tēnou. This church is built around an icon that is believed to be the source of many miracles. We did get to see the icon, but unfortunately no photos were permitted. The church is at the top of the main boulevard and along the right side of the road is a long narrow stretch of carpeting used for those who wish to make the ascent to the church on their knees. This is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Greece and we witnessed many Greeks making their ascent on their hands and knees. Tinos is also known for the dovecotes that dot the countryside. Dovecotes are basically two story square structures with decorative facades used for breeding doves. These aviaries were introduced by the Venetians to house and raise pigeons for food and they are so connected to the history and identity of the land that even locals in Tinos town build their homes with dovecote-looking facades! Finally, Tinos is known for its flourishing arts industry, from painting to sculpture to textiles. One of our random stops was the Cultural Center of Tinos where there is at present a gallery featuring past and present Tinot artists. Outside of the main town, Tinos is known for its many small and picturesque villages and less-touristy vibe compared to places like Mykonos--seriously, like night and day. It is a bigger island, and although we would have liked to see more, we still had a good time poking around the main town.

Syros

We arrived in Tinos today and have a much better internet connection. This post will have covered the past few days while we were on the island of Syros (picture on the left), specifically its capital Ermoupolis, a wonderful historic city to explore with many well-preserved yet still-functioning examples of 19th century Neoclassical architecture. Our stay was full of adventure and Rob did a fabulous job of getting us around with his use of the Greek language. Yes, we did climb to the tops of both hills you see pictured; the hill on the left is known as 'Ano Syros' (Upper Syros) the original Catholic settlement before an influx of refugees in the mid 19th century arrived during the Greek Revolution. In the second picture we are having lunch in a beautiful pedestrian street behind the main road along the harbor. All of the food we had while on Syros was delicious. Afterwards we strolled up and down the lanes of a city that felt like tourism was an afterthought, at least at this time of year. Most of the businesses and restaurants clustered around the harbor, while our hotel was about half way up the hill among residential neighborhoods--check out Kate's photos of our balcony view at noon and sunrise--good shots! Although the weather was fantastic, we saw few tourists save those we found on the beaches on the west side of the island. On the second day we relaxed in a cafe overlooking the harbor and then took an island bus to the 'resort' of Galissas but found it basically empty for the season. No worries, as one solid taverna was open and we had fine views of the sea, as you can see from our self portrait high up on a cliff looking west over Galissas Bay. Overall we were amazed at how friendly and welcoming everybody was in town compared to Athens and would definitely recommend a visit to Syros.

GWA

Rob and I have an acronym we like to use while living in Athens to help us cope with a country that is disorganized at best. We call it GWA = GREECE WINS AGAIN. Anything that would be easy outside of Greece, yet is needlessly complicated in Greece is considered a GWA. For example, we made three trips to the cell phone store today to reactivate our phones. I could go on and on with examples, but my point is that this entire week is turning into a GWA. Most of you know that Greeks like to strike in order to make their feelings known, but it seems like this week the entire country is going on strike. Here is a list of everything on strike for Thursday:

• Transportation- Strike lasts 48 hours. No buses or metro.
• Archaeological sites and museums throughout Greece- 48 hour strike.
• Corfu prison officials and staff- (Glad that isn't on our island itinerary!).
• Court officials and judicial employees
• Hospital Employees- (don't get sick today)
• Lawyers
• Local gov't employees-This means that garbage will not be picked up until October 19. Only 7 more days to go. 

There are major strikes planned for next week that include air traffic as well as ferries and ships. Our vacation plans will need to be altered because of the ferry strike. I think we're going to stay only one night on Tinos before moving on to Mykonos. We will be "stuck" there for at least three days until Greece goes back to work next Thursday. :) GWA.