tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-169971762011-11-28T02:30:14.370+02:00This is the blog of Stathis Mihos and Maria Karakiza. We are married (to each other...) and our common passion is to travel. So this blog is mainly (but not exclusively) about our travels and anything related to them. Have a look, it's less boring than it sounds...Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.comBlogger651100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-82885530820030863682010-12-29T22:24:00.002+02:002010-12-29T22:25:52.892+02:00

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-35066219790897684942010-11-30T21:29:00.000+02:002010-11-30T21:34:14.441+02:00

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-32921618043352515112010-03-07T15:43:00.001+02:002010-03-07T15:45:17.900+02:00

«Σπίτι μου, σπιτάκι σου» Καταπληκτικές στιγμές στο εξωτερικό ανταλλάσσοντας σπίτι έχει ζήσει η κυρία Μαρία Καράκιζα Πέρα από το αλληλέγγυο «πάρεδώσε» της καθημερινότητας υπάρχουν και οι ανταλλαγές για να κάνει κάποιος πραγματικότητα ένα ταξίδι που δεν θα τον «ξεπαραδιάσει» κατά την περίοδο των χειμωνιάτικων ή καλοκαιρινών διακοπών. Η κυρία Μαρία Καράκιζα, που ασχολείται

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-3485822509445771852009-09-11T23:44:00.002+03:002009-09-12T16:38:06.183+03:00

Born on 11.Sep.2009, 9.45 am, weighing 2900 gr.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-78944603424851087582009-08-27T20:06:00.003+03:002009-08-30T12:12:17.025+03:00

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-22123586890517444562009-04-02T21:26:00.003+03:002009-04-02T21:42:22.960+03:00

Today a major Greek newspaper run an article on Intervac, the home exchange association we represent in Greece.So, there you have it: our 15 minutes of fame...

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-13042384220313269082009-03-24T12:49:00.003+02:002009-03-24T12:53:17.535+02:00

It goes without saying that we are immensely excited and happy at the prospect!Here's an ultrasound picture of our baby:

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-77518897861014851572008-12-28T10:48:00.001+02:002009-01-02T10:51:35.968+02:00

It was just for a day, on Dec. 28th - but it was enough to let us enjoy the 'white Christmas' spirit!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-48254006722086490122008-12-09T20:55:00.004+02:002008-12-31T14:20:50.566+02:00

A few weeks before Christmas we thought of getting a dose of Christmas spirit - and the most appropriate place for this, we have found out, is Germany!We went to our good friends in Frankfurt, which may not be the most interesting place in Germany, but was just fine for the extended weekend we spent there. And besides having good times with our friends, we discovered interesting places nearby (

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-71171456854615425282008-12-01T14:21:00.000+02:002008-12-31T14:25:10.455+02:00

We are now the proud owners of a small flat in the town of Xylokastro, about 1,5 hrs from Athens. We intend to use this mainly as a summer home. (We need to do some repairs and furnish it first, of course).Here's a view from the balcony:

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-65916346899410261882008-11-18T20:37:00.003+02:002008-11-18T20:41:18.139+02:00

Stathis received his second Master's degree, this time in Tourism Business Administration, from the Hellenic Open University. The University's seat is in Patras, so he went there for the ceremony.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-20498629488846672982008-11-02T18:35:00.003+02:002008-11-02T18:53:08.936+02:00

Sunday morning and the weather is fine, almost summer like. We went trekking in Tatoi. Located on the slopes of Mount Parnitha some 25 km from Athens, this is the last of the Royal estates of the former Royal family, the summer palace. Besides the summer palace, which was built in 1884, there are another 40 buildings dotting the area the last of which was completed in 1954. They include two

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-68649272626942845842008-08-31T11:13:00.003+03:002008-08-31T11:26:44.169+03:00

Και μια και είμασταν σε διακοπές κατάφερα (Στάθης) να διαβάσω κι ένα βιβλίο... «Στους πέντε ανέμους του Καυκάσου» του Χρήστου Σαμουηλίδη. Ένα βιβλίο για τους Έλληνες του Πόντου που ζούσαν στο ρωσοκρατούμενο έδαφος του Καρς-Αρνταχάν από το 1878, τη ζωή τους εκεί και τις αναστατώσεις της ζωής τους και τις μεταναστεύσεις τους από την επανάσταση του 1905 και τους Βαλκανικούς πολέμους, τον Α'

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-20352082884657130582008-08-30T14:41:00.004+03:002008-08-30T14:50:45.932+03:00

A short 3-day visit to Leros, an island not far from Rhodes. We planned a longer visit at the beginning of our vacation but had to postpone and settle with this visit. But the island was beautiful, rather quiet and worth another visit in the future...

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-55009250480735509982008-08-26T19:54:00.002+03:002008-08-26T19:57:18.262+03:00

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-3575738967677044712008-08-23T19:54:00.007+03:002008-08-23T20:13:07.423+03:00

...are certainly not enough! But it was a visit worth the (short) trip as this is one of the most picturesque islands of the Aegean. Nice setting (Symi's pretty houses), nice hotel (Nereus), nice food (Mythos on the terrace), nice beach (Ayia Marina - we went there by boat) and nice company (Stathis' cousin and wife). What more can one ask for?

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-66277430781708922302008-08-20T12:48:00.002+03:002008-08-20T12:56:07.298+03:00

For once we decided to spend a whole, consecutive month of summer vacation. This is not what we usually do, but we thought we should give it a try. Another departure from our usual vacation style was our decision not to travel abroad and spend all our time in the Greek islands. Initially we thought of going to Leros and then Rhodes, but certain difficulties made us skip the Leros part. So we

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-55623308825927612422008-03-14T09:52:00.004+02:002008-03-14T10:00:22.032+02:00

As Stathis had this meeting in Amsterdam (see previous posting), Maria joined him for a short break that included some sightseeing, museum visits, going out with friends and (mostly window-) shopping.So many bicycles and so much water! All the flowers together!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-24072109863259472672008-03-14T09:43:00.003+02:002008-03-14T09:52:30.516+02:00

It was the 2008 Corporate Counsel University of the Association of Corporate Counsel (Europe). It took place in Amsterdam (2-4.3.2008). Stathis is shown here with a colleague co-speaker.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-38626148253558974472008-03-13T20:43:00.002+02:002008-03-13T20:45:08.214+02:00

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-32845518680629008092008-02-18T14:04:00.004+02:002008-02-18T14:11:06.289+02:00

After two days of snow, everything is under a white blanket of 20 to 30 cm!Enjoy the photos!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-29664336715192288332008-01-21T20:54:00.000+02:002008-01-21T21:01:16.606+02:00

Click on title (or here) to watch a YouTube video presentation of the diorama!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-73661040461538818842008-01-16T12:56:00.000+02:002008-01-19T11:08:50.110+02:00

Thanks to the exquisite work done by Stathis' cousin Yannis (visit his blog: http://www.alt-control-delete.blogspot.com/) we now have, as coffee table, an impressive model village and railway diorama in our living room. Enjoy the pictures until you visit our home!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-23554108641686116722007-12-31T10:27:00.000+02:002007-12-31T10:48:03.066+02:00

This winter we took some days off to visit Milan and London. Our visit to Milan was our first together and despite the shortage of time (just a weekend) we managed to find enough time for sightseeing and, of course, shopping! Unfortunately we couldn't take the tour of the roof of the Duomo, as it was very slippery due to the ice formed because of the low temperatures. We did attend a mass though

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-22958401346828744682007-12-31T09:49:00.000+02:002007-12-31T10:27:28.458+02:00

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-70685186547424598282007-10-27T11:47:00.000+03:002007-10-27T12:18:01.105+03:00

The past couple of weeks we had the opportunity to go on excursions in places not far from Athens. Which, reminded us that some times you don't have to travel far to find places of interest.Here they are then:The Acrocorinth, the Isthmus of Corinth, the lake of Vouliagmeni and the Heraion. (including a photo with the beautiful lighthouse near Heraion).

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-50544813520595236362007-09-24T10:03:00.000+03:002007-09-24T10:50:05.231+03:00

Together with Stathis' cousin and his wife (Agis and Christina) we went to visit the village of their grandfather, an almost deserted (except for a couple of families) village in the mountainous area of Achaia, near the town of Kalavryta. There is no asphalt road to the village so we had rented a 4WD vehicle.It was the second visit (after more than a decade) for Stathis and the first for

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-8297040180439181402007-08-23T10:27:00.000+03:002007-08-23T10:37:49.605+03:00

We are now both in Rhodes spending time with family and friends. Here are two photos from our visit (day trip) to the nearby island of Chalki :

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-90932812654190424162007-08-05T22:11:00.000+03:002007-08-06T12:27:47.141+03:00

...and so we have come to the last day of our summer vacation abroad for this year! How did we spend it? It probably comes as no surprise that we started by visiting Copenhagen's most well known symbol, 'the Little Mermaid' statue. You can read the statue's adventures (quite a few vandalisms) here.Then we visited two museums (although the bright sunny weather was calling for us to get out!), the

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-40015800899380311612007-08-05T21:40:00.000+03:002007-08-06T09:59:59.934+03:00

As promised before, here're the pictures taken inside the ABSOLUT icebar in Copenhagen. Since they were taken with a mobile phone's camera the quality is poor, but you get the idea...

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-8893957100926333142007-08-04T02:22:00.000+03:002007-08-06T17:28:54.497+03:00

This morning we said goodbye to the hospitable place of our home exchange partners and crossed again the Øresund bridge (see Part 1) on our way to Copenhagen.We had booked a room at the Hilton Hotel at the airport. This will be convenient on Sunday as we fly in the morning and don’t really want to have to wake up early to travel to the airport. And it’s very easy to get to the city centre as the

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-57876078964034873642007-08-02T21:38:00.000+03:002007-08-07T09:33:29.322+03:00

So... was it a summer day today? It started as one! And off we go to Malmö again! We feel energized and ready for some physical activity, so we decide to rent a river bike and see the Malmö canals.Then we thought we ought to do our duty as tourists and visit some, at least, of the city museums (besides, we had free entrance with the Malmö card - see part 4). We found ourselves first in the

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-20237840125746902562007-08-01T23:09:00.000+03:002007-08-02T09:46:19.904+03:00

Today the local newspapers had major news: ´Finally Summer has arrived!´- which meant that we would have no rain, a glorious sun (most of the time) and around 20oC. That´s why we finally had breakfast in the nice garden of our house. We then decided to go to the city of Malmö, which is less than half an hour from Lund. We didn´t know what to expect from the city, so we were pleasantly surprised

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-77896280527057759342007-07-31T19:24:00.000+03:002007-08-02T09:46:54.337+03:00

Today we decided to blend with the locals and take the bikes. We went all the way to the city centre by bike - it took us about an hour or so. Then we did some more sightseeing, as you can see from the photos (the white building is the University). We also visited the King´s house, the Botanical Gardens and the Market Hall.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-7835913429307745872007-07-30T21:14:00.000+03:002007-08-07T09:37:06.244+03:00

This is our first day in Lund. A compact and picturesque city. We leave the car at a parking (cost about 2 euros an hour) take a stroll in the streets, doing some sightseeing and shopping. The weather could be better (it´s raining on and off) and this discourages us from taking the bikes instead of the car. We eat italian (a lunch buffet with unlimited pasta, pizza and salad costs about 8,5 euros

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-20954636347337424862007-07-29T08:24:00.000+03:002007-08-19T21:40:01.123+03:00

'How do you cope with such a hot summer in Greece?' friends from abroad asked us this year... They had heard in the news that temperatues in Greece exceeded 45o C, hence the question.Well, the answer was pretty simple and straightforward: '...we leave for cooler climates.'And so we find ourselves in Sweden... In fact in Denmark as we fly from Athens to Copenhagen. However, the Danish capital is

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-80913900826707139962007-06-11T09:54:00.000+03:002007-06-12T16:01:08.961+03:00

Stathis wrote a book on 'Internet monitoring in the workplace' which was published by a Greek Law Publisher. Under his newly acquired capacity as a writer, he was interviewed on the subject by a Greek daily newspaper (the photo accompanying the article is not of Stathis!!)

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-76230367504695125182007-06-06T21:51:00.000+03:002007-06-06T22:35:30.019+03:00

Stathis had to go to Munich for a lawyers' conference, so Maria joined for the weekend before the conference. Munich is a nice, compact and tourist-friendly city, so we enjoyed it!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-82618240131664307842007-05-20T22:04:00.000+03:002007-05-20T22:26:59.989+03:00

12.5.2007 - it's Maria's birthday and we took the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Paris to celebrate!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-83942115262196357712007-03-17T13:30:00.000+02:002007-03-17T13:43:18.391+02:00

Those of you that have been reading our blog, know about our favourite way of spending our vacation: doing home exchanges. In fact we are members (and as a hobby of ours we are also representatives for Greece) of the first world wide organization of home exchanges, called 'Intervac'. So what's new? Well, Maria has been working lately on the website of Intervac Greece and has come up with this

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-87456956042288057712007-03-11T16:01:00.000+02:002007-03-11T16:27:31.032+02:00

Stathis had his 15 minutes of fame when Athens largest daily newspaper ("TA NEA") published in 5.3.2007 in the weekly legal supplement ("TA NOMIKA NEA") an interview about the role of the in house counsel and the Association of Corporate Counsel he represents in Greece.You can read the interview by visiting the newspaper's site (www.tanea.gr).

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-86849061749180200552007-02-09T10:28:00.000+02:002007-02-09T14:30:17.873+02:00

It's been quite some time since we last updated our blog, so I guess this means we've been busy... or lazy ...or away! So, for our friends that keep asking (huh?) here's a recap of our latest news:-We spent Christmas in Berlin with Maria's extended family (parents, brother+wife+kids). It was cold but not too much and we had a very good time. Highlight of our visit: Potsdam (not to be missed when

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1156598648279024432006-08-26T16:14:00.000+03:002006-08-30T17:20:04.013+03:00

To the surprise of many (including ourselves) our summer vacation this year did not involve any trip abroad Greece. Partly because of our decision to leave in July instead of our customary August and partly because we didn’t have in mind any one particular place that we really wanted to go to, we finally decided to stay in Greece (as a Ministry of Tourism’s slogan for internal tourists says).

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1145212597707057192006-04-16T21:26:00.000+03:002006-04-16T21:36:37.723+03:00

In the beginning of April, Stathis and four of his old schoolmates and good friends decided to visit Milan. This was the first time we ever went abroad as a group and the city served as the backdrop. As we stayed there just for three days we barely had enough time for some sightseeing, some shopping and a wonderful half-day trip to lake Como (not to be missed!). And even though the city has a

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1141374180347748912006-03-03T10:04:00.000+02:002006-03-03T10:23:00.363+02:00

As all our friends know, we like to go abroad on one of the most traditional Greek holidays! Sunday prior to Lent is the culmination of Greek carnival with people feasting and watching parades. Then comes what is called Clean Monday (Kathari Deftera) (known as “Ash Wednesday” in other Mediterranean, primarily Catholic countries), as tradition has it that all meat and cheese residues have to be

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1138968181584849612006-02-03T13:54:00.000+02:002006-02-03T14:03:01.596+02:00

From March 15th and after almost five years of exciting in-house legal work for HERACLES GCC (the Greek subsidiary of Lafarge S.A.), Stathis is looking forward to meeting new challenges in another great company, BP.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1134502560993104372005-12-13T21:02:00.000+02:002005-12-13T21:36:01.010+02:00

It is not very easy to get into the Christmas spirit with 18 degrees (Celsius) outside... So, we left for a weekend break in Munich. Indeed, the Christmas spirit in Germany is omnipresent: as soon as you arrive at the Munich airport a typical 'Christkindlmarkt' awaits you - a 'village' of wooden kiosks that sell clothes, candies, snacks etc. And such markts are all over the city, too. There

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1132426552604815912005-11-19T20:50:00.000+02:002005-11-19T20:55:52.613+02:00

Παρασκευή 11 Νοεμβίου, αργά το απόγευμα. Ταξιδεύω (η Μαρία) από το Βόλο (όπου είμαι για το πανελλήνιο συνέδριο πληροφορικής pci 2005)προς τη Λάρισα. Η φίλη μου μού έχει υποσχεθεί μια ωραία βραδυά στη νυχτερινή Λάρισα και δε με διέψευσε καθόλου.Πρώτος σταθμός το εστιατόριο "Τηγανάκια". Γεμάτο από κόσμο (βγαίνουν πολύ οι Λαρισαίοι, φαίνεται) και συνεπώς πολύς καπνός (το μόνο αρνητικό στο μαγαζί).

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1131655413037149472005-11-10T22:26:00.000+02:002005-11-12T10:50:45.203+02:00

So, it's official: Stathis has graduated as a Master of Laws, from the University of Strathclyde. (LL.M. in Information Technology and Telecommunications Law).Which gave us a good excuse to travel for an extended weekend to Glasgow, to attend the graduation ceremony, exactly 10 years after our first trip to Scotland. And it was also an opportunity to relive the atmosphere of student days. The

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127583839649718872005-09-21T20:25:00.000+03:002005-11-10T22:51:15.350+02:00

…Of course what would a trip to the Côte d'Azur be without a visit to a modern Greek …colony? Time to go to Monaco, the colony of all modern times rich Greeks, starting with Onassis. On our way there (driving on the famous corniches, the seaside motorways, which reminded us of the old Athens-Corinth motorway), we had a stop at the beautiful villages of Villefranche and St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. In the

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127565089319574672005-09-20T15:21:00.000+03:002005-11-10T23:03:47.616+02:00

Our Greek friends find it strange that we prefer to travel abroad during the summer… ‘Why would you want to do that? Summer means sun and sea and the best place to have these is Greece!’ seems to be everybody’s comment. Well, we like to live new experiences exploring other cultures and ways of life is our honest answer.But it makes you think… Can we combine our wish to travel abroad with the

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127505529665475242005-09-15T22:45:00.000+03:002005-11-12T10:30:30.130+02:00

(The book review that follows is in Greek) Το πιό πρόσφατο βιβλίο που διάβασα (Στάθης) ήταν το "Μια σταγόνα Ιστορία" (τόμος Α') του δημοσιογράφου Δ.Καμπουράκη. Το βιβλίο ήταν δώρο που έπιανε σκόνη στο ράφι, αλλά ήταν από καιρό στα 'υπ'όψιν' βιβλία (όσο πάει γίνονται και πιό πολλά δυστυχώς)... Η Ιστορία είναι κάτι που με γοητεύει και ενδιαφέρει αλλά το στυλ της δημοσιογραφίας του συγγραφέα του

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127563205246742572004-09-27T14:54:00.000+03:002005-09-24T15:00:05.253+03:00

One more city/country to visit in this trip: Estonia. Just 1,5 hour by boat across the gulf from Helsinki and we found ourselves in the beautiful medieval and fortified capital city of Tallinn. We were rather surprised to see that the city was not too big; it was picturesque, with beautiful and colorful buildings and full of restaurants, cafes and tourists. Sort of a smaller version of Prague.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127550712462137952004-09-25T11:24:00.000+03:002005-09-24T14:33:03.063+03:00

Having Helsinki as our base for the next days, we were planning to visit first Saint Petersburg in Russia and then Tallinn in Estonia.This is the most exciting and unfortunate part of our journey; so if you managed to read this far, don't give up now!By train to Russia... this was our first visit to Russia and we had a few things to be concerned about: Would we be able to receive our train

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127550262598179482004-09-21T10:56:00.000+03:002005-09-24T11:24:22.606+03:00

When we arrived to our destination (Oulu), we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice house with a large garden waiting for us. It even had a sauna, which would be, in the days to come, an amazing experience and a source of pleasure for us! Rather different from the landscape of Athens, we were surrounded by equally pretty houses and a forest. The city centre was a 20 minutes ride by car and our

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127548576230573062004-09-20T10:52:00.000+03:002005-09-24T10:56:16.233+03:00

Once more we decided to spend our summer vacation's largest part 'up north'. This time we thought of visiting Finland, a country we thought would be cool in many ways (including of course the climate!). Most of our (Greek) friends keep asking us why not spend the whole time by the beach, in Greece. Well, a simple answer would be that we like to see new things and that we like to experience not

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127548226775658882003-09-26T10:41:00.000+03:002005-09-24T10:50:26.776+03:00

The Blue Lagoon - an artificial lagoon, which is the most visited sight of Iceland.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127547402920564862003-09-25T10:33:00.000+03:002005-09-24T10:36:42.920+03:00

The glacier lagoon Jokulsarlon. The set for James Bond movies.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127547178668725562003-09-24T00:29:00.000+03:002005-09-24T10:51:52.503+03:00

The glacier of Vatnajokull, the biggest glacier in Europe. Maria is ready to ...take off!

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127546856189018112003-09-23T10:24:00.000+03:002005-09-24T10:27:36.193+03:00

Iceland was probably our best travel experience so far. Simply amazing.

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127544737762078922003-09-21T09:37:00.000+03:002005-09-24T10:06:27.500+03:00

The main part of our vacation was still to come though. So, the beginning of August we left for Iceland, a destination we had in mind for some years already, and we became two of the about 300 Greeks that visit Iceland each year (one every day except Sundays! :-). Finally we managed to find a home-exchange partner, a nice Icelandic family -and cheap tickets to get there! We flew via London using

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127543805068670162003-09-20T09:30:00.000+03:002005-09-24T09:36:45.070+03:00

This has been a summer with a theme for us! The theme being ...'ice'! Our vacation time abroad was split in two parts: first, we spent about five days in the Swiss Alps. Intervac, the home exchange organization that we represent in Greece had its annual general meeting (and celebration for its 50 years) in the picturesque village of Pontresina in the Engadin area. There was some work to be done,

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127543370266559642002-09-20T09:16:00.000+03:002005-09-24T09:29:30.273+03:00

Two weeks in Paris! Sounds great, right? And it was, it was. Just that we hadn't planned for it!This year we tried to go to Iceland, Australia and in the end even any place by the sea in the south of France. But no luck! So, when we received an offer to exchange houses with a family in Paris (Nation area), we thought, why not? Paris is, after all, an all time classic. Plus we hadn't been there

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127542184856021622001-09-20T09:04:00.000+03:002005-09-24T09:14:14.730+03:00

We spent our summer vacation in Boston and New York City (13-29th July). It was the second time we visited America but our first in the US.What were our impressions? Well, we did like Boston and the Cape Cod area. NYC was somewhat of a disappointment as it reminded us of Athens, only in larger scale! The hectic pace and rhythms of life were so similar. The city was impressive of course,

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16997176.post-1127501906074233342000-09-20T21:48:00.000+03:002005-09-24T09:15:57.926+03:00

In 2000 we spent all our short and long vacation breaks in the greek islands. As you might recall we like to spend some time abroad, too, but this year we couldn't plan anything of the sort, because Maria's (then) new job hadn't made it clear whether she would get any vacation and when. So we started going for short breaks (normal or 'long' weekends) to relatively nearby islands Poros, Kea,

Stathis and/or Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09651715779099036065noreply@blogger.com1