White Christmas in Trikala Corinthias

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

A dose of (German) Christmas spirit!

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 (i.e. Buedingen)
Merry Christmas everybody!

A new (summer) home!

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 gets his (2nd) Master's degree

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.

Trekking in Tatoi

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 Orthodox churches, three stables, a secondary palace and buildings to house the various employees. The graves of members of the former Royal family are also there. It is buried deep in a lush forest of cypress and pine trees. As the area had been left unattended for many years, the buildings had fallen in disrepair. This whole area is supposed to become a Museum and a large park, an area of recreation and environmental education for Athenians.

«Στους πέντε ανέμους του Καυκάσου»

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' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, τη Ρωσική Επανάσταση, τον Εμφύλιο και, τέλος, τον αναγκαστικό ξεριζωμό και την εγκατάστασή τους στη Μακεδονία και τις δυσκολίες στην ενσωμάτωσή τους. Ο συγγραφέας παρουσιάζει όλα αυτά μέσα από τις ιστορίες μιας μεγάλης οικογένειας και των περί αυτήν προσώπων. Οι επιμέρους ιστορίες είναι νομίζω μάλλον αδύναμες και προσχηματικές για να μιλήσει ο συγγραφέας για τη ζωή των Ποντίων, τα έθιμα και τους αγώνες τους. Έτσι το κύριο ενδιαφέρον του βιβλίου είναι λαογραφικό και ιστορικό καθώς παρουσιάζει μια όχι πολύ φωτισμένη πλευρά της ιστορίας της μερίδας αυτής των Ελλήνων. Και μάλιστα ο χρόνος ανάγνωσης συνέπεσε με τα πολεμικά-πολιτικά γεγονότα του Καυκάσου (τη διαμάχη Ρωσίας-Γεωργίας). Ελπίζω να μη χρειαστεί να περάσει ένας χρόνος μέχρι το επόμενο βιβλίο που θα διαβάσω...

Leros 2008

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...

Rhodes, more photos

24 hours in Symi...

...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?

Summer 2008 in Rhodes

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 found ourselves in the island of Rhodes, going for swimming, making short trips inland (not all of Rhodes woods were consumed by fire, in fact there's a lot of green left intact, see photo), seeing family and friends and generally trying to relax. We have even planned to go for a short 3 day trip to Leros, just to satisfy our curiosity and see what we missed (or not).

A weekend in Amsterdam...

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 is a speaker at a seminar

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.

A long weekend with friends for Stathis in Berlin

Athens in white

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

Coffee table diorama video

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

Model Village and Railway Diorama in our Living Room!

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!

Winter holidays in Milan and London

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 inside the Cathedral and it was impressive.

We also visited a display of cribs ('presepi',΄'φάτνες'), so we were in the Christmas spirit, too.

Then we went to London for the actual Christmas days (we arrived a few days before and left on the day after, or 'Boxing Day' as it is called because of the habit of breaking the Christmas box, a box with gifts for employees in the old times shops - nothing to do with the sport of boxing, which is totally inappropriate for the day! :-)

This visit was purely for leisure and we did not combine it with work - in fact we had the company of Maria's brother and wife and our two nephews, so it was still Christmas with the family!

London was quite cold and foggy (surprise, surprise) but we had a good time visiting sights new and old (such as the Natural History Museum with the dinosaurs, which excited our nephews...) We were surprise though to see that nothing (including public transportation!) was working on Christmas Day! We managed to find an event held on this day, though, and it was the 'Peter Pan Cup Swimming Race' in which members of the Serpentine Swimming Club are competing in their annual race across the icy waters of Hyde Park's enormous lake. Quite a spectacle and it reminded us of the Greek custom of jumping into cold waters to reach for the cross on Epiphany Day.

So we leave this year with a splash and wish everybody the best for the New Year!

Season's Greetings!

Nice places that are not far away

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).

Back to the roots...

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 Maria.

The view of the church under a rock (resembling the famous rocks of Meteora) is indeed breathtaking.

Other photos in this post depict the old school and a view of the village in old times (probably the early 20th century).

You will also see Stathis and his cousin in front of a commemorative plaque, honouring the fighters of a battle between the local resistance during WWII. The fighters were led (as inscribed in the plaque) by the brother of our grandfather, a prominent figure of the resistance and air force officer.

The village is near another Meteora-like sight, the monastery of Makellaria (see it and read about it in English here and in Greek here).