Holidays 2010 Part 1 - Tinos

The first week of my summer holidays I went to Tinos. Why did I chose this island? No idea. We were too lazy to think about it much, it's an easy island to get to, we hadn't been before and we found a cheap room. An island is an island anyway.

So I got on the boat with my friend Nikoletta and my sister (who is paranoid and likes remaining nameless) and went to TInos!


Why hadn't we been to Tinos before? Because it isn't exactly a young person's island. Tinos is most famous for it's churches, in particular the Panagia Euaggelistria Church in the Chora dedicated to the Virgin Mary. There is famous a big religious festival held on the Dormition of the Virgin (15th of August) and tons of faithful make pilgrimages to the church.


Tinos is also famous for it's venetian dovecotes.


Of course Tinos does remain an island in the Cyclades. Which means it's typically arid, the sun is scorching hot, has beautiful beaches (not as good as some other island though), blue blue seas and little white villages. Normally during August it's also very very windy. Tinos is especially famous for being one of the windiest islands. This August however was a very hot windless August. Even in the islands.

So we found no nightlife in Tinos and not too many people in our age-group. But we found beaches:
Agios Fokas beach
Rocky beach near Panormos

And we rented a car and explored some of it's villages. Tinos is one of the bigger islands in the Cyclades and has many villages.
Pyrgos
Dyo Choria
Ormos Ysternion
Panormos

We also visited one of the cutest monasteries I have ever seen. It was a women's monastery it looked just like an adorable little village where everything was women-sized!


And of course we ate! (I'm sure I put on a lot of weight this August.) The food in Tinos is rather good (even by high greek standards), the prices ok and the portions big. Tinos seems to be rather famous for it's artichokes and capers. The artichoke salad with vinegar was good enough to make me actually consider buying fresh artichokes rather than ready cleaned frozen ones like I usually do.

All in all, Tinos was fun, but I wouldn't go again.

Coming up next, week two and week three.

The holidays are over

I'm back!

I left a sweltering hell-hole of a city, only to come back and find nothing much has changed. First day back at work today and that was no fun.

When I'm not feeling so awfully tired and lazy, I'll tell you about my summer holidays and maybe post some pictures.

Counting down the days

There's a greek expression, "to be in pieces', it means to be exhausted, beat, worn out. That's how I feel now, broken into millions of little pieces.

I'm exhausted, mentally (from work) and physically (I haven't slept properly in weeks because of the heat).

It's unbelievably hot and grimy and dirty and disgusting, like it always is in Athens in the summer.

Work is aggravating me, stressing me, pushing me beyond my limits. I'm an architect - but I work as an architect's assistant - which means that on a practically daily basis I have to deal with people. I don't like people much. Clients are unrealistic and demanding. My boss is pushy and out of touch with the intricacies of civil services. The engineers (civil engineers, mechanical engineers) we work with are often short sighted and tiring (of course they are often helpful lifesavers too, but I'm in complaining mode at the moment). And worst of all are the civil servants I have to deal with and the miles of red-tape and ridiculous procedures that they strangle us with. At the moment I am being pushed and shoved and driven crazy acting as a go between between all these impossibly implacable and self-centred people.

And last of all, organising summer holidays is a very tiring business.

So, I'm exhausted, dizzy, irritated beyond measure and hopped up on useless stress and aggravation. I don't think I'll be able to come down until I finally get off the boat on my chosen holiday location...

Sunday. I'm leaving on sunday. I wanted to leave on friday - I can't take this city any more! But my friend doesn't want to leave any earlier... It's a drag.

So sunday! I'm going to the island of Tinos for six days. It's an island famous for it's churches (most dedicated to the Virgin Mary) and the on the day of the Virgin Mary things get really intense with all the pilgrims and religious nuts. Unfortunately we'll be leaving before then (the 15th of August for all you who don't live in christian countries) and will miss all the craziness. Ah well.

Afterwards I'm going to a sea-side village up in Pilion for a week. Pilion is in the mainland of Greece, central Greece to be exact. It's green and mountainous. The mountain villages are lovely in the winter - great for winter holidays. But the seaside villages are just as nice for the summer too. The beaches are supposed to be lovely. We'll see. I've only ever been to Pilion in the winter and the snow.

And then, who knows? I haven't yet made plans for my last week of holidays.

I can make it until sunday. Yes, I can!

Taking a short break

So it's been hot hot hot lately, and I've been depressed and irritable. I have a hard time sleeping at the best of times, and now with this awful heat, I hardly sleep a wink. As you can guess, I'm quite bad company lately.

Last week-end the latest heat-wave culminated, reaching as high as 41 and 42 degrees Celsius in Athens. Being forewarned by the weather forecast and having had a better proposition that sitting sweltering in the hell-hole that is Athens in the summer, I left the city.

Friday, right after work, I rushed to Piraeus - the port of Athens - and got the boat to the near by island of Kythnos, where a friend was holidaying. Taking the boat to an island is so much of a familiar summer ritual. It's one of the slowest, most boring and yet most calming ways to travel. This time my trip was only three hours long, but I have frequently taken twelve hour long boat journeys (sleeping on the deck of a boat is a marvelous experience) and one memorable time - never to be repeated - I took a never-ending impossible twenty-six hour boat journey!

I have visited Kythnos many times, so it's a very familiar island full of old memories. The small apartment my friend rents the whole year round so she can visit anytime, has the view of her favourite beach, and was the location of many of our teenaged high-jinks.



Like many greek islands, Kythnos has blue blue seas and bare bare hills.



And most of the photos you take end up looking like post-cards.



As you can see, I don't have much to say for myself and am copping out by posting photos instead.

I only stayed the weekend - having to be back to work on Monday - but it was certainly better than nothing! And now, the little trip is over and I'm back in Athens counting down the days till my summer holiday (two more weeks!).

Birthdays and Blues

It's my birthday tomorrow and I'm feeling blue. My blueness and my impending birthday are totally unrelated. They just so happen.

I am totally past the feeling sad and teary part of depression and have moved onto the listless, apathetic, un-motivated part of depression. It's hard being depressed when it's so hot (so hot! too hot!) and the sun is so bright (burn your eyes bright!), but I am managing.

Unfortunately I am not one of those constructive romantic depressives that stop eating (what a great diet plan!), put on too much eyeliner (can't be bothered!) and go for long walks in the rain with a book of french poetry in their pockets. (I suspect that those are the depressives that snag all the boyfriends.)

No, I'm one of those pathetic loser depressives that stays at home Saturday night to watch youtube videos with a tub of chocolate ice-cream (it's hot, I say!) for company. (No wonder I'm single!)

Yesterday (which wasn't Saturday!), I managed to force my inert self to close my youtube tab and watch a film instead. An 80s Kevin Bacon film (Quicksilver!), one of the best pick me ups out there. Kevin Bacon is sexy (especially in the 80s) and bicycles are cool (always!). And here's the proof:



And if you're still not persuaded that bicycles are cool, how about this?

Better late than never?

Or maybe not...



Last sunday (last sunday! I'm so bad at keeping this journal it's not funny) I took part in this year's summer Alleycat Race organised by this great group.

I have taken part in a number of other alleycat races. They are great fun and always pretty exhausting, but I think this one beat them all in the exhaustion factor. It was almost 40 Km long! It took me three hours to complete it - the winner finished in one and a half hours. When I finished I was in pain - I have bad knees - and didn't stop hurting for a couple of days. What can you expect, we cycled the whole Athens seafront, practically from beginning to end!



Check out some photos here.

Just an average saturday

Nothing much to say for myself.

I dragged my lazy arse out the house (I like to spend saturdays mooching) and went to the market to buy fresh vegetables and fish. I love the market! There's nothing like buying your vegetables straight from the farmers. And it's practically the only place you can buy greek vegetables in good condition in my neighbourhood. The supermarkets only seem to stock un-frozen imported vegetables. And the market is fun! You get to rub shoulders with old ladies and middle aged mothers as you prod the vegetables and compare the prices between stalls to choose the best. Plus if you go late enough you can pick up cheap fish from the fish stalls. I got two kilos of gavros (which my dictionary translates as hornbeam. Is that right? Strange name.) for five euro, which is pretty good. Now to decide if I want to cook it today or tomorrow...

It's a pretty muggy hot day today and on the way back from the market I got caught in a sudden downpour. Just enough to get very wet and annoyed. Now the sun is back out and it feels even more like a sauna than before...

To top up my post of nothingness, guess what I can hear one of my neighbours listening to via the interior courtyard. You'll never get it.

One of Odysseas Elitis (nobel winning greek poet) most famous poems that was set to music by Mikis Theodorakis (famous greek composer). Real highbrow stuff. Actually real left-wing (that the socialist right? I always get mixed up) highbrow stuff. To whit:



And just because, here's another awesome Elitis poem set to music by Theodorakis:



I do realise that if you don't know greek these songs won't really mean much to you. Ah, the old language barriers!