Paris!

I went to Paris over the weekend. I left Thursday morning and returned Sunday night. I had a good, laid back time. Thursday I finally got to meet a wonderful internet friend in the flesh. She was wonderful enough to put me up Thursday night. I spent Thursday walking around touristy places like St Michel, Odeon, St Germain de Pres, the Louvre gardens, the Tuilleries, Place de Concorde and all the lovely bridges in between, not to mention eating some of my favourite Italian ice-cream... Later on we went for Japanese with together and for a drink in the Marais where we met up with my old friend Amin. It was a lovely laid back night, walking around Paris talking about all things under the moon, from porn to politics. Friday was my interview. I didn't do much, I spent all the morning stressing and reading up or sitting in the park. My interview went well, I think, but not perfect. I got stuck at points, was a bit too nervous at points, and some of my answers could have been better. It seemed like a cool interesting place to work, so I will be very sad if I blew it. (Don't ask me if I got it, because I am still waiting to find out and the suspense is killing me!) Afterwards I took my stuff to my dear Amin's where we had a typical parisian dinner and lots wine before returning home to chat all night, because we are old and boring and hadn't met for years and Amin always has the best adventures - and love stories. Saturday I walked around Paris some more. Guys, London might be more happening and trendy than Paris, but Paris is just so classy! And then had a typical weird night out with Amin. First he took me to the party of a friend of his, who's a university professor. He warned me that the guy usually throws kinky parties with orgies and stuff. I asked if I would be the only straight woman there, which could be awkward, but was assured this party would be toned down and have some straights as well. It turned out to be super boring. All the straight people were colleagues of his partner, so were school teachers, and were married with kids. Many of them had actually brought their children with them! The youngest was nine months old! We got really bored and Amin persuaded me to leave the party to go to a club that was having a bears night. Why do I let him persuade me to do things like this? After paying the hefty entrance fee, we find the place rather empty, both of people and bears, and playing latin music! A little later -distinctly heterosexual- couples start dancing. Amin looks it up and realises he mixed his clubs up, instead of taking a taxi half across Paris, the right club was right next to his friends house! So, instead he says we should go to a gay bar he likes in the Marais, that he calls the bac+5 bar because everyone there is hopelessly highly educated and intellectual. We rented some velolibres and cycled through Paris in the dark on unfamiliar bikes on a saturday night full of traffic. It was scary and exhilarating. Like bike rides through busy night-time cities tend to be. The bar was a strange little place full of dreadfully serious and troubled gay men and the odd woman. It was fun though, because it was so small and it was kind of like a private party. Everyone seemed to do the round randomly talking to other people. I have never chatted to so many strangers in a bar before! Most of them were keen to get into Amin's pants of course, but were polite enough to talk to me too. Some said some awfully prejudiced and chauvinistic things, Amin being Iranian, me being Greek and them being European and tipsy. Isn't it odd that the worst stuff were said by Italians and Spanish, rather than the French? Amin got the hots for an Italian linguistics professor at one of the Paris universities, but - as is usual - he was one of the few who weren't in the least interested in him. I, on the other hand, chatted up a very cute corsican dancer with the name of Ninja Turtle - or a renaissance painter if you want to be all highbrow. When I asked what he did, and he said dancer, you should have seen me try to contain the drool! When he asked if I believed him, I said I would have to see him without his clothes to say, but he didn't oblige. He did some of that fancy footwork that ballet dancers do (he was a modern classical dancer) and showed me some of the differences between the various schools of dance. Very informative. Unfortunately, no matter how much I fluttered my eyelashes or flashed my cleavage I didn't get anywhere. I was hoping he might have been bi, but I guess he was gay. Or just didn't like me. *sigh* We left eventually, and had to walk home because Amin messed up our cards for the velolibres and didn't want to pay for more, and collapsed into bed at six in the morning. Only to be woken up at eight in the morning by someone incessantly banging on the front door and calling us on the phone. It turned out that there was a leak somewhere in our pipes and it was leaking into the guy underneath's flat. We turned the water off by the main and tried to go back to sleep. But our sunday was fucked. We woke up late. Lazed around for ages, then went for a nice french lunch, and then returned home to invite some of his friends over and laze about some more before I had to leave for my train. And that's what I did in Paris. I could have done more, I guess, but didn't really feel like it. I took some photos, but I'm hopelessly behind on downloading and fixing up my photos...

Short trip to Paris

So, I got through to the third round of interviews! My last interview is tomorrow in Paris. Wish me luck! Since going and returning on the same day is a bit silly, I rearranged the days I was working this week and am leaving later on today, to return Sunday night. I need a break - I feel like I'm going crazy - and I missed Paris. The lovely is going to put me up for a night or two (I wonder if she'll like me dragging her around Paris, I missed the river and the bridges so badly!) and I might sleep on the floor of a friend for another night, or I'll see if I can find a hotel that isn't too expensive or too awful. We'll see. I'm feeling so out of sorts, I'm having a hard time making arrangements and taking decisions. Anyway, off I go!

Hydra Photos

So I promised photos from Hydra, the greek island I visited in April for two days while I was in Greece. It's a lovely picturesque island, but rather expensive and chic. Be warned that the slideshow is very long. I took quite a few photos. (For some strange reason it's showing my photos from last to first and I can't find how to change it!)

Easter update

I haven't updated in a while because I've been blue and not really in the mood. Not to worry though, I still lurk around. For Catholic/Protestant Easter my uncle and aunt came down to visit from Manchester for three days. They brought a lot of hyper chaos with them, as they always do. As soon as they left I took a two-week holiday from work to visit home, just in time for Orthodox Easter. (I took all my holiday time of the business year that is ending all at once.) So for the past week and a couple of days I've been in Athens; seeing friends and family, going on bicycle rides with my father, doing a bit of shopping, getting some stuff done. I even went for a short two-day trip to the island of Hydra. As soon as I get round to fixing them up, I'll share some photos with you. It is a beautiful island (but then again the countryside in Greece is generally very photogenic.) *Sigh* I am remembering the things that irritate me about Greece - and Athens in particular - but also the things I miss. Mainly I miss the weather, the sea, the more easygoing people, the food. That's enough for now. I'm still in rather an uncommunicative mood.

Fear of Flying

I'm flying today! In a bit over four hours to be exact. And I'm already at the airport. Why, you might ask. I decided to share a taxi with my mother. It dropped her off at her work and then took me to the airport. Four hours before my flight!

And you know what's even worse? Athens' crappy airport only gives you sixty minutes of free in internet time! What sort of rubbish is that? Good news is one friend at least is coming to see me off, so I won't be alone the whole time.

I'm as stressed as anything. Have I mentioned how much I hate flying? I had all the checks and rules and regulations that are apt to change year to year. I am severely overweight - you try moving somewhere permanently with 20 kg of allowed luggage at 8 kg of hand luggage. Absolutely impossible! They tell you to take all important papers and documents and all electrical etc stuff in your hand luggage and they expect you to do that in under 8 kg? My camera alone is almost 2 kg! So yeah, I'm stressed, overweight (my luggage is at least) and in a bad mood.

See you on the other side? My grandmother doesn't have internet, but I'll be working something out as soon as I can.

Keep your fingers crossed that I get through baggage check in without too much trouble and without paying too big a fine for overweight!

One last hooray

I'm back in Athens safe and sound and earlier than anticipated. Agistri was lovely, but the crowds drove us away. We had completely forgotten that Monday (today that is) was a bank holiday.

I went with my friend Angela who has also just lost her job and who is also flying to London at the end of the month to look for work. We are all emigrating I tell you!

We thought this would be our last chance to see some sun and sea this summer (unless we make it to the English seaside, and unless you actually consider that sun and sea). Also we needed a bit of a break from the business of getting everything in order to leave.

Being short of money and energy we went to Agistri which is really close to Athens by boat and where it is easy to free camp.


(I haven't got a new compact camera to replace the one that was stolen and I was hardly going to take my DSLR camping so I had to make do with bad quality photos taken with my mobile.)

As you can see we took two tents with us because we were expecting company (none of which showed in the end). You might have also noticed we took Angela's dog Bella will us too. Bella is a beautiful two year old mongrel.


Unfortunately Bella is rather difficult (and possibly a bit spoilt too). She barks at everything that scares her (and that is almost everything) and at all other dogs. As you can guess she did a lot of barking. Everyone wanted to pat her because she's so pretty, but were quickly put off by her incessant barking.

Appart from the new experience of holidaying with a dog, we didn't do much. We lazed on the beach. We got slight tans that we will lose during the first week of being in London I'm sure. We ate and walked around aimlessly. We got bitten by flies. Every time I go camping I return with my legs riddled with big red bites. It seems like horseflies love me!

News from the front

Hello all from windy Agistri!

Yes, I run off to the island of Agistri for a week. It's my last chance for a bit of sea and sun before going to the UK.

I have booked my flight! I fly to London on the 22nd of June! Anyone else going to be in London who might want to say hi?

More news when I get home. I'm being very decadent and splurging out on an internet cafe when we are having a shoestring holiday and free-camping!

Crossing the Isthmus

I went on a day trip on Sunday! After spending most of my christmas holidays lazing about at home in the dark, it was about time I got some fresh air. And what a lot of fresh air there was to be had!

A friend of a friend had organised a trip to Ancient Corinth with some friends (are you confused yet?), and somehow I got asked along. Never one to turn down an opportunity to travel (especially if someone else is driving!) I decided to accept the invitation.

This friend's friend is an architect (as am I, by chance), and as you should know architects frequently travel in packs. Out of the twelve people on the trip, eight of us were architects! So it was quite enjoyable. The company was good and so was Ancient Corinth.

To be completely accurate, we didn't actually go to Ancient Corinth, we just passed through. Our actual destination was Acrocorinth, the ancient and medieval castle on the very tip of the mountain that looms over Corinth. It was a beautiful big place, with long walls, impressive views and completely overrun with greenery.

Being typical Greeks, once we walked our fill of the huge acropolis, we went to eat. And eat we did, with gusto and plenty of appetite. (There is something very satisfying about ordering large amounts of food, don't you think?)

The only downside of the whole outing, was that it became painfully obvious from the very beginning that everybody else besides me and my friend were couples. Why oh why is everyone my age in a couple? How are singletons like myself ever going to meet anyone, if everyone is already paired off? At least I was saved from the pitying looks couples give us singles, by the fact most of them seemed to be under the erroneous impression my friend and I were together (a rather hilarious misconception that never-the-less is quite a common occurrence).