My walls are still bare

Proof of what an amazing procrastinator I am, is the fact the walls in our house are still bare after two years of living here. I originally was thinking of putting up some of the nice big black and white prints I have kept from the time I took part in photography exhibitions in university. But then I thought it might be a bit austere. Then we bought some small cheap art nouveau-ish posters that we thought we might frame, but they are rather small and muted and we'd rather something bigger and brighter.

I must have mentioned that last Christmas when we went to Vienna, my sister bought a Klimt oil-painting (not an original obviously, a copy, but an oil-painting none the less). She finally framed it and is now considering hanging it in her bedroom, because it's the wrong shape and size for the living-room.

And so I remember how impressed I was by the Hundertwasser museum, the Kunst Haus Wien in Vienna. (I made a specific pilgrimage to the museum and the block of flats in Vienna he designed, because I love his art and architecture.) Looking at Hundertwasser's art, I decided I'd love something like that on my bedroom wall. Unfortunately the museum shop didn't have any posters I liked so that idea took a rain check. (By the way, you should really look up Hundertwasser, he's awesome!)

Now so many months later I'm thinking of copying myself a Hundertwasser painting to put on my wall. And maybe copying another for the living room. As usual I am making big plans that I will never get round to realising. So let me share some ideas for my walls.

For my bedroom







For the livingroom





Any preferences?

16th Athens International Film Festival

I promised you a run down of the ten films I saw at this year's Athens International Film Festival. Why ten films? I only had the time and money for a ten film card. You can also pay for the films as you go, but with a card it's cheaper. I didn't even end up seeing the ten films I had planned on. Real life got in the way and I missed two of my short-listed films and ended up seeing two other films instead.

Anyway here we are:

1. Heartless - Philip Ridley (UK)

A really good film. Dark and gritty and scary, and very gory at parts. The mix of real and unreal, dream; hallucination and reality was brilliantly confusing. This film gets your adrenaline pumping and twists you all up, so that by the end you don't know which way is up. Not to mention that Jim Sturgess was amazing in the leading role. I loved this film, and I definitely recommend it.

trailer

2. Exit though the gift shop- Banksy (UK, USA)

This film had possibly the world's worst trailer. The trailer looked boring and uninspiring; I only went to see this films because I rather like Banksy and was curious. The film/documentary ended up being brilliant! Interesting, humorous and gripping. We all left the cinema wondering if we had seen a brilliant hoax or rather one of the art world's most unlikely tales. You should see it!

trailer

3. Shinoburu (Symbol) - Hitoshi Matsumoto (Japan)

I'm a big fan of weird japanese cinema. I love the Tetsuo films by Tsukamoto (I and II). Shinoburu started off very good. Quirky and strange and very funny. Unfortunately after the second half the director sort of lost it, and the ending was frankly ridiculous. You should only see it because I would like a second opinion on it.

trailer

4. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Matt Whitecross (UK)

A biographical film about Ian Dury. A really fun film with a bright choppy pop style to it. Andy Serkis is stunningly brilliant in the title role. Another sure fire recommendation.

trailer

5. Nuit Noire (Black Night) - Olivier Smolder (Belgium) 2004

I should look Smolder up, because this film was something else. An odd surreal dream - or nightmare - of a film. It was in turn creepy, unsettling, spooky, disturbing, puzzling, surprising, amusing. But throughout, the photography and the settings were gorgeous, like a work of art. Actually like a Peter Greenaway - and that's saying a lot. As long as you're not afraid of bugs and aren't prone to nightmares you should see it, it's beautiful!

trailer

6. The Trosky - Jacob Tierney (Canada)

A light comedy from Canada. This film was an absolutely hilarious feel-good comedy. The hero - Leon Bronstein - believes he is the re-incarnation of Leon Trosky and the results are hilarious.

trailer

7. Farewell - Ditteke Mensink (Holland)

This was a strange one off of a film. In 1928, a bunch of reporters did a round the world publicity trip on the Graff Zeppelin. What made this trip different? There was a woman on board - a reporter. She was the first woman to circumscribe the globe. This film is a collage of the authentic footage with the story being narrated from her personal diary recording the trip. How often do you get to see such footage on the big screen? The shots of the zeppelin in particular were breathtaking.

trailer

8. Wonderwall- Jo Massot (UK) 1968

A psychedelic late 60s film with a soundtrack by George Harrison and lots of wacky psychedelic imagery. A strange old scientist finds a hole in the wall of his home that lets him see into the house of his neighbor Jane Birkin. In true late 60s fashion, the film is slow and doesn't always make much sense today and unfortunately the colour had faded rather badly. I though it was rather a cute quaint little film.

trailer

9. Peter Ibberson- Henry Hathaway (USA) 1935

This is the first of the two films I hadn't planned on seeing, but wanted to use up my card and I thought I couldn't go wrong with an old classic. It even had Gary Cooper in it! Well, it was a nice film. And the plot device was very original - especially for the period. The thing is it was a bit too much of a melodramatic romance for my liking. A bit too cheesy and fluffy for an old cynic like myself.

scene from the film

10. Lovers of hate - Bryan Poyser (USA)

And finally the last film I saw to finish my card. There was a reason I hand't planned on seeing this film. I was sure from the write up it would be a banal boring film. As I entered the cinema I hoped against hope I would be proven wrong and pleasantly surprised. No such luck. A mediocre boring film with unlikable characters.

trailer

A day of house work

It's been a nice rainy day today. A perfect day to stay in and do some autumn cleaning. Our lovely rug is down in the living room, most of our summer clothes have been put up and quite a few of our winter stuff has come down. My sister got a bit carried away and re-arranged the furniture in her room. I think it looks a lot better now, more spacious.

Being all wintery, I decided to cook a typical winter dish: beans. Specifically gigantes beans (giant beans). Did you know that the Giant and Elephant (they are even bigger than the Giants) beans of various areas in Greece are products of Protected Geographic Indication? I only just found out. Giant beans are really big white beans.

I decided to cook them in the oven following a recipe in an old fashioned greek cookbook I've got.

Giant Beans in the oven

* 1/2 kgr of beans

* 1/2 kgr tomatoes finely chopped (you can take of the skins if you like)

* 1 chopped carrot (I put more because I like carrots)

* 2-3 red onions finely chopped

* 1 clove of garlic minced

* finely chopped fresh parsley

* 1/2 a cup of olive oil

* 1 teaspoon of dry mustard

* 1 teaspoon of paprika

* 1 tablespoon of salt

* pepper

* 2 tablespoons white wine

1. Clean and wash the beans.

2. Put in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Put on the fire.

3. As soon as the water starts boiling, take of the fire and let sit for 1 hour.

4. Drain and cover with hot water. Boil for 1 hour.

5. Put in a casserole dish together with all the rest of the ingredients except the wine. Cook covered in a medium oven for 2 hours.

6. Add the wine near the end.

Makes 5 portions

note: If your beans are old, they will need more boiling or cooking. Don't be afraid to leave in an hour longer in the oven if it looks like it needs it.

They didn't turn out too bad.

We ate them with lots of feta cheese and a salad of lettuce, roquette and purslane (which doesn't taste too bad after all.)

And now, I'm waiting for my brownies to cool down so I can cut them and put them in the fridge to set.

I'm feeling like a housewife...

I've been a good girl today

I'm feeling very virtuous today. After waking late and spending all the morning messing around, which was very un-virtuous of me, I finally got a move on it. I cleaned my room, finally finished september's accounts (my sister owes me money, yay!) and went shopping. I try to go to the market at least every other saturday. I go to Neos Kosmos market, which one of the biggest and best markets in Athens. It's so big, I've never walked the whole thing.

I love going to the market. I love seeing all the fresh fruit and vegetables laid out on the stalls. I love the noise and bustle. The housewives and grandmas squeezing the tomatoes - I always try to emulate them, because they know what they're about - and the farmers shouting out their wares and often humourous banter between each other. Being a young woman, I usually get lots of smiles and friendly compliments, which is always pleasant.

So today, I went with an agenda to get fresh fish, tomatoes, fruit and whatever caught my attention. I got a lovely huge fish with a strange name I've already forgot - I'm useless like that - and some fresh spinach, because there were piles of it everywhere and it looked lovely. Tomatoes were harder. Tomato season is ending, so all the tomatoes were looking pathetic and expensive. 1 euro for a kilo of tomatoes is way too much! Especially when they look like that! Fruit were even harder, because it's an inbetween season for the fruits I like. It's too late for nectarines and too early for oranges. The market was full of apples and pears which I'm not keen on. I compromised with stafida grapes. I also got some roquette, because it was looking good, some purslane, because I've been meaning to try out it, and other bits and bobs.

And after that big hike, I went to the supermarket to get the things I couldn't get in the market: milk, feta cheese, white wine for cooking and gigantes beans (because they were out at the market).

And THEN I started cooking. You see why I'm feeling all virtuous today? I cooked the fish in the oven with potatoes. It was delicious! And now I'm busy baking a spinach pie. Yum, yum.

AND I plan on continuing on being virtuous tomorrow too. I've got more cooking planned (brownies and gigantes beans in the oven), as well as more cleaning. Also it's about time we put the carpet down in the living room and re-arranged our clothes. It's a whole big undertaking putting up our summer clothes and taking our winter ones down.

I get tired just thinking about it!

Holidays 2010 Part 3 - Serifos

It's already october! Happy october, by the way. And I still haven't finished posting about my summer holidays. My laziness and tardiness knows no bounds. Well… I am greek…

So without further ado I give you part 3 of my summer holidays!

For the last week of august I went camping in Serifos with my friend Voula. Our other friend Nefeli, who had come down to Greece with her german boyfriend from Dresden where she's moved to, was supposed to come with us too. Only Nefeli got sick. Poor girl got tonsillitis in the summer! Serifos was her idea, but we were too lazy to change destinations after she cancelled, so we went anyway.

Now, my friend Voula is not a great fan of camping, but we were rather broke. I, in particular, was completely skint and had no business going on more holidays. In any case, we went to an organised camping. Voula refuses point blank to go free camping.

Serifos camping is supposed to be one of the best in Greece. It wasn't bad. Relatively clean with trees, a beach right next to it and walking distance from the port village; I will agree that it was one of the better campings that I've been to. The downside is that it's a very full camping. Even in the end of August, when many camping sites are practically empty, this one was choc-a-bloc. It's also a great favorite with tourists.

Serifos is mostly famous for it's beaches. It's supposed to have some of the best beaches in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately we didn't have a car, and weren't capable of long walks because I had twisted my ankle and my friend burns too easily in the sun, so we only went to the easily accessible beaches. And they were lovely!

Livadakia beach - the beach next to the camping.

Psili Ammos beach - the most famous beach of the island

Ganema beach

more Ganema beach (and my feet!)

Apart from beaches, there's not much else to do in Serifos. It's an island for very laid back lazy holidays. And it's a couple's island, which was a big downer for me and Voula - being both single. Most of the bars and restaurants are in the port village, and mainly along the seafront promenade. On the other hand visiting the Chora, which is a steep bus-ride up the mountain, is well worth your while. It's a very cute chora, with a teensy castle and church on the highest point where the wind is so strong you feel like you will be blown away.

Serifos was fun, even though next time we will make sure we go to a singleton's island.

And that concludes my summer holidays! Better late than never!

If you want Part 1 - Tinos go here

If you want Part 2 - Pilio go here

Holidays 2010 Part 2 - Pelion

For Part 1 - Tinos go here.

The second week of my summer holidays I went to Pelion. Going there was my friend Angela's idea, who was willing to drive us. We took the late boat back to Athens slept for a couple of hours and early next morning my sister and I went to the train station to meet Charles (Angela's boyfriend) who had just flown in from London. We got the train to Lianokladi, piled into Angela's car (not the mini, fortunately, but the car they have given her from work) and drove all the way up to Volos and then Pelion.

I mentioned visiting Pelion earlier this year. But this time we saw much more.







As you understood, Pelion is not an island, it's a peninsula in central Greece, just next to Volos. It's a lovely green mountainous peninsula well know for it's picturesque mountain villages and beautiful beaches. I had only visited the villages high in the mountains during winter (and had on one memorable occasion got snowed in), so this was a great chance to see the talked about beaches for myself. Pelion is big and has many beaches. We only visited the northern part on the Aegean sea side, but the beaches where gorgeous. The one thing that certainly differentiates Pelion from the islands of the Cyclades are the trees. Pelion is so amazingly green!

We rented a house near Damouchari beach and spent most of our time walking to visit beaches, swimming and eating. Typical holidays in other words.


A nearly hidden beach near Damouchari

Damouchari beach

Fakistra beach

Horeuro beach

Mylopotamos beach

Papa Nero beach (check out how pasty Charles looks compared with my sister and Angela!)

Pelion is beautiful, but like most of Greece crowded in August. Unfortunately you need a car to get around unless you plan on staying in just one place. Also it's rather family and couples orientated and there's only one camping that is packed. If we were a larger group of people and booked enough in advance to find a big cheap house to rent it would be fun to go again. To the southern part this time.

Coming next my final week.

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.