Thoughts about Girly’s and my 5 year anniversary in Athens

Today was my five year anniversary with my stunning girlfriend and it was amazing. We are in Athens we woke up lazily and I went to make eggs ( Greek style, which involves a heart clogging amount of olive oil and feta) The food is so good here everything is different when you cook it the same at home. I didn’t break one yoke, we had it with a cup of ‘cai tou vono’ tea of the mountains a herbal tea made of wild sage like plant drunk with honey. We read to each other, and laughed, went for a brief walk through Kalithea the suburb that our flat is in ( sort of like living in North Melbourne) we watched ‘The King’s Speech’ a fabulous film for the second time with lunch a basic pasta with burnt mizthrea (salty Greek cheese and sauce)

Had a quiet nap, played cards and chilled talking much of our years together our memory ‘s joys and pains and what is to come. We talked of home, our beautiful family, housemates and friends.

Then that night we put on our best clothes and dragged ourselves out we had big plans but almost didn’t go.....it is so lovely here and warm...sigh okay we should go. should we? Yes okay. We waited for the trolley.....crap twas a strike so nothing was coming ....hopped in a taxi to the acropolis looking up walking along the paved footpath hand in hand at last we arrived at our destination ‘Dionysos by the acropolis’ a beautiful high end restaurant right under the acropolis.

We had planned for luxury but I certainly felt like we were playing dress ups or something....we had our own ice bucket by the table multiple sets of cutlery. I can’t describe the amazing feeling or the spectacular view but I my mind wondered blissfully, one of those moments you hope to never forget. I ordered a glass of white, my girly an orange juice. Ordered cheese and bread and got something so fancy we hardly recognised it. Also ordered the most amazing Laconika I have ever tasted on a bed of apple, finely sliced cabbage soaked in apple cider with grated walnuts. Girly said her orange juice was phenomenal.

Small talk and gifts, little gestures of our love for each other I brought girly a necklace pendant of a double headed axe a symbol of female strength, she brought me a lovely silver and gold ring that suits the me that I am right now so much I felt like I glowed when I wore it and a cheap bangle I requested from a little stall in Plaka full of Greek swirls and patterns’

We toasted to us, our lives together giving thanks, appreciating how lucky we are to be so in love to have such a full and wonderful life, the opportunity to travel and Bob and Esther Girly’s great grandparents a couple who girly and I greatly admire for their love, respect and comitment they had in their long romance and relationship. For mains I ordered lamb shanks in tomato with gruyere and potatoes baked in a clay pot, girly, pork neck on mashed potato with honey mustard sauce, mine was served for me from the clay pot to my bowl, I felt ridiculous and out of place but was enjoying the sheer over the topness! We had a lot to celebrate.

Dessert was something else entirely Girly had to order hers before dinner as it took a hour to cook, chocolate soufflé with dark orange sauce and vanilla ice-cream served in a beautifully crafted waffle bowl, I opted for a mastica ( a amazing flavour of Greece,a resin from a tree that is truly a breath taking to taste) Parfait with a sour cherry sauce topped with glazed sour cherries and pistachio I was in heaven as was girly. I finished the meal with a Greek coffee and they called us a cab.

I picked up a twig from one of the orange trees that line the street here by the door of our flat “for you my love” I said it 5 years is the wood anniversary...okay so not very glamorous but we are steady and solid now with our roots firmly in the ground and we continue to grow, lush green growth extending out into the universe bring joy to our souls. Blessings!

greece eb blog

we arrived in athens and with some trial and error found the family flat, which pleasantly but mysteriously had the heater and fridge already on. our first day was quiet, full of great food we cooked ourselves. after 24 quiet hours, suddenly we hear calls of Helen! Helen! (being Eleanor). Thia Maria and Thia Vassso both turned up, beginning our family time with food and walking from both. Thia Vasso, champion of walking or volta, took us all around the city, seeing the acropolis from every viewpoint as we wandered past churches while consuming awesome souvlaki with chips. She chatted endlessly as we walked, helping to kickstart Ellie's memories of Greek and fill in some gaps.

Thia Maria lives across from the flat, solving the mystery of who kindly put the power on for us and providing us with endless kindness and hospitality. we had a great game of Biriba with Thia Maria and Theo Fani, which took two hours and involved much of the requisite shouting and arguing. lots of fun. Theo Fani and me won, mostly due to him.

Seeing Kelly (from Perth/ Kalliope Nikoloudis, to specify which of the 5 Kellys) was a welcome relief from our new immersion in Greek, which Ellie managed well with much guessing and I sat through bemusedly. Thank goodness we acquired a phrasebook with a two-way dictionary! We drove up the top of a mountain in Athens that is not called Laconica because that's a sausage, but that's all Ellie can remember right now. The nighttime view is beautiful. We then had sweets of enormous size, of course mine was swimming in chocolate! it was awesome, as was the mastica icecream.

After much walking, we know the centre of Athens pretty well and can naviagate by the location of the Acropolis, which we finally ascended the day before going to the village. It is stunning, though it takes some imagining to picture its golden days, particularly given the pillaging by the British, which has resulted in half the museum display being plaster casts of pieces that remain BM (British Museum). GGRRRRRRRRRR.

the village is peaceful, surrounded by mountains and olive trees. we are well fed and looked after, though feeling distressed by our lack of greek skills!
it's nice to escape from the cities and crowds. i can't remember the last day i had where no one was pushing at me or walking in front of me. here you just see people drive by on tractors or sitting outside houses.

rules for staying in Greek houses:

- never eat before arriving; you will always be fed when you get there

- don't snack without the family; you'll regret not having room for whatever gets offered next

- resist eating the bread on the table until you've tried everything else

- use the word oreia (beautiful) whenever possible!

Yesterday we went olive picking, better described as harvesting as you don't actually pick them individually. Turns out you smack the branches with a stick - very cathartic. People with more skill fell the branches with a chainsaw and then we whack them till all the olives fall off, to be shaken off the cloth into the sorting tray, and from there into the sacks. after proccessing, a lot of this oil is sold in Italy, where one litre of Krokees oil acts as the flavour for 16L of inferior oils from elsewhere. a sad loss of seriously intense flavour, as i can attest from local sampling of both the olive and the oil that lunchtime, as we sat in the sun dipping bread into oil and eating it with feta. fresh oranges for dessert as we laughed at Ellie's dreadlocks, a talking point no matter where we go, and always involving the question "do you wash them? how?". people occasionally ask if she brushes them too!

Pantelis, one of Ellie's many uncles (or 2nd cousins, hard to figure out) is determined to show us around and took us to the amazing cave system nearby - Diros Caves, the largest in the world. the tourist part is an underground lake system which we glide through on small boats, ducking frequently to avoid hitting the stalactites that are everywhere. My favourite part was the 'golden rain', areas of miniscule stalactites in a golden hue, so thin you could snap them with a breath.

in the tiny museum out front sits the oldest complete example of a Neanderthal skeleton, as well as olive leaves, pottery and weapons from the Neolithic period. I guess greece has so much of this stuff that the remains of a stone age civilization is merely a minor talking point! incredible. the caves were inhabited until 4BC, when an earthquake hid them until 1900.

Today Pantelis continues our sightseeing with a trip to Monemvisia, an ancient town complete with castle carved from the rock. more on that when we return!

yay for the blogging finally being up to date! miss you all!

London

In London we stayed in another air bnb place this time owned by a guy called Tom. He was a lovely guy from Glasgow living in Greenwich and rented out rooms in his house. He was a Doctor selling a product that made your eyelashes grow longer and thicker. After arriving back in London at around 11pm that night we stayed at julia’s mothers once more (very kind mummy). The next day at around lunch time we headed over to greenwhich to put our bags in and settle in. After a bus trip and a walk in the rain we arrived at the house only to find a locked door in between us and where Tom had left us the keys. We had no phone....so we thought okay..... we will ask a neighbour the next door neighbours were very nice and let us use a phone but it was no good they were deaf and we couldn’t hear through their phone. I found another woman and a family down the street and she let us use the phone Tom was very apologetic but couldn’t get back before 6:30. So we were stuck outside in the rain with our bags it was only 3:30. We went in search of the shops aware that the walk was quite long having just done it from the bus stop. Thankfully we found a English pub. I got a beer and some bangers and mash and ep got ? we used there free WIFI and chilled chatting to a kindly waitor who kept asking why i wasn’t drinking fostors? Why would you ever drink fosters!!

When we got let in our host was so chatty he came and sat on the bed chatting away about this and that. Saw my Harvard med jumper, told me of the horrors of being a young doctor “blood money” ect. .. I was trying not to act freaked out but he certainly had a way to paint doctoring as a horrible career choice. After he left me and girly collapsed into a coma of sleep.

I woke up the next morning to girly jumping on me WAKE UP WAKE UP we have London to see!!!! Blargh I thought so tired....seen it been there. Finally she got me out the door. We went and saw Westminster abbey we got an audio tour (London is very into audio tours) seeing the graves of many a famous person. and the houses of parliament and big ben. After that we wandered up to Trafalger Square and the Strand to meet Julia and Henry.

EP will now speed up this blogging proccess in the hope that we will actually be up to date by the time we get home! highlights:

STEPHEN FRY. that's right. we were standing in the british museum with Henry and Julia, looking at an ancient Syrian game when we were joined by an expert giving a tour to some tall man, oh wait that's Stephen Fry! After 5 minutes of standing still and trying not to laugh hysterically, they wandered off and Queen of the sandwich was courageous enough to speak to Mr Fry, gesturing to the swooning Henry as 'his biggest fan'. we spoke briefly about how awesome melbourne is, took a picture and left to wander the streets in joyful confusion. so awesome and so british is he.

another highlight was the west end - 2 shows in 2 nights! First the lion king which was spectacularly beautiful, and then a comedy thriller called Death Trap, by the author of Rosemary's Baby, which was fantastic and scary.

we visited Hampton Court Palace for some true ye olde history and audio guides, followed by Kingston (town of kings) nearby, Ellie's childhood haunt. ate waaay too many baked goods including the cheese twisties of times past.

we spent most of day in Camden markets, which while touristy does still have some formidible punks hanging around, and lots of awesome cheap food. Julia began the decoration of her hair and Ellie continued hers.

on our last day we wandered much and ended up walking across the upper walkway of Tower Bridge which was much cool.

when back at Tom's we cooked and ate, our favourite pasttimes as always - Eleanor pasta for the win. England also has cookiedough icecream, something that makes me SO happy! must replicate at home.

i have now ridden a doubledecker bus, posted postcards into an English letter box and pretended to talk to someone from inside the proper London phonebooth. and walked across the Thames. a lovely lovely city!

oh yeah and we also passed by Argos, with the laminated book of dreams!

more news on the next big city soon! and then on the tiny village of Krokees!

Beautiful Barcelona

Barcelona was a place for beauty – wherever possible, the landscape was full of pretty little details – paving stones, lamps all had beauty as well as practicality. It was very much the old world – beautiful, sophisticated, yet somehow rustic and earthy.

We travelled about Barcelona as a four – Julia, Henry, Ellie and myself. Departing from Julia’s London house at 5am, we were wandering Las Ramblas by noon, able to then return to our apartment which directly overlooked the main street. it was very cute and just the right size, though the bedrooms were one huge and one teensy. We solved this the easy way of swapping round halfway through, so everyone got time in the room and in the cupboard. Having a working kitchen allowed for actual cooking which was great, especially as Eleanor insisted on being head chef, and Julia became the sandwich queen. HAIL THE SANDWICH QUEEN! Henry and I were helpful when allowed to be. The phrase ‘working kitchen’ held up fine until we tried to roast a chicken. After about 4 rounds of “it’s totally cooked....wait no that’s barbie pink there” we ended up hacking it to pieces and nuking it. Tasty but not tender! Due to limited ingredients, the gravy was also an interesting colour although just as tasty. Never trust an unknown oven!

We divided our time between different kinds of relaxing – seeing sights (most Gaudi’s extraordinary work), eating, cooking and playing GLOOOOM, as Julia pronounced it (be sure to loom and widen your eyes for proper effect). A rather cutthroat game, it served to test the boundaries of our friendships! Alliances were formed and broken all too quickly. Henry and EP were quick to turn on each other

Sigrata familia, Gaudi’s ultimate masterpiece, is not yet finished (of course), but it’s getting there! The interior is done, and was a moving space to be in. He really knew what he was doing, and standing in the centre of the church surrounded by soft light, i don’t think anyone could want to change a thing. I (Eleanor ) had been around 6 years previously and was surprised as to how much they had completed in that time.

We lived on Las Ramblas. There were so many street performers and vendors, standing around or hawking various annoying toys. A particularly annoying one was a whistle held between your teeth that makes squeaking noises – people would just stand on the path squeaking at you as you walked by. The street was also full of waffle stalls (yum) and craft markets, which we browsed frequently. The whole impression was always one of colour and crowds.

Eleanor had an interesting incident on the tourist bus: first, losing her boarding ticket, and then in Park Guell, another Gaudi masterpiece, losing her glasses. After much searching and distress, we all gave up and sat down for a picnic lunch. Eleanor calmed herself, going for one last look. She returned victorious, glasses slightely askew upon her face. When asked, she explained they had been thrown into a bush 3 metres off the path, necessitating climbing under the fence to reach them. Our guess is someone stole them, then tossed them after seeing the prescription. Hurrah for fickle thieves!

Park Guell was spectacular, mosaic ceilings and learning columns matching well with nature. We walked up the hill for a beautiful view of Barcelona.

Henry saw most of Barcelona through a viewfinder, and we have many photos of him taking photos of the scenery.

Food was good – expensive but tasty, and a source of some conflict with the locals. On one evening, we rejected several venues due to our aversion to photos of food on menus – in one case, we left after eating one anchovy and one asparagus stem each. We may have gained a reputation.... if you see photos of us in Barcelona eateries, you’ll know why! Travelling with Henry and Julia was great fun, especially as we became hated by waiters everywhere. This was the most notable instance of the difficult decision making in a large group – we were usually able to act a bit more decisively, thank goodness.

Eleanor and Julia disappeared for a shopping session one evening, returning happy and with heavier bags than before.

After one evening of GLOOOM and a casual drink, we ventured out to see Barcelona’s night life. Being unwilling to pay cover for noisy clubs meant we saw more of the outdoor life, and many a drunk Spaniard (and Australian, no doubt).

Being prepared for the chilly version of Spain, we were happily surprised with 18C days full of sunshine. We all revelled in being able to carry only one jacket, taking a great break from the chill of England.

Writing this very late update from Greece makes us miss our dear friends, camera boy and sandwich queen (MITTONS!) though we are having a great time here, meeting Ellie’s family and eating much food. More on that later, when we finally catch up on our blogging!

New York New York!

Surprisingly enough, New York City isn’t that surprising. It’s exactly what it looks like in the movies – crowded, tall and huge. We somehow managed to fit in a lot of different stuff while we were here, most of which was excellent:

New Year’s in Times Square: a crazy, fun experience of serious pop culture. And military songs! also some rather horrific kesha.

Central park: full of snow and ice right now, the park is still crammed with people, vendors and horse and carriages. We visited the beautiful angel Bethesda, tranquil among crowds, before wandering and winding our way south to

Bloomingdales: a particularly glamorous department store landscape, though I resisted the frozen yoghurt to save room for a giant ice-cream sundae at

Dylan’s Candy Bar: a 3-storey shop including cafe and all manner of novelty sweets (chocolate frogs complete with collector’s cards, a bathtub full of gumballs). There were lollies adorning the walls, floors and furniture. We continued the 10yr old’s NYC day with a trip to

FAO Shwartz, a 3 storey toy store that had its own HP section including hats, robes and ties.

we travelled right up the rockefeller centre, after going past the atlas statue. very exciting for us 30rock geeks. also the view was amazing.

The statue of liberty is beautiful, but I’ve had shorter waits for Australian Customs. We stoically agreed to wait 2 hours, and passed the time sampling all the classic vendor foods and watching the squirrels do the same. FOUR HOURS LATER, we boarded a ferry that wasn’t even going to Ellis Island and the museum. The 40 minutes we spent beneath the statue were great, but let the lesson be this: NEVER, and that means NEVER, attempt a statue visit anywhere near a major holiday. It is madness.

The day picked up from there, thank goodness, when we dined at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, seated right below Bob Dylan’s guitar. We couldn’t resist the classic choice of burger, fries and shake, all of which were a great experience.

To thoroughly explore the child’s viewpoint, we then went to the local Toys R Us and had a ride on the indoor Ferris wheel. Ellie very bravely pushed past her fears to climb into the barbie car and ride gently past the 4 levels of the store, a truly precious thing for me to witness.

We have spent this, our last day, in the central park zoo saying hello to the amazing polar bears and sea lions. It was awesome.

So that was NYC, place of so many different madnesses. VERY behind in our blogs, I conclude this the night before we fly from London to Athens. More news soon! (very soon)

Stories from Boston and Baltimore; B and B

I am now in Baltimore in the huge and beautiful barn style house of girlys aunty and uncle. There is snow on the grass and sun in the sky and I have just taken a long and glorious shower. Even though we were in Boston for about a week I didn’t really get a chance to write. Boston was a great place to stop and rest and have a bit of a refuge from the crazyness that is America. Boston was cold. That is the first thing to say about it. I began to understand the jokes about New England that are made in the West Wing now. The second last day before we left we had what Uncle called the true New England experience of eating icecream in the snow outside. It was really good in a “ my fingers are going to fall off” kind of way. Little nine year old cousin is like a mini version of my lovely girly and it has been just a wonderful gift to see such close family ties. It was so easy to get along with this part of the family. We all had so much to say that we found it hard to wrap it up at night.

Little cousin is in a big Christmas/ Yule play called Revels, which is full of dancing and singing, even morris men which I could not stop thinking about Terry Prachett’s morris men throughout. The play is a celebration of winter solcest and was beautiful to watch in the cold and dark nights. Little cousin had 14 performances so was tired the majority of the time but coped well in the end. Although she did get sick towards the end so was struggling through it. Her birthday on Christmas eve so it’s alot of excitement all at once. Uncle is turning fifty in march but is like a five year old or four year old at heart. Girly and I were surrounded by cheer and love.

Boston is magical kind of like a Melbourne except old and Harvard is there. Girly and I were blown away by Harvard. Our minds were filled with dreams of studying there and we found ourselves buying merchandise. My Christmas present from girly was a Harvard Uni medical school jumper, which I have to try not to wear all the time. There are amazing museums there, poor girly was dragged to another natural history museam which was a little odd full of dead stuffed animals, girly pointed animals are alot more fun when alive. We went to Harvard three times and I was thrilled, I am quite the elitist it would seem. Seeing Harvard collegian pins made me think of 30 rock and Twofor. You can get the oddest stuff too like Harvard golf tees.

The Boston Museam of Fine Arts was awesome one of the best art gallerys we have been to so far. They had just opened up the new American wing and the building itself was beautiful you could see the frozen river and snow geese outside twas lovely. We went iceskating was fun, if a little terrifying, I hadn’t iceskated since I was fourteen so I was more than a little rusty, but i got the hang of it and i was soon letting go of the wall and skating better. Poor Girly had never skated so she hilariously pulled her way around the rink, her feet barely moving, very sweet. Little cousin was great on the ice. It was already magical enough when, it started to snow. We listened to corny Christmas music drank hot chocolate in the snow and walked home via a book store truely wonderous. Then we were snowless for along time and then the day that our plane was meant to leave for Baltimore we got 18 inches of snow and our plane was grounded. It was sad as we had to delay our trip to other family. We did however get to go sledding and we were knee deep in snow.

We got to leave the next day and now I am writing after a lovely day with Baltimore Aunty who is bubbly lovely! There is great food here and we eat at wonderful cafes and restaurants and aunt loves to shop. Cousin’s are also the sweetest. Oldest boy is a charmer and really bright with a girlfriend who is so pretty she glows. Middle cousin is just lovely the sweetest girl. I just want to hug her. Smallest reminds me of my big brother when we were little with huge eyes and a afro. There are also two beautiful dogs here. One is a mut and the other a burmease mountain dog. Also a shy tabby cat . Loving the states! Aunty is a lovely world wind! She is spoiling us rotten, we have done so much shopping! Both Girly and I got lots of new outfits for our wardrobe and we got Manicures and Pedicures I have pink nails and girly has blue!! Soo cute. We also got to go to a really cool art museam with very modern art and sculpture with a cool exhibition on Laughter. The girft shop was really cool too!Food here is great also Aunty either cooks for us all including her family friends and her childrens friends who come over oftern so the house always feels warm and full or we go out to wonderful places! For our last night we went to this really cool sushi place that had wild sushi! Including one roll called the recession roll. Very odd. Aunty even got me a massage which was so blissful the woman was so talented I felt so relaxed and had some breathing room from all the action too. I had a wonderful time Next stop New York!

DC and its trappings! (Eb blog)

Hi everyone, sorry we’re so far behind on our blogging! Welcome to the mammoth attempt to catch you all up, beginning with a bit more on our time in DC.

Flying east took us to drier if way colder parts of the world, and into the loving arms of family! We began in Virginia with Frank, Teri, Phil and Sam. Tragically John was absent so we’ll have to wait until to see the new tattoo. From their lovely house spent some time on touristy pursuits – the Smithsonian (some of it at least, including Natural History, site of the crocheted masterpiece shown)), the Philips collection (mainly the Renoir boat party), the Newseum and...what was it....oh yes. THE WHITE HOUSE. Seriously cool and seriously Christmassy. Also seriously secure, with I think 5 checkpoints to get in. Could never have done it without the help of the lovely Andrea, to whom we have sent chicken twisties of gratitude. We saw, among others, the east room and the blue room, both valued mostly for their west wing association. Every room had at least one Christmas tree of varyingly huge size. Apparently they are ceremoniously driven up to the doors in a horse and carriage, and then less ceremoniously shoved through the door after being wrapped in netting. Pretty cool.

We also had time for family which was just fantastic, including a very special basketball training session of Sam’s, a family trip to church (so early in the morning!) which included beautiful music, we saw the most wonderful Christmas lights display, which was nicely added to a day later by a private display with its own radio station for the matching soundtrack! In a dad-appropriate moment, the show is closed with Bruce’s version of Santa Claus is coming to town.

Decorating the tree was particularly special, as was watching Sam play video games released long before his birth. Welcome to vintage gaming.

So that was the wonderful DC leg of the trip! Stay tuned for news regarding Boston, Baltimore and sleepless NYC! (I write this at 12.30am in Brooklyn).