last week (photos)

Comfort

From day 1, the chairs I've encountered have not been comfortable. I flew to Athens on Olympic Airlines and the seat I sat in was well worn and sloped forward. Most cafes & tavernas have small wooden chairs with a woven seat that's old and sagging. The chair in my apartment is a folding chair with a thin slat of wood for a back. My first reaction was that maybe it's just me having back problems. But now that I'm sitting in a comfortable chair, I'm beginning to have other theories: maybe I'm larger then the average Greek, or maybe I don't sit the way Greeks do, or maybe living in the states has made me sensitive and spoiled. Uncomfortable chairs is not what i would expect from a nation that has more places to sit and chat per capita then anywhere in the world.

I haven't eaten out with that many people, but I have noticed that on my eating companions often cut up shared dishes into small pieces before we dig in. It's totally necessary in order to share certain dishes, but every time it happens it reminds me of how mothers cut up food for their children and it seems surprisingly sweet and touching.

Florina, Macedonia, Greece

On November 5th, I gave a lecture at the new visual arts department at the University of Western Macedonia in Florina. Florina is very close to Albania and the Slavic Republic of Macedonia. It's located in the mountains and has an interesting mix of architecture. I found this youtube video, complete with nationalist banter, that illustrates well how lost in time this place is.

Eating in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki is known for it's food and, in particular, sweets. In the many sweet shops I noticed some items I hadn't seen in Athens: phyllo-dough triangles filled with cream, something that looks like chocolate covered challah called tsoureki, and lots of unusual types of baklava. My hosts in Thessaloniki and Florina took me to some very good tavernas and recommended some good sweet shops. I probably gained a kilo (not sure what that is in pounds).

Macedonia

I spent almost a week in Macedonia, the Northern region of Greece where Alexander the Great came from. I learned that Greece has an ongoing dispute with "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". As far as I can tell, the dispute is only over a name -- the former Yugoslav country wants to call itself Macedonia. Technically, the Republic is only the northern part of Macedonia, and Greece wants their name to reflect this. I've asked around if there is more to the conflict and people say there isn't. This name issue strikes me as a strange form of nationalism and I wonder what the negotiations must be like.

Thessaloniki is as close to Istanbul as it is to Athens. I came expecting to see some Turkish influence, especially since this region was part of the Ottoman empire up until 1912. But just like in the other cities I've been too, the mosques have been destroyed and the Turkish architecture that remains is not distinct. There are exceptions: the Roman rotunda still has a minaret and the White Tower (the city's icon) was built by Suleiman the Magnificent (see photos below).

There are Greek Orthodox priests (or maybe monks) all over Thessaloniki. Near by is Mt. Athos, an independent state within Greece filled with monasteries. This place is also a source of controversy. And, well, I don't know much about what is going on with the land disputes but I do know that only men can visit Mount Athos. It's another curious and complicated geopolitical situation. However, the question I wanted answered was "have any woman snuck onto Mt. Athos?". The answer Fotini gave me was "of-course!".

Thessaloniki is on the water and has a very distinct waterfront; the water and the city meet with no barrier. The walkway along the water is smoothly paved and there is no chain, no bright yellow tiles, no warning whatsoever before you drop into the sea.

Trip to Thessaloniki

Market (Athens)

The Markets are alive and well. Stalls that sell fish, meat and fruit (and lots of other things) are open on a daily basis in the center and several neighborhoods have their own weekly market. The central market is smelly, loud and evokes a nostalgic desire for a world before supermarkets. Incidentally, I'm trying to ween myself off of the supermarket i found in Kolonaki that has an array of unfamiliar packaged goods. I am currently more comfortable shopping at the supermarket and I feel ashamed.

Eva mentioned that there was a difference between the fish and meat vendors. The meat vendors appear older, fatter and scarier then the fish vendors. but maybe that's because it's impossible to look good when you're surrounded by carcasses and covered in blood.
Eva and Dimitris have a few people they buy from regularly because by being loyal they get the best selection and preferred treatment. Back home, I don't think I have relationships like that.

the next leader of the free world

Being away from home for BOTH the election and Halloween is making me sad. Tonight is Halloween and I'm going to a party thrown by Americans, so maybe it wont be so bad. I'll try and make a quick costume but my resources are limited. For the last election I was in Florida volunteering as a pole monitor for the NAACP. This election I feel helpless.. even a bit irresponsible not volunteering for something somewhere. But what I will ultimately miss is that rare feeling of community or at least solidarity with roughly half of the country that will vote for the same person as me. Only every 4 years do we get to unite this way.

I've been reading the Times, listening to NPR and watching CNN religiously (btw, when i watched the Obama infomercial on you tube, it had been viewed less times then the SNL spoof the week before), but what I haven't been doing is talking to people about the election. not much anyway. I went to a Yoga class the other day and the guy behind the desk was reading this article on the Economist's website about how to talk about the American election on your business trip. It discusses a USA today article advising Americans how to avoid talking about the election with those nosy opinionated Europeans. So far, this has not been a problem here. Perhaps the local Politics (with the almost daily demonstrations) is enough to make people not that curious about our election.

I passed the American embassy yesterday (see above) and it's heavily fortified, just like they all are nowadays. the British Embassy is too. However the American one is the size of a stadium, and the fences and security booths are part of the site planning as though this is the way it's always been and will always be. the British embassy, on the other hand, has some concrete barriers on the street, like a temp road block in the west bank. It suggests that as soon as the war is over, they can remove the highway dividers and go back to being a normal embassy.

video interlude (guard at the Presidential Residence, goose in the National Garden)

This is Miles

No Day

Today was Okhi Day. 'Okhi' means 'no' in Greek, and today is the anniversary of when the Greek leader , Metaxas, responded 'no' when asked by Mussolini if he could move some Italian troops through Greece. His standing up to Italy meant that Greece would officially enter the war, and, well, Greece lost a lot of people during the war.

Nothing was open today, so I went to the National Garden to read. A few people had recommended it as a nice place to read. What i found instead was a suspicious amount of men sitting alone on park benches eyeing people as they walked by. At one point i kept seeing the same man in an orange and brown sweat suite wherever i went. I probably wouldn't of noticed, but last night i had an uncomfortable conversation with the elderly man that lives in the studio apartment next door. He was drunk and invited me over for some wine after i introduced myself as the American that lived next door. he also said "i like you" and asked me to come over sometime. In blog this sounds boring, but in real life it was terribly creepy..

I called my friend Eva who lives near the garden and told her about the man in the sweat suite. She said "walk quickly and come over right away." I did. I spent the rest of the day playing with Miles the dog and tasting the unfamiliar Greek treats in her kitchen.





Also today I found this car covered in yogurt. Expensive delicious yogurt:

nafplio for the weekend

I went to Nafplio this weekend.
Nafplio was the first capital of Greece until young King Otto decided to make Athens the capital. It has a well preserved old city center and 3 fortifications dating from different eras. There are Mycenaean ruins and 6000 years of continuous habitation in this part of the Peloponnese . So, similar to athens, it's hard to know which millennia the thing you're standing in front of belongs to.

I stayed in a really cheap pension above the old city. From here it was easy to walk over the hill to the beach behind the town. the water was clear, peaceful and lukewarm.

At the top of the old town is an abandoned fancy hotel. It looked weathered from afar, but at closer inspection, it had been destroyed by vandalism.. glass was broken, things seemed beaten up. I began to notice that all the light posts on top of the hill had all the glass broken out, and the spotlights that illuminate the fortifications at night were smashed up as well. It seems as though a lot of rage had been taken out on these inanimate objects. For the rest of my visit I was on the look-out for the perpetrators.

more turtles

some photos from the week

Αθήνα and me

The demonstrations here continue. The Harald Tribune reported that some of the demands of the people on strike are to increase in the minimum wage from 700 to 1400 euro/month and to stop changing the pension system. My tour book also mentions the pension system as a cause of frustration here... so I assume this is an on-going struggle. Yesterday, I heard the demonstration in the morning and then in the early afternoon I saw people re-converging after lunch to continue the demonstration in Syntagma Square. The protesters all had black flags, but instead of young college-age anarchist types, they were all older men. I asked some friends later if these men were anarchists as they had black flags... my friends said it was more likely that they were plumbers.

The Athenians I've met often ask me what living in NYC is like. This morning, NYC was a lot like here. I stumbled out of my apartment onto a series of challenging obstacles. In the first 5 minutes i encountered this:
1. walk out of building and immediately have to get out of other peoples way.
2. people on sidewalk brush against me as they walk by.
3. cross street and have to negotiate double parked van unloading boxes.
4. get to an intersection and have a smiling person with clip board launch into their pitch.
5. get asked for a Euro from an American.
ok.. I'll pause here. the most puzzling event of the day was encountering this American pan-handler. He was tall, mid 30's, clean cut, and with a backpack. he stopped me and very politely introduced himself with very slow simple English (he thought i was Greek). He said he was from America and was traveling around the world but now he is stuck in Greece. then he asked me for a Euro to get something to eat. I didn't have a Euro, but i was also too confused to speak. A traveler out of luck and stuck in Greece, maybe sleeping on the street? I never imagine Americans as being in this situation abroad. i imagine immigrants from developing countries or refugees from the baltics asking for money and maybe local teenagers, but American tourists?

I had to escape the busy streets, so i walked up the north slope of the acropolis and found Anafiotika. This small area was built by stonemasons from Anafi to resemble their home island. It looks just like towns on the Greek islands I've been to. It's peaceful, but I feel a little uneasy to be in an area that resembles nothing like the rest of the city.

day 8 - protest and animals

I left my apartment Tuesday morning to find the streets quiet and free of traffic. A real pleasure. Typically, Athens is filled w cars and motorbikes; the traffic is bad and parking is a free for all. The engines roar and on narrow streets they echo and are even louder. (Although, from far away, especially from one of Athens many hills, the buzzing sound of motorbikes is kind of pleasant.)
There was a city wide strike that day. I'm not sure much about it, if it was a general strike or not, but there was a sizable demonstration making it's way down the street. I followed it and talked to some students that were planning a peace conference.. then the police showed up in full riot gear. I thought i was smart, i ducked into a courtyard, sat at a cafe and had a "freddo". I watched the rest of the demonstration from the courtyard. Then I watched as people ran from the police who were using pepper spray. A cloud of pepper spray came into the courtyard and I spent the next 15 minutes coughing and tearing. I've been tear gassed before but never pepper sprayed. (I know it was the later because it tasted like pepper!) The effect became mild but lasted all day. The rest of the cafe patrons were annoyed and upset, but somehow not outraged.

Next, I went to the sites. Athens has a lot of stray dogs. They can be seen sleeping in the shadows of all the important monuments. I didn't know that Athens also has stray turtles! The one i found was on the south slope of the acropolis wandering around on the ruins.






Bonus: Did you know that the great masterpieces of neo-classical architecture in Athens were designed by German architects? I find it a little strange that some of the most important commissions of the last century were not given to native architects. And a little ironic that the Germans who got the commissions replicated the classics in the birthplace of classical architecture.

day 7 - The Acropolis of Athens

On Monday I finally made it to the acropolis. I spent most the day there reading and sketching. Today I saw a collection of nineteenth century drawings and watercolors of the acropolis at the Benaki museum. The ruins look the same, but the city has changed (and keeps changing) around it. I find it comforting that these classical structures have survived wars and changing ideas. It's especially nice to see documentation; proof that someone who lived long ago has shared the same view as me..

the view, part 2

On Saturday I climbed to the top of Lycabuettus Hill. From the top, I was convinced I could see all of Athens. I sat next to the small church for an hour trying to identify the streets and landmarks below. From here, I could see the uniformity in height of the buildings as well as a sea of balcony awnings. I suspect there is an enforced building law limiting building heights and perhaps making balconies mandatory. Along with outdoor cafes, the balconies are ubiquitous here. It's hard not to romanticize the effect they must have on the social dynamic or vice versa.

I walked around Exarchia and noticed a lot of the older apartment buildings (some over 150 years old) were abandoned or in disrepair. Perhaps they are too expensive to renovate? Perhaps people prefer new buildings to old? Maybe it's better if they get demolished; there is certainly no shortage of old things here. However, I feel sad that these old buildings may get torn down. Maybe I feel this way because I come from the "new world" or because the city I grew up in already destroyed it's old buildings.

day 4 - the view

A few more views of the acropolis as a back drop for every-day activities.

day 3 - walkways

I've been mostly walking around. The weather is too nice to be indoors. So, with the exception of a visit to the National Archaeological Museum and enjoying the occasional frappe, I've been spending my time walking around.

I've been surprised by the variation in road widths. A road in Athens can be a walkway barely wide enough for two people side-by-side or a multi-lane street with sidewalks and room for parking. And a road can start out with multiple lanes and become a narrow walkway. My map depicts all roads, regardless of width, as a thin white line with a name. As a result, I've missed several roads I was looking for because I thought they were building vestibules or entrances to courtyards. It won't be long before I walk into building vestibule thinking it is a street, because there are plenty of those, too.

The sidewalks are a patchwork of paving tiles, concrete and stone. They are a mix of patterns, materials, and colors. Perhaps some neighborhoods are more uniform and the mix and match I've observed only occurs in the center. I'm not sure.