DIamond in the rough...

Friday (the night before kevin flew into town) Christina and I headed to a yet unexplored area of Athens called Omonia. Big tip for travelers - this area is somewhat ghetto and you can easily wander into questionable areas if you don't know where you're going so watch out! So we're in Omonia because according to the Athens top 10 guide there are A LOT of good resturants hiding in the small and winding streets of this area. We're trying to find a small taverna named Athinaikon however we're not having the best of luck considering the street the taverna is located on is NOT on any of our maps. However, after about 20 minutes of wandering we come across it.

(I have to admit here that while we were wandering around trying to find the restaurant we came across a KFC. Starving - we popped in and I got something called the boxmaster which was a wrap with chicken, cheese, lettuce, ranch and I'm not sure, but i think it was hash browns. Excellent find!)

I digress...the place is known for the mezes or appetizers so Christina and I order grilled halloumi (a hard greek cheese made out of goats milk), a bean salad of some sort which was also really good and some potato salad. All the sauces and the wine in this taverna are made especially for Athinaikon's. The wine was excellent and REALLY cheap - only 1.5 euros per glass so less than $3 USD. great deal!

grilled halloumi cheese

After finishing dinner we decided to make our way over the psiri or CD area once again, however we ran into a street concert along the way. The atmosphere was great - young athenians were sitting around listening to the music and drinks beers on the sidewalks. Did I mention that I dig that fact that you can drink in public here??

we stay for a couple of bands and then make our way to psiri where we spend the rest of the night. I didn't want to stay out too late though....because Big Kev comes to town tomorrow!

Too hot to handle!

Wednesday of this week was outrageously hot. I'm estimating that it was 38+ degrees celsius which is over 100 degrees! While the three of us girls are dying of heat exhaustion and contemplating the punishment we'll incur from wearing swim suits to work tomorrow in an effort to beat the heat, all the greeks are in jeans. I honestly don't see how they wear them in this heat. I'm such a polar bear.

To cool down after work, we went to the Thissio area of Athens -known for its cafe scene. We settled into a cafe with a fantastic view of the Acropolis.

and I know this will surprise some of you, BUT because of the heat I wasn't hungry for dinner....that is until i saw the following on the menu...

It hit the spot!

Before I left for Greece my friend Elizabeth said something to me about how i would probably loose weight while i was over here since i would be walking a lot. yeah -not with dinners like this!

We finished our ice cream and walked down the way to the Dora Stratou theatre located in Filopappou Hill area of athens. In this theatre there are nightly performances of traditional greek dances. The show was about 90 minutes long and contained dances from several regions of greece.

Unfortunately pictures do not do justice here (well they do for the funny outfits, but not for the dance moves) - this guy is being twirled around in a circle on his tippy toes about 12 inches from the ground. he has more muscles in his stomach than i must have in my entire body.

The show was great and I definitely recommend seeing it to those who travel to this city.

SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN POSTS!

Kevin came and we were busy touring the town, so here is my attempt to catch up!

The rest of the weekend in Thessaloniki I spent getting to know this new city by doing the following...


visiting museums

Museum of Byzantine Culture



looking at ancient remains....

Arch of Galerius - built around A.D. 305 to celebrate a victory over the Persians a few years earlier. As you can see - it's not all there now.


and

Roman Agora - with a theatre that still hosts shows


Getting lost - at least i found a great view of the city and harbor and the old town wall



And of course drinking beers and eating good food!


cheese croquettes and Mythos beer - according to its label it is premium quality - are there different levels of quality??

But at last my time here is up and so I'm off to airport to battle the pushy greeks to get my seat on the airplane and return to athens.

Miss a flight, but get McDonalds - even trade off

It’s Saturday the 14th and I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to Thessaloniki. It was originally at 9:05 am, however by the time I was finally able to check in that flight was closed so I got put on the 4:45 flight so I have plenty of time to kill.

Tip of the day travelers – when taking a domestic flight in Greece you need to be CHECKED-IN at least 45 minutes before the flight leaves or you don’t get on. In addition, the domestic flight section of this airport is CRAZY with long lines and booking attendants randomly and quietly announcing things in Greek. Despite several attempts to get direction, it is VERY easy to have no idea what’s going on – hence why I am now sitting in the McDonalds café at the Athens airport catching up on my blog. I think it goes without saying that I will be at the airport super early on Monday so I don’t miss my return flight!

One thing I did discover is that the McDonalds at the airport serves lunch at all hours so no need to wait until 11 to get your cheeseburger and fry fix – see there truly is a silver lining to everything.

Since we’ve been working so hard we have Monday off – actually we have it off because it’s a holiday – let me set the record straight, we haven’t been working hard. I decided to escape the city and explore other parts of Greece so I’m headed to the second largest city in the country - Thessaloniki until Monday afternoon.

I finally get into Thessaloniki around 6:30 and grab the bus from the airport into town. Holy smokes can I just tell how nice my hotel is?? The pillow top on the bed feels like it’s 3 feet thick and there is air conditioning! That’s right folks – limited air conditioning at kathy’s house.

I get settled in and leave to explore the city. I'm on a mission to find a taverna that is highly recommended in my frommers book - called Thanasis. This place is tough to find, but I finally find it or so I think. I actually end up a place called Athinas (close enough - right?) and I order up a serving of tomato balls or as the greeks call them tomatokeftedes. I highly recommend ordering these if you come to Greece. Herbs, chunks of tomato in batter fried up to be crispy and golden. They were delicious!

After my first strike out I am even more determined to find thanasis. After about 20 minutes of searching I FINALLY find it tucked away in a small alley. It's around 9:30 and since it is so early I am the only one in the place. It's small, but has a lot of character and there are a ton of pictures on every wall with famous greek celebrities that have eaten here. I order up a plate of cheese croquettes (which were really good) and a mythos.

On my way back to the hotel I take a walk on the harbor and see there is a lightening storm out in sea. So i clicked the following photo...

home away from home...

I’ve also been getting my fair share of harassment from people for not talking about where we’re staying in Athens so this entry goes out to you guys…

We’re staying with a women named Kathy in the neighborhood of Peristeri at the end of metro line #2. If I had to relate this neighborhood to one in boston I would have to choose quincy – not because it’s ghetto like quincy – sorry Dan I had to go there, but because just as quincy is full of die hard locals so is Peristeri. In addition, this neighborhood is away from the downtown area and also the tourists, which is great because you feel like you truly get to live like a greek, however this is NOT so good when you’re trying to order dinner at a restaurant. Essentially every menu at every restaurant in our neighborhood is in greek and no one in the restaurant speaks English. I feel like I’m 2 years old again when we order because we use the order by picture method. We simply skim the menu and find a picture that appetizing and while pointing at it we ask “chicken?” or “pork?”. Surprising, this method has yet to fail us other than they sometimes bring us 2 pizzas when we only asked for one or one pita sandwich when we clearly wanted two.








We get looks everywhere we go in the neighborhood because we’re three young (yes 31 is STILL young) American girls. At the end of our street there is a old boys club – where all the retired old men in the neighborhood hang out and play backgammon. I think they still don’t know what to make of us. On the way home from work today we passed by them and I said hello (Yassas) and I think two said hello back while another fell off his chair in shock because we could talk.


So renting a room in a house is extremely UNcommon in Greece. Kathy is Greek, however she was raised in London where she ran a bed and breakfast. A few years back she sold the bed and breakfast and moved to Greece where she lives with her now husband, who is greek and who we’ve dubbed Papa Peristeri (I’ve never really met him because he works a lot and doesn’t speak a lot of English so I’m not sure what his real name is). To make some extra cash she decided to post a couple rooms on craigslist.gr and see if she got any hits and this is how we found her.


Here is a photo of my bathroom. Pretty tiny, huh? I literally shower over the toilet.



Actually living with Kathy is great because she’s fluent in both English and Greek so if we have any questions concerning a map, menu, etc she can easily help us plus she’s really nice and refers to things like the garbage as rubbish and the bathroom as the loo.

Down the street from us is a scary big black dog who is never allowed to come out and play and never gets walked. Essentially he’s just used as a watch dog and he loves to bark loudly when someone gets to close to his fence. We’ve named him Zeus and I pray I’m not there the day Zeus gets loose. He’s going to terrorize the neighborhood and take down anyone or anything that stands in his way.

And that my friends is the fine metropolis of Peristeri....

Hidden gems and good eats...

Friday was a tough day at work. We got to work at 11am and left at 3pm – what can I say? The greeks know how to live. In our short 4 hours at work we finalized our project with our supervisor and then were let loose. Laura – who you have not met yet – headed up to Thessaloniki to meet up with another GMBA student from Suffolk who is interning in greece. Christina and I hit the café scene and our ears led us to a small café right outside of the Syntagma area where two men were playing greek music. After a couple hours of listening to them we struck a conversation and the men informed us that the songs were from the 1940s and 50s and dealt with love, life and social injustice.



We had absolutely NO IDEA what they were saying, but we thoroughly enjoyed the session. After eating our free ice cream sundae – I told you they love to give things away for free here. We bid our adieu and went on our merry way.

We wandered around looking for another spot to get a drink when we came across an area known as “CD” near Monastiraki – I definitely recommend this area. There are block after block of eclectic cafes, bars and restaurants that are full of greeks – including one named Boston. After catching a drink at a small café we headed a couple streets over to try a restaurant that was listed in the top 10 Athens guide (thanks Lony and Chris – the guide is great!). The restaurant was named Olinea and was the best meal I’ve had in Greece so far. The décor at the restaurant was comprised of old greek advertisements and they had an extensive menu of traditional greek food with a twist. If you’re ever in Greece don’t wait until you stumble across this area to eat at this restaurant – it’s completely worth seeking out.

After a 3 hour dinner (see - I'm becoming more like a greek day by day) we headed home because I had to catch an early flight to Thessaloniki Saturday morning – which is a great story….

I was going to spare you...

Originally I was going to spare all of you the details of my internship, however I've gotten my fill of harrassment from my friends Becky, Denise and Janet the greek. Therefore if you're only here for my fun stories about fun greek adventures, feel free to skip this session.

For those of you brave souls who stuck around - here goes...

I'm interning for a company that produces a line of all natural skin/hair care products called KORRES (http://www.korres.com/). The company is young, innovative and probably the most well-known skin care company in Greece. Their products are produced from extracts of herbs, flowers and plants that grow within Greece. We started work a couple of weeks ago and had a couple days of product training (they have over 500 products so the training was intense!).

here is our first day at work in the conference room checking out some of their products.

We don't have offices so we work in "the pool". I'm not going to lie - the comfy seating makes it very hard not to fall asleep after lunch...

Next, we reported to the teeny tiny KORRES store at the Athens airport for 5 days to get a better idea of who are our customers and how the stores work. There are a total of 7 girls who work at the store and they are fantastic. Over the last week they've taught us a lot about KORRES, the hot spots in Athens/Greece and the Greek language.

The 3 of us + 4 of the korres girls = a tight fit in this tiny store.

second time is the charm

Sunday Christina and decided to hop back on the ferry and make another attempt at visiting a greek island. to make the trip easier we chose the closest island to athens, Aegina which is only a 1 hour ferry ride and more importantly the first stop the ferry makes so there was no messing this one up.




We quickly discovered that Aegina is known for producing some of the worlds best pastachio nuts so if you ever visit this island definitely pick some up. In addition, this was the first island I had seen to chtapodi (greek for octopus) hanging...




looks tasty doesn't it.


once on dry land we went straight to an atv rental company and got us a couple of barely street legal four wheelers to make our trip around the island easier.



first stop was east to the marina which our other roommate laura indicated had a good beach.


View of the marina


Once at the marina the plan was to grab some lunch and then hit the beach. Upon the recommendation of my dear greek friend Janet Kalandranis - who made me promise to try the octopus while i was over here - i placed an order for their finest grilled 8 legged friend and got down to business. from what i could tell the octopus was grilled and then placed in a mixture of olive oil, vinegar and some herbs. Nervous that it would taste something like the horrible jelly fish i had in china last year I took a small bite and was pleasantly surprised. It tasted excellent and more importantly NOTHING like jelly fish.


This dish is definitely phantom approved...


After lunch we walked over to the beach and went for a swim. After an hour or so we decided to try and find another beach, however since the island was so close to athens the majority of beaches we came across had a fair amount of trash on them. Unfortunately I think Santorini with it's amazing beaches has spoiled me to islands that are closer to the mainland.


However, despite the poor beach selection we were still able to get some good sun and good food and more importantly we got off at the right port so the trip was a success.

A great day in athens...

Saturday we decided to spend the day exploring the less touristy parts of athens. There were a couple of items on the agenda including buying me some new sunglasses since mine broke monday on our poros/methana adventure and finding a theater that was playing sex and the city.

Our day started with a ride on the "Happy Train" which is small choo choo train that leaves out of the Syntagma area of Athens and goes all around the city. Tip of the day travelers - in Greece there is no open container law so you drink alcohol as you walk down the street. Christina and I grabbed a couple mythos beers and hopped aboard. the train was obviously cheesy and I'm sure the traditional greek music that was blaring from the speakers wasn't helping. But at the end we got escorted all over the city by a tour guide who spoke very little english.

after we deboarded the Happy Train we went shopping in the markets and we ran into a little guy with a guitar who attempted to play you a song for 2 euro. he wasn't particularly good at either playing his guitar or drumming up business as you can see in the following photo - I think he needed to do a little less shopping and a little more work.


nonetheless he brightened our afternoon.

time passed quickly and we only had a couple hours til the movie. We decided to grad dinner at a highly recommended restaurant called Psaros located on the hill of the Plaka area of athens - they have tables on the steps that lead up to the acropolis. Excellent location, service, food and prices. I definitely recommend this taverna if you come to Athens. Lucky for me I had purchased a dress earlier that day while out shopping since I managed to spill wine all over my outfit.


view down the stairs from the taverna

we were excited about watching sex and the city, however we were more excited about the movie venue. in greece they have what that call open air cinemas. Essentially they're like mini drive-ins located on rooftops in downtown athens...

view of the screen and of the acropolis from the cinema

Personally I thought the movie was excellent and the perfect ending to a great day.

a well deserved night out...

everyone - meet christina...

she just graudated from undergrad at suffolk and is also working at Korres this summer. after our first week of work we felt we deserved a night out on the town and I wanted to prove to Christina that despite being 31 I could give her a run for her money out at the bars. we stopped off for a few beers at a cafe and ended up staying for 4 or so hours - funny how that always seems to happen. we were such loyal customers that they even gave us a free round of drinks. funny thing about greece - they love to give stuff away here - it's very common to get free wine and dessert at dinner or free shots at the cafes. personall i'm a big fan of this.

OH - also this is out of left field, but I can't believe I have NOT mentioned this yet...since the plumbing in greece is ancient you're not allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet. supposedly the septic systems can't handle the waste so you have to drop it in small trash can beside the toilet. how gross is that??

Alright - back to Friday. well it took us a few days but we finally sniffed out the irish pub in a sea of european cafes. James Joyce's Pub is located in the Thissio area of athens and named after the famous Irish author - who by the way has been described as an alcoholic with a writing problem. The irish are so clever.

Once at the pub i ordered a beer and Christina ordered a shot of tequila. Upon finishing my beer I ordered another and she yet again ordered another shot of tequila. Oh to be 22 again.

We ended up meeting a couple of greek guys and had some laughs. At 1:30 one of us was tired and ready to go home and it was not the 31 year old...

welcome to methana?

So I've been in Athens since Sunday. Work was suppose to start on Monday, but we actually got the day off and attempted to visit one of the islands in the saronic gulf. tip of the day travellers - make sure you double check the stop before you exit the ferry. We wanted to go to poros, but accidentially disembarked at methana. Personally after visiting methana for 45 minutes (enough time for the ferry we were riding to go to poros and turn around and pick us up again) I'm not sure exactly why they would even have a stop at this town - which was small and dingy. The only plus is they had a number of seaside cafes which served cold beers.

After our expensive trip to get a couple beers was over it was time for dinner. before selecting a dining establishment we decided to first visit a small old-fashioned distillery in the plaka area of athens called brettos for a bit of ouzo. excellent choice and highly recommended to those who travel to athens.

we had dinner at a roof top restaurant also in the plaka area near the acropolis - which i have yet to visit because I promised to wait for kevin - note here how nice of a girlfriend i am. I feasted on moussaka - which is essentially a greek version of lasgana, however instead of pasta it has egg plant. both the food and the view were excellent.



all in all it was the most enjoyable day of work I've ever had...