Athens is a wonderful city, if you know where to go: Exarcheia (anarchist neighborhood, search for plateia Navarinou(squatted parking lot) and Nosotros (nice cafe with live music/theatre/cinema and cheap drinks), lycabettos hill (nice climb and view), philopappou hill (where the famous Greek philosophers held discussions, you have a nice view over the city and you can see the sea), Akropolis (it's free entrance on Sundays), Thisseio (has outside fleamarket on Sunday mornings), Monastiraki/Plaka (just to walk around, try to find the old, small white houses, with the whitepainted alleys and stairs, built against the hill of the Akropolis.
There is a contemporary art museum in Athens, but you have to ask for the exact address.
For a daytrip, go to Sounio (where the Greeks built a temple to honor Poseidon. You can take a bus from fillelinon street (wait at the orange sign), which is very close to the central Syntagma square (return ticket +- 10 euro). To get around in the city, you can do almost everything by feet, if you do want to take public transport, a ticket is 1 euro (0,50 cents for students) and you can travel 1,5 hour with all means, you can find it at most of the kiosks. No more, explore and enjoy!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
miracles
To Dear Malin (a friend we met on Corfu yesterday),
You are beautiful and meeting you was one of the miracles that happen in life and especially on the road, and I'm sure Ana will agree with me in her own response to your wonderful email. Today was a day I am still speechless about and this email in the first attempt I make to describe it. First, Ana and walked down to the beach a bit away from the hostel, ate the dinner, did yoga to the sea and watched the sun go down while standing on our heads. Then we sat and watched the rest of the light fade away into night, colors and shapes on the clouds and the sea changing (I hope you got to watch it as well), talking, in awe of the magic around us, also talking through the situation and realizing a lot for ourselves and finding a good lesson and making peace inside about Spyros and that day. We slept on the beach, it was warm and the rain didn't touch us, and a little white and black dog slept near us guarding our sleep all night. We woke up just after sunset and got a ride from a family up the hill and to school - he was dropping off his two thirteen year old daughters. Then almost right away we got picked up by a man from the Isle of Man from Great Britain, who drove us to Kerkyra, where we caught a ferry in ten minutes. With coffee and chocolate of the ferry, we left all hurt behind us and only remembered the good time on Corfu and thought much of you and we know you will enjoy it there, you have a clear kind heart and you will always find a way to happiness and safety. We got to Igoumenitsa, walked a little out of town and stood under a bridge looking for a ride. A big beautiful dog started walking by us, kind and protective. We found a persimmon from a tree and ate it, delicious. We stopped under this bridge and the dog stopped with us. It suddenly started hunting all the car, running after them like a lion and many of them were slowing down a lot right in from of us, when finally the dog stood right in front of a small red car with two men inside, they saw us and pulled over. At first they thought there was not enough space, but we fit in the back. They were two men coming from Albania and going to Athens. They took us all the way to Athens, bought us coffee and shared some delicious food with us, which we all ate watching the sunset on a beach by the road. They dropped us off the the bus station in Athens. It turned out that its the wrong bus station, but we were directed and took a free bus into the center, where after walking a bit lost looking for the right bus station, we stopped in front of a cafe and Ana said 'may be we should ask somebody', when a man right next to us said 'you should ask me'. He was the owner of the cafe, he borrowed a friend's key and drove us to the right bus station and we caught the last bus, with enough time to have a cup of tea before. On the bus we borrowed a phone and called the Yoga Center, but he man said it was too late for him to come pick us up from Chalkida, and we were a bit sad. Then a girl named Artemis started talking to us and by the end of the ride we had her number to meet her in Chalkida for swimming and anything else, we had $10 euro from the guys across from us, and a ride directly to the town where the yoga from was. We asked for nothing, just shared our story and all this help came. We got to the village and bought crepes and juice with the $10 euro and the Yoga Center for just five minutes away. Some people were awake and let us in and we are about to go to sleep in the living room. The journey started this morning at 7 am in Pelekas and just ended at 1 am in Agios Nikolas on the other coast. Amazing amazing day. And all the treats you gave us tasted just right at just the right moments. Also, we called Pan and we will meet up with him after we leave here, definately for the week of December 1 - 7 we would love to stay in Athens with someone and spend out last week there. Thank you for the good energy and love you sent us off with, with your blessings we make in across Greece in one day without money and without any problems.
Good night
You are beautiful and meeting you was one of the miracles that happen in life and especially on the road, and I'm sure Ana will agree with me in her own response to your wonderful email. Today was a day I am still speechless about and this email in the first attempt I make to describe it. First, Ana and walked down to the beach a bit away from the hostel, ate the dinner, did yoga to the sea and watched the sun go down while standing on our heads. Then we sat and watched the rest of the light fade away into night, colors and shapes on the clouds and the sea changing (I hope you got to watch it as well), talking, in awe of the magic around us, also talking through the situation and realizing a lot for ourselves and finding a good lesson and making peace inside about Spyros and that day. We slept on the beach, it was warm and the rain didn't touch us, and a little white and black dog slept near us guarding our sleep all night. We woke up just after sunset and got a ride from a family up the hill and to school - he was dropping off his two thirteen year old daughters. Then almost right away we got picked up by a man from the Isle of Man from Great Britain, who drove us to Kerkyra, where we caught a ferry in ten minutes. With coffee and chocolate of the ferry, we left all hurt behind us and only remembered the good time on Corfu and thought much of you and we know you will enjoy it there, you have a clear kind heart and you will always find a way to happiness and safety. We got to Igoumenitsa, walked a little out of town and stood under a bridge looking for a ride. A big beautiful dog started walking by us, kind and protective. We found a persimmon from a tree and ate it, delicious. We stopped under this bridge and the dog stopped with us. It suddenly started hunting all the car, running after them like a lion and many of them were slowing down a lot right in from of us, when finally the dog stood right in front of a small red car with two men inside, they saw us and pulled over. At first they thought there was not enough space, but we fit in the back. They were two men coming from Albania and going to Athens. They took us all the way to Athens, bought us coffee and shared some delicious food with us, which we all ate watching the sunset on a beach by the road. They dropped us off the the bus station in Athens. It turned out that its the wrong bus station, but we were directed and took a free bus into the center, where after walking a bit lost looking for the right bus station, we stopped in front of a cafe and Ana said 'may be we should ask somebody', when a man right next to us said 'you should ask me'. He was the owner of the cafe, he borrowed a friend's key and drove us to the right bus station and we caught the last bus, with enough time to have a cup of tea before. On the bus we borrowed a phone and called the Yoga Center, but he man said it was too late for him to come pick us up from Chalkida, and we were a bit sad. Then a girl named Artemis started talking to us and by the end of the ride we had her number to meet her in Chalkida for swimming and anything else, we had $10 euro from the guys across from us, and a ride directly to the town where the yoga from was. We asked for nothing, just shared our story and all this help came. We got to the village and bought crepes and juice with the $10 euro and the Yoga Center for just five minutes away. Some people were awake and let us in and we are about to go to sleep in the living room. The journey started this morning at 7 am in Pelekas and just ended at 1 am in Agios Nikolas on the other coast. Amazing amazing day. And all the treats you gave us tasted just right at just the right moments. Also, we called Pan and we will meet up with him after we leave here, definately for the week of December 1 - 7 we would love to stay in Athens with someone and spend out last week there. Thank you for the good energy and love you sent us off with, with your blessings we make in across Greece in one day without money and without any problems.
Good night
Friday, November 5, 2010
star istevnik
The old woman climbed up the wooden ladder, stick-cane left leaning on the side of of the barn. Green patterned robe and viridian apron jovially standing out against the sun-bleached dung-plastered walls, part wooden-beams, park crooked brick. Her vivaciousness and an unbreakable lust for life kept her walking, sane and insatiably curious about the details of everyone else's lives, anyone who cared to share. Perhaps that curiosity in turn served at the fuel and engine for her beating heart. six, seven planks up, she was able to peer into the blanket and hay floor, walnuts scattered, drying, slowly eaten at breakfasts for a lack of a warm meal, yet in their own way a luxury. open walls let the low autumn sunlight graze the blankets, keeping out mold and letting the sharp macedonian frost settle and reign at night. information gained, the old woman climbed down, and tossing fruity macedonian phrases out of her musty rare-toothed mouth, she proceeded to examine the house and the few adjacent shack structures, containing preserves, dishes, tools and other unnamable but inevitably useful things. Refusing coffee (for the reason on having had one earlier that morning), turning down a cigarette (to my surprise, since most old women passing through maja's yard require one of us to produce a fag) and passing by an offered apple (both sets on front teeth are missing), the woman whose name I gathered to be Polka, asked a few more general neighborly questions, shared with me in hand and facial expressions a gentle reproach toward the ever-barking Johnny (or Jonka) and went on her way, through the vegetable garden and out the opening in the old fence and into the labyrinth of village houses and yards, through which she navigated with the mastery of an old wind-worn sea captain.
Monday, November 1, 2010
macedonia
bits and pieces:
im still alive and in macedonia in a small village in the mountains with fourty people, ten of whom are officially crazy and the other fourty including us, are unofficially so. the mountains and forests are unbelievably beautiful, the nights are frosty and the dogs all work as werewolves at night. im living for free on a farm, but the girl just started the community and its off season, so there isnt much to do, but walk and drink water and rakia with shopska salata, look at the amazing mountains and keep putting wood in the stove when the night comes, because its very cold here at night. i missed ana by one day, she left six hours before i came. i guess she needed to keep moving. i understand, i have the same feeling. to greece in a few days and may be i will find here there. i want to make nettle stew for the people in the house, and then off i go. the locals come visit and bring things often, so its definitely a new crown to hang out with. im still a bit sick. there is a guy here with a guitar and maja (the owner of the house) likes to sing to and has a few drums around, so there is a good bit of music, but its bitter sweet for me without rob and will.
very limited internet access
writing a lot on paper
much love
anya
im still alive and in macedonia in a small village in the mountains with fourty people, ten of whom are officially crazy and the other fourty including us, are unofficially so. the mountains and forests are unbelievably beautiful, the nights are frosty and the dogs all work as werewolves at night. im living for free on a farm, but the girl just started the community and its off season, so there isnt much to do, but walk and drink water and rakia with shopska salata, look at the amazing mountains and keep putting wood in the stove when the night comes, because its very cold here at night. i missed ana by one day, she left six hours before i came. i guess she needed to keep moving. i understand, i have the same feeling. to greece in a few days and may be i will find here there. i want to make nettle stew for the people in the house, and then off i go. the locals come visit and bring things often, so its definitely a new crown to hang out with. im still a bit sick. there is a guy here with a guitar and maja (the owner of the house) likes to sing to and has a few drums around, so there is a good bit of music, but its bitter sweet for me without rob and will.
very limited internet access
writing a lot on paper
much love
anya
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