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Update

Two weeks after I arrived in Greece, the finger has healed beautifully, the bandages are off and I've spent two glorious days on the beach and several evenings strolling through Athens, meeting friends, watching outdoor performances and eating way too much for someone who's supposed to be on a diet (ahem). Hence I've not had time to post or visit your blogs. But I will be back as soon as I return to the UK, I promise!


This was my view yesterday morning. Can you blame me for not wanting to spend time in front of the PC?

Parthenon lit by lightning

A bolt of lightning illuminates the sky around the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple, high on the Acropolis during a heavy rainfall in Athens early yesterday morning. Fortunately, the temple is believed to have escaped any damage.

In a reversal of the norm, the skies over Greece were heavy with the threat of more storms, and the temperatures dropping overnight to 21°C (70°F). Meanwhile the usually overcast and cool skies over Britain have been startlingly clear, with temperates set to break heat records this week.

For once, I'm delighted to be in London rather than Athens!

Read more here.

Shoes, shoes, shoes

Tonight I went for a walk through Ermou street - home of the designer shoe shop. As I had my camera with me, I took some photos of the latest fashions for Sandi, who famously bought five pairs of shoes in just three hours when she visited Athens last June. I thought I'd post the photos on the blog in case anyone else would like a little sneak peak of the styles and colours of Summer 2010.






Last year's shoes are on sale at discounted prices. I was tempted by quite a few of these. Lucky the shops were closed!




Finally, a photo of a children's shoe shop window, in case anyone is interested in kids' fashions. Red is a popular colour for kids' shoes at Easter time.


So, Sandi, have I enticed you to return to Athens for a spot of retail therapy?

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Festive Athens

Happy new year 2010!

Syntagma Square in central Athens at 12 AM on 1/1/2010

When things go according to plan, hubby and I spend Christmas in England and New Year's in Greece, getting the best of both worlds. Christmas is the bigger celebration in England and a relative non-event in Greece. The opposite is true of new year's eve. This is why we try to see in the new year amongst our Greek family and friends, something we decided against this year (I don't know what we were thinking).


Unsurprisingly, we had a very boring new year's eve and an even more boring new year's day - it was so bad that I've promised myself never to spend new year's eve in England again, even if it means I fly out on the 31st December and back on the 1st January!


In case you're wondering why Christmas isn't celebrated much in Greece, this is because in the Eastern Christian (Orthodox) tradition, Christmas isn't considered to be the biggest religious celebration of the year. This position is claimed by Easter, on the basis that it's the ressurection of Christ, not His birth, that made a difference to humankind.


Even Epiphany, which falls on January 6, is considered to be a more important religious feast than Christmas. So from a celebratory point of view, Christmas heralds the start of the holiday season which culminates in Epiphany and has New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in its centre.


Add to this the fact that the Greek Santa Claus brings kids' presents on New Year's Eve rather than Christmas day, and you can see why the 31st December becomes the biggest party day of the year, for children and adults alike.


Preparations are slow before Christmas (no Santa chocolates appearing in Greek supermarkets in September, thank God) but the atmosphere between Christmas and new year is amazing. Everyone's out shopping for new year presents, but not with the same consumerist fervour you see in England. When we lived in Greece we used to go out and do all our shopping in just one day - none of this "147 Shopping Days To Christmas" malarkey that seems to send everyone in the UK in a frenzy round about October time.


Anyway, I digress. The point is that this morning I was feeling rather sorry for myself for not having spent any part of the holiday season in Greece. Then I logged on to Facebook and found that a friend of a friend had posted a load of beautiful photos taken in Athens during December. So here they are: instead of am extra-long new year's day tirade, I've made a photo-post instead.


All photos have been taken by Antonis Toutouzis, who has kindly given me permission to post them on my blog. Many thanks, Antoni, and a happy new year to you!

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It's getting hotter

The first few days after I arrived in Athens were quite pleasant, but not quite hot enough to qualify as Greek summer (27°C or 80°F during the day and down to 22°C or 72°F at night).

Yesterday, however, I spotted that we finally hit 30°C (86°F) so summer is definitely on its way. Bring it on, is what I say!


The two men you can see on the posterboard below the temperature display are Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis and leader of the opposision George Papandreou. The posters are part of their respective parties' campaigns for the European elections on Sunday.