Some Beach Weather Please!!!

I'm sitting here at the internet cafe wearing a wool cardigan, in Greece, in September. Crickey, that's not how it was last year and I'm told it's not exactly normal either. It's sunny today but in the shade it's downright cold. If this keeps up I might have to make a trip to IKEA for a down comforter. I hope that I'm not coming down with the cold that felled all of Steve's family two weeks ago, I've certainly been around them enough and my MIL is still not well. Considering that I hug and kiss her a lot maybe I'm getting sick too.

Other than the first week I haven't been swimming and that's so sad since I was really looking forward to that part of the holiday. Not to despair there is still time since we are here until almost the end of October.

Things are looking up on the home front though, we bought a space heater so we can keep warm and a couple of days ago I scored a cute little washing machine from a blogger buddy here in Greece. Now I can do laundry, hurah...I might even iron since I bought one too. Might as well go whole hog here right...

I know this is a bit of a boring post but I did want to at least show signs of life. Once everyone is feeling better we will do a little travelling and I'll have more things to say but for today...ciao

Not Going Too Far - Gas Shortages Strike Athens

Although we had some plans for the weekend that included driving, we have decided to stay close to home. There are gas shortages due to a strike and we really don't want to take a chance of getting stranded somewhere. Hopefully they won't last too long as there are still some things on my agenda that require traveling.

The weather is not exactly cooperating right now either, it's kind of chilly and overcast. It's actually warmer in Toronto than in Athens at the moment. I hope though for some beach weather soon. If not I'm going to have to buy myself some warmer clothes and I hate doing that here. I find Greece to be incredibly expensive compared to either home or Germany and can't quite figure out why. Yesterday we bough a pound of ground beef which cost about 5 euros, I find that pricey. The salaries here are way lower than anywhere else in the EU so it doesn't make sense to me. I'm sure smarter people than me will know the reasons for this disparity.

If I've been sounding a bit negative it's only because of the hot water and laundry issues, which are still not resolved but really we live in a nice area in a nice building. Furniture of course would make it better.

The view from our terrace. If I wanted to climb stairs to the top of the building, I would see the water.



Steve gets a motorcycle ride from his niece's boyfriend...my turn on Friday.



After he saw this photo he decided he needed a haircut. A search in the immediate neighbourhood didn't turn up any hairdressers so I cut his hair myself last night. Did a decent job of it too I might add. I also baked my first cake (from scratch I might add) here yesterday and that was a bit hit and miss. It didn't look too great but tasted good. I didn't have a recipe, measuring cup, mixer and couldn't for the life of me figure out how much 350F is in celsius...

Today I'm just going to chill and work on the socks that I'm knitting...ciao

Back To The Sun - Not Quite

I was really looking forward to coming back to Athens – for the sun and of course to see my husband who didn’t come to Germany with me. In spite of having a good time on my trip I seriously missed him. I arrived here to dark clouds, cold and rain, hear that Herbert and Addi, it doesn’t only rain in Greifswald. I guess it followed me from the Baltics.

A little picnic stop on the way from Greifswald to Berlin. There's everything in that trunk but the kitchen sink. One thing was certain, I wasn't leaving Germany hungry...

While I was gone I had hoped a few things would be taken care of here in this simple abode of ours the most important of which being hooking up the solar panels to the hot water tank. Nada, zip, zilch… still no hot water. What the heck do I have to do to get hot water, geesh… On the other hand, the entire time I was gone my sweetie was sick with a cold as was his entire family and he spent the whole 10 days at his mother’s home. Didn’t leave him much time to get anything done.

Yesterday I convinced him that we really needed to go shopping and get some basics to make life more comfortable, you know things like chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. A couple blankets were also a good idea since the weather was seriously cold and I froze the first night. I am pretty sure that sleeping on a rubber bed on a cold ceramic tile floor is the problem. There is no heat as yet since the heater needs service and finding the guy to come do it is not easy. Part of the reason it is so chilly in this building I think is because it is an unoccupied 4 storey building. No one has ever lived here so there is no warmth in it at all. Somehow I think that if there was furniture in every unit and people living here it wouldn’t be so cold.

Today (Tuesday) though, the sun is out again and it’s starting to warm up. It’s market day and it’s just up the street from us so I’ll score a frying pan and a few other odds and sods so maybe I can cook something for dinner besides a frozen pizza.

I am so trying to gather my thoughts about all the things I saw and heard in the former East Germany and put them to paper but since I am not a natural writer it doesn’t come easy. I am certain that some people had it hard while others not so much. I saw the film The Lives Of Others and maybe wrongly assumed that all were treated in that manner. If you were a member of The Party, life was certainly better than for those who weren’t and none of my family members were party members that I’m aware of. What I can’t forgive however is the fact that due to the political system of the day, I have lost a whole lot of family never to reconnect. Over 50 years without contact does that I guess. It was only due to the diligence of my parents and my cousin’s parents who faithfully wrote letters that kept us connected and gave me the opportunity to be close to this one wonderful cousin and his wife. One or two other’s showed some interest but most couldn’t be bothered to meet with me. Although it bothered me a bit in the beginning I do understand and don’t hold it against them. After all I am a virtual stranger to them.

This post is being written over a number of days because I don’t have any internet access and have to go to a café. Today though I will post it. It is downright cold here with a gray sky that I might have brought with me from Germany, who the heck knows….catch ya later…

A Final Walk

It's funny how fast 10 days can go by, it seems like just yesterday that I arrived here in my Mother's homeland. Today I took my final walk along the beach. Tellingly, it was a gray and rainy afternoon although the morning had started out sunny. The clouds hung low in the sky and my mood was similar. I shed some tears thinking back how I should have listened more to the stories my Mom was always telling me but like most people, I thought they'd always be there. Now I break my head trying to remember everything and find I can't.

I loved my Mom, more than most daughters I suspect but I think that came from being a tight and small family unit in a strange land. Since she died in May of 2007 I think of her daily but here in the town of her birth more so. I have met some cousins and and elderly aunt who is now bedridden and clearly in decline but some have shown little interest in meeting me. I suspect that a time span of over 50 years can do that. My wonderful cousin and his lovely wife whose guest I have been, have more than made up for those who have shown no interest. I have seen many things and have heard many stories about life in the former East Germany, some sad and some not so sad. I does my heart good to hear that not all suffered.

The saddest place I visted with Pennemunde and of which I will write another time. It is a very sad place and as I walked around and viewed an old submarine and saw all the abandoned buildings I felt someone walking on my grave. I have heard stories of people running over corpses to escape and somehow I could feel the ghosts. I could hardly wait to get out of that town. It was also where my father came close to loosing his life.

Today on my final day, I walked the beach, gathered some shells and stones and said goodbye...hopefully not forever.

Back to Athens tomorrow and as always, more photos on my Flickr site.

The Time Is A Passing

Soon it will be time to leave this very interesting part of Germany and head back to the warmth of Athens. I heard it was 29.5 c there this morning and here I'm shivering in 10c with lots of gray clouds and rain, brrr...

Yesterday we climbed to the tower of the Dom St Nikolai that also has the nickname of "Long Nicholas" and has a very austere whitewashed interior with a large solitary golden cross. Yes, that would be to the top of the tower in the photo below.



A Little Rest




And yes, those are socks and sandals on my feet...not very pretty but remember, I have a bad foot. Climbing up to that tower was an achievement for me with my foot and slight claustrophobia but I did make it. The view from the top though made it a very worthwhile climb.

A view of the University campus.



There are too many photos to post but they are all on my Flickr site, feel free to visit.

There are many historic buildings in and around the Markt and after the long climb up 260 or so stairs I deserved a treat.



Much to my dismay I couldn't finish that ice cream, it was just too big...

For The Offspring - It's Really 200 Kmh

I was telling my offspring that on the way from Berlin to Greifswald my cousin drove 200 clicks per hour and I'm not sure he believed me. Well yesterday he did it again, on the autobahn and this time being daylight and with camera in hand I have proof.



Another day of sightseeing, eating and of course shopping. We went to the Amber Museum in Ribnitz-Damgarten. There were some beautiful things to see as well as to purchase and of course I could not resist.



We have been walking the beaches looking for amber ourselves but have yet to find any. I have also collected a bag of sand and some seashells from the Baltic Sea which I'm bringing home to Canada with me. I will visit my Mom's grave and leave some there for her.

There have been tears along the way and also lots of laughter. My cousin and his lovely wife are making my visit memorable.

Of course there are many political discussions about life before and after the fall of the Berlin wall but these are subjects for another time.

As always, more photos in the flickr page on the sidebar.

Isle of Ruegen

Before we went off to do this...



And this...



And definately this...



I had to make a quick emergency trip to an orthopaedic doctor this morning and he was kind enough to give me four needles in my foot. I could simply not walk any longer and if you look carefully at the photo you can actually see me grimacing in pain. Such is life though and with lots of Voltaren cream it will go on. I'm not giving up on sightseeing...just wishing for better weather and a better foot. I'm tired of the raincoat and crummy shoes...

The Baltic Sea

My Mother had a love of water and absolutely adored our Nova Scotia trip. Today I saw why. There is a similarity between these two places on different continents.



The north wind was blowing and it was pretty cold but I had to get my feet wet. If I catch cold we will know why...



Tomorrow it's off to the Isle of Ruegen and I'm sure it will be a full day.

As always, there are more pictures in my flickr site and more will be added each day... oh, one other thing, spell check doesn't work here, blogger seems to think I should be writing in German so every word I write comes up misspelled, so if I miss a couple, forgive me...

Why Only In Germany?

What you may ask, well I'll tell you...seems that I always get el blotto once every time I come here and this time was no exception to the rule. Didn't see it coming either, it was just a quiet evening at home after a day of sight seeing. A beer with dinner, a couple or three glasses of wine later and then came out the bottle of 12 year old scotch that hadn't been opened yet. It went down nice and smooth, is probably my favourite drink but the second one wasn't necessary. My cousin has a bit of a heavy pouring hand and well, you guess the rest.

Today was spent mostly in bed nursing a headache and figuring out how to keep my tummy in line. Why do I do these things just once a year? Anyway, enough bellyaching for now. I did the bridge thing yesterday and that might have been the reason the little bit of alcohol affected me so.

My Grandfather among other things made ice cream for sale in the summer time and one of my Mom's jobs as a teen was to go with the ice cream wagon to the tourist spots to sell it. That would be the harbour at the River Ryck. She always crossed the bridge and talked about those times of her life fondly. Yesterday I walked across the bridge and thought of her.



More photos in my flickr page on the sidebar.

Berlin - Day One

After a short three hour hop from Athens to Berlin on my least favourite airline, Olympic I was met by my cousin, who I hadn’t seen in 9 years. At that time he and his wife came on a three week visit to Canada.

I almost missed my plane (traffic) and if it hadn’t been for the very kind Olympic ground staff and a wonderful porter who helped me get through security, I’d still be in Athens. One thing I can say about this flight, the breakfast was way better than what we got on the overnight flight from Toronto, go figure…

It was decided that we would do a tour of Berlin before heading on to Greifswald, a town of 50,000 inhabitants, where my mother was born.

We did a three hour boat tour down the river Spree which divided east and west in part and offered a relaxed tour. There were so many things to see it will take me a while to digest. I hadn’t realized that there are so many canals and bridges in this city. I was pretty hyper so the water had a calming effect on me.



After the tour we headed out on the Autobahn for the 236 km trip to my cousins home. That managed to get me hyper again, he drove 200 km an hour most of the way. Those are speeds I’ve only heard not experienced. Kind of unnerving…

There are many differences between Germany and Greece but the first thing one notices is that it is relatively quiet. The drivers don’t honk their horns constantly which immediately brings down the noise level. As I sit here in my room in my cousins home, there is no noise coming from outside at all, nothing. In fact it’s so quiet I may have trouble sleeping. No ear plugs needed.

Sun, Sand and the Mediterranean

Athens is a city that never sleeps, at least it sounds that way to me. I refer to Athens generally but we are in fact 30 clicks south of the city in a suburb called Glyfada although comparing it to a North American suburb would be foolish. People here live cheek to jowl and there is no room to live (lebensraum) and there are certainly not the spacious backyards we are used to. Every available bit of land has been built up with apartments and life is lived on balconies from morning to night. Kids roam the streets till midnight just having fun and creating mayhem, and dogs, well I’m not sure what I can say about them except they simply never stop barking. Even with earplugs it’s been difficult to sleep. As was the case last year, I will adjust, it will just take a few days.

Our home (borrowed) is a bit rough at the moment. We still don’t have hot water in the apartment and showers are taken al fresco on a patio. We did finally score an air bed but with my bad luck (murphy’s law) the sucker leaks and it has to go back for an exchange. But hey, with my experience at our cabin roughing it is in my psyche. Tomorrow my sweetie is going in search of a washing machine. Last year I did our wash by hand for the whole 7 weeks and that is an experience not to be repeated this year.

Lest your think it’s all bad, rest assured there have been some great times already. My BIl has had us out on his boat twice and to say it is beautiful is an understatement. The sea is a wonderful green color and you can see right to the bottom. Jumping in off the back of the boat has to be the greatest thing to do. I just wish I could swim better and didn’t have a fear of drowning.






The time passes quickly and on Thursday I leave for 10 days in Berlin. Since I am a glutton for punishment, it's Olympic Airlines once again. It's a relatively short flight though so I'm not terribly worried. My cousin will drive from Greifswald, about three hours to meet me, we will tour Berlin a bit and then head back to my mother's birth place. I can't really describe how I feel about that right now, I'm sure with time the words will come, just not yet.

And, there has been knitting...

My next post will be from Germany...

Olympic Airlines - As Expected

Self fulfilling prophecy, I suppose maybe. When you don't expect much maybe you don't get much but in this time even Olympic outdid themselves. Apart from the usual superior mentality of the in flight staff service was cut to a bare minimum.

We got off to a bad start when we were asked to re pack our luggage at Toronto airport. Seems two suitcases were too heavy. Never mind that we didn't exceed the total allowable pounds, they wanted even distribution. So there I was on my hands and knees trying to re pack standing to the side of the line, grrr.

The take off was reasonably on time (4:30 PM) and soon we were winging our way to Montreal to pick up more passengers. The first sign that all was not as usual was that we were not offered refreshments on the Toronto to Montreal run which surprised me. I put it down to the fact that there were half a dozen babies on board and they were busy and cheerfully sucked it up. After all I had two huge bottles of water to keep me busy.

We left Montreal around 6 or so and by that point I was chomping at the bit looking for something to pacify my growling tummy. There was grumbling among other passengers as well but I still remained cheerful and scarfed down some cheese crackers I had stashed in my bag. By 8 PM we finally saw some activity happening and knew we would get to eat soon. Dinner when it finally arrived was a two by four inch piece of chicken, some petrified veggies and four small round parisienne style potatoes. A little salad, a cold bun and a small piece of what looked like a pudding style cake made up the rest of the tray. I grudgingly got another bun but let me tell you it wasn't easy.

Dinner done, the shades were drawn and we were expected to sleep...at 9:30 for crikes sake! The movie was playing but when we inquired about the head sets we were politely informed that nope, there wouldn't be any. Huh, we were expected to watch the movie without sound and Greek subtitles? Seems that way. I asked for a blanket and was also informed that Olympic wouldn't be giving out blankets any more.

Sometime during the night probably around 2 AM I was starving and being a little Hyperglycemic needed some food or juice. Steve went to ask for some juice and was refused. He came back in shock and told me the flight attendant told him that "if I give you juice other people are going to ask too, here have some water".

So there you have, lousy food, no headphones and no blankets on a 12 hour overnight flight and even feeling ill doesn't score you any juice. Doesn't that beat all... I really am going to have to look for a better way to get here next year.

We are semi happily ensconced in the same abode as last year but still don't have a proper bed. We are sleeping on two cots and no hot water. These issues will hopefully be resolved in the next few days. I don't have any internet access this year, seems the free network I accessed last year flew the coop. There is an internet shop down the road though and quite reasonably priced at 1.50 euro for an hour. I figure I can get here two or three times a week at least.

It's hot and sunny with a brilliant blue sky and the sea looks as lovely as I remember from last year.I can hardly wait to get to the beach...

Just About Ready

This past weekend was spent at the cabin fixing the roof...


Firing the kiln...
And closing up for the season...

We got home early afternoon and I promptly went back to packing, well some packing anyway. Two suitcases done two to go. I still have four loads of laundry to fold and I think I'll get it all done by noon tomorrow. Olympic Airlines will love us, they can charge lots of bucks for extra weight. There's just so much stuff I need for 7 weeks. I already edited my yarn supply heavily and I'm onlytaking enough for two pairs of socks and one cardigan. I hope it's enough.

Tomorrow at this time we'll be winging across the Atlantic heading to Greece. I'll check in when we have gotten settled and I can find an Internet connection, meanwhile ciao...