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Published: December 5th 2011
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This is the first Travel Blog of our 2011 Trip to Greece, staying with Michael's mother. Michael's brother Tony came for the first month and it was the first time in 42 years that the three brothers had been together- since Michael came to Australia. Well,we all know that the economic crisis has hit Greece severely, with many businesses closed down and unemployment unacceptably high.
Michael's mother has her home in a town called Perea and on Mondays the local market is held in several streets. No cars are allowed during the market time and there were many more stalls than I recalled from two years ago with a larger crowd of shoppers too. There was this little old lady who knits indoor slippers and also sells some herbs and some chillies. I took a photo of her and then said I was glad to see her, as it had been two years since I was in Greece. She must have understood my broken Greek, as she smiled and gave me the sign of the cross.
I took a photo of a huge single bunch of grapes and also the colourful pomegranates. Mama's have just about finished and the damaged ones
are a treat for her chooks.
Last Tuesday after lunch, we caught the bus into Salonika. Michael is able to use the pensioner ticket costing 50cents as he is deemed " an old age pensioner", compared to my full fee of 90 cents. This is still incredibly good value and more people have taken to using the public transport system, as the petrol prices have increased, and it appeared that people bought cars previously when they really did not have the need. There were many cars in one area with signs on them, being sold on consignment.
There is an ice skating rink set up in the major square ( Aristotles Square ) in Salonika CBD. The lighting of the Christmas tree takes place on 1st December each year. Apparently there is a business in Salonika which makes a lot of electrical Christmas Decorations and they have also supplied the Christmas Lights display in Berlin, Germany. We took photos of the various old buildings and the Christmas decorations in the shops whilst there was still daylight. Some workers from a restaurant were putting up some fairy lights outside- one guy was holding the big ladder with another up the
top to the second floor putting lights up there. So OHS was covered! There are some new sculpture-like human forms which have been placed on top of the roof and they look very lifelike and realistic. Here in Salonika, the weather has been more like that in late autumn-About 16 Celsius during the day, but dropping to 4C at night. The dampness comes down in the late afternoon and it quickly turns cold –getting dark at 5.15pm and completely dark at 6pm.
We had the evening meal at the restaurant in the Salonika Market where we would always take our visiting Australian friends and relatives back in 2008/09 when we were last in Greece. The owner recognised Michael. Only ourselves and another table with 6 people there. It was only 6.30pm, so too early for the Greek people to eat. Earlier we took photos of the various old buildings and the Christmas decorations in the shops whilst there was still some light.
When we were in the city, there were some buskers- one person had a nicely polished saxophone. There was also a wind- up little organ. I went to take a photo of the person working the controls, but
Michael said they don’t like you taking a photo if you don’t pay something. So one of his friends stood with the operator, with their backs to me, obscuring the little colourful organ .There is a new expansive Zahoplasteon or Bakery/ Patissiere open in the CBD. It is a work of art, with all sweet things and savoury breads and sandwiches being made up on the spot. There was an urn with sweet, fragrant tea and the lady was giving it away in little cups. Delightful. I have seen the street vendors with their portable cart holding the saleepi (tea) urn which is kept hot with coals below it.
This morning I washed the spinach that a neighbour, Mr George gave us several days ago. It had been soaking in water, but luckily not too many green-water logged leaves. It was pretty chilly doing it outside several times and this way the water used can be reused in the garden. It has only rained once in the past month, so we are very aware not to waste the water.
The signs at Salonika Regional Bus Terminal toilets has a sign in Greek saying "Water is precious, don’t waste it". There
was the same sign at Athens Airport, but with English translation below the Greek writing.
In Greece, students from Year 5 in Primary School have to learn two languages other than Greek and one of them has to be English. Apparently a lot of language schools have closed down, especially the ones of Spanish, French, Italian, German etc. This is because they are expensive for the parents who are concentrating on just English lessons for their children in the after school tutoring lessons.
Michael's brother George and his wife Aleka came out on Sunday and George grilled some fish over the outside charcoal grill. I made roast potatoes in the oven, jajiki ( a yoghurt dip) and beetroot salad.
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Eric Wong
non-member comment
Hi Gwen and Michael, Can't believe it's two years since you went back to the land of Hercules and the oldest democracy in the world. You must have notice lot of social changes in the current economic turmoil. We are still recovering from our recent trip to Europe and when we left Barcelona in early November, the weather was getting pretty cold and the Spanish were still shopping madly as they told me that the employed has to spend to keep the country going. Michael is looking more Greek if he stay in Greece too often as all those years in Oz still can't give him a superficial appearance. Christmas with falling snow is on my wish list! Loves, Eric and Wendy