Blogs from West Macedonia, Greece, Europe
Mikrokastro view
Finally managed to wake up at 11:30am, Steve is horribly hung-over and is just miserable.<span><span><span> We got up and made breakfast and Steve laid down while I tried to straighten up my suitcase somewhat.<span> After Steve got up we headed to Papadia’s house for lunch and on the way we went by Steve’s maternal Papous’ old farm to take some photos.<span> Theo Thanasi farms there now; he keeps a few chickens and grows a bunch of vegetables.<span> Thanasi stopped by while we were there and showed us around and gave us more vegetables.<span> We went to Papadia’s and ate lunch with her, Papa, Naouma, and Vasou.<span> We had no meat at lunch because they are all fasting until August 15thfor the Festival of Panagia, which is basically the festival of Mary in Eastern Orthodox religion. After ... read more
Theo Taki's House
We got up at 9:15am to take Rachel up to Papous village to stay overnight at Thea Koula’s house with her granddaughter Alexandra who speaks excellent English.<span> We also had lunch at Thea Koula’s which consisted of delicious flattened meatballs, potatoes, grilled zucchini and peppers and pork. We stopped again at Lidl for laundry detergent, olive oil and such.<span> When we got back to Mikrokastro Steve was so exhausted didn’t even say anything he just went into the down stairs bedroom and passed out for 4 hours.<span> I did some laundry and caught up some on this journal then once the laundry was done I hung it up outside to dry then I took a 2 hour nap. I woke up when Steve came upstairs, and then right when he laid down the phone rang.<span> Then ... read more
Megaro View
I set the alarm for 8:00am so we could meet Papous in Grevena since he was going there to get his car fixed. Eventually we got up around 8:30 after repeatedly hitting snooze! Steve kept calling Papous but there was no answer.Finally Theo Kostas answered and told us that Papous had forgotten his phone at home in Megaro.By the time we found this out we were in Grevena and stopped to get some more cold medicine and then went and got some breakfast of some pretty delicious toast sandwiches. We met Theo Kostas at the bus station and he drove us to the repair shop where Papous was.Papous car was done by this time so Rachel hopped in Papous car and Theo Kostas dropped Steve and I back off at the Nissan on the other side ... read more
Mam bajka:-)))
Nie uwierzycie co mnie spotkalo!!!! Kupilam dzis ROWER:-)))) Przerzucam sie na nowy srodek transportu:-) Jak zawsze wmieszalam sie w nowa przygode. Jestem od tygodnia w Grecji. Pierwsze 3 dni spedzilismy u mamy Konstantina w Salonikach. Konstantin polecial spowrotem do Norwegii, a ja wybralam sie do Kastorii odwiedzic kol poznana w Finlandii na wymianie studenckiej. Kastoria, 60 km od Albanii, 100kilkadziesiat od Macedonii. Juz mialam stopem przez Macedonie do Serbii na najwiekszy na swiecie festiwal brassbendowy jechac, a tu spotkalam kolegow ktorzy dookola swiata na rowerach jada. Europe maja za soba, ja rowniez. Porzucam wiec stopa i jade z nimi do Turcji, Libii, Syrii. Wigilia w Jeruzalem a potem Afryka. Ile z nimi wydole - wytrzymalosciowo pod wzgledem kondycyjnym i psychicznym nie wiem. Na razie daje sobie na probe 10 dni. Naucze sie duzo, zdobede doswiadczenie w ... read more
Benjamin at 13
We gave Benjamin the ultimate teenage birthday present and let him sleep in this morning. He is now, officially, a teenager. Hard to believe. In the morning we got a call from my Aunt Helen. We are all set for meeting up with her tomorrow afternoon, just so long as each of our 5 bus connections goes smoothly. When Benjamin finally gets up, we give him his birthday presents. He seems happy with the selection of books and new headphones for his ipod and equally happy with the Euros and American dollars that people have sent him. One of the presents, a book of Greek myths, seems to capture his interest and he quickly delves into it. We take the afternoon bus into town (and get charged yet another different fare). We get off at the ... read more
Lake Kastoria
On our first trip to Kastoria, we had such a list of things to do that we really never got to explore the town so today Evy and I got up earlier to catch the 9 am Kastoria bus. At the last minute, Benjamin and Joshua decided to join us (I think it was the news that we would be using the INTERNET that changed Benjamin's mind). It seems each time we take this bus the fare is different, so I really never know what we will be paying. I have taken to just holding out a handful of coins and letting the conductor select the correct amount. It was a crisp morning with a clear blue sky when the bus pulled into town. We decided to walk along the shoreline shops and restaurants that curve ... read more
The view from the island
There was no power when we woke up this morning so we had to skip the morning coffee. About 10:15 Tashos showed up to take us on a trip to Lake Prespa, about 15 km away. He told us there was no power in Kastoria either, which was a reassuring as we were not sure if we had messed up something in the flat and that was the cause of the power outage. With a bit of a tight fit, we managed to all get into Tashos's car, and drove off past Koromilia and up towards the mountains. A short distance outside of town Tashos pulled over to a road side snack truck, and I got out, not quite sure what were were up to. When I got up to the truck window, it turned out ... read more
Walking to town
Despite having done some shopping yesterday, there are still a few items we found we missed, so after breakfast Evy and I set off to walk to the closest supermarket 6 km from here. With the sun shining and the lighter weekend traffic, it was actually a good walk through the countryside, though by the time we got back, having walked over 12 km, we were both zapped. In the early afternoon, Tashos, our upstairs family's oldest son, dropped by and said he would like to take us to Lake Prespa. Later on, his father Louis came by and invited us all to go out tonight to Ouzo in Kastoria so, after a souvlaki dinner at home, we all piled into their car (along with Lea, his wife) and headed off. Lake Kastoria, with the lights ... read more
Koromilia church
We have asked around and it seems that there is a bus to Kastoria each day at 9 am so we got an early start to the day. It was quite cold and we could see our breath as we waited at the bus stop after our short walk down the road to Koromilia. The sight of the snow capped mountains in the distance where a reminder of just how far North we are in Greece. Little English is spoken in this part of Greece, so it was a bit tricky trying to figure out how much the bus cost. In the end I held out a handful of coins and just let the conductor pick up the fare. The trip to Kastoria takes about 20 minutes and we seem to be the only non-local people ... read more
The town of Koromilia
Shortly after we go up this morning, Tashos, the son who met us at the bus yesterday, dropped by to see if we needed to be taken anywhere. It was a bit tough trying to communicate, so he got his girlfriend (who speaks English well) on the cell phone to speak with us. We explained to her that it was very kind of him to offer to take us around, but that we didn't want to use up his time and that we would be fine just wandering over to the town of Koromelia today. Shortly after Tashos left, a neighbour who had been mailed Benjamin and Joshua's next set of school books, came by with the books as well as a cake for us. The school books had been one of the factors in us ... read more
