As a result of these two consecutive holidays, the school is closed, the dorms are closed, and the kids went home. Brad and I wanted to go somewhere for a few days, but we waited a little too long to find a hotel- everything seemed to be booked. I guess holiday weekends are a hectic time to travel, even if it's not tourist season. I did have a memorable conversation with a hotel owner in Meteora, though, when I asked her "Do you have any rooms available yesterday?" It took me a little while to figure out why she was laughing. I need to review the different between "Yesterday" and "Tomorrow."
That's OK, though; we had fun without a long trip. On Friday we went to the Oxi day parade, which is kind of like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, except that the weather is not freezing cold, people don't show up three hours ahead of time to find places to sit (Greeks are infinitely more relaxed than New Yorkers. I find this simultaneously great and mystifying. ), and instead of big balloons in the shape of cartoon characters, there are tanks and people in traditional dress from all different regions of Greece. Okay, so it's nothing like the Thanksgiving Day parade, although it does have marching bands.
You know, when I studied abroad in England, I did a lot of travelling, and took a fair number of pictures of sheep. After I got home, I spent a lot of time wondering why on earth I had taken so many pictures of sheep. Well, I had a similar experience after I got home from the parade; I looked at my camera, and wondered why I had taken so many pictures of tanks. I don't particularly like tanks, and I certainly don't expect that I'll ever be sitting around the house one day and think "Wow, you know, right now I really feel like looking at pictures of tanks." I just don't ever do that. I'd be more likely to look at the sheep, which are at least attractive in a pastoral sort of white fluffy way, whereas tanks are just sort of menacing.
But I do have pictures of tanks; lots of different kinds of tanks. Maybe I'll even post some for you.
Anyway, after the parade, Brad and I went out to visit the grandparents of our friend Christos. They spend April-October in a house on the beach, and since it was about 90 degrees out (Lately Greek weather has been even weirder than Iowan weather; it was 45 last week) we went for a swim. The water was a little chilly, but still significantly warmer than the water in Maine. It felt pretty nice. I haven't been swimming in a while. After that, we went to a taverna by the beach and ate so much delicious food- shrimp and these little fish that are fried whole and fresh. The owner actually apologized to us because some of the seafood had been brought to him by the fisherman the evening before and not on the same day.
Afterwards, we sat around in the garden of the beachouse and talked. It was a lovely, relaxing way to spend an afternoon, especially one of the last very warm afternoons of the season. I contemplated taking pictures of flowers to balance out all of my pictures of tanks, but never got around to it. However, I was given a pomegranate, which was exciting. I've never had a pomegranate picked right off a tree before.
Yesterday was rainy and cold and I could not believe that it had been 90 degrees the day before. Brad and I decided to take a trip to Pella, which is an ancient city only a short bus ride away. Unfortunately, our bus ride was a little bit longer than we intended, and we somehow ended up an extra few miles down the road in Giannanitsa. Luckily, a friendly bus driver there picked us up, explained to us (In English) that he was headed to Pella, and stopped the bus and waited for us while we bought tickets from a periptera. Yes, you read that right; he stopped the bus, I got off, bought the tickets and got back on. I won't even bother to describe what would happen if I asked a New York City bus driver to stop the bus and wait while I bought a metrocard.
Anyway, we made it back to Pella, and saw the ruins of an ancient city there, which were quite interesting, and also saw some nice artifacts and mosaics inside the Pella museum. Pella, you see, used to be the head of the Macedonian kingdom before everyone decided to mysteriously leave in the first century BC.
Anyway, Happy Halloween to everyone in the US. Greece doesn't seem to celebrate Halloween nearly as much as the US does. I've practically forgotten about it. I'll have to come up with a costume. Maybe I'll be a high school student- everyone has been mistaking me for one lately, so it wouldn't be very hard to do.
Oh, and here's a tank:
And here's a crown that's much prettier than the tank:
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