From the Passenger Seat...

"What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce."

~ Karl Lagerfeld ~ 

When I'm a passenger, I'm usually quiet and I keep busy.  My camera is always on my lap. I captured this beautiful moment while riding along the seafront in Thessaloniki. 

Old Building

Looking up when I spend time in the city is always intriguing. 

Rainy Day in the City

Artist - Czizek Karolos 

Μακεδονικό Μουσείο Σύγχρονης Τέχνης

It's been raining for a few days...a day planned  in the city turned into a few hours at a museum. I had a lovely day despite the horrible weather. 

Where have I been?

As the holidays pass for most families our season continues for a week longer which keeps all of us busy.So, once again life has led me to neglect my blog. Sure I've been present online, but not here. I've spent a lot of time reading, commenting and responding to email; but  not blogging. I can tweet with my kids running around but I can't concentrate on anything else since they usually protest whenever I sit near the laptop. Either they want to use it or they stick books or papers in front of my screen to get my attention. I remember using the same techniques while my parents read the newspaper. I can't really blame them.

 - A little of what I've been doing-

January 6th

Foti's name day. His full name is Fotios, named after my late father-in-law. Although I didn't expect too many guests, I had to be prepared if anyone decided to show up.I spent the day in the kitchen baking and making some of his favorite foods.  Foti was excited and loved receiving phone calls. I made him pizza for lunch and let him watch a movie later that afternoon.  At the end of the day we only had two guests and it was perfect. What was even better is that I had a lot of food left over and didn't have to cook the next day.

January 8th- Izabella's birthday.

Rushing to the bakery early that morning I  decided that although an already prepared cake might be fantastic; a homemade cake would be even better. And even better than that, a homemade cake in which the birthday girl could help make and decorate. So, after I picked Iza up from school we went straight to the store so that she could choose the toppings for her cake. We used this chocolate cake recipe. It was fantastic!

The actual birthday party will take place this weekend and we ordered another chocolate cake for the day. She chose a cake with Dalmations on it, not the Disney Dalmations, just regular Dalmations.

 Izabella had a great birthday and she was so pleased with everything. I still can't believe that she's seven.

and in between celebrations...

We had a play date with friends which allowed me to enjoy coffee & great conversation.

I made a few homemade pizzas. Honestly, I'd never attempted to make my own pizza dough until now, I don't know why. But I decided try my hand at it and  I was pleased with the results. I used Ivy's recipe for basic homemade pizza dough and made my own sauce. I topped one pizza with mozzarella cheese and the others with green peppers, onions, tomatoes and of course, mozzarella.  I have to say that they were a few of the better pizzas I've had in a while. I won't say the best because I still believe that Lisa's Pizzeria in my other neighborhood has the best pizza I've ever eaten.  But the kids loved my pizzas and they're particular about pizza so I'll believe them when they say that they were delicious.

I was able to spend quality time with Adriane. This is her favorite photo of us.

We went to the city to visit friends and along the way we stopped to watch ice skaters. It was too late for us to skate and we were dressed well so we couldn't...

but Foti  really wished that he could have. The kids  also enjoyed looking at the Ancient Agora as we passed by, but since it was dark I couldn't get a good photo.

And in the midst of our adventures in living I got very sick and it took about 5 days for me to feel better. Nasty flu!

But as soon as I recovered I was out taking photos again. These photos of the girls in the wheat field are significant because it's just outside  of our gate and  we've just learned that someone bought this stretch of land and will probably be building a house soon. I hope it's a house and not an apartment building because we love our view, not to mention the serenity.  Let's hope for the best!

Yes, it's Mt. Olympus in the background.

~~~

A few of my friends in the blogosphere inquired about my absence and I'm thankful. I'm back and not leaving blog land anytime soon. Thank you.

So, my year is off to a good start (well, minus the flu) and I'm optimistic to see how the rest of it unfolds.

Kitesurfing in Salonica, Greece

I'd like to thank my friend- Phivos- for featuring us on his wonderful site Travelling - Ταξίδια.

His site features exotic destinations embellished with great photos and personal travel experiences, whether they are his own or one of his reader's contributions. What's more, is that usually there are less commonly known facts offered about locations or landmarks that are featured. It's always interesting to visit his site!

Phivos has two other sites as well-

NEOKYΠΡΙΟΙ

Phivos Nicolaides

Once again, thank you...

I took this picture early one Sunday morning in Aristotle's Square, Thessaloniki. Carnival/Apokrias  started last week. 

Thessaloniki, turkey & tree...

So I mentioned that I don't like to let more than a week lapse between posts and then 2 weeks slide by...

The main reason?

My laptop crashed. I was out of commission for a few days.

Now that everything is working again I'll share some pictures from last week...


Wednesday

We went into the city to take care some things and Alexandra loved visiting the pigeons.


Before leaving, we enjoyed coffee at Starbucks while Alexandra indulged in a giant cookie.
That evening, we listened to an amazing woman speak about working with children in Africa.

Thursday

Thanksgiving!!! I hope that all of you that celebrated had a nice one! Although it was a regular weekday I still made a turkey & some fixings. I didn't go overboard though. This year's Thanksgiving was much nicer since I had myself together and shopped earlier. I bought the turkey a few months ago so all that I had to do is remember to take it out of the freezer on time.

The kids helped by helping mash the potatoes and also setting the table. It's not a formal setting by any means but we love our Fiestaware. My friends Beth & Linda turned me on to it years ago. I think of them each time I use any of it, which is daily. Thanks you two!



Kosta's plate-turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and stuffing.

Saturday

We put up our Christmas tree.

That's last week! This week has been a sick week. Iza & Foti came down with a nasty virus and have been home from school since Tuesday. Actually, Iza went to school today. Foti will more than likely go back tomorrow. Iza is excited to go to school tomorrow because she'll be bringing a cake and treats in order to celebrate her name day, which is Saturday. Her middle name is "Victoria"-a version of my mother-in-law's name-"Niki"- which is what we celebrate. She's been announcing it to everyone a week. So, I hope that she enjoys herself tomorrow.

Benching

We passed several people in the park that were trying to relieve themselves from the heat by resting on the benches. We called it "benching".

Nice benching huh?

Over the last week we've had a few visitors from back home. First, we had Foti's Nona (Godmother) visit on Saturday. He was very excited and couldn't wait to show her everything about his new house. That visit was short and hopefully we'll be able to visit her in her family's village before she leaves Greece.

Our next visitor was Pete. Pete has been a friend of ours for the better part of our marriage. He's visiting southern Greece for a few weeks and we were lucky enough to have him travel up north so that he could spend a few days with us before he was on to his island hopping and family visits. It was great to have a friend from home here for a few days. He brought me a Hershey's Symphony bar and Jalapeno seeds for my garden. The kids were thrilled because he gifted them with fruit snacks and Fruit Roll-ups.

It seems that he arrived just in time for the summer heat to turn up and we all suffered together. I kept joking about how shiny we all were and how Greece has given us such a healthy glow...he'd roll his eyes.

Pete was also lucky enough to meet our little owl. It ventured down the fireplace to have a peek at us earlier in the day and then at around 2:00 am as we were enjoying a conversation it decided to join us. Pete was more than happy to help me lead the owl out of the house. It flew into a window, bump into walls and finally ended up behind the TV. The little guy seemed exhausted. Pete wrapped it in a towel and took it to the window so that it could fly out and that's exactly what it did. It took a minute to assess the situation before it actually took off. I'm very surprised at how calm the owl was when Pete picked him up. It didn't seem alarmed at all. That was really cool.

The next day we took Pete into the city. We actually did a tour of the city by car because it was so hot. He also suggested that he'd prefer it that way! It was just so hot!

So we drove around and stopped for something to eat. On our way out of the city we stopped at some landmarks at the sea front. We got out of the car to take a few pictures and buy some water.

The kids enjoyed running around the statue of Alexander the Great.

And then they just ran around the park area. They had a blast.

When we were walking back to the car we noticed police officers ticketing cars that were illegally parked and one was even equipped with a power drill/screw driver. As they ticketed vehicles for being parked illegally they were also removing license plates. I can't say that our timing couldn't have been more perfect as our car was next in line for the punishment. We won't be stopping there for a quick picture again without looking at all of the signs. It didn't seem like an illegal parking spot as we waited for the spot when we were parking and there were cars parked all the way down the street. But then again we're in Greece and anything goes. We've got to be more careful. It would have really stunk if we had to go to retrieve our plates at the police station...we know because we've already done it! That's another story...

So Pete left yesterday afternoon and now I'm trying to catch up with everything that I've neglected over the last few days. Until my next post...