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| ...to my weblog for June 2001.. |
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| Archive: |
| Ever wondered if I am the only non-Egyptian person that lives here, thinking this country is strange? Go and have a look at Walters' World, that's the site of my colleague Steve. It's worth a look, although he is actually funnier live! |
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| Hello, holidays, here I come... |
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| 30.06.2001 Saturday By ferry to Naxos - went to see the castle, museum, cathedral, the remains of the temple of Apollo and and and.... That might be a possible holiday spot for the next time, heard plenty of others say that it is a very nice island to stay on. 29.06.2001 Friday Paroika, the ferry harbour of Paros - too touristy, but we found a nice restaurant. Unfortunately found a shop that sold the new Gameboy Advance. I think I made the day for the shop assistant, when I bought 2 games with it as well.... Bloody expensive! 28.06.2001 Thursday Met with Tiki + Mary, hired a car and had a thourough look at Paros. Marble quarries, villages, byzantine trails, monasteries, the works! Mary seems to be one of those driven tourists that have to see everything that is mentioned in the guide book, come hell or high water.... we other 3 would have merrily sat in the shade somewhere with a milk shake all day. Never mind, Tiki and I chatted away happily on the back seat of the car about everythinh under the sun, which was really good. 27.06.2001 Wednesday Took the ferry to the neighbouring little island, Antiparos, to look at the big cave there. Met Tiki and Mary in the process. Tiki is from New York, but has lived in Greece for 20 years, Mary was from the US south. I got on very well with Tiki. 26.06.2001 Tuesday Early morning, up at 5am, then by metro to Piraeus to catch the hydrofoil ferry to Paros. We staid in Naoussa, very nice, looked as if it was right out of a brochure, white buildings, blue doors and windows, relatively small, not too many tourists yet, nice shops, I liked it! 25.06.2001 Monday Benaki Museum - Now this is a really good museum! Modern, plenty of info, excellent! As ususal, I got the biggest kick out of the pre-historic section, but there was a stunning collection of byzantine art - worth looking at! Luckily I had just finished reading "From the holy mountain" by William Dalrymple, so my excursion into Byzantine histroy and art was preety recent and I actually knew what I was looking at. Very good! Big collection of folklore, costumes, furniture - yawn! But overall this museum is a must-see for Athens! You can find them at www.benaki.gr Afterwards we went to the Museum Of Cycladic Art, which was nice, but nothing special. They had a special exhibition that is still running until December 2001, "The city beneath the city - finds from excavations for the Metropolitan Railway of Athens". Basically they are extending they metro for the upcoming Olympics and when they started digging, they found all these things.... Nicely done, they show you models and photos of the sites, which gives it a nice twist. To be found at www.cycladic-m.gr The last day in Athens, after looking at plenty of cycladic figurines, we were going to the place itself..... 24.06.2001 Sunday National Archaelogical Museum - "one of the largest and most important museums of ancient Greek art". Trust me, it isn't! Large? I don't think so, half of the damn thing was closed and the presentation of the rest was really really bad. I was pretty dissapointed. Those guys should travel to London and have a look how good museums are set-up! Went to Plaka agin, had a better look, sat around in a variety of cafes the rest of the day, very relaxing! But I'm still incredibly exhausted and tired! 23.06.2001 Saturday First things first, we went to see the Akropolis. Lots of people, lots of scaffolding, hot, couldn't get very excited about it - never related to Greek history much, blame my teachers, really dry stuff at school! A lot more mystery to Egypt. So could I please have present day Greece with the history of Egypt to live in, that would make me a happy bunny! Anyway, walked around some, had a snack, walked around some, had ice cream, walked some more, were knackered and went back to the hotel. 4 hours of chilling out and reading. Went for food, had an early night, very tired - must be work catching up with me. Shopping list: Face cream - can only find stuff with bleach in it in Alex! Clothes - my wardrobe is so boring..... DVD's + CD's Books!!!!!! 22.07.2001 Friday Left Alex this morning at 4am, landed at 5.45 - by the time I had checked out, looked at the shops in the new airport (very exciting after 6 months in Egypt, believe me!) and reached the hotel by taxi, it was 8am. Dog tired, bleary-eyed, had to wait 1/2 hour before I could check in, so I gulped down 2 cups of coffee in the meantime. Finally up to the room, unpacked, lied down, couldn't sleep, so went out for a walk, grabbed the metro + wnet downtown (couldn't help myself......). First stop - McDonalds, for a McBacon!!! Lots of shops!!!! I had died and gone to heaven....... Bought a Tom Clancy, tried on some pants at Replay, sat in a cafe and had grilled cheese + tomato salad, paid a visit to an internet cafe, had a haircut, sat in another cafe and had a Nescafe frappee, tried a skirt in another shop, but my butt seems to be too big for Greek clothes.... What can I say, I had a field day, it was great! Was back in the hotel at 5pm, had another shower, wrote a postcard to my parents and slept for an hour. Very tired! Andrew arrived around 8pm, we went for dinner in Plaka, which is Athens' old part of town. Very nice start to the hols. Oh, before I left Alex, I managed to mess up my computer, it's a total no-go.... 20.06.2001 One more day at work and I have made it to my holidays in one piece. Stuff shopping in Athens. When I arrive, I will have breakfast and then retire to a cosy spot next to the pool, preferably close to the cocktail bar. About 12 hours till Adrew arrives, should give me some time to become halfway human again. 18.06.2001 3 more days of too much work ahead of me, before I can relax. I am totally exhausted, practically down to counting the hours till D-day..... 14.06.2001 I forgot!! I am sorry!!!! Happy birthday, Carla!!!!!!!! 12.06.2001 10 more days!!!!!! Got my flight details today, will start at 4am, yuck! Was just about to give you guys the link to this other online diary that I am using - some really funny stuff going on there (other people's writing, not mine....). But naaaaahhhh! Then you can go and read my secret diary, I don't think so! Well, it's online, so technically it's not secret, but nobody there knows me, so I can say all those nasty and unkind things about other people..... Not nice, not nice, I know, anyhow, no, really - basically I talk about things I do not really want to reveal to people I know..... What can I say, I am a chicken and sometimes it's just plain embarassing...... Anyhow, today I spent 2 exhilarating hours in the Visa office, just to get a Visa that I did not need - still haven't got that flipping work permit. What does a woman have to do, I ask you! And yesterday we ended up in this traffic jam. Egypt pure. Lots of cars, all moved as far up as possible, snout to snout, bumper to bumper, nobody trying to get out of the way, but just trying to inch that millimeter closer. Guys wandering about, directing cars to wherever, honking horns, shouting people - why does everybody in this country speak with a raised voice? - all smash bang on top of a train track. Why? Bite me, if I know! I don't think anybody else knew either...... 05.06.2001 Argh, one of those totally frantic days at work, a thousand jobs to do, all urgent, every 5 minutes someone else wants something...... I could really live without days like that! 17 days to go until the holiday....... First a full day of shopping in Athens, as Andrew will only arrive in the evening. Clothes, shoes, DVD's, perhaps a playstation?? Only drawback, I will have to haul it all along, as it's at the beginning. But never mind, who wants to be sensible during their hols, enough of that at work. 01.06.2001 Went to Kevin's leaving-do last night. Another colleague gone, moving on to hopefully greener pastures in Romania. All the best to you Kevin! I hope it all works out like you imagine it! We will all miss you, don't be a stranger.... |
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