Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. David and I stayed in and watched basketball on Friday night. We are doing brackets between the two of us and right now I am beating David based on some point system he worked out. If I win he has to do all the chores in the house for one week and if he wins I can't ask him to do any chores for a weekend. I am willing to make the bet. On Saturday I went to the grocery store in the morning and in the afternoon David and I went to one of the many nurseries in Athens and bought 4 little trees for our balcony. One is a Eucalyptus tree and I have no idea what the other three are I just like the way the look. I repotted the Eucalyptus but ran out of dirt so I still need to do the others. They are going to look nice on the front balcony. I will send pictures when I have everyone done. Saturday night David and I went out for Chinese food which was actually really good and then came home and watched more basketball. On Sunday we went out to lunch with some friends and then Vicki came over after dinner and we watched a movie.

The strikes are finally over (for now) in Greece. The vote passed on the pension reform bill on Thursday and believe it or not but at 11:30 pm on Thursday night they came by and picked up our trash. The rumor is that the power company is plotting for more strikes in the future on some other issue though (I can hardly wait). One of the nights last week when the power went out I was carrying a bowl of Cheese Caso into the living room and right when the lights went out I tripped and literally the cheese went everywhere. I just managed to get the last remaining remnants out yesterday after a lot of work. It was literary everywhere and you can imagine how much I was cursing the Greeks when the lights came back on 3 hours later and I saw the mess. All over our light colored couches and the carpet. What a mess.

Tomorrow is Greek Independence Day so the Embassy will be closed. I am planning on spending the day washing windows. We get some much dust and now that it is getting nice out and sunny everyday you can really tell how filthy they are.

Well enjoy a couple of pictures from the strikes that I found on Google.

Love from Athens...

Hey guys! Sorry I have not written in a while. Not too much going on here other than the strikes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7306139.stm

Trash has not been picked up in Athens for over two weeks. We have lost lower 6 times in the last 12 days for 3-4 hour periods each. They held the second nationwide strike in two weeks yesterday and shut down all public buildings, private buildings, banks and the transportation sector. Today is more of the same and it is getting really really old.

Other than that everything else is going great. David and I booked our Easter trip for the end of April to Crete. We were planning on gong to Italy but the flights were ridiculous so we decided to stay in Greece. Crete is the largest Greek island and is the farthest south. It is supposed to be amazing so we are really looking forward to it. There is a US Navy base in Crete so we are planning on going to the commissary and picking up a few things to bring back to Athens.

The weather has been wonderful in Athens sunny and warm. Well I better get back to work. I know I owe some of you calls back and I promise to do that this weekend.

Love from Athens....

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had absolutely wonderful weather this weekend. It was cooler in the mid 60s but sunny and fantastic still. On Friday David and I had dinner at home and watched some of season 3 of The Office. We need were into the show when we were back in the States but now it has become a bit of an obsession for us. If you are not a fan I suggest renting the DVDs and watching from Season 1 to present and you will not be disappointed.

On Saturday we got up and drove to Nafplio which is about 1.5 hour drive from Athens. It is such a cute town right on the sea with lots of cute shops and restaurants. We had lunch and then walked around the town for a while. We attempted to climb up the 999 steps to the Palamidi fortress but it closed at 2:23 right when we got there. We still made it up about a quarter of the way so we could check out the view which was breathtaking (Pictures below). Nafplio also has a great beach area which we checked out. Of course it was a little cold for us to swim but plenty of Greeks were taking advantage of the sunny day in the water (Speedos where in full force).

On Sunday David and I cleaned the house and took care of a few other chores that needed to be done. We had Vicki over for dinner and stayed up and chatted until pretty late with an excellent bottle of wine.

Today is a Greek holiday "Clean Monday" so the Embassy is closed. From what I have been told this is supposed to be the start of the Orthodox lent. The tradition is to fly kites which we have seen from our place. I am taking the opportunity to clean out our closets and pull clothes for donation. Since we are going to be moving every couple of years for a little while you really don't want to start accumulating too much stuff because it just ends up being more stuff to pack and then in pack and find a place for.

View of Nafplio from across the water

Fortress off the coast of Nafplio

David with the fortress in the distance

View from one of the 999 steps of the Sea

David with a view of Nafplio in the background

David acting silly on our climb down the stairs

Beach in Nafplio (check out the Speedo clad dude on the left)

Us on the beach

Hard to see in the picture but the water is just crystal clear a little rough to swim right now but I am sure it is amazing in the summer

Cool archway by the beach

Well I hope you all enjoy the pictures (sorry they are a little dark our camera is on its last leg we ordered a new one last week and it should come in this week) take care and have a wonderful week.

Love from Athens.....

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Hope you are all doing well. Not too much going on here in Athens. We have a three day weekend this weekend because of a Greek Holiday on Monday so we are looking forward to that. Weather has still been wonderful here in Athens.

We have been dealing with a ridiculous number of strikes recently here in Greece. Usually it is the transportation sector (trains, taxis, buses, airport) but on Wednesday the power company joined the flight. Right after we walked into the door last night we lost power and it lasted for three hours. There have been rolling blackout all over the city for he past two days and it is supposed to continue for many days to come. David and I just took naps because there really isn't anything else to do but sit in the dark. When we were about to walk out of the house this morning the power cut off again. Wonderful!

The Greeks are protesting pension reforms (http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7363346). This is a good time to thank God that you are living in the States. Can you imagine a time when our entire country would be shut down over anything? I mean literally no planes are flying, no schools are in session, no one is going to work (except us).

Lets see...oh yesterday the Embassy was forced to close early because of protests over Balkans issues (Kosovo and Macedonia) in front of the Embassy. Is this a fairly regular occurrence unfortunately. Getting out of work at 5:00 on a beautiful day isn't so bad but it begs the question who would the world protest if we were not around?

Well we are going to try to visit one of the beach communities on the mainland this weekend. Hopefully we will have stories and pictures to post early next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Love from Athens....

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. We had a pretty interesting weekend. The weather has been spectacular here recently in the high 60s and low 70s with lots of sun. On Friday night Vicki came over for Pilates and then David, Vicki and I went out for drinks and dinner and Jason met up with us later. The weather was great so we sat at this outdoor cafe (they had outdoor heaters it is not that warm yet) and had a wonderful time. On Saturday I got up and went to the grocery store and then in the afternoon David and I walked up Lykovitos which is a hill here in Athens with an old Orthodox church and returtant on top and a great view of the city. We stayed up there and had lunch and then walked back down. When we got home I cleared the house which was much neeeded. That is where we are in the two pictures (I have no idea who that kid is with me). On Saturday night we had our first real experiance with Greek nightlife. We were invited to a private party which was held at a Jaguar Dealer in the middle of nowhere. The party didn't even get started until around midnight and we didn't get home until after 3:00am. It was a Carnival costum party so David went as a cowboy and I wore a carnival mask. It felt like a party that we would have gone to in college. The music was ridculously loud and the music was cerca 1995 but we actually had a pretty good time. I do not like staying up late anymore so I was kind of dreading going but it turned out ok. I still have ringing in my ears from the loud music though.

Sunday we slept in and then went to Dan and Stacy's for Colin's 2nd birthday party which was also a lot of fun.

Not too much going on this week. Hope you are all having a great week!

Love from Athens....