It was fantastic! The feeling in the air was, quite simply, happy.  It felt like Christmas, it looked like Christmas, it was the feeling of years gone by, when ‘crisis’ wasn’t the word of the day…

And let’s be clear, it wasn’t all about shopping or spending money (although it seems plenty did!). It was about being out with family and friends, going for a walk, checking out the windows, stopping for a bite to eat. Ok, this tends to happen a lot in Athens, but somehow Saturday night had a special quality about it…
 
The White Night also served to top-up some of the cash registers of the local businesses, just in time for Christmas. People are longing for crisis to be on the way out, and perhaps even the appearance of shopping at Christmas convinces us – for a brief moment - that this is true.

Judging by the subsequent news reports, the commentaries and the comments of people who were there, the White Night was a huge success. And not for the shops alone. People really enjoyed the undeniable electricity in the air.  
 
The experience of that event has also apparently re-ignited the debate about Sunday shopping. It seems obvious now that the majority of Athenians actually enjoy being out and about and browsing the shops on Sundays, in between coffee stops (was that ever in question?!). Maybe the city will figure out rules for Sunday wages, and this thing can be settled for good.
 
Regardless, the ‘Leuki Nuxta ‘was really enjoyable. Not because I bought something (I didn’t), but more because of the great vibe and feeling in the crowd. It was a happy night in Athens!
 
Maybe the City of Athens will schedule something similar, say in June…?
 
With my very best wishes to all for a better and brighter 2014!
 
Until next week,
 
Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

But before I leave, I need to run out to pick up a couple of last-minute gifts. This Christmas will be quite modest, I admit. Gifts are still the order of the day, but with an obvious ‘low key’ and ‘low cost’ feel.  And I’m very much ok with that. For me, it’s not a ‘sign of the crisis’ as much as it’s ‘the way things should be’. Who ever said that Christmas was the time of year to buy your brother-in-law a new smartphone?

Which is why I am doubly surprised at the throngs of people that are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder on Ermou St.  I have never seen so many people out shopping. I wonder if maybe they didn’t get the memo about the low-key Christmas trend. What are they all doing??

But then I look more closely. Most of them are not carrying many (any!) bags. The stores are packed, but the line at the cash registers isn’t so long. In fact, it’s the cafes and tavernas that are the most packed. Most of the people seem to just be out, with family or friends, walking around the shop-lined streets, looking up at the lights, window shopping and enjoying the vibe, the proverbial Christmas spirit.

And although I suppose it could make me sad, it has the opposite effect. There is a smile on my face, because I think that – when you subtract the gifts and the money spent on stuff we don't need - the vibe of Christmas is what people love. The colourful lights, the music, the crowds, the time with loved ones, the chilly weather – and the warmth of it all.  For those of us lucky enough to have at least this much, it’s already enough.

My warmest wishes to the XpatAthens community – Kala Xristougenna!

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

I know we have all heard almost everything there is to hear about Greek culture… We know very well about the achievements, the triumphs, the legacy. And yes, it’s pretty amazing. But perhaps we haven’t seen all there is to see. Sometimes ‘seeing’ impacts us in a way that ‘hearing’ cannot. The other day, the gremlins in my Facebook feed thought I should see a new video – and I’m glad I did.

This video is about the Benaki Museum - but it’s about much more. It’s a new marketing piece developed as a story told by Antonis Benakis about his culture, his own history, his museum.

It is a beautiful film, with incredible imagery and haunting music – done in a very subtle way. It’s directed by Athena Rachel Tsangari and narrated by Willem Dafoe.

Watching this video – yes, a promotional video – brought out a strong emotional response in me: pride. I was proud of being Greek, and I felt the video represented much of what being Greek means for me. Beauty, simplicity, energy, life. And it's so fitting: the Benaki museum is about the visuals - the 'objets' - but it's about so much more - and (I assume) this is what the piece is trying communicate. If this is the case, then it's a brilliant piece of film-making and a brilliant piece of marketing.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but you can judge for yourself…

It’s worth the 7 minutes to watch it – check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaPfkWSPHgE

Credit goes to Peter Economides for sharing the link, and to the Benaki team who produced this thing of beauty.

“Our land is full of treasure. Let’s not forget this.”

And yes, the video worked.  I will definitely make a visit to the Benaki museum!

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

The conversation inevitably turned to ‘the system’, ‘the crisis’, and comparing stories and experiences… As it turns out, and in case it’s any consolation to any of you reading this, Spain is as… (ahem!) ‘complicated’ as Greece.
 
The visitor shared an experience she had recently, when she tried to start the process for acquiring Spanish citizenship. She lives in a small town outside Barcelona, and went to the local administrative office, with papers in hand, prepared to book an appointment with an advisor. She was told that the next appointment is in June 2017. That’s 2017.

Dismayed, she returned home and buried herself in a bottle of rioja (not really, I just added that).  Later on, she wondered about her papers and whether they would still be valid in three years. So she looked up the phone number of the office, found only the number for the Barcelona location – and promptly called them. Let’s recall that she has just returned from booking an appointment for 2017.
 
The person on the phone in Barcelona asked why she was concerned about the validity of her papers.
 
“Because my appointment is in 2017.”
 
“What appointment?”
 
“With my local office.”
 
“No no. We do not give appointments. Just come with your papers anytime, and we can start everything.”
 
Conclusion: two locations of the same government office have completely different policies and are completely unaware of each other’s policies. ‘Buyer beware.’
 
I think we could comfortably say that Italy is not much different. What is it in the nature of these Mediterranean paradises that makes confused bureaucracy a mainstay of public life? I would love to find out…
 
Until next week,
 
Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

Right.

I had a lovely week, visiting with family, catching up with friends, visiting my old haunts. Toronto is modern, progressive, multicultural, an ‘advanced’ global city.  My oldest friends live there, and there is a lot to be said for the system, the mentality and the possibilities of life there…

However, it struck me rather quickly that I felt like a visitor – a strange feeling given that I was born there and in fact have spent most of my life there… The feeling of ‘this isn’t my home’ was front and centre for most of the week, which surprised me as much as it confused me.

I became aware very quickly of how different life in a big North American city is compared to life in Athens. I felt a constant and consistent sense of ‘stress’, of movement, of having to get somewhere, of having 1000 things to do and no time to do them, a feeling of fervor and ‘nervous’ energy. For some, this could feel like ‘ambition’.  For me, it felt chaotic and made me tired...

In the end, you cannot compare Athens and Toronto – there is nothing remotely similar, the scales are too far off.  It’s like comparing apples to oranges; they are both sort of round – but the comparison stops there.  And, like apples and oranges, Athens and Toronto are both really great places. But this trip reminded me that I love living in Athens, I choose to live in Athens, and enjoy it for what it is, rather than complain about what it’s not.

So I quickly stopped comparing and focused instead on enjoying my short time in Canada. I needed all my energy reserves to keep warm in the -10 degree weather (!)

My flight landed at 6:00pm on Sunday – whereupon I jumped into my friend’s car, headed straight to MoMa for a glass of wine, and marveled at the relaxed pace and absolutely balmy evening temperatures. I felt well and truly home.

Until next time,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

I was meeting some friends for a coffee, and had decided to meet at our ‘local’ café called Moma. Moma is along the main strip of restaurants on Adrianou Street, around the half-way point, and offers a great menu of ‘modern Greek’ food. Cool design, chilled music and friendly service have made this one of my favourite places in the city.

But Moma has a little surprise. If you ever need a reminder about the nature of the city we live in, I suggest a visit to the bathrooms in Moma. Yes, the bathrooms. The phrase ‘what lies beneath’ comes to mind. We live in a multi-layered, multi-era city, and proof of this is at Moma.

Go for the minimal styling and the great menu – but do make a ‘pit-stop’ while you’re there ;)

Moma
Adrianou 29, Thissio

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

I had signed up for a sailing course which takes you around the Saronic Gulf, mooring up at a different location every evening.

Ooooh……….sorry…. just felt my chair slide to the left. Have been off board for 18 hours now and having acquired my sea legs without even noticing… I guess they take some time to fall off?

Lucky for me, I thought, this RYA course is taught in English – fellow crewmates from other countries have to work in their second language, but I am in my comfort zone of mother-tongue. Ha! Not exactly true my hearties! Boats have a WHOLE different language. Only by Day 3 was I finally getting my head round the fact that the ‘mainsheet’ is not in fact the BIG SAIL, as would seem obviously logical to me mateys, but a rope that controls the boom. And don’t say ‘rope’ in front of my instructor if you don’t want to be sent to the bow to flake the anchor in punishment, cos ‘there are no ropes on a boat, only lines’!

Talking of punishment – if you laugh at my knots I may well clip you round the ear with my rolling hitch. Trouble is, by the time I’ve re-consulted my course book on how to tie it you will be off board and drinking beer in Hydra with our Skipper!

This mind-blowing experience was over too quickly. We were particularly fortunate I feel, as we went through all the weathers – from hot and sunny, millpond water (no air for sails at all), to 6-7 Beaufort - waves breaking over the bow and our sails almost dipping into the sea as we leant over at an impossible angle. I felt so intrepid! So, so exciting….

I will never forget that shared adventure with the excellent company of interesting, intelligent  crewmates and of course our brilliant yachtsman/racer instructor.

I miss my triangular double-bed already! I wanna go back! Thank you to the Aegean Sailing School!!

Thank you Anita for sharing!

Until next week,

Jack
 

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

My nephew is cute, he is very active and he is in many ways a ‘typical’ boy – fascinated with dirt, rocks, animals and throwing things – often in combination.

I was given certain instructions: Bedtime at 9:30, no shoes on the couch, no snacks before bed, etc etc.  No problem.

So we spent the evening playing and running around and making a tent and putting stuff in boxes and then emptying those boxes all over the house and learning to make funny sounds – after all, isn’t that really my job?  And then, as 9:30 approached, I (naively) said to him, “Ok, sleepytime”.

Well, as it turns out, my nephew also has a very strong set of lungs.

I needed a compromise. In a moment of genius, I decided to take him for a walk in his stroller – this would surely work to put him to sleep, as it had many times before.

1 hr later, after walking in circles around the streets of Thiseio, he was still awake. I recalled the many times I told my friends “I love living in the centre – there is always so much action.”  Well, yeah, so much action and so little sleep for a toddler who is fascinated by anything that moves. Including cars, trains, bicycles, and all cats.

Eventually he was asleep. And eventually we were back home.  When his parents returned a while later, we called the evening a success and I offered to do it all again ‘anytime’.  (Did I really say that?!)

It was definitely a lot of work, that much is clear. But it was also tons and tons of fun!

Sunday morning came too soon – but it also brought Sunday shopping and autumn sales. The perfect reward for my ‘Saturday night’ adventure. I must say I was shocked by the number of people out in the city centre – it was beyond busy – and I was so glad about that. 

Saturday night babysitting - a not-to-be-missed adventure ;)

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

Given the above, the decision was made to spend Saturday on the road, with a drive to Euboea and Edipsos as the destination.  Euboea is the island that doesn't feel like an island – it's huge, it's very close to Athens, and you get there by car.  Go figure.  So on Saturday morning I got up early and met some friends for our drive.

First stop was Halkida. If you've never been to Halkida, I suggest you give it a try. A small city, within 90mins of Athens, with a very nice boardwalk along the seaside, lots of nice cafés and restaurants, always busy with people – it's a perfect afternoon out of the city. After our coffee stop, we continued the journey to the north of the island.

The drive to Edipsos took around 3 hrs. We had a bite of lunch and wandered along the seaside walk.  On the way back we took the ferryboat across to the mainland (€24.00 for a car and 2 passengers), and drove back to the city.

At the risk of sounding spoiled, I would give Edipsos a ‘miss’. Maybe it was the off-season feeling, maybe it was the day, but for me there are plenty of other more interesting places to spend a day.  To tell the truth, we didn’t hit any beaches (of which I'm told there are several nice ones!), but the town itself wasn’t among my favourites. It’s nice to have been there, but…

Sunday morning brought the usual need for coffee, so I headed out towards Ermou Street and came across a brand new café that had opened days before. ‘Collage’ is located on the little lane beside the byzantine Kapnikarea church half way down Ermou – walking towards Mitropoloeos St.  The space is cool – huge, industrial, well-designed. They have a nice menu (and food!), and there is lots of attention to detail in the whole place. Add to that a great jazz-inspired soundtrack and friendly service – I felt a real New York vibe. Collage is a definite recommend!

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…