Ellie brings you her impresssions from her trip to her| Pluses: I was so excited to finally go directly to my own apartment, because the previous visits to my country, I was a guest at my relatives' houses. I never minded being with them, because of mutual love, we have for each other, but this time, I was heading to my own studio. Not very big, but all mine. A big room, where upon entering, on the left side, a cute kitchen with lots of cabinets, the bathroom and a good size room, with a huge closet on the right wall from the floor to the ceiling with lots of compartments for all my clothes, and far ahead a two panel door and shutters, that when opened went hiding into the side walls and further on, a huge balcony that overlooked to the cross street giving me a wide view of the apartments, that were on the other side. I enjoyed the greek orthodox liturgy at the neighborhood church. Not any church, the church I attended, when I was a little girl. It was a feeling like no other. Recollecting my girlhood times, when my mother and I would be at the same church, the same spot and those days, there were no seats, you had to stand up, until the end of the mass, and me complaining, that I was tired and my mother telling me to seat on the floor, or other times, at Easter, when she would protect me with her arms, so that my hair would not burn from the people's candles, that were standing around us. It was awesome. these memories and others at other places that were sweet and painful. Meeting my relatives and friends, a joy that you can not explain with words. Making new friends, go shopping to the stores, to the beautiful supermarkets that have all the things we do, but not so huge in size, to the farmer's market that had the freshest fruits and vegetables, also fresh fish and other household goods. |
| Mineses: I arrived at the Athens airport on Friday, that meant the weekend ahead, a big factor to my miserable encounters. Somehow the person, who was supposed to have waited for me at the airport, was not there. Well, I told myself after 1/2 hr of waiting, I will call and find out the reason. Of course, I did not have a calling card(all phones work with the darn things, priced 4 euros each). I went to a place I was pointed to, I bought one and tried to make a call, but to my surprise the card had a fault and did not work. I went back to the place, but the person who sold me the card, refused to exchange the card or give me my money back to buy a new one, because I had taken the card out of its wrapping, I do not know how else I would have known that the card was a faulty one, unless I placed it into the phone without the wrapping. Fortunately, I had enough euros with me, to go to enother place, where I bought another card that worked fine. I made my call and then ended up getting a taxi that brought me to the builder's office, who had my keys. Finally I went to my empty apartment. My second surprise: I turned the faucet and what! no water. The builder's response was,"it is the weekend and everyone has gone away", which meant, no water until monday(3 days without water). I do not have to tell you about the stink that filled the apartment from the bathroom, just use your imagination. My third surprise came Saturday morning, when I tried to get out of the apartment. The security latch was stuck and would not go in or out. It took me about an hour to release what was holding the bar that moved it in and out of the hole(I had no tools with me, on account of the airport security). Now pay attention to what, I will tell you. All of you, who accept brand new apartments from a builder. Make sure in your agreement to include a clause, that the builder will remove and replace the lock that is in the security door, with a brand new one, from a box that will open in front of you, that has a new lock and keys. Otherwise, your security will be complimized at night while you are asleep. The locks that are in the doors have keys that are used by the people, who work to get the apartment ready, and all make copies of these keys, therefore your key is one of many. That is why, you must insist in writing, that you are given a brand new lock from a brand new box opened in front of you. To explain; these people, the workers live in the empty apartments, until the owners arrive to take over. Evidently; someone was using my apartment, and did not know I had taken possession of it, and he came back during the night, to use it, he opened the door with his key, but I had put the security latch and the door did not open, so that person, must have pushed the door to try to open it, and good thing for me the latch got stock and the door did not open for him or for me the next day. I always travel with a security chain, which I installed immediately, for my security and made it known to all, of what had happened to me. Next it was my sleeping bag on the top of the tiles, beleive me, the next day my bones were yelling at me, for the abuse, until my bad arrived I was forced to sleep on the floor, bad,bad decision. Then it was the electricity which I decided not to connect, bacause I had to go to the police station with someone, who would be made responsible for my electric bills, while I was out of the country, to get a sworn paper, to take it to the electric company, a big problem, on account all the people there, are like us, they all work or go to school. So, with no electricity, I could not cook anything. That meant, sandwiches and salads and fruit. Wright now I am so sick of sandwiches, etc. that this alone makes me very happy to be back home. There, the people use a contraption that works with a little can of gas, it is good to make the greek coffee. I used that and managed to cook a few easy recipes. I show them below. Finally, the worst part of my encounters was, that I had an allergy attack. I was sneezing blood every morning and at night I could not breath. In addition to that, my hair started to fall in handfuls by the second day, I was there. At the pharmacy I was able to buy a shampoo, that stopped the falling, a little, but not completely. The reason: Construction. They are tearing down old one family houses and are putting up beautiful apartment houses. A builder was demolishing the house next door and the dust was incredible, also the lot across the street was dug to reinforce the buildings around it, so they could build on it a parking space. In addition, the traffic on the street below, was unbeleivable, you thought you were in New York, when officials are visiting,(motorcyclists,buses,regular cars,trolleys,trucks) you name it, they were all passing through all day. The dust was comming from all sides, incredible. One more thing, which you will read in my open letter below, to the Greek government. |
| 1.Squid:Fresh squids, when you know how to cook them, are quite delicious. One pound fresh Squid, A cup of flour, Two fresh eggs, One cup of sweet red wine, Enough oil to fry the squids. First remove the head with the legs attached, remove the eye from the head. Then carefully with your cooking scissors, without disturbing the insides of the body, you open it, from one end to the other. This will expose the insides of the squid, make sure you do not disturb the ink. Just clean the bad part and sand. You do this for each one individually, then you wash them, again do not disturb the ink. Once washed and placed in the colander to drain the water, you get the eggs ready in another dish. Just beat them a little to get an even consistency. Now, place the oil in the frying pan, place the flour in a dish, and holding each piece, you place it in the egg mixture, then in the flour mixture where you had mixed the desired salt and papper. When each piece is egged and floured completely, you place it in the frying pan and you let it fry on all sides, you will see it getting fluffy and pink. You do that for all the pieces, the legs with the heads and the bodies. When you have all your pieces fried you sort of scrape the burned parts off the frying pan and then you place all the pieces back in the pan. When that is done and all the pieces are reheated again, you pour the wine in the pan, making sure all the pieces have been covered. You let this mixture cook with a small flame for a while, until most of the wine has been absorbed. There you have it, ready to serve, with mash potatoes,rice or whatever you like, salad and some vegetable on the side. |
| 2. Fresh crispy spinach fretata: As much spinach, you need for your family, One to two onions depending on the amount of the spinach, Olive oil enough to fry the onions and the spinach, 1/2 cup of pancake mix, As many eggs for your pancake mix(three/four), Salt and pepper, Any kind of sharp cheese you like(feta,romano,mozzarela,etc), After you have cut off the roots of the spinach, clean the bruised parts, you wash almost each leave individually to make sure there is no deart, then you cut them to size. I removed the stems, because my little gas cooker would have had difficulty cooking them. You do not have to do that, you include everything(stems and leaves), but cut them to size. Then you place them in the colander to wash and drain. Prepare the pancake mix, as you do for the pancakes, but add the salt and pepper and part of the cheese, and some of the oil. Saute the thinly cut onions, until they shine, then place the spinach in the pan, to saute it and let it absorb the onion flavour. Remove the mixture from the pan, put a little of the oil and half of the pancake mixture on the pan, then place the spinach mixture, on top, place the cheese and the rest of the pancake mix on top. Cover your pan and let it cook from one side with a low heat, until it is like your pancakes, crisp. You then cut the mixture in quarters, so it is easy to turn each piece upside down. When you have managed to turn them around with your spatula, you let that side get crispy too. So there you have it, a tasty fretata, that has vitamins from the eggs, cheese, oil, onion, spinach and the flour. |
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I do not know how old are you all, who seat, wherever that is, but I, when
I was a little girl, going to downtown Athens was a big deal. My mother and I had to dress up with our best, gloves and all.
Do you know why? Athens was one of the cleanest cities in Europe.
We were proud to go there, shopping, going to some event, or to our
favorite restaurant. Now going to Athens or getting out of your house is dangerous. I saw people walking in the streets of Athens with sleepers. Nothingwrong with sleepers, it is a point taken to show you, that things have changed. People do not care about their appearance, since their government does not care about the appearance of their beloved city and its citizens that reside in it. Let me make myself clear. Every apartment house in the neiborhoods, and store in the city has a huge carbage can that all people drop their carbage in it, in front of it. This carbage can is emptied at night(nothing wrong with this), but it is never sanitized and the carbage that stays in it all day under the burning sun becomes a boiling source of germs for all who lift the lid to drop their carbage in it(a health hazard). By the end of the day, hundreds of people have breathed these germs, also hundreds of motorcyclists,bus drivers,trolley driver,car drivers; who drive through these streets to go to their business to earn a living are forced to breath the infested with germs air. These citizens have earned rights for a good decent life, but they will not reach tetirement age healthy, by then, they will be ready for the cemetary. Your hospitals are filled with old people, that your doctors can not find their cure. But, all they have to do is to stroll through the streets of Athens and surounding areas to see the cause of the problem. The store owners, who have invested their savings for these beautiful (equal to Fifth ave. of New York) stores are forced to have these huge germ producing cans in front of their stores. One of you should put his thinking cup on, and solve this problem that affects not only the old but the young people, who travel those sidewalks to go to their schools or other activities. I have a suggestion, which you can override with your own, better one. Place those cans close to the poles that light the streets and install electric locks(taking electricity from the poles) on the lids and lock them remotely during the day and release them open for the people to drop their garbage, when the light is turned on at night or whenever you turn the street lights on. Meanwhile, the people can keep their carbage in their place(home,store). Thus, the cans will remain empty during the day, when the sun is hot and destructive. Advise the people to crush and tie flat boxes and place them on the side of the garbage cans. Give severe fines to the violators, until all the people understand; that this is done for their good health. Place big signs on the lid and side of the cans with instructions, regarding the changes. You will also be saving lots of medical expences, keeping your citizens healthy. Thank you for the time you spend reading this letter, I will be greatful, if you act upon it, because I care, I hope that you do too, Ellie. |
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