Week 27 - Brunch & Snow

Adventures in Greece as we pursue the dream of buying a boat and cruising the Mediterranean.

With our new set of criteria and new list of potential boats, things have gone well! Turns out that the new number one choice is actually available, here in Athens and we can probably afford it, so we’re off to inspect on Monday (tomorrow) morning which will be exciting. We know enough now to not get too carried away, but it does seem a lot more promising than other boats — time kills deals and the owner has been very quick at coming forward with everything we’ve asked for.

It was an exciting week for everyone here in Athens because it snowed heavily. While snow isn’t that unusual (it’s common to get a snowfall one or two days a year), having it stick around on the ground is! Normally it falls and melts straight away, but we had what was the heaviest snowfall here in almost 40 years, about 20–25 centimetres of snow in central Athens. It made for a real wonderland of amazing sights to see and I really enjoyed getting out and exploring while Karina enjoyed staying inside with the dog, where it was nice and warm.

We knew that Tuesday (when the snow fell) was going to be the coldest day in a while, so we invited Ester and Jake to come join us for brunch — unfortunately they don’t have good heating in the place they are staying, so we thought they’d appreciate the opportunity to warm up!

It was Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) which we’d forgotten about until Jake reminded us, but that was fine because our go-to brunch breakfast is pancakes (crepes) anyway, so we were set! Afterwards we played monopoly, I think the new rules are designed to make it a bit more cutthroat and faster than the classic, we finished in about an hour and a half, some kind of record I think!

Of course with the typical warm weather here, the snow didn’t last long at all and by the afternoon had already started to disappear from the roads. On Wednesday it was up around 12C and it all melted very quickly, and by Thursday there really wasn’t any more to be seen.

On Wednesday night there was a lot of local neighbourhood drama. We heard a huge explosion and Karina saw a fireball go up into the air behind the buildings across from our balcony. I walked out and just around the corner there was burning material on the ground and a large crowd of people milling around and staring. Within 5 minutes there were cops everywhere, also standing around and probably wondering where they could buy coffee with all the shops closed.

It turns out the building that was targeted is the headquarters of a fashion business formerly owned by the Prime Minister’s wife, so it was clearly some sort of political statement, probably related to the student protests last week. It made the local newspaper anyway! https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1155392/former-offices-of-fashion-house-zeus-amp-dione-targeted-with-gas-canisters/

On Thursday we headed over to Lidl — it’s the first large supermarket we’ve visited since we’ve been here, all the ones in the centre are fairly small. While not quite a tourist attraction, anything new is a joy at the moment with the amount we’ve explored the local area. Such is life in lockdown, visiting a brand new supermarket is more exciting than seeing the Acropolis for the 10th time that day!

Until next time,

Tim & Karina