One My Own Again...

After being here for 10 day my Mom and sister are gone. I dropped them off at the bus stop this morning. It was really sad to see them leave. We had a great time, and it definately made my holidays to have them here. I am glad that my Mom is spending New Year's with Randy but I miss them already...

Thoughts

As the end of the semester draw closer to the end, I have to many thoughts running through my head...

...What will next semester be like? Who will I be friends with?

...I want to go home, see my friends and family. Drive my little baby car, cuddle with my puppy and kitties, be able to eaves drop on conversations as a walk through a public place.

...I want to see Michael, to be held, to share a New Year kiss.

...I really ought to start on my educaton degree back at Concordia.

Thoughts are just a constant background noise inside my head, forever circulating. When ever someone talked about going home, or thier Christmas plans it makes me sad. I want to go home, I want to do the annul Christmas marathon of family.

I watched Love Actually last night. The begining and end of the movie are scenes of people greeting each other at the airport. I cant wait until I set off the escalator on Mayb 20th and see my family standing there waiting to embrace me, to take me home - where I belong.

Garbagemen Strike

This is the dumpster that is right outside of my apartment. In the top picture you can see the door into the apartment building on the right. It is huge, and it is one of the smaller piles. It smells... uhg.

On a happy note, I dont smell anymore because the water heater is fixed. Yeah!

Louve

So before going to Louve, I had heard people say that it was big and that you could spend an entire day there or at least hours. I thought they were crazy, who would want to spend the entire day at one Museum? Well I did now anticipate the Louve to be so big... it was huge. I was amazed! And the art there, amazing! I mean it out to be though if you are going to steal art from other countries and cultures you might as well take the best, right?
I believe this is Eros and Psyche. I found it to be stunning in real life, although as usual it doesnt come out as much in the picture. It is just such a tender, passionate love.

Nike of Samothrace. I learned in my art history class yesterday that Livy didnt consider this to be art. I guess that in its original location it was on a ship in the middle of a body of water. and the lights would reflect up on it. Livy didnt like his sense interacting while observing art and he didnt like it to be to realistic.

I thought these guys were pretty cool. We saw too, they were copying the paintings. The other one that we saw (but couldnt take apicture of) her painted was better because the colors were faded and it brought so much more the painting.

...Oh the Mona Lisa. What a dissapointment.

Yes, Victory Leading the People. You have to love it!

We spent a goof coupe of hours at the Louve before heading off the Orange Museum and then to lunch. It was a nice place but we kept getting lost and stuck in certain spots. So we were desperate to get out after having been stuck in the sculpture sections and missed Rembrant. But that is ok.

Monet at the Orange Museum

They were so amazing. They had two oval shaped rooms that each had 4 mural paintings. They were so beautiful, relaxing, thought inspiring. We just sat there relaxing out tired feet.

Afterwards we went to grab some lunch and I had my first bowl of French Onion Soup. It was very hardy, I liked it but the onions looks like worms or leeches or something and that kind of freaked me out. But I ate it anyway.

Paris! Part II

Ok, a little out of order...

The Seine River. It was cold outside, so I didnt think much of it. But I am sure that it was great in all of its glories.
SO, at the end of the gardens that are next to the Louve there is a very cute Christmas Bazzaar that we went to twice. It was soo cute and the food that we had there was great. We had Hot Spiced Wine and Chocolate cover Merengue blobs. This picture is one of the bother - we didnt get out food there but we got out food from the sister booth - but inside the vat next to the Elf is cheesy Potatoes and Ham. It reminded me of the dish that my Mom makes, but they used a different kind of cheese.

An example of the Christmas decorations. They had lights everywhere, including the side streets that werent even near the ehart of the city.

The Arch, again I was cold and after I took this picture ducked into a Mc D's and ordered a Cappiccino!

This is at Notre Dame, I lit a candle.

So Thursday night we arrived in the city and then met Ethan's Family for Thanksgiving dinner. We went to this cute little bistro and had amazing food! We had snails instead of turkey though!

Paris!

So Morgan and I were walking back to the hostel one evening and we ran into a little street market. We were in awe at all the yummy breads!
This is the dessert table. We didnt actually buy anything from this table (we split a sausage) but they all looked so good, I think that I could have had one of everything!

On Saturday Morning we went to Notre Dame. It was ominous, I can describe it in no other way. It was so beautiful, but I was slightly ticked off at all the visitors that were unrestrained (by themselves and the gaurds) they had the flashes going and were talking pretty loud (at least I thought so). I would have thought that they would have respected this little old lady praying in one of the side chapel places, but no someone took a picture of her praying and all kept talking.

Outside Notre Dame, the doors were so pretty, I just had to get a picture with it as the background!

Saturday night we met up with Ethan's family (that is Morgan's boyfriend) for dinner. Their hotel is near the Eiffel Tower so we met at the Eiffel Tower and then went to dinner. It was cool, but I mean it is just a hunk of metal.

Our Trip back to Greece was short, we both passed out as soon as we sat down. We didnt even notice the plane take off! The trip was great!

Hania (!), Crete

While still in Iraklion we searched desperately through our guide books looking for a place to stay in Hania. I was looking through Pension Rea's guide book and saw a star by the description to Pension Nora - a little"turkish house" turned into a hotel. I called to ask how much a room would be and we booked, thinking that it couldnt be worse than the public bathrooms at Pension Rea.

We get to our street and a cute little man looks at us then to the suitcases and asks "Kaite?" We say yes and follow him around the corner (I know sounds a little sketch - it totally wasnt!) and through old, paint chipped double doors, up 2 flights of stairs and down the hall into room number 5. I cant describe the room to you, only homey pops into my mind. It was amazing! A mixture of blues, creams, golds; wood was every where no marble in sight! After the hotel owner left our roon we all totally pulled a "I am a teenage girl in a chick flick movie" move and started jumping up and holding each other hands, yelping. It would have been funny to watch us.(The view out our window)
We took a nap after out teenage girl moment. Kaylee had the biggest bed and didnt want to sleep alone so we all slept in the bed together! It was fun! You cant see me but I am the middle lump of legs...

At the beach, it was really freaking cold! This is one of Morgan's favorite pictures of me because I am doing me "Kaite is turning into a Kaite-sickle" face on. I tell you my feet were frozen, Morgan and Kaylee were fine though...

At the beach...

The light house that we walked by when we walked up the pier which we did every time we wanted to go somewhere. It was really pretty.

Hania was pretty, but it was a skeleton of what it looks like in the summer. It was like a ghost town, quiet and few people on the street. I would love to go back in September when tourism is still in high season but the weather is nice.

Saturday Baking\Cooking Fun

The Pictures are out of order - you know what to do! : D

Saturday Kaylee, Morgan and I made: T'ziki sause, Mashed Potaote Hotdish, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Carmel Bailey's Truffels.
The final product, after almost 3 hours of work we say down to a delicious meal. It was great.

I am crying as i cut the second onion...

Kaylee and Morgan mashing the baked potatoe. They are offically experts at mashing potates!

Morgan stirring the heavy cream and bailey's that turned into truffels after 24 hours.

The Chocolate Chip Cookies. See the pastic bags with sharpie letters on them... My mom sent me pre-measured ingredients. It was perfect. It was interesting though because as you can see I had to melt the butter on the stove, so when i poured it it was hot and so the dough was really warm. It changed the composition of th dough because i kept adding flour so that it wouldnt be so sticky!

A Bird Eye View of Athens

It was a hike to the tallest hill\moutain that surrounds Athens. We walked across town and then the ascent began. We climbed I dont know how many blocks worth of stairs - but at least 5 I would have to say. Then we got to the base of the hill\mountain. We bought out tickets to take the trolley thing up - it was scary. I was sure that the cable would snap and we would go crashing to our deaths - but I live to tell the tale. It was a bright but foggy\misty day. Even though you couldnt see very far, it was beautiful. Athens is an alarmingly large city, i didnt think it was as big as it is - all I could say was WOW!
The Pananthenaic Stadium. As you know I live right behind it - yeah Pagrati!

The Acropolis. I know that it is hard to see it wasnt a clear day.

Beautiful Athens...

The Pagrati Mc Donalds

On our way home from class today, Morgan and I decided that we sould stop into the local Mc Donalds before parting (she had class and I had volunteering to do). We stopped in with innocent intentions to only buy cheap coffee. But we were horribly side tracked by the Euro menu... so we decided to have an early lunch. Burgers and a shake!

It hit the spot, I havent had "american" food since I left America. Because even the things like Coke and Snickers taste just a little different because they use different ingredients here. (Like real sugar cane or ceal coco powder.)

Knosses, Crete

Me standing next to a reconstruction in the Minoan Palace. Looking at my outfit I look like an Austian adventurer... hmm I dont know how I feel about that.

Kaylee and I in a procession. You knw how those anceints like thier processions.

The epic battle scene depicted in the rare multi colors marble.

Kaylee, Morgan and I, with the Mountain as a backdrop.

Kaylee and Morgan.

Crete I

Morgan, Kaylee and I took an overnight ferry to Crete. We had Laymans tickets - so the good news was were were exposed to the elements but the bad news was we were with the other laymen... to say the least it was gross. (Good Morning!)

We arrived in Crete Thursday morning at 5am. So we sat on the deck of a cafe on the beach, we watched the sun rise on the ocean and mountains. It was beautiful, and crisp.

Our hotel opened at 8am so we arrived promptly and crashed for a few hours. Then we went to Knossos (see other post). FREAKING AMAZING!

I (actually we all did) loved Iraklion. Most of the Greeks dont like the city, but that is probably because it is a city on an Island and not a islant town on a island. I loved the cute shops and the square. I had the best chocolate there, it was Tiramisou. Oh and the Bougatsa! Ah, they certainly know how to treat the palate! (Kaylee, Morgan and I in front of Four Lion Fount in Four Lion Square.)

Thursday night we ate at The Mexican. It hit the spot. I had chicken enchiladas - OMG, I thought I might melt. It was so good.

So our hotel... to say the least it was FREEZING. I slept in: sweatpants, a sweater, 2 pairs of socks and a hat that is "child size" but is so big on my head that is goes down to the tip of my nose. Then I was using 3 blankets - I was warm but the room was soo cold. Next topic of the hotel, it had a public bathroon. This was my first encounter with a public bathroom and I am hoping that they can remain few...

On Friday we searched for the (lost) Palace of Malia. No it really isnt lost, we just coulndt find it. We spent an hour and a half looking for this pile of rubble and never found it. We did find the beach, and I went to see if the water was cool but instead of only dipping my fingers in I under estimated the wave and it got my entire foot plus part of my leg. (Kaylee and Morgan waiting for the bus to take us back to Iraklion.)

Then we ventured to Hania...

Crazy Europeans and Thier Soccer!

Uhm... yeah it was insane. they sang and chanted then entire 95 minutes of the game. They had flares that were burning in the stadium, they threw stuff on the field when the opposing team scored a point and if they didnt like the reff opinion of something... yeah they are crazy.

SO, it is hard to see but they are waving flags and chanting...

Yeah - I told you there were flares - they lit them at the begining of the game and when Olympiacos scored a point.

The end of the game, look closely you will see a variety of garbage thrown!

Yeah I'm Getting Fat...

SO, I have started to exercise on top of all the crazy distances I walk on a daily baises! I walk on the paths that are behind the Pan. Stadium - there are some amazing views - and run on the track at the stadium. I cant wait until I get the box with my running shoes - my feet will hurt less than.

The View from of the Acropolis (zoomed in).

The view of the Acropolis.

My future house. : )