Rainbow Child

Like a soul without a mind
In a body without a heart
I’m missing every part

Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy

With all this raining, it feels like autumn again. And I’m depressed though I should be having fun. And there are so many sorrys I’d love to say but I’m too proud for that. And so many things to write here but I don’t feel like it anymore. And there’s such a good tea to drink but I’m not at my home to prepare it properly. And this song that keeps on playing on and on. And my imaginary world that met the real world and then collapsed. And the stupid question “When did you kiss last time?” and the answer that shocked me. And the reader’s block that doesn’t want to go away. And the fact that my feet are cold most of the time. And that I’m tired. And scared. And…

I was in my aunt’s living room, we were preparing to go to the airport and I was almost crying cause I didn’t want to leave. I simply loved it there! Well, I loved it as a tourist, but I loved it. The last 2 days there were spent shopping Call me what you like, but I simply couldn’t say no to all those discounts

And now a little summary:

cool, blue, salty sea

people are really friendly *and they liked my hair *

too bad the city’s kind of dirty

the famous stray cats of Athens had been hiding from me

Yeah, I can’t believe I’m back in RO. It really feels funny home. Well, I’m not actually home, but at Roxa‘s *her mum’s sooo cool!!!* I’m going to freeze here in Mures, get wet in my Converse, enjoy a few concerts and have lots of fun with Roxa and Jen . This is what I call a cool summer

P.S. I’m going to the Massive Attack concert in Bucharest! I am going to see them agaaaaaiiiin! Oh, teh love!

I don’t know what exactly I did these last 3 days, but I’ll try to remember

So, on Tuesday, I went to the beach with my aunt. I don’t have postable pics, unless you want to see me or my aunt in bathing suits, which I know you don’t *btw, I hate these kind of pics, but my aunt wanted me to take some with her, so I couldn’t say no, which was kind of OK, but then she wanted to take some with me as well, which wasn’t that OK **shivering** *

Then Tuesday night was concert night! I had arranged with Stelios *very nice Last.fm dude* to met outside the stadium. It was my first concert abroad, so I tried to pay attention to details regarding the organization: nobody checked your bag at the entrance, drinks weren’t more expensive as in the city, the sound was more than excellent *thumbs up for that*. Well, some of the people attending the concert were idiots: they kept throwing plastic glasses full of beer in the air and bottles of water towards the scene. WHY would anyone do such a stupid thing?! No wonder at B’estfest there were no bottles, I’m sure there would have been Romanians throwing them in the crowd as well. Anyways, Massive Attack rocked. No, more than that, they were divine! The concert was simply more than words can say. I know I said that the Nouvelle Vague was this year’s concert *and I still think that, I mean I’ve listened to more NV than MA and I was dying to see them*, but I can easily say that I felt/liked/enjoyed this concert as much as I did with the NV one. I still think about the concert, can’t really get it out of my mind. *Mum’s not going to like this at all, but if I find tickets, I’m sooo going to the MA concert in Bucharest! I reallly, really have to see them again! I want more!!!*

The next morning I was supposed to go to Acropolis, but I couldn’t wake up that early. I was surprised to find out that there are buses that go even during the night! We took a bus to Syntagma and from there I took another to where I’m staying. Yeah, I was really lucky to hang out with Stelios and his friends *those girls were sooo nice! It was 2 in the morning and Rodonthi and I were talking about books! * So, my plans changed and I went to visit some museums. First stop, the National Gallery. I saw a Goya exhibition which I really liked and there were also some Greek painters which caught my eye. From there I went to the Byzantine Art Museum which was OK. Near Plaka I entered a bookstore and bought Extremely loud and incredibly close *awesome book! I’m only at page 80, but I love it!* and a nice shop assistant took me to the Children’s Art Museum. Well, it’s not a normal museum: it’s more like a place that organizes workshops for children and the best drawings etc are on display. But, nonetheless, I liked it a lot and I bought some really nice and colourful things from its shop. The Greek Folk Art Museum was next – I still can’t believe that Greek people wore those costumes! I know that it wasn’t that hot in Greece, let’s say, 70 years ago, but still… They had like 3 blouses on top of each other and then a sort of long stockings under the skirts. Boy, they must have been hot dressed like that! And they wore so many jewels! Yeah, only on festive occasions, but still… Anyways, after that I just wondered around Plaka and Monastiraki and spent a lot of money on I don’t know what, but the hell with that, I’m on holiday, right?

In the evening I met Vasilis *another nice Last.fm dude* and we went for a drink. It was nice going out and talking with somebody close to my age. Don’t get me wrong, my aunt is awesome and we talk about everything, but you know how it is, she’s still my aunt, she’s still much older than I am You get the picture. Too bad I didn’t see him today as well, but who knows in which country will meet again?

Today I met Mr. I, a very good friend of my aunt. I liked him so much! He’s a true gentleman without being exaggerated, he’s intelligent and he was such a nice company, even if we used my aunt as a translator From the brunch we had I went to Acropolis. I’ve never been hotter in my life! The sun was so powerful that I couldn’t spend much time up there. I took a few pictures, wandered around a bit and that was kind of all. I walked to the city centre and entered a bookstore. I was pleased to see that they had quite some translations into English of Greek writers. I bought The third wedding wreath by Costas Taktsis. To tell the truth, I don’t know if his books have been translated into Romanian, but I can hardly wait to read another Greek author besides Kazantzakis *though I’m still sorry that I didn’t buy one of his books that I don’t have*. And, of course, I bought bookmarks, cause you know, I’m a whore this kind of stuff. I still had some money left, so I entered at Zara and bought 2 T-shirts. There are discounts everywhere and so many people are shopping like crazy!

I’m going back tomorrow for another 3 or 4 T-shirts and hopefully I’ll find a proper notebook *in Bucharest they are obscenely expensive; I mean the real cool ones*. I can’t believe I have only 2 more days to spend here. How time flies!

Ps. Please, please, don’t mind the typos, but I’m to tired of rereading the posts. I’ll correct the mistakes once I get back home. Thanks

Yesterday I went by myself at the beach. I can’t believe that at 7:20 I was waiting for the bus to come! By 8 I was at the beach. I thought I was going to be the only one there, being a Sunday early morning, but other crazy Greeks got there before me.

I’m not a big fan of sunbaths so I usually read while at the beach. But this time I was lucky: I met Mika. She’s a senior *I have no idea how old she is, cause she’s looking really good for her age, whatever that is* with blond hair, incredible body and a lot of charm. She’s from Switzerland, but she’s been living in Athens for 29 years! She was married to an USA marine officer and lived in the American base in Athens, but unfortunately, her husband died 9 years after their marriage. She remained here though, but she still goes every year back to Geneva where she has family. Oh, by the way, she takes care of 15!!! cats Gotta love Mika! We liked each other instantly and then spent 2h talking about so many things. I’ve got her phone number and I can hardly wait to met her again!

Then in the afternoon I went with my aunt to Lycabettus Hill. The view from there is more than impressive! Athens is a HUGE city! I kept staring at the view in front of me and couldn’t believe my eyes! Streets after streets, buildings after buildings! I’m still under the spell of the hugeness of the city! Athens was everywhere you looked from up there. Truly impressive!

Today we went second hand shopping and with 13 euro I bought like 2 pairs of jeans, 2 of pants, 2 skirts and 3 T-shirts. I have to thank my aunt for showing me all these cool places Speaking of which, we get along really well and we talk about stuff and we eat vegetarian food and if I don’t feel like eating she let’s me have only water melon, so yeah, she’s cool!

I was supposed to meet with Pia this afternoon, but she didn’t answered her phone, so I have no idea what I’ll be doing. Until Pia sees my message, I’ll just go to the Internet cafe near home. Keep you updated!

This Friday wasn’t at all eventful. I went with my aunt to the beach and for the first time in my life I didn’t get sunburnt. The sea is so beautiful, calm and salty! Now wonder even Mum was able to swim here My aunt goes to a part of the beach were there are mostly old people. It was OK, no one staring, no one making stupid jokes, I felt at ease there. And I was impressed when I saw all those 70-year-old people swimming and my aunt told me that some of them go almost every day to the beach. There was this man who went swimming and took his crane with him, so he could get out of the water!!! I was speechless.

Tomorrow’s another sea-day, but this time I’ll be on my own. Hope I won’t get killed by some angry Athenian woman on the bus I thought that Bucharest people were aggressive and like to shout at each other on the street/in the bus etc, but Athenians are worse! It’s good that I don’t understand what they shout, I wouldn’t like to hear them curse at each other. Crazy people!

Today was a real tiring day. I woke up at 8:30, took a shower and by 9:30 I was out of the house. I was curious to see how close to the city centre we really are. Verdict: about 35 minutes of strolling. Cool! On my way to Syntagma I made a stop at two museums: The Museum of Cycladic Art and Benaki Museum. The Benaki Museum is very nice! You can see exhibits starting from Ancient Greece and up to the forming of the modern Greek state. Too bad they don’t allow visitors to take pictures. I spent more that 1:30h there and I didn’t want to leave. I walked up and down the corridors with the hands in my pockets cause the temptation of touching some of the exhibits was way too powerful! Imagine, standing face to face with a sculpture that was made 2-3 centuries B.C. It’s now wonder I’ve always liked history: I’m in awe when it comes to all these things Man made and survived up to this age; I feel so small, so insignificant compared to Man across the centuries.

Like usual, I didn’t have an itinerary, and I just kept on walking where my feet took me. From the museums I went to buy the ticket for the Fly Beeyond Festival. A group of 3 Americans stopped me on the street and asked how could they get to Acropolis and I felt damn good when I was able to help them! Then I was on my way to where my aunt told me I’d find the music shop. Well, I was walking for some time on that street and no music shop, so I stopped the guy with dreadlocks which was walking in from of me:
- Hello, do you know where I can buy tickets for the Fly Beeyond Festival?
He started laughing:
- I’m buying tickets myself. Follow me!
So I did. We talked about Athens, Bucharest, the difference between the two, music festivals until we arrived at Ianos, music and book shop. Well, they sent us to another music shop so we continued our talk. I had to give my full name and my phone number at the tickets selling point and I found out that if you buy 2 tickets, you get on free. That’s never going to happen in Romania! Never! Well, 55 euros for Massive Attack and Gogol Bordelo is not a fortune and I can hardly wait for the fest to start! ^_^ Then I said good-bye to the nice dude and I was once again on my way.

Syntagma is kind of a fancy street so I headed to Monastiraki. Oh, before that I entered some book shops. What can I say? WOW! Carturesti and Humanitas Kretzulescu are nice, but these ones were more than nice; and I still have one more big book store to see. So, I spent another hour or so walking on some shopping street in Monastiraki. There are sooo many shops there! I’m trying not to be impulsive and buy whatever I lay eyes on, but it’s kind of hard. From Monastiraki I went and took a short walk in the National Park near the Parliament and then went home. It was past 3:30 when I arrived. I ate, took a shower and went to bed. Man, was I tired! I’m still not jumpy even now, but I have to pull myself together and get down to work. Sucky, I know.

2 girls smiled at me today and I people don’t stare like they do in Bucharest. And one guy stopped me on the street:
- Wow, cool hair!
- Thanks!
- Do you like mine?
- Uhm, yours is OK too *what a silly haircut!*
- Keep it real!
- I’ll try!

Yeah, Greeks are nice. Crazy, but nice