It feels like autumn here!

Good morning!

I would have loved to match your spring posting with one from Cyprus and I was planning to put pictures of my flowers from my verandas, but the weather here this week is more like autumn than like spring: it is cloudy and cold and it rains from time to time.... Despite this, my lavender is full of flowers - I was startled when I saw it, picture will be provided over the weekend - and my cactuses also have flowers. But the bougenvilias, the hybiskus' and the jasmin are very much behind.... They now have small new leaves and I hope they'll be in full bloom by the end of April when my mother, sister and friends will be here for the baptism.

Seattle! One of the most exciting things you can do there is to take a boat trip from a small town with a harbour north of Seattle and go our through the straights of the San Juan islands into the Pacific ocean to see the orca whales travelling to warmer waters. It takes a full day, but it is well worth it! The boat follows the whales from a distance but you can clearly see them swimming in and out of the sea. At the end of the trip, our boat sped up, went ahead and stopped on the path of the whales. The captain switched off the engine and we were waiting... when the whales arrived near the boat, they surfaced IN FRONT OF US and dived again, passing right under the boat! It was one of the most exciting pictures in my life, to see the mother whale and the baby into the green waters passing under the boat! I remember that I screemed. You will see also sea lions, bald eagles, seals, etc... but seeing the whales is the most exciting part of the trip.

My cough still persists, so I tried the onion and honey medicine: thinly sliced onion with honey in a jar; after a few hours there is a thin liquid on top; I take one spoonful three times a day. It seems to work!

Bahar geldi - Spring time!!!! ~Ç

Typical of me, i couldn't search, write and post what i want... And for today for the first day of beautiful April, i am going to fill our blog with flowers! However i should mention about "Marginal" - it has really a different approach to flower arrangements in terms of colours and decorations....

http://www.marginalflowers.com/main.htm

I discovered Marginal looking a flower arrangement for the engagament ceremony of one of my relatives... A very close friend of mine recommended the florist and instead of ordering on the phone, i would like to see at place and it was a very good decision!!

This beatiful setting was easily made of from their advertorial CD, the glass of water the shop owner brought me when i asked to drink water and the vase already there. Incredibly grace....

I also bought a twin-set of "sümbül" hyacinth, for the first and 60th birthday celebration of my mother... Normally she doesn't celebrate it, but my cousin's wife prepared a surprise for her!

And these are the lovely pink hyacinths....

• "Welcome to Spring! "
  
  

I just read the notes you put under the picture. I don't know if you'll believe it, but my first guess as to who your mother was, was correct! My first choice was the girl in the middle... second after the drum player, as you say... Then I searched again and found your younger aunt. They look very much alike I think, so I chose her.

Dear Çiğdem,

your last posting and the picture really moved me! I don't really find any more words to say, other than to thank you for sharing the picture with me! I tried to find who your mother is on the picture. Is she standing second from left?

My maternal grandfather was born in Avdira, very close to Thalassia, as you can see on the map! Next time you are over, we'll go to both villages!

Today, after the celebration mass and the small reception, I went to Izmailovo park, which is the flee market of Moscow. Although the articles they sell nowadays are mostly commercial, one can still find beautiful handmade things. Among the things you would have liked: siberian cashmere shawls (hand knitted in lace patterns), hand painted plates from Uzbekistan, in beautiful blue colours and geometrical patterns (they brought in my mind the tiles in the beautiful old mosque Kalliopi and I visited in Skoutari - Uskudar, but I don't remember its name now...)

Speaking of Uskudar, a few weeks ago I came across the latest copy of Saveur magazine and read the article about the 100 best things they selected. Among them there was the Çiya Sofrasi restaurant in Uskudar, which was described as serving authentic turkish cuisine and was highly recommended. I found many more references and articles in the internet on the restaurant and its owner and chef. Have you ever been there? Next time I am over, we should go.

The week will be stressful and busy! On Thursday I hope to return to Greece, after almost four weeks in cold Moscow!

March, 25 1950s ~Ç

( the second line of the students; the blonde girl, second on the left is my little aunt, my mum is the second girl on the right after the guy with drum, and older aunt is standing on the right of my mum after another girl, she has two hair braids)

This is very interesting example from the daily life of ordinary people in the history of two countries: My mom, two aunts and their best friends - like blood sister as they say "ahiret kardeş". "Ahiret" means the life after death which refers that their friendship is forever,- family members and almost all the village... People of Tıkızlı (Thallasia) Village Turkish Primary School, are celebrating March 25, independence day of Greece as far as i know from Ottoman Empire ! :)

I found this picture, while i were digging for my older aunt (büyük teyze)' s photos for her grandchild's third birthday :) I prepared a custom-made book for her as "Hilal's third year book"..

Greetings from Moscow!

Καλησπέρα Çiğdem!

After I read your very nice posting, I made a cup of hot water, honey and lemon, which I am now drinking while writing this.

I am glad that I reminded your mom and aunts of the Μάρτη. Let's remember to make it for ourselves and put it on next March.

It is my third week in Mosow! I am very busy with work (sometimes staying up till 4 am) and I was again sick, this time with fever. After a few days of trying to fight it alone, I eventually went to the doctor, who gave me 4 types of medication. It still took one week to pass! I am not fully recovered, but I feel better. This winter has been particularly difficult!

I had forgotten the βεντούζες (şişe çekmek) till I read your posting! I never had them on me, but my grandmother - and later I - did this for my mother, when she had bad colds in the winter. In fact, now that I remember it, my mom used to say that the best technique was that of our great aunt Pagona - the aunt of my grandmother. After some time of simply heating the glasses and putting them on the skin, she used to move the last ones up and down, till they came off by themselves. I used to be very afraid of the whole ritual when I was watching my grandmother, but once I had to do it myself for my mother I did not feel it was so difficult. Now that I feel tired from work and from coughing, I wish I could have one session of βεντούζες!

I think that Moscow is a very peculiar city, but I can't really explain why.

The Kremlin is a mythical structure! I have seen it only from the outside, but I am always impressed by the towers (each has a different shape), the colours (brick red and green) and the church domes inside and around it.

Another paradox is the Red Square, which is far smaller than what it seems in the soviet parade videos. When I first saw it, two years ago, it was at night, it was empty, the cedars along the walls of the Kremlin were full of snow and the clock was ringing 9 pm - it has a very soft tone. I thought I was in a fairy tale...

The churches of Moscow are beautiful buildings, each with its own style, decoration, colours... St. Basil's at the end of the Red Square, seems like a toy.

I am thinking of photographing them in the summer. The two themes I will shoot in Moscow are the churches and the Kremlin towers.

On the other hand, you see many ugly buildings made of concrete. There are boulevards inside the city having seven lanes each way, a strip with trees in the middle and a side road with two lanes each way! The same extremes you find in people....

Anyway, on Saturday evening I went to the Novodevichiy convent, which is inside the city. It was the time of the Saturday vespers and there was a very harmonic women's choir. I enjoyed the mass. Tomorrow I am invited at the reception in our embassy for our independence day, which is on the 25th of March. And on Sunday I will go to the mass service for our independence day...

On the 25th of March we traditionally make fried cod fish in batter and serve it with yogourt garlic sauce. This is an exception during the 40 day fasting period before Easter. There are variations of the yogourt garlic sauce. My grandmother made it with smashed garlic, yogourt, dried bread crumbs, walnuts pounded in the mortar, salt and olive oil. Just mix well and serve with the hot fried fish pieces. Usually in our house the sauce finishes first, before the fish.

Kalliopi posted a nice comment about the kourambiedes, we thank her! I am not sure what she thinks about the βεντούζες (şişe çekmek)!

I hope you will have access to the internet when you are in the US!

Καληνύχτα!

Miscallenous .... ~Ç

Geçmiş olsun ( get well soon) Katerina’cım...

I feel that I cannot catch the pace of our Arakhnes... Last week – i must say the week before- i intented to write about LMV, childhood – as the theme of my “ex”-company’s year end meeting and all free associations came to my mind .... (I have written this 3 weeks ago! :()

Then, I had to complete Love was everywhere, then reply to your Vien-Greek writing...
Personally I am in a period “leave-move-change-start” and i thought to write sthing about this.. Then I saw you are sick... your home made remedies are very interesting and i wanted to write about it- OFFF... a lot of things to do, even for pleasure.

Anyway .... let’s move spontaneously... First remedies.. While I am writing these, i have cold too....

1- Echinesia
2- Hot water-honey-lemon
3- Hot milk-honey-ginger
4- Onion/sugar/honey... this is an impactful recipe especially for children recommended by a member of my yahoo group “Hayattan Renkler / Colours of Life” however i lost it...

However the most original one is “şişe çekmek”... You heat little glasses and put to the back and push it back like a vacuum.. I do believe you have the same.

In Turkiye we have a naturalist, spritual healer as it is called "Lokman Hekim-the arabic version of doctor-" which i heard for the first time printed on a classic yearly wall-calendar. I should go further on it..

Finally, as I shared you thru e-mails I “moved”. Moved from job to school and a free lance job, moved from my own flat to mother’s.... It’s not a move literally but a move for me in: April you know i am going to “fly” to States for 4-6 weeks...

This chest / box ( Pandora’s chest ) is a farewell present from my beloved ex-colleagues... It is almost specially designed for Arakhnes: they put in it; 3 yumak and a şiş; a beautiful set of a knitted bonnet and atkı; Candan Erçetin’s CD which you will get a copy asap, the books i gave them to read...

Although the original Pandora’s box is full of “negatives” I continue to perceive it something has a lot of surprises... So, this lovely lily-flowered chest is for me a symbol of past ( the books), today ( the CD, and hat and atkı) and the future ( the knitting set as a source of future knitting projects ) and reserves many things in it. I loved it!

March is quite important month for me... My birthday is 12 of it :) I checked your Μάρτης :)My mother remenbered it and she said: "Yes, we were making Mart ipi-March string- but i don't remember what does it for, let's ask your aunt!" My elder aunt as i call her Büyük Teyze explained it as the same you wrote. And my other aunt, she remembered to and decided to make a one our families the newest member, her grand-child a 11-months girl!

I want to prepare a special posting for March as soon as i found some time...

Other issues "coming soon" our recipes from Cpyrus visit :), the flowers... Aşure... if i also could add to the previous ones as i have already written :(

Love.

Kourambiedes, a recipe from an Alexandrian lady

Returing to cooking after Kavafis' poem, the first recipe I thought appropriate is the one I am using for kourambiedes. It belonged to a lady from Alexandria I met in America many years ago and was given to me by her daughter.

I used this recipe many many times over the years, mainly for giving the sweets as a gift. It never failed me!

Kourambiedes
(recipe of Mrs. Athineou)

Ingredients

250 gr. pure butter, softened (leave it out of the refrigerator till it is soft)
1 cup of powdered sugar
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons of cognac (it can be replaced by vanilla powder)
150-200 gr. roasted almonds
flour (about 800 gr. , as much as the dough will take, i.e. "judge by the eye" as we say)
powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

In a bowl mix the butter with the sugar and beat well till the mixture becomes fluffy (you can use the mixer, I do it with a rubber spatula). Add the egg and beat well. Add the cognac or vanilla and mix. Add the almonds.

Add flour and start working it in, till the dough is soft and can be shaped.

Shape in half moons. Place on a lightly greased oven tray and bake atabout 160 degrees C till they are golden.

Brush with water and sprinkle with a lot of powdered sugar.

Καλή Επιτυχία!
(meaning Good Luck; my mother always writes this phrase at the end of the recipes she copied in her recipe book and the ones she sents to me over the years. )

I should note that I make these kourambiedes to some friends in Italy every time I go to see them for the last 15 years. They love them! Sometimes the sweets turn out to be a little overbaked, sometimes they have less almonds, often I don't use the exact recipe measures, but every time these friends find them better than the previous time and ask me what is the secret! It is a great satisfaction for me to hear their comments: "they absorb just enough when they are immersed in espresso", "the butter flavour is more pronunced than last time", the almonds are more cooked", ... Every time they find something original to say!

Dedicated to Çiğdem for Her New Ventures

Dedicating Kavafis' poem ΙΘΑΚΗ (Ithaka) to Çiğdem

for her new endeavours!

May the journey be as rewarding as the destination!

While I was looking for a good English translation for this poem - one of the most known, most cited and most loved in Greece - I found a picture of the manuscript!!!!


Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Trans. Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

Two sites of interest for Καβάφη, the Alexandrian poet, are:

http://cavafis.compupress.gr/

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/galleries/Exhibits/cavafy/intro.html

A Poem by Seferis in Four Languages

I recently re-read Seferis' poetry and thought of copying one of his poems here.

Although this poem is part of one of his most famous collection of poems - ΜΥΘΙΣΤΟΡΗΜΑ (Mithisto'rema, Mythical Narration), written in 1935- I had not noticed it till the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympiad, which I thought was a magical work of art. The poem was read just before this moment:


The French translation is by Jacques Lacarrière (a writer himself and a friend of Seferis) and Egéri Makrakis. I don't know the English and Italian translators.

ΜΥΘΙΣΤΟΡΗΜΑ
Γ’

Ξύπνησα με το μαρμάρινο τούτο κεφάλι στα χέρια
που μού εξαντλεί τους αγκώνες και δεν ξέρω πού να τ’ ακουμπήσω.
Έπεφτε στο όνειρο καθώς έβγαινα από το όνειρο
έτσι ενώθηκε η ζωή μας και θα είναι πολύ δύσκολο να ξαναχωρίσει.

Κοιτάζω τα μάτια· μήτε ανοιχτά μήτε κλειστά
μιλώ στο στόμα που όλο γυρεύει να μιλήσει
κρατώ τα μάγουλα που ξεπέρασαν το δέρμα.
Δεν έχω άλλη δύναμη·
τα χέρια μου χάνουνται και με πλησιάζουν
ακρωτηριασμένα.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mi sono svegliato con questa testa di marmo tra le mani
che mi stanca i gomiti e non so dove posarla.
Cadeva nel sogno mentre uscivo dal sogno
così le nostre vite si sono confuse
e sarà difficile assai separarle ancora.

Guardo gli occhi; né aperti né chiusi
parlo alla bocca che sta sempre sul punto di parlare
reggo gli zigomi che hanno trapassato la pelle.
La forza m'abbandona;
le mie mani si smarriscono e tornano mutile a me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I awoke with this marble head in my hands
which exhausts my elbows and I do not know where to set it down.
It was falling into the dream as I was coming out of the dream
so our lives joined and it will be very difficult to part them.

I look at the eyes: neither open nor closed
I speak to the mouth which keeps trying to speak
I hold the cheeks which have passed beyond the skin.
I have no more strength.
My hands disappear and come back to me
mutilated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Je me suis réveillé, entre les mains cette tête de marbre
Qui épuise mes coudes et où donc la poserai-je?
Elle tombait dans le rêve comme je sortais du rêve :
Ainsi se sont jointes nos vies et il serait très dur de les dissocier.

Je regarde les yeux : ni ouverts ni fermés.
Je parle à la bouche qui sans cesse essaie de parler,
Je soulève les pommettes qui ont percé la peau.
Je n’en peux plus.

Mes mains se perdent et me reviennent,
Mutilées.

Μάρτης (March string bracelet)

We have a custom, which we were following as children but it tends to be forgotten nowadays.

On the 1st of March the children are given a string bracelet - we call Μάρτη (i.e. March), made of two colours of strings: red and white. The two strings are twisted many times tightly and then tied around the wrist of the child. The child wears the Μάρτη during the whole month of March. The bracelet is supposed to protect from the sun who becomes stronger, as srping approaches. At the end of March the bracelet is cut off and the child should throw it on a roof, so that the swallows take it and use it to build their nest.

My maternal grand mother (Anneannemin) was making the Μάρτη for us.

I remembered this custom today, as a lady came into the shop and bought cotton perlé to make the Μάρτη. She bought red and white but also a turquoise cotton perlé, to blend with the red and white... It was the first time I heard of the turquoise in the Μάρτη. I assume it will be for the bad eye.

Do you have something similar?

Pictures of our home towns

A very beautiful picture of the mosque at Ortaköy - my close friend of many years Maria, who liked very much our ΑΡΑΧΝΕΣ, found it in the ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ newspaper and sent it to me ...


... and part of the view from our house in Kavala... I have taken this picture many times, since every time I have the impression that it is more beatiful than before...

Traditional home remedies for the cold

Kalispera!

I have been quite sick these days: a bad cold, cough, blocked chest, aches, etc... I don't like to take strong medication for the cold and I usually try to let it have its cycle and pass on its own. It takes a long time, though, and I usually get much worse before I get better. This time I remembered some traditional home remedies - foods I should rather say - and had them. I really feel they helped a lot, eased my cough and blocked nose.

Yogurt with garlic: I heard this from a Serbian colleague and since I like both garlic and yogurt, I decided to try it. I just crashed a lot of garlic into yogurt and ate it. It may be bad for the breath, but it is excellent for the cold! I now read that it is good for faryngitis and laryngytis, the common cold and fever. In Greece we know that garlic - and onion - is good for the heart. In fact, I was told that my grandfather - the one from Χειλή (Şile) - used to swallow one clove of garlic every day.

Latte caramellato: an italian traditional home medicine for the cough. You put several (3-4 or more if you like) spoonfuls of sugar in a wide pan and heat it until it caramelizes. Then you pour one cup of milk while stirring with a wooden spatula. The caramelized sugar solidifies when it comes in contact with the cold milk. You should then continue to stir carefully and let the milk boil till the caramel dissolves. You should drink it hot. You must be careful while preparing it, so as not to spill the caramel and get burned.

I hope you will not need these soon, but if you do try them and let me know if they will work for you.
Have a good week tomorrow!
Κατερίνα

Love was everywhere ! ~Ç

Katerina ! Arahnaki mou!

I loved all you have written about your trip to Vien and I am very glad once again to know you and to move our friendship to a more visual environment.

These are highlights about i planned to write about famous "St Valentine's Day" "Sevgililer Günü" in Turkish and "Agape ...something..." in Greek.

For sure St. Valentine day ( Sevgililer Günü / Lovers Day in Turkish) became a commercial day with full of advertising activities.

After a long time I realized that I detached myself from the gravity of St. Valentine Day – no hurry for celebration or gifts and no grief because there is nobody to celebrate...

February 14, Tuesday started with snow and an outside meeting, when i come back to the cafeteria i have seen these lovely, heart shaped pink cookies for “Sevgililer Günü”...
At the meeting we chat about St. Valentine in line with the day’s agenda and we all agreed that the best way to celebrating this unique day is “ being at home, wining and dining, music and candle light”...

My close friends know that, starting from first half of 2005 i became a TV-addicted. I watch almost all Turkish soap operas... Last year’s favourite was “Bir İstanbul masalı – An İstanbul tale” and “Haziran Gecesi – The June Night", if the translation is correct. This year without discussion my star is “Beyaz Gelincik – The white poppy”. I am in “platonic" –see Greek mythology is everywhere too:)-and "tele-love" with the main actor – Erkan Petekkaya. I think for the years – since teenage period- i am not in this kind of absurd position.

This afternoon i was thinking to post something about St. Valentine, my ideas to post a poem of Greek &/ Turkish poet in English or the image of the Kiss by Gustave Klimt. It is a classic icon of love and lovers and until my trip to Spain i don’t like the style and the picture.. In Barcelona i met Klimt’s kiss a porcelain sculpture, what a concidence it was the week of February 10s. İn 2003 and again in Spain love was everywhere. That porcelain reproduction of the Kiss charmed me. The circular lines, soft pastel colors... I couldn’t afford to buy that object – a very famous boutique and the price was € 4000!- but i begged for the catalogue... So i have it at the end!

While i was googling about the Kiss of Klimt I met Brancusi’s Kiss – a sculpture. And the sculpture yesterday evening on the TV. Beyaz Gelincik Ceren bought and placed to their bed-room :-0. It was very interesting to see that the “Kiss”es in everywhere too.

• Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) ’s “Kiss”

His style is highly ornamental (which personally I love-Ç) . The Art Nouveau movement favored organic lines and contours. Klimt used a lot of gold and silver colors in his art work - certainly an heritage from his father's profession as a gold and silver engraver. Klimt's works of art were a scandal at his time because of the display of nudity and the subtle sexuality and eroticism. His best know painting The Kiss, was first exhibited in 1908. As everything coming out of Klimt's hands, it was highly controversial and admired at the same time.
Another interesting coincidence, the original Kiss is in Austria, where I intended to write after yours “Greek inn” J. And the style of the painting is defined as Symbolism.

İstanbul hosts an important Picasso exhibition in months, hopefully i am going to visit on next Wednesday. On March 24, there is a conference on Picasso and Klimt: comparison on two artists.

• Constantin Brancusi (1876-1975)’s Kiss

Although he was active mainly in Paris throughout his life, originally he was Romanian, he was from Balkans..

He preferred the technique of direct carving in stone -- a process newly popular among French sculptors in the early 1900s -- and was capable of reducing natural forms to near abstract simplicity. His work in both stone and bronze concentrated on variations of a small number of themes -- heads, birds, and his renowned couple embracing The Kiss.
The original Kiss is in limestone, and it is in States now ( The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection -- Philadelphia Museum of Art -)

It is a coincidence or not, both Kisses are dated to 1908!

And now the Kiss for Orchestra!!! This is what I have found on the internet thru the googling for Klimt-Kiss... It is a clear evidence of impact of art. A master piece (in this case two master pieces) can touch somewhere and give inspiration to another piece of art.

The last word for red&pink hearts day, coming from our intersection point: Two Greek poems for love one is ancient the other is Rebetiko which is “ithaf edilmiş”=dedicated to a be-loved gold flower...

Sappho 610-580 B.C.translated by Willis B

KLEIS

I have a small daughter who is beautiful

like a gold flower. I would not trade

my darling Kleis for all Lydia or even

for lovely Lesvos.

NIGHTS I STAY AWAKE WITHOUT HOPE...

Rebetiko by Yannis Papaioannou, Translated by Gail Holst

-My small daughter .....My gold flower .... Christiana, London 1984-

Nights I stay awake without hope

Lonely I walk the streets.

In front of the bars of your window

I spend my sad hours.

How I long to meet you again,

To find our old joy once more,

To give you my kisses again

So my black saddness will leave me

But there where you are in a strange place,

Who knows where you wander now?

I wonder if you still think of me

Or suffer for someone else.

I will add more opinions and feelings into pictures later on for sure :) and create another post about Turks / Ottomans & Vien .

Love....

My latest tour around Europe

Here I am, following a long absence due to a tough travelling schedule during the last two weeks. After passing by Athens for a weekend, I left for Paris on February 13th, for Vienna on the 15th, back to Athens - through Paris - on the 16th, back to Cyprus on the 17th, on a plane to England - through Athens - on the 19th (yesterday) and tonight I am in Warsaw, Poland. Tomorrow morning I'll take the train for Krakow, back to Warsaw on Wednesday and back to Athens the same night....

I rarely go to a restaurant when I am on my own. But it was my first visit ever to Vienna and I decided to find a characteristic Viennese restaurant and have dinner. The hotel recommended the Griechenbeisl, which turned out to be Vienna's oldest restaurant. I highly recommend it if you ever go to Vienna! The environment and decoration are charming, the service and the food are very good. The building itself is very interesting, and very old!

Here is their web page http://www.griechenbeisl.at/lang_en/page.asp/index.htm
from where I copy the following information:

Welcome to the Griechenbeisl, Vienna’s oldest inn

The Griechenbeisl (The Greek Inn) is one of Vienna’s oldest inns. Artists, scholars and politicians would congregate in the Griechenbeisl to eat, drink, debate and reflect – often into the early hours. From the world famous balladeer ‘Der lieber Augustin’ to later figures of the stature of Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Strauss, Brahms, the painters Waldmüller and Schwind, the opera singer Schaljapin, writers Mark Twain, Grillparzer and Nestroy, and political personalities such as Karl Lueger and Graf Zeppelin have all appreciated its traditional Viennese cuisine and creature comforts. The framed autographs on the walls of the famous Mark Twain room ensure that their presence lives on here.

History of the Griechenbeisl

The Griechenbeisl is first mentioned in the registry of the City of Vienna in 1447. From around 1500, the present Griechenbeisl appears as an inn by the name of ‘The Yellow Eagle’ and later as ‘The Red Roof’ and ‘The Golden Angel’. In the mid 17th Century numerous tradesmen from Greece and the Levant settled around the area of Fleischmarkt which became known as the Greek quarter. Beside the inn stands the Greek Orthodox Church, the seat of the diocese.

Completed in 1861, the church is the only ecclesiastical work by Theophil von Hansen, architect of the Austrian parliament. It was around this time that the inn adopted the name ‘Griechenbeisl’. In 1852 the then landlord Leopold Schmied introduced Pilsner Urquell beer, a novelty at the time. From then on, the Griechenbeisl started to acquire a reputation that made it known all over the world.

I ate in the Karlsbader room.

Portugal, Pgymalion, Sunday Cook ~ Ç

MADEIRA

I heard Madeira first in a cake recipe as Madeira pond cake:

A traditional English favorite that's like a simple pound cake, the top of which is sprinkled with candied lemon peel halfway through baking. The name comes from the fact that it is usually served with a glass of Madeira. Some cooks also sprinkle the baked cake with Madeira before it cools.

Then Madeira is in the Finnish Hot Wine recipe. What I know about hot wine, you can make it from cheap wine, but in Finnish Christmas Glögg it is recommended to use Madeira!

When you G o o g l e Madeira, you immediately learn that it is an Portuguese island famous with its special quality of wine. I visited Spain 3 years ago. As a fond of everything Mediterrenean Portugal is one of the dream countries to visit. This beautiful island wih beaches and wine maked Portugal as a must destination together with Andalusia. Till now we already planned to visit Kyrete and Kavala together, so we added Andalusia and Madeira to the route.

PGYMALION

Second is Pgymalion. I was one of the facilitators of a training program last week. Training for management development and its name is Odyssee, from Homeros’ İliada. Odysseeus the hero in the legend has been in a sea travel for a very long time, more than 20 years full of wars, storms etc. Then his long journey has became a metaphor for challenging and long-term processess, as it is used in this training program.

But I want to tell more about Pygmalion instead of Odyseeus. Pygmalion is a sculpture, even it is told that he is a king from Cyprus, yes he is your citizen J. Pygmalion had felt in love the woman he created which is a ivory statue, however Aphrodite, the goddess of love, gives her life. Galetea and Pygmalion have together in a very happy way...

Bernard Shaw is the person who brought them today, or 20th Century. He has written a play – Pygmalion, and in the play the Pygmalion is a Professeur and Galatea is a flower-seller in Covent Garden. After many shows in London, the first movie done in Holywood in 1938. But, the most famous one is My Fair Lady of Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle.

The relation with the management development lays in the researches in 1960s about school children. This research repeated in the management area and the results are quite similar. Now the behaviour is known as Self – Fulfilling prophecy or Pygmalion Effect. I will write more about the concept, however it is easy to google it.

Here also I would like to mention my own version of My Fair Lady: Three years ago, a very close friend and I visited Barcelona and Madrid. After a beautiful concert in Palau du Musica Catalana, and a flamenko – ballet if Gabriel Garcia Lorca, we had a ticket for Spanish My Fair Lady.

I admired the visuals, the colors, the images and of course the music. Thanks to God i know the theme so, all I understand from the play is a rhyme: “İl pan di Spagna bagna la campagna”

SUNDAY COOK

On last Sunday there was our annual apartment administration meeting at 11:00. Since we talked to have breakfast together i planned to prepare something for breakfast – Olive bread!

I do believe you have very delicious recipes too, but my basic recipe is here...

Olive Bread

2 eggs
2 cups of flour-all wheat
1.5 cups of olive – without the seeds inside
½ cup of milk
1 table spoon of sugar
1 coffee spoon of baking powder
Rosemary

Mix eggs, sugar and olives together, olives dyes all to black! Add flour, baking powder and resemary and mix again with a spoon. Place in a baking tray and cook in 1800 for 30 minutes or until you get a knife clean!

My neighbours loved it! I also, recognized once again oil brings a unique taste – because i put the olive oil to the bread quite generously.

In the afternoon, my aunt and cousins came for the tea-talk.... Then they stayed for dinner. I have cooked the liver from last Fest “Kurban Bayramı”. I love liver, and if i cook it at home i love to prepare it with caramelized onions. I merge my own recipe with Emine Beder’s recipe with minor changes....

Arnavut Ciğeri- “Albanian Liver”

It becomes three layers:
1) Liver => after prepare the liver (clening the outer membrance etc) cut into mini-dices. Mix the flour with salt and sweet powder red pepper and coat the liver dices with this flour-mix. Fried in hot vegetable oil.
2) Onion (+ parsley) => Cut the onions in “yarım ay / piyaz” which means like very thin apple slices, add some salt and mix very well the onions with your hands until eliminate the bitter taste, wash the onions and leave to dry. Put some olive oil, add onions and some brown sugar and caramelize the onions. In the last minutes add the small pieces of parslay and “sote” all together.
3) Potatoes ( + carrot): Cut the potatoes to small dices and rende the carrots. Instead of frying, stir them with olive oil, salt and thyme and bake in oven for 30 + 10 mn.

Serve in a big-flat plate, potatoes at th bottom, onions in the middle and liver on top.
For the ones who like “sakatat” this is a fantastic meal! In Türkiye now, we are enjoying all these kind of food as much as possible until we got accepted to EU sometime in future :P

Vacation Plans & Κρητικό Κοπανέλλι

Καλημέρα!

It is winter here, cloudy, raining and mild during the day but cold at night. I am very busy with work but also with other things that I need to do and never have time. The big project was finding barrels for transplanting my boukamvilias. It took me two weeks of research but I found them! Now I need to arrange to get soil. I will transplant them next Sunday morning!

I am leaving tomorrow for the next trip: Athens for the weekend, Paris on Monday and Tuesday, Vienna on Wednesday and back on Thursday or Friday. Then two days here in Nicosia and away again, this time to England, Maybe France or Germany and then Russia!!!

I feel tired and need to think about vacation. Would you like to make one of the trips we have been talking about? How about Crete or Portugal?

Well, speaking of Crete, here are two pictures of the famous Κρητικό κοπανέλλι (kritiko' kopane'li), the Cretan bobbin lace. This is the next technique I plan to learn. It resembles very much Brussels lace. The mother of a friend knows it very well and I can go to take lessons. The only problem is that she is in Athens!

Orange Marmalades

Hot Wines and Aromatic Orange Drinks

Αλκυονίδες Μέρες (Halkyon Days)

During these days - usually at the end of January - the weather is mild, sunny with no winds. Hεre is why!

The noun “halcyon” comes from the Greek word “alkyon” (or “halkyon”) meaning the bird called kingfisher. The word and the bird are both connected to a tragic, but romantic Greek myth.

Alcyone (or Halcyone) was the daughter of Aeolus, the ruler of the winds. Alcyone’s beloved husband, Ceyx, the king of Thessaly, drowned in a storm at sea. When she saw his floating body, Ovid tells us in “Book XI” of his METAMORPHOSES, the grief-stricken Alcyone threw herself into the sea “…and then, while beating the light air with wings that instant formed upon her, she flew on, a mourning bird, and skimmed above the waves.” She reached the corpse and tried to embrace it with her wings and kiss it “with her hardened bill.”

The gods, taking pity, turned them both into flying birds. “Their love lived on, nor in these birds were marriage bonds dissolved, and they soon coupled and were parent birds. Each winter during seven full days of calm Halcyone broods on her floating nest — her nest that sails upon a halcyon sea: the passage of the deep is free from storms, throughout those seven full days; and Aeolus restraining harmful winds, within their cave, for his descendants’ sake gives halcyon seas.” The sea and winds were calmed for those seven days as well as the seven after.

Halkyon is also the name of the brightest of the Pleiades, a group of seven stars in the constellation Taurus.