Nereid

A lovely cool photograph for the day. It's simply too hot to go outdoors (here). When in doubt, draw the blinds & take a nap. If you are so fortunate as to live by the sea...invite us to visit!

A few links:

Underwater photography galleries from National Geographic

Who are the Nereids again?

A poem by George Seferis translated from the Greek.

Take a walk in a favorite place, Santorini.

The real Greek salad (from a wonderful new-to-us food blog from Athens)

ciao/the Management

(photograph by Liquid Sunny Day)

Summer Evenings - Santorini

It's sad to see many people on Pinterest sighing over their "bucket lists" with what seems to be little to no interest in getting beyond the "some day-ness" of it. The only way we got to travel so much is that we planned long before there was money or the time to go anywhere. Buy a guide book--even used--about a place you want to visit. Use a little notebook--it doesn't have to be a Moleskine!--& begin planning. Keep these on your nightstand & before you go to sleep, work on your itinerary, read the book(s).

Meanwhile, make a watermelon & feta salad which is very Greek & healthy, too. And check out this hotel where we stayed many years ago...it is affordable. Don't put off planning! *finger wags* We only say it because we adore you.

ciao-meow/GG Travel Central

(Oia by Night by Marcel Germain)

Santorini Cliffside

While we search for good Santorini shots of our own (far too many flickr members feel that their shots are money-making & should save them -- we have news for them...), here is a daylight shot, of a Santorini cliffside, again courtesy of professional Dave Berezanzky of worldislandphoto. Under-the-weather here but will rally!

Whether you dream of a first trip to Santorini (or other Greek island or the mainland) or your second or third...it takes just a sec to check in with Darfur Peace & Development Organization (DPDO) & see how they're doing. GG's editor has often thought we could help by sitting on a Santorini terrace, this time with a laptop, & doing our thing from there.

Moon over Santorini

Lovely calm shot courtesy of David Berezansky/worldislandphoto. Hidden in France has unleashed suppressed Santorini-fever. GG the cat is ready to go (she would be welcome there, for sure). Visit the wonderful blog, Oia Santorini...a notebook about life in Oia. Bella!

Buona notte, amici. GGCM

Greek Wildflowers for Earth Day

A quick collage for our readers. Still under storm threats & therefore computer meltdown. These are from Santorini & Crete; the basilica in the center is in Oia, Santorini. We didn't have the advantages of digital cameras & fancy stuff...so decidedly amateurish. But that can be charming (we tell ourselves...)

a ciao-green-meow/GGCM

Sundown in Santorini

Pardon us while we are so busy. Visit Hidden in France who posts about Santorini, one of our three most favorite places on the face of the earth. Is that nuanced enough? HIF visits a family who have settled in Oia, a gorgeous town on Santorini, & have a blog about it. We've not visited yet. Dial-up, you know. But there are some lovely photos & information on HIF. And we'll pay a virtual visit very soon. (The photos on HIF are so much better than ours, but we remember...)

Also to our friends on Santorini, elsewhere in Greece, & all around the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, & Russia, oh heck all of you. Happy Orthodox Easter. Slightly belatedly. GG & her editor received some lovely treats from Ethiopian neighbors, who are also Eastern Orthodox. Yum!

ciao-meow/GG

Greek Easter Eggs - Week's End

Even though Orthodox Easter isn't until 19 April, we could not resist showing these photos today. Here is the link for information & photographers credits. (They entered a contest!) If you don't know about Greek (& to be fair, one entrant is from Bulgaria) egg dyes... natural materials play a big part, especially red onion skins. We did this last year & it was fun...but we've no camera & these look better than ours, for sure.

ciao-eggy-meow/GG/mgmt

A Full Moon Rising, Part 1

One summer, GG's editor was in Athens...at a pensione quite near, if not in, the Athenian wedding gown garment district--yes! Such a specific place exists...or did. Some people were not pleased with where she was to stay. She had her doubts...who wouldn't want to stay at the Hotel Grande Bretagne? It was good enough for Winnie Churchill, after all.

Wandering about, so busy, there wasn't time to think about that really, much less the phase of the moon. After being out with friends, upon retiring for the evening, up the stairs to her room...which was positively flooded with light. Hurrying over to the teensy Juliet balcony, looking up, she saw the Acropolis Illuminated--not by artificial means but by the fullest moon she ever did see. Who needed the Grande Bretagne that night? She should have had a camera, though...but here are some lovely photos someone else took.

Ciao-meow,
xoxo
GG

PS: GG thought that Hotel Carolina (aforementioned pensione) must have a website. Her editor scoffed--you've got to be kidding! They're lovely people...but it was so NOT that kind of place. GG reminded her editor that it is a new century after all & that the Olympics were in Athens four years ago. So we looked...oh my goodness. It's beautiful. And apparently it was quite beautiful when GG's editor was there--the outer building hasn't changed. Just lovely. We'd stay there again in two shakes of a lamb's tail (as Grandma would say). The prices are, uh, updated...but still...oh to be in Athens tonight!

Vence, Santorini, & Paris

All this fighting about Solzhenitsyn's legacy has us down. So we're back to flooffing & flooping...and that means a pretty photo from somewhere in France or Italy or Greece or...something Mediterranean. And we'll choose it & post it without editing or recipes (for the initial draft). Or maybe we'll go crazy & just post several non-related photos. The sole common denominator being that they please the eye & bring up memories--past or soon-to-be made. Except here is a tidbit of enlightenment about Vence...

Ciao, darlings.
Bisou!
GG