World Poetry Day

21st of March was first celebrated as the World Poetry Day in 1998. You will probably ask yourself how is that relevant to this blog. Well, it seems that the one who proposed this celebration in the first place was a Greek poet,
Mikhail Mitra.
The date came from another Greek poet, her name is Lidia Stefanou, and the reason for choosing this particular day is the equinox, the perfect balance between light and darkness.

I will let you enjoy a poem that a like very much. It's called Ithaka and it was written by Constantine P. Cavafy

Thessaloniki Weather Forecast

I forecast that the weather is going to be bitchy today.



Thessaloniki today

Tsiknopempti

This year Tsiknopempti was on the 7th of March. And now you're gonna think: " Ok, ok, but what is Tsiknopempti?" 

Tsiknopempti(τσικνοπέμπτη) is the first day or the carnival here in Greece. The name comes from tsikna which is the smell of the grilled meat, generally pork, while pempti means Thursday. Why is this Thursday in which you eat grilled pork so important? Because after the carnival, the Easter fast begins.
Not that I would know a lot of people who actually fast but every reason to have a party is a good enough reason. 
This year's theme was "Not everything that shines is gold" probably referring to the company who intends to extract gold in the area of Halkidiki while the local community is trying to prevent it and/or the current political situation.
Since the theme was related to gold, the symbol of the carnival was king Midas He was the one who presided the 4th edition of the bike parade, his chariot being pulled by a bike. 
Here is a small movie from this Tsiknopempti in Thessaloniki.

It's All Greek to Others Also

I received this photo today and I found it very funny.

As I understood is an ad for a Norwegian language school. It's a expression written with Greek letters. 

Since there already exists a Greeklish. The combination of Greek and English. This ad would be...Greewagian, probably. 

Anyway, the point of the ad is that "Norwegian won't be All Greek to you anymore".

Traffic Jam

I was in the buss the other day going home and suddenly the buss stops. Half a millisecond later the buss driver starts honking...and honking...and honking and waves of swearing and bitching are coming from his direction.

Apparently someone "parked" their car so that no one else could pass through the road. The car was double parked and practically in the middle of the road. After about 20 minutes of intensive honking, during which about 30-40 cars, that I could see, gathered behind us joining in the honking and swearing concert, the owner of the car appeared. 

He was having his coffee in a nearby coffee place, the heard the noise outside and he came out out of curiosity. 
I can understand the buss driver's frustration but what have I don't wrong? Because of the guy who left his car in the middle of the road I would have been late.. and I came to terms with that but now I also had a brilliant headache because of all the honking and I was not ok with that.