A long weekend away-Volos

Dear friends and readers,
I am again late in doing things and am behind in so much!Forgive me!I hope I will manage to catch up and not keep silent from my blog for so long again!
For my American readers and friends I hope you are all fine and had no problems with Sandy storm.
So my latest news.
Last weekend was a national holiday here in Greece and especially in Thessaloniki.
On the 26th is the day of the protector Saint of our city Saint Demetrius and 100 years from the freedom of our city from the Turks and on the 28th is the No Day of the Greeks against the Italians when we entered the Second World War.
Schools were closed on Friday in our city so we left after the celebrations at school on Thursday for Skiathos island after an invitation by my sea glass friend Frieda.
As boats are not frequent for Skiathos we had to spend a day at Volos, where my niece studies at University there. Volos is a lovely city with a beautiful landscape all around it.
On the way to Volos, crossing the Tembi valley.

 At Volos a beautiful balcony ceiling.

 Volos has beautiful architecture, some buildings are well preserved but some aren't.

 Its sea front promenade is excellent with lots of yachts and cafes.

 And at the port you can see fishing boats....

 and a replica of Argo the legendary Jason's boat.

 Don't you love this boat and mushroom?

 The University of Volos.

 Me on the bridge.

 Enjoying the sun and coffee at the sea front.

 Graffiti on the walls of old buildings.

 Saint Nicholas church.

 A visit to Volos is not complete without tsipouro with meze(appetisers).

Crossing to Skiathos island on my next blogpost hopefully tomorrow.

Volos-Pelion 32 years ago.

The first time I ever went to Volos and Pelion Mount was when I was 14 years old at the third grade of my High School. It was the end of the year day trip in April 1980!
I had loved it!
The only four photos I have from that trip I scanned and am showing them to you along with a photo of me at the sea front of Volos on this recent trip! Have I changed that much? Why can't I see it?
At Makrinitsa(careful don't fall over!)

 At Makrinitsa with Fani my classmate and friend at the time. I haven't seen her ever since!

 At Portaria all students eating together!We were only girls.

 At Portaria gathering flowers and running to catch our bus!

In Volos on this trip!Haven't changed my hairstyle or clothing style for ages!LOL!

Weekend to Volos-Pelion Part F (last)

Have a nice month friends!
I really can't believe we are already in June! This has been such a difficult and disappointing winter and spring and now we are in summer already?
Yesterday I started doing my tax papers and realised I have to pay so much on taxes that I really don't know where I will find the money to do so!
On the other hand I am so in love with my experiences in Volos and Pelion that I really don't want to write on anything else! Today is the last part though!
After that I will be silent for a couple of days as I will be at my summer house cleaning it and preparing it for summer and therefore I won't have Internet access and then I will come back to blog about lots and lots of things I haven't told you the last couple of months! That's a promise I hope I will keep.
There will be small blogposts daily all the first fortnight of June so that I manage to cover all the previous months and whatever has happened the last weeks and of course the rest of the Romania trip!
Now about Volos and Pelion.
After the train trip we arrived at Milies and started walking upwards towards the village square. It was so beautiful walking amidst a grren paradise where all houses were hidden in the shadows of the green bushes and trees.

 There were cherry trees too.

 And little streams everywhere.

 And beautiful houses.

When we arrived at the square we saw the church of Taxiarhes.

There was a christening there at the time and there was going to be a prty for the christened twins in the square.

 The decorations for the christening were really beautiful.

We had to wait till the christening was over to go inside the church. So we enjoyed some cold local fizzy drinks. Epsa lemonade is my favourite.

When the christening was over we were allowed to enter the church and we followed an old man who guided us to the secrets of this church which has excellent acoustics and an amazing gallery of fresco icon paintings on the walls. The roof from the outside looks flat but from the inside there are twelve semicircular vaults.

After the tour we had lunch at the square. One of the local dishes is spentzofai which is sausages with sweet peppers. Delicious!

Then we went to our bus to take us home.

On the way home we stopped at the seaside village of Agria for coffee.

 I am still not really sure if this was a real plant or not. I smellt it, I touched it, it looked so beautiful and I thought it was plastic, but the truth is that it was real,but I don't know what it was.

Unfortunately there was a promenade not a beach so I could not collect sea glass. That's the only thing missing from this lovely trip!
Thank you for travelling with me! I hope you enjoyed it!

Weekend to Volos-Pelion Part D

I hope every one is not bored with the coninuation of my school trip. But I loved this trip so much, enjoyed all its different hues, tastes and experiences that I want to present the whole of it to you.
So as you have read so far we started early in the morning from Thessaloniki on May 19th, one bus, with students, parents and teachers and of course hubby and me. By early afternoon we had already had a guided tour of the Archaeological Museum of Volos, a walk on the mountainous paths of Makrinitsa, a picturesque Pelion mountain village, and a visit to the Museum of Art and History there.
You can read all about those visits and see lots of pictures in the three previous posts.
So after all that it was time for lunch.
Most parents had not accompanied us to the last museum and had coffee. Then they asked to have lunch all together at a restaurant.
Hubby and I decided to leave the group as we had no obligation to follow them and decided to have a quick tsipouro snack at a very traditional little cafe in Makrinitsa.
It is called Theophilos because of a huge fresco painting inside the cafe by the famous folk painter Theophilos.
The building was built in 1910.

 The fresco inside covers the whole of the wall and shows the hero of the Greek revolution Katsandonis.

 Drinking tsipouro with meze (appetiser or snack) means you drink a bit and accompany your drink with a little bit of food. Here is octopus, grilled red peppers, cucumber and tuna salad. Each little tsipouro bottle is accompanied by one little dish of appetiser.

 A doggy friend came near us while we were eating.
The sun shone through the leaves of the trees. It was cool and fresh.

 And more meze. Cheese salad with yoghurt and beans with little fish.

Then we walked a little bit around to get our heads clear of the tsipouro.
We drank some more fresh water from the mountain.

 And bought some of the traditionally made sweets of the area. Spoon sweets as they are called.

 Our walk had beautiful surprises all over Makrinitsa.
Waters....

 Butterflies....

 Flowers....

 Buildings....

 Ladybirds...

We were then taken to our hotel.
Here is the view from our window.

We settled in our rooms in Park Hotel, walked a bit along the beautiful Volos promenade by night and ended our evening with a couple of more tsipouro with meze!

And here ends (at last ) the first day of our school trip! I so much enjoyed it!