And what a week has been! Lots of food, meeting friends, traveling around, and even been productive with work (i.e. no meetings!!! 🙂 I am now back in Xanthi and at my family’s home in Petinos (3.5km outside of Xanthi). I’ll continue working from here with a focus on the Web book. I am planning to take some days away from the Internet so I can concentrate on writing. My family has a beach house 25km away from here, which sounds like the ideal place to go and write! We’ll see.

Here are some photos from last week…

Every time I visit Athens, I try to walk around and up the Acropolis. I spent few hours there just absorbing the feeling of the place, the beauty of ancient Greece, and the culture of a civilization that seems so far away.

   

  
 

You’ll notice lots of close ups. This is because I wanted to avoid pictures of the ongoing (seems forever) restoration work (e.g. last photo of the Parthenon). Here are a couple of night shots; the one from far away is from the top of the Hilton Hotel in Athens (31 Euros for two drinks but I guess you pay for the view 🙂

 

 

Here’s Dave (unmarried at the time :-), at the top of the Hilton Hotel.

 

 

Not everyone seemed to be able to handle the long hours 🙂

 

I love the Athens metro system. The stations are like museums…

 

In Greece, a it’s a custom for friends and family to shave the groom. For good measure, Dave was already shaved and he had removed the blades 🙂 Also, the wedding ceremony was “accompanied” by lots of rice-throwing 🙂

 

 

Christina and Dimitris (friends from Seattle) in one of my favorite night shots from the wedding reception.

 

Upon my return to Thessaloniki, I joined Kostas and Nikos (his assistant) for a photo shoot. Kostas is a professional photographer, amongst the most successful and well-known in Greece. In this particular occasion he was shooting the cast of Northern Greece’s theatre group for a piece on their latest play.

  
  

Yes, I am the own with the rainbow t-shirt 🙂 They thought I was one of Kostas’ helpers. The last three photos are Kostas’ (unprocessed). In the last one, you can see Nikos (the guy in yellow) having some fun 🙂 The entire crew just looked at him while he was making faces (of course, not for publication).

Going out for a night in Thessaloniki (I had sooooo much beer and food that night 🙂

  
  
  

Ahhh! Our beautiful Thessaloniki.

 

Back in Xanthi and out for the local festival. The entire old part of the city is converted into a huge party. Lots of groups playing music, everyone is BBQing, the bars are full… I love Greece 🙂