Happy New Year everybody! I hope all is well :-)
This is going to be a travel blog post, as I spent two weeks at home, in Athens, Greece. Christmas in Greece can be summarized in two sentences:
First things first though. On my first day in Athens, I decided to go downtown, to Syntagma (Constitution) Square. I was surprised to see that this year, instead of decorating a Christmas tree, the municipality chose to erect a Christmas boat, which is a very old Greek tradition.
- Jesus was born about 2,000 years ago... Let's devour everything in sight!
- An arbitrary number was incremented by one digit... Let's eat until we die and then some more!
First things first though. On my first day in Athens, I decided to go downtown, to Syntagma (Constitution) Square. I was surprised to see that this year, instead of decorating a Christmas tree, the municipality chose to erect a Christmas boat, which is a very old Greek tradition.
 |  The building is the Greek Parliament. |
Without further ado, let's move on to the feast! Christmas Day lunch with my family and uncles.
 My grandma's turkey and pork combo. Roasted with chestnuts, plums, and carrots. Delicious! |  My mom's meatloaf. Stuffed with veggies, cheese, and.. even more meat! |
 This is my own creation! Butternut squash that I brought with me from the US (Stephanie's idea!). Turns out we have them in Greece as well. But we call them the equivalent of "pumpkin". |  These are my grandma's insane salads. I can't even begin to enumerate the ingredients in them. The salt & pepper holder is my gift to her from Dallas, Texas. |
 That's us post-feast. From the top, clockwise: My mom, my brother, me, my aunt, my uncle, and my grandma. My cousins couldn't make it this year :-( |  Getting ready for desserts. This is traditional Greek/Turkish coffee. I hadn't had one since last year. It's pretty easy to make, I may bring some :-) |
 Time for dessert! I spent several minutes trying to find translations for traditional desserts. For this one, Google translate says "sugared buns". |  Left: System ERROR: Translation not found... The one to the right is my grandma's infamous orange pie. I can't describe how good it is... |
After such a feast, I obviously needed time to recuperate... I spent the weekend at Dimitri's (Jim) grandpa's home town of Arachova. Arachova used to be a tiny village in the mountains, but a ski resort turned it into the most popular destination for winter vacations. The house we stayed in is super old but very comfy.
 This is my friend, Dimitris, prepping the fire. |  And this is the rest of the basement floor. |
 Fireplace and a hookah. Pretty sweet setup :-) |  We found these beers at subzero temperature... |
 Arachova played an important role in the War of Independence. This is a monument to that. |  The house was up the mountain side, so we had to take these stairs to go downtown. |
 This square is pretty much all of downtown Arachova. It'd be packed if it weren't that rainy. |  Dimitris knew of an awesome cafe. We sat inside, and enjoyed this legendary breakfast :-) |
Time for the second act of the great Christmas feasting! News Years Day lunch at my grandma's.
 The table, pre-feasting. The brownish thing is chestnut purée. First time I try it, not bad! |  My grandma serving "dolmades". Unlike the ones I've found in the US, these have meat in them. |
 Red wine, butternut squash, crazy salad, feta cheese, tzatziki, tiny cheese pies, and more! |  My cousin, Daniela, attacking the dolmades. Accidental product placement (Coca Cola) :P |
 New Year's Day cake (Βασιλόπιτα). There's a coin hidden inside. Someone will get the winning piece! |  Daniela bought this amazing - and pretty festive - chocolate cake. |
 More sugar! I have to hit the gym ASAP... |  Daniela and her boyfriend found the coin! |
That's all folks! Happy New Year :-)
~ Spyros
