October 2020 – Fedibblety

October 31, 2020November 1, 2020

Halloween 2020 (Deutsch)

Meg plant diese Halloweenparty schon seit einigen Monaten. Wegen Corona ist der Feier fast nicht stattgefunden; Deutschland führt neue Kontaktbeschränkungen am 2. November ein. Da Halloween erst am 31. Oktober stattfindet dürfen wir legal feiern. Aber auch nicht nur im gesetzlichen Sinne sondern auch nach alltäglicher Vernunft habe ich mit den anderen Eltern abgeklärt, dass ich das Risiko des Feiers nicht wesengtlich größer finde, als in die Schule zu gehen, weil die Mädels alle in derselben Klasse sind, und die waren damit einverstanden.

In einem normalen Jahr wären die Kinder in der Nachbarschaft mit dem Spruch “süß oder saueres” herumgegangen. Aber 2020 ist leider kein normales Jahr. Stattdessen hatten wir genügend Süßigkeiten und Snacks vorbereitet. Clare und Meg haben Halloween thematisiertes Essen viel recherchiert. Meg hat auch einige Aktitiviäten vorbereitet, inklusiv ein Schnitzeljagd in unserer Wohnung. Kürbissschnitzen stand auch auf dem Plan, und die Mädels haben sich viele andere Spiele auch ausgedacht. Das Wetter war außergewöhnlich schön bei 16 grad, dass es ermöglichte, die Kürbisse auf dem Balkon zu schnitzen, und das entstehende Chaos das Esszimmer fernzuhalten.

Clare helps carve a pumpkin — Scooping out the goop from the pumpkins

Die letzte Aktivität der Nacht war S’mores – die typisch amerikanische Süßigkeit mit einem Marschmallow zwischen Butterkekse und eine Schokoladetafel. Da wir kein Lagerfeuer in der Wohnung (oder auf dem Balkon) haben dürfen, haben wir das mit Kerzen versucht, mit ermätigtem Erfolg.

October 31, 2020October 31, 2020

Halloween 2020

Meg has been planning a halloween party for several months. Because of Corona, it almost looked like it wouldn’t happen. Germany is introducing stricter contact regulations Nov. 2nd. So legally, we are still allowed to have a party. And ethically, all the other parents and I agreed that the level of risk for the party was not much higher than the girls going to school, since they are all in the same class, and still going to school five days a week (although they do wear masks in the school).

In normal years, the girls would have gone trick-or-treating, but not this year. Instead, we had plenty of candy, and halloween themed food. Meg and Clare did a great job researching fun ways to present food. We also had plenty of fun activities – Meg put together a great scavenger hunt, we carved pumpkins, and the girls found plenty of other fun things to do as well. We lucked out with the weather – it was partly cloudy and about 60F most of the day, which meant that we were able to carve pumpkins on the balcony, which is a lot less messy than inside.

The last activity of the night was making s’mores. We can’t really have a campfire in our apartment, so Clare got a big candle to roast marshmallows with. This worked okay, but soon degraded into simply playing with fire. Good thing for parental supervision.

October 31, 2020

Happy Halloween

Since 2020 is not a great year for so many things, we stayed home for Halloween this year. Meg had a few of here close friends that she sees every day at school over for a party.

October 25, 2020

Athens day 2: Aristotle’s Lyceum (school)

And the National garden. Saw a changing of the guard at the President’s house. There wasn’t much left of Aristotle’s school. It was recently unearthed when breaking ground for a new museum in 1996.

October 25, 2020

Athens day 2: Olympic Stadium

We had the all marble stadium where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 mostly to ourselves.

October 25, 2020

Athens Day 2: Temple of Olympic Zeus

Exploring the ruins of the largest Greek temple up close.

October 25, 2020

Athens day 1: Hadrian’s library

Ancient knowledge was stored here. Partial mosaics left in places.

October 25, 2020

Athens Day 1: Roman Agora

The Tower of the Winds is a water clock and eight sided building depicting the wind directions.

October 22, 2020

Greek breakfast

Today was our last breakfast in Greece. For the first parts of our trip on the islands we mostly ate simple food we got from the grocery store. In Athens there were so many cheap and tasty takeout options that we mostly did that. A taxi driver told us about the excellent pastries that Greeks usually have for breakfast, so we tried them in Athens. They are layers of filo dough with various fillings such as spinach, cheese, mushrooms, meat, or some combination. They also have some sweet ones with cream or chocolate. They also have their own version of sesame seed bagels, which Meg really liked. The pies are very filling, which was good, because we did a lot of walking in Athens.

The Greeks also make several different tasty coffee drinks. Greek coffee is similar to Turkish coffee. The grounds are very fine, and simply left at the bottom of the cup. It is surprisingly smooth and not too bitter. They also make several different frozen coffees. We enjoyed the blended frappe.

Meg and Clare with frappes, waiting at the airport

October 21, 2020

Around Athens: day 2 – the Temple of Zeus, the all marble Olympic stadium, Aristotle’s school, the National Gardens, and the National Archeological Museum

We had another full day of touristing for our last full day in Greece. So grateful for all the history and beauty. More details in individual posts to come.