Friday Afternoon

Yesterday, Friday afternoon, after another long week of Greek class, I met up with Cristina, John, and Marina (with baby Amelia). It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day and it must have been 68 or 70 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course!). So we went over to Starbucks (sadly, about the only place in Greece with decent coffee -- see my friend's blog here for more on Greek coffee). We sat outside the Starbucks, which is nestled in between the beautiful church of Panagia Dexia (which contains a wonder-working icon of the Panagia) and the famous Thessaloniki landmark, the Kamara (or Arch), which was built in 297. The top two photos are from there. In the middle one, you can see the church behind us. (In the top one, by the way, Marina is not caffeinating the baby. She's giving her a taste of the vanilla-flavored foam at the top. That's Cristina sitting next to her.)
At 5, I went to our monastery here in Panorama for Haritismous ('Salutations'). As Emmanuelle, Iren and I left the service, the sun was setting over the monastery and I snapped the bottom photo. The photo didn't come out nearly as beautiful as the sunset was, but there it is anyway.