Concert of Konstantinos

A friend of mine - Konstantinos - had his concert the other day in tiny rock bar - really good covers of greek and international rock pieces. Actually, I think I never mentioned him on the blog. We became friends when I used to teach him Spanish, and since then we talk almost only in Spanish (I really appreciate it as it is so easy to forget the language).

HDR pictures

Some samples of the HDR technique picture (by Savvas). Nice, a?:
The National Bank of Greece ( I love this picture):
A cafeteria on my street:

A village close to Florina:

49th Thessaloniki Film Festival

Big names, lots of films, concerts, lots of famous faces in the city, busy cafes etc. I liked it, wish it wasn't over. Speaking of big names: Willem Dafoe, Oliver Stone, Terence Davies were available for consultations during masterclasses if someone was interested :P.
I saw four films:

Lake Taho, by Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico 2008
My favourite film, longish though. A story of a teenager whose father died and who cannot face the death and live the sorrow properly. Instead he gets involved in solving irrelevant problems - i.e. fixing the car, walking someone's dog, chasing a not very reliable mechanic, struggling to say 'no' when other people impose their will on him. He is also struggling to start acting like a man, that he now must be.

Stella, by Sylvie Verheyde, France 2008.
A very moving story of a young girl coming from a bit weird background, trying to find herself among other teenagers, have 'smart' hobbies and find motivation to go to school.

O teleutaios gyrismos, by Corinna Avramidou, Cyprus 2008.
A love story with the events of 1974 in Cyprus in the background, amazing atmosphere of the island in the '70. BTW I was surprised to meet some people from the crew I knew from Cyprus at the screening :).

Rysa, by Michał Rosa, Polska 2008.
Very, very good acting. However, the story of a woman that finds his husband repulsive after she suspects he worked for the communist secret police and married her to spy of her father turned into a clinical case. Too much.
The screenings were in various cinemas in the city, but the centre of all events was at the port.
Speaking of famous faces - we were having lunch with Savvas and at the next table there was this bunch of loud people, speaking Serbian (?) with a very famous Greek actor (his back is visible on the picture). Then I wanted to go to the concert of Emir Kusturica (yes, this one, he has his own band) and realised that it was Kusturica that was the laudest of the group (the guy with long hair).
Plus I got my favourite Savvopoulos in rehearsal when I went for coffee:

Coffee at the OTE tower

Last night we had coffee and conversation on very high level. .. :P On the telecommunication organisation's tower (OTE) there is a cafe that rotates so that you see all the city from all sides.It made a 360 turn in over 1hr.

It was really cool despite slight dizziness and overpriced drinks.

Here it shows as the core of the floor remains unmoved and the platform with tables rotates. Someone who has not seen the action though will not appreciate the picture as much (the pic by Savvas).
Some views...

Killer Dog

Went today for a bike ride to Perea with a stop for food/coffee. When we were entering a cafeteria a dog jumped to us, barking angrily. We sat and I was eating some meat wrapped in pitta bread. The same dog came over, sat and was staring at me for 15 minutes non-stop, unmoved. So finally we shared my food - he ate from my hand almost all the meat and I had the pitta.
I just felt sorry for him - it is not easy to be so ugly...

Playing around with the camera and new shoes:)

Favourite city spots

Nikis 35, a coffee shop.
Right at the beach boulevard, facing the sea. I met there this good-looking guy that first answered the announcement for Greek classes ;)))

Rahati, a narghile spot.
Has played an important role in the continuation of the story with the good-looking guy... :P
There he is.

LOL, a coffee and games place
Busy and colourful.

Night walk II

Flight simulations at Noesis

We finally went to Noesis - the Museum and Centre of Technology in Thessaloniki, based in an impressive complex of futuristic buildings outside the city. A bit disappointing though, except for a really cool screening of a 3D simulation of a flight 'into' the universe.

Actually, someone else also experienced a free flight simulation by Savvas (and both seemed to enjoy):

At school :)

Here are the mates from my Greek course - not all though since some are missing. It is a nice nationality pot - Catalan, Bulgarian, Swedish, Sεrbian, North-Makedonian, Polish, Georgian, Romanian, Belgian, Czech and German.
Fοr those who do not believe I really show up there I will write the above in Greek as a proof :P

Αυτοί είναι οι συμμαθητές μου από την τάξη Ελληνικών - όχι όλοι όμως επειδή κάποιοι λείπουν:

Take castana cooked for 15' and a DSLR TADAAAM

A night hunt for pics

Last night we wandered around the city with the new camera, shooting out whatever we found worth it (till 2 a.m. :) ), including the newly-open promenade on the beach.
Vassilisas Olgas Street:

The TV tower - the last floor is a rotating restaurant:
The gate of the Helexpo - International Fair Centre.
Back ...

hmm

There really should be a license for having kinds (who will issue it though?), and this is quite an idea ( IGNORE the yellow box though ;)))

Firts day-time picture

We saw today this kiosk that had been completely burnt. It was still there yesterday! BTW it is the first day-time picture taken with my new camera (by Savvas) :)