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- Room service 15 Sep 2020
- Up your nose 13 Sep 2020
- Keeping busy 12 Sep 2020
- Welcome to the Hotel Grand Richmond 10 Sep 2020
- Bangkok, at last (part two) 4 Sep 2020
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Author Archives: lornaofarabia
Room service
I am sure I will have lots of pictures of beautiful restaurant meals once we get out of quarantine, but I’ll just share a little slide show here of some of the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners the hotel has served … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Up your nose
We had our third round of COVID-19 tests today. We’re starting to feel like old pros. If you haven’t experienced this yet, I can say that a lot depends on the person doing the test. The PCR test, which … Continue reading
Keeping busy
Like many people, we’ve had plenty of practice over the past few months with keeping ourselves entertained at home. The options in a hotel room are limited but somehow we manage to fill the days. I listen to my audio … Continue reading
Welcome to the Hotel Grand Richmond
We are all just prisoners here, of our own device The government of Thailand has had a ban on incoming international passenger flights since April. The only exceptions other than emergency landings are for military planes and repatriation flights chartered … Continue reading
Bangkok, at last (part two)
Toward the end of June, our moving plans started to get a lot more complicated. The direct flight I had booked on United was cancelled. The Cairo airport was closed until further notice.There were no future commercial flights scheduled from … Continue reading
Bangkok, at last (part one)
We decided a while back that 2020 would be the year we’d leave Egypt. Andreas would take his retirement and I would find a new job that would take us somewhere new and different. Last fall I spent evenings and … Continue reading
Posted in Expat experience, Thailand
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Red Rock
Long before the Blue Zone, Ikaria was known in Greece as the Red Rock. It doesn’t get its nickname from the geology, but from its left-leaning politics. A power vacuum in Greece after World War II led to the 1946-1949 … Continue reading
Posted in Greece, Ikaria, Islands
Tagged Communism, Communist Party, KKE, PAME, Red Rock
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Karagiozis
On the morning we arrived in Agios Kyrikos some colorful posters caught our eye. The text says “Teatro Skion – Sokratis Kotsores; we will eat, we will drink, and fasting we will sleep.” All Greek to me (as they say), … Continue reading
Posted in Greece, Ikaria, Theatre
Tagged Karaghiozis, Karagiozis, puppets, shadow puppets
2 Comments
Panegyri season
When Lent is over, the partying begins. Ikaria is one of the few places in Greece where the ancient panegyri tradition continues. A panegyri is a community festival held in honor of a village church’s patron saint. Villagers and guests … Continue reading
Χριστός ανέστη!
Our second spring break this year coincided with Egyptian Coptic Easter. That’s the same date as Orthodox Easter, which meant we’d be able to enjoy the Greek Orthodox celebrations on Ikaria. We took an overnight ferry from Piraeus (the port … Continue reading
Lorna of Arabia 