Flying Carpets and Marxist Rock and Roll
Yesterday we finally got ourselves a carpet! Marble floors are wonderful, but they're also cold, which is great for the summer, but not so great for the winter. And I do believe that winter is finally, finally, coming to Athens.
We went to Plaka. Plaka is a prime touristical spot in Athens, yet even Greeks shop there occasionally. And of course if you're Greek they don't try to overcharge as much! What's more our lovely new apartment is walking distance from Plaka. (Score one hundred to Koukaki over Glyfada - where we used to live). Also the shops in Plaka and Monastiraki are the only ones to open on Sunday, and with our different work schedules, Sunday is the only day we both have off.
We got ourselves a lovely kilim. We would have rather got a pile rug, but didn't have the money. So we compromised with a kilim (ours is way better than the example I'm linking). They are woven woolen rugs, coarser and thinner than pile rugs, but also much lighter and easier to store. They're supposed to be very long lasting. Theoretically our kids could inherit it!
Our living room is looking so much better and colourful with our new rug. Now we need curtains, a throw for the sofa and a lamp (which I'm going to make).
Besides getting a carpet, and cooking,I also went to the theatre on Sunday. We saw Rock and Roll by Tom Stoppard.
I love Stoppard. My sister went to a British school in Athens and for her A levels she did Stoppard's Arcadia. Over those summer holidays I stole her book and read it on the sandy beaches of Crete. I loved it. It was so smart and complex. There was maths (which I was very keen on in school) and landscape gardening (for which I have a secret unrequited love for) and poetry (Byron to be exact). All that in a play that was funny and sexy as well. Years later the National Theatre of Northern Greece put on the play in Thessaloniki while I was studying there. I persuaded friends to go, and I was blown away once more. A couple of days earlier I had seen The Serpent's Kiss for the second time. The film, just like the play, is also about landscape gardening and poetry. They both deal with classicism vs romanticism and the making of worlds and environments to suit our whims.
Rock and Roll is not as good or as tight as Arcadia. I enjoyed it non-the-less. It's themes are rock music, revolution and socialism/marxism. Out of the two main heroes, one is an unrepentant member of the communist party and a professor in Cambridge and the other is a Czech former student of his who is unrepentantly in love with Rock and Roll. The story evolves over a time period from 1968 to 1990, moving back and forward between Prague and Cambridge. (However I haven't had enough time to think about it yet to write a propet review yet. Also it's past my bedtime. So I'll just have to return and add to this post.)