I have always wanted to explain what a Name Day meant to non-Greeks. It is really brilliant on the Greeks part, instead of celebrating Birth-days, the day you are born, they celebrate your name day. Pretty much every Calendar year is the same, for example Nikolaos name day is December 6th every year, Katerina is celebrated on November 25th. So every Katerina that you know you call her or visit her on her name day and wish her a Χρονια Πολλα (meaning Many Years). So simple, you don't need to remember individual birthdays, just call all your friends that are named Katerina on the same day and your done, lol.
So since Katerina's name day fell on a Saturday this year we took the kids up to Thessaloniki for a day of fun. Thessaloniki is a 3 hour trip and we paid over 20euros in tolls, the new government used to fight and block tolls because of the "expense" and yet now that they are in power our trip cost have gone up 30% and that's just the tolls, gas price is also up! Right now at market a barrel of gas is at 59, and we pay 1.58euro a liter at the station or $7 a gallon for my American friends. At the time of the old government a barrel was going for around 120 and we were only paying 1.35/1.40 euro a liter! A good price considering the cost, what in the world is the new government doing with the money, a little rant, they got into power saying how they were going to cut taxes and etc. but OMG! they are just gauging us with new taxes every day! Our phone bill went up 30euros last month, not because I was calling my American family or anything just in taxes, extra taxes!!!
Okay back to our fun trip, that cost 120euros just for gas :)
We stopped at McDonald's first, no I never ate it while living in the States, but we love eating it here! The Greek equivalent is Goody's and the burgers taste like cardboard, yuk.
I found the new McDonald's decorations disturbing, life size pixelated pictures of people doing things, a Grandfather and Grandmother reading on a couch, a couple walking their dogs, etc.
But they did have these cool magic tables that the kids played on, pretty sweet, and you could also order inside from a computer screen and with a credit card, kinda weird.
After McD's we went to the mall to watch a movie and walk off our overeating post belly's, we saw Despicable Me 3, it was fun, and then we ate at KFC, yes we ate again, haha.
Katerina also got a toy her first LOL doll and she hit the jackpot by getting the Ultra Rare glitterati Splash Queen I think is her name.
Anyways, to sum it up a name day is kind of like the birth day but everyone with the same name celebrates the same day, Nik's will be next!
So since Katerina's name day fell on a Saturday this year we took the kids up to Thessaloniki for a day of fun. Thessaloniki is a 3 hour trip and we paid over 20euros in tolls, the new government used to fight and block tolls because of the "expense" and yet now that they are in power our trip cost have gone up 30% and that's just the tolls, gas price is also up! Right now at market a barrel of gas is at 59, and we pay 1.58euro a liter at the station or $7 a gallon for my American friends. At the time of the old government a barrel was going for around 120 and we were only paying 1.35/1.40 euro a liter! A good price considering the cost, what in the world is the new government doing with the money, a little rant, they got into power saying how they were going to cut taxes and etc. but OMG! they are just gauging us with new taxes every day! Our phone bill went up 30euros last month, not because I was calling my American family or anything just in taxes, extra taxes!!!
Okay back to our fun trip, that cost 120euros just for gas :)
 |
| We got even more food after this order! |
We stopped at McDonald's first, no I never ate it while living in the States, but we love eating it here! The Greek equivalent is Goody's and the burgers taste like cardboard, yuk.
I found the new McDonald's decorations disturbing, life size pixelated pictures of people doing things, a Grandfather and Grandmother reading on a couch, a couple walking their dogs, etc.
But they did have these cool magic tables that the kids played on, pretty sweet, and you could also order inside from a computer screen and with a credit card, kinda weird.
After McD's we went to the mall to watch a movie and walk off our overeating post belly's, we saw Despicable Me 3, it was fun, and then we ate at KFC, yes we ate again, haha.
Katerina also got a toy her first LOL doll and she hit the jackpot by getting the Ultra Rare glitterati Splash Queen I think is her name.
Anyways, to sum it up a name day is kind of like the birth day but everyone with the same name celebrates the same day, Nik's will be next!
No comments:
Post a Comment