It's All Greek To Me!

I'm back! I had such a wonderful time in Athens. It was a really jam packed four days and we saw so much in such a short period of time. They were very long and tiring days, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
First up we went to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and other famous historical sights that I can't remember the names of LOL. (I'll try not to show too many pictures, I don't want to make any of you yawn, these are just a taster).
The Parthenon. Such an incredible place, if you ever get the chance to visit, seize that chance with both hands. It's once of those really powerful places where you can actually sense the history around it.



This is a Roman style theatre on the way up to the Acropolis which was so impressive. It's just huge and the seats are so steep. No one is allowed to go on it though, unlike the Dionysus Theatre, because this one hasn't been restored.

Another close of snap of the Parthenon.

This was one of my favourite pieces we saw. It's a Greek sphinx, which is very different from the Egyptian kind. The Greek sphinx has wings and a body based on a lioness rather than a lion. It's very beautiful in real life, and so well preserved.

This is the part which I thought would most interest my fellow stitchers. On the last day, we visited the Athens museum of Folk Art and one of the first exhibits was this, a traditional Greek cross stitch sampler! It made me chuckle that I had flown hundreds of miles and still my hobby had found me. Here it is, sorry about the blurry picture, I struggled taking a nice one because of the glass front.

It uses such rich colours and it was so long; this is just a section because I couldn't fit the whole piece in! I'm hoping to take one of the motifs and make it into my very own cross stitched piece, as a lasting memory from such a wonderful trip. I could've easily stayed in Athens a couple more days, but the atmosphere in the centre was becoming more tense because of the latest riots. Luckily, our group was out of town in Delphi when the main rioting took place. There was petrol bombs and everything though, so it was a little scary when we came back in the evening.

Since I've been in Athens all week, I've had no time for stitching at all. We had early mornings and late nights so there would have been no time for stitching even if I had taken some with me! I've got work tonight and tomorrow, but on Sunday I'm planning to rest up and stitch.

Oh! I haven't told you my biggest news! The day before we were due to set off for Athens, I had a nasty fall and cut my foot open on the side. I had to go to A&E and have five stitches put in. I got a crutch for Athens so getting down the mountains was a bit tricky sometimes, but I coped well enough :) My foot is nearly back to normal, I had my stitches out this morning and the last dressing comes off tomorrow. I'm certainly very clumsy LOL

So yes, I hope to be stitching and sewing on Sunday and hopefully actually finishing my Chilly Paws piece. I hope you've all got a lovely weekend planned, you certainly have been busy when I was away. So many gorgeous projects going on at the moment :)

Happy stitching!