Cristina to the rescue!

I will blow my own horn (even if it is no proper to do so).

My host has this beautiful old bench that no carpenter wanted to fix.

Everybody told her that the bench was too old, to throw it out, that it was no worth fixing it.

When I saw the bench with a beautiful painted scene of typical Bulgarian dancer, first thing out of my mouth was to ask if I can fix it.

Obviously my host said a big YES!

Some of the parts where rotted, but no big deal. All it needed was a new front leg, a new armrest, and couple of the support pieces for the seat.

A fresh coat of paint, and it looks great, if I can say so myself.

The other bench they have, also had a broken armrest. However, somebody had fixed it. I did not like the way they fixed it, (they used duct tape), and so, I made a new one for this one too.

As long as I was doing carpentry, I did a new gate for the ducks; I fixed the garden gate, made a shelf for the computer desk, made wall to wall shelfs for the pantry, and a bird feeder.

I love doing carpentry, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to do all this.

Yeah… great three weeks!

AAAAHHH!!! Longer wait for Game of Thrones!!!

I just read that the next season of Game of Thrones will be delayed.

The show usually starts on late March or April, however next year they don’t have a date yet.

The reason is that winter has arrived, so they need to film under grey and dark skies.

Why don’t they film in the south of Argentina or Chile? Or some other country on the south hemisphere? It is winter there; they will have plenty of snow and dark grey skies. No need to wait here.

Unless, the weather is an excuse, because they are not ready with the scripts yet.  

I don’t know.

Besides, the series is supposed to be 75 hours. We already had 60 hours, leaving us with only 15 hours to go. The article also said that the next two seasons will be shorter.

I guess the next one will be 8 episodes and the last one 7 episodes.

I hate it when they do that.

It is bad enough that we have to wait longer, and then it will be a shorter season?

Really!!!

Anyway, there are a few things that did not make sense to me in the last season.

·                     When Ser Davos found the wooden stag that he gave Shireen. How a wood toy survived the fire?

·                     How come Cercei’s hair has not grown? Obviously, time has lapsed since she had it chopped.

·                     Why Arya went to all the trouble of cooking the pie, with all the ingredients that she chopped herself, if she was going to kill Walder Frey before he ate it?

Just wondering…

Update!! Macho mentality

Oh! How I hate the macho mentality!

I am doing a workaway at a cafe-restaurant in Crete, all the tourist are very nice. However, the local men think that women are here to serve them. They do not ask, they demand, and they expect you to serve them with a smile.   And of course, none of them tip.

It is good that they don’t come that often, once a week is more than enough for me. Only four of them come every day, and they don’t complain, they eat whatever I give them.

Well, when I cook the tourist do not know if it is done right or not. However, the local men know the Cretan way, so if I cook something a little different, they let me know.

Like I told them more than once, I am not from here!!! So they can eat what I cook or they can go someplace else.

 Jaja… there is no other place in town.

At least now the owner is back, so he is cooking, I just serve. YEAH!!!

As long as I am bitching: everybody smokes inside.

Three more days and to Santorini I’ll go…

Update

Today there was a memorial service at the church, from 8 AM to 10:30 AM.

After the service, everybody came to the restaurant to eat and drink.

I had all the tables ready and the food was in the refrigerator or on the counters. I thought I was so organized…

As soon as everybody arrived, the men sat at the tables, and the women run into the kitchen.

They run here and there, serving the men. They put the food on the tables, they served them.  They made the coffee, they took care of everything.

There were way too many women in there, one on top of the other, taking care of everything. Obviously, I left the kitchen as soon as they came and I saw what they were doing. After all, who am I to tell them they cannot do it. The way I look at it, less work for me.

They even washed the dishes and glasses and cleaned the kitchen, while I sat in the patio with a very nice man from Norway. He was bicycling through the area and stopped to get a drink. Well, he ate a lot, because they kept on feeding him too.

So, now I understand why the men act the way they do.

They are not allowed to do anything, it is the women job to serve them and take care of them.

And to top it all, some of the women put some chairs in the kitchen and eat there. Incredible!  

The mineral thermal waters of Pamukkale, Turkey

I have seen pictures of Pamukkale so of course, I wanted to go there, and I am so glad I did.

Pamukkale which means “cotton castle” is a hill full of terraces formed by mineral thermal waters in the center of Turkey.

                As you get to the park (35 TL = $ 11.96) you walk up the white mineral formation toward the natural pools in the terraces.

As the walk is over the mineral, you have to walk bare foot. I don’t like to be bare foot, much less walking on stones, so I put my river shoes and I went up.

                The white mineral waters in the pools are only one to two feet deep, just enough to sit in the water and get wet.  These waters are rich in chalk, calcium, travertine and limestone.  These are slightly radioactive minerals and they are supposed to be great for ailments, as arthritis, muscle aches, and many other aches and pains. Of course just one day and a little dip won’t do anything to you. You will need to go there for at least one week to see any results, if there are any.

Of course, where there are thermal waters, they were Romans.  They built a spa circa 190 BC next to the terraces.

There are ruins of a Roman Theater, a necropolis (5 TL = $ 1.71) with some sarcophagus and an antique pool with submerged Roman columns as the result of an earthquake (32 TL = $ 10.93). Of course I went swimming in the thermal waters of the antique pool. I sat at one of the columns until my fingers stared to wrinkle and to look purple. Event that I did not want to get out I did.  I was so relax, I felt great!

I did some more walking to see the ruins of a church and some of the gardens, and then back to the terraces.

On the way down I took a dip in all the terraces once again.

It was a great day, very beautiful and relaxing.