Greek In the Big Apple

The time came. I opened my eyes on the day of my two year mark in New York City, and I realized how much had changed how many things remained (thankfully) the same and how lovely it was be here. Its been a rough journey full of joy and laughter and tears and disappointment and wonderful surprises, but that is life itself in every morsel and taste. Dec 1st 2012 I woke up to a life yet unknown and Dec 1, 2014 I wake up to new possibilities, new friends, lovely experiences and more energy to keep going. I didn't have a plan, I didn't have a understanding of what I was going to do or what I was here for,  and two years later, here I still am and relieved!  I was a nomad suitcases, in hand some books and lots of music. Music was my partner, whenever I felt alone (which was pretty often),  I would turn to my favorite tunes. Soothe the loneliness with Ella, Sarah, Bob and Herbie, and the music made it all worth it. I walked the streets of NYC for the first year almost exclusively i

My top five.... like the line goes from one of my favorite books and movies about music and life... High Fidelity. I am listening to a lot of different and interesting music lately, like I used to. Music was and will always be a salvation, and an expression when no words come to mind. Music creates a moment when you can say everything through the notes of your favorite songs. And in thinking about music and how it represents the city that I now live in, its like a endless pentagram of sounds and cultures being represented. "Music was and will always be a salvation." As my love of this city grows I wanted to make a mix tape... and you know the art of making a mix tape is no simple task.There are so many things to consider when making a sound track for NYC. Its a city full of rich history in Latin Rhythms, Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk... all exceptional, all part of the fabric that envelops it, and its all part of how amazing the artists are, past and present who live, create and

Like many other cities across the globe New York is divided into the day life and night life. There are the busy frenetic moments and those New York City rhythms.  People move in an automatic way almost without seeing each other, deep in their books, thoughts, work, inner lives, while in the evening they wind down anywhere from their local dive bar to the fashionista filled trendy joints that speckle the streets of this great metropolis. This post alludes to a previous one I wrote about the night life in New York that I often miss because Ashtangi time is by no means in the same zone as most night life. I usually miss the nightlife hours, since my bed time is quite early to allow for early yoga practice. We tend to utilize those hours in between night and day,  when I and most of my fellow Ashtangis wake up for our yoga practice. Those hours where many are still sleeping, others are awake from the night before, and still some are the twilight seekers in between. There are many of us

´ Workers on top of the RCA building at Rockefeller Center 1932. We all know New York is famous for its buildings and the iconic pictures of the city skyline plaster our walls at various stages of our lives. From the famous construction worker image above the newly developing city circa 1930's,  to the ever somber image of Lady Liberty as one enters the New York harbor. What is most lovely and even more breath taking about New York, is the constant and ever changing pallet of its beautiful skyline. The colours and hues always changing and shifting. The skies lend themselves to an open canvas, as if created by the able brush of a fine master painter. The blues, the yellows, the purples and  the lines all come to life and as the seasons change from winter to spring to summer and fall the pallet and the colours change with it. Here is my ode to the New York City skyline. And a little song to keep you entertained. The pictures have been taken over a five month period be

Gabriel my walking buddy One of my favorite places in the city at any hour and especially in the very early hours just before the dawn, or the start of dusk, is the upper west side entrance of Central Park on 86th street . I don't have access to it on a daily basis, and visiting it is almost like a vacation while in the city or a "staycation".  There are very few public parks in Athens that are well cared for unfortunately, and my search for nature while in Manhattan is ever more present, so I crave that connection with the smell of freshly cut grass and the explosion of aroma from blooming flowers.  Cantral Park Photo. Eleana K. I recently took care of my favorite dog friend Gabriel. My canine friend and his mum live in a lovely apartment in the Upper West Side right next to the park, so our long walks transformed into small excursions in the early days of summer. After two hours walking and exploring, I was in a constant state of nirvana with the endl

Coney Island photo from 1940's It was the beginning of August and I still looked like I had come out of a cave. I needed some sun badly! The day was not promising for swimming in the sea or laying out on a beach but my need to be near the sea and to feel the sand under my feet overwhelmed me and my trepidation about the weather. Cloudy and not very sunny at that,  I decided to go and whatever I find along the way I would be happy with. Having never been on a beach in New York City and feeling a bit squeamish  about the whole image, I took the Q train to Brighton Beach with as much enthusiasm as a kid being told they had to do their home work. My dear friend Suzy with her endless enthusiasm assured me it would be amazing and as I met her at the end of the line in the bustling streets of the mostly Russian neighborhood of Brighton Beach and Coney Island we walked sun glasses in hand and with the hopes for a change in our not so sunny moods. As we walked down to the pier wher

After a long absence many moves and changes and interesting shifts in the journey I'm back to writing again about the many and colorful adventures in the big apple. I must apologize but after seven months of being homeless and living from couch to couch and from spare bed to spare bed thanks to some extremely loving and generous people I finally found a place to call home a steady warm and quiet place to call "la residence" for the time being. I have unpacked my bags, hung my pictures and post cards and put away my suitcases for only a trip or two near by. It has taken me a while to sit down and start writing about this increasingly interesting neighborhood, because I'm also trying to explore as I go. The story of how I came to know this part of the city started 15 years ago when I first moved to New York after my college studies, to pursue my arts administration career. (now long gone but of course never forgotten)  That first visit to NYC also started my ever gro

The New York Summer its a mystery, a great story, the stuff made of legends,  and a humid hot smelly sticky mess, and I'm here for it all. I have been here for most of July much like last year, but this year I will be taking it all in and enjoying every moment and every event that the Big Apple has to offer. Open air concerts, walks in the park, free Shakespeare plays in lovely cool afternoons,  amazing sunsets, beautiful people dressed to impress, going to bars and restaurants and pure summer madness NYC style. No its no Mediterranean island but here I am for the first time in many years,  and sharing it with some great new and old friends. My new neighborhood, in the East Village is a vibrant party after 6pm on most days but on the weekends its overflowing with energy. Bars, restaurants, hot summer days, and breezy evenings with open air movie nights at the park. Streets are overflowing with people every weekend enjoying their break with a cocktail or two and some of the mos

Its 5.00am,  as I walk briskly to the subway stairs, a guy carefully scans me from the corner of his eye. I've woken up after a long restful sleep I'm calm, the day looks beautiful even from the colours of the dawn and the spring time noises of birds chirping on the trees. Now the morning noises have changed and the bird calls are a standard sound track to my early morning routine. Spring is slowly arriving, ever so quietly the trees are budding and the landscape is changing and New Yorkers are daring to go out, walk hand in hand, showing their skin freeing themselves from their armor of winter, smiling a little bit more now that the air caresses their skin ever so slightly and freeing their bodies from the deep winter sleep. I walk down the steps of the subway, as figures not quite awake wait patiently for the train to arrive.  It's that early witching hour, and no one is quite there except for that special early morning crowd, my comrades my morning warriors. T

Love in New York. You will see it where you least expect it. Its the first day of spring and after a long long LONG winter there are glimpses of the season in New York that is my favorite. The LOVE season. Even in this concrete jungle there is a passionate expression of love and romanticism. New York Style love. No this isn't Paris, the city of lovers, you rarely see good looking young people making out in the streets like you would see in the city of lights, here its more in your face, urban, raw, unrefined and unfiltered. By no means am I saying that its remotely easy to find love in New York. Finding love, romanticism, and an interesting person to talk to, that isn't a bit on the strange (insane) side, is down right impossible, yet this isn't Sex and The City this isn't raw, emotionless, carnal sex, this is love and its on the walls, its on billboards its on a piece of paper on a bus stop and its brimming with feeling. New York is like Rocky Balboa calling after

We had and as it seems continue to have  a rough and relentless winter this year. There have been too many bitterly cold nights and days but I still find some lovely moments to capture as I snap pictures of the city during it's deep winter sleep. It is time to make another post which speaks only in pictures, since I have been taking so many more pictures in the city lately. I wanted to share some of the moments I've been lucky to capture while walking to and from work in lower Manhattan and Soho. I wish I had a better camera to fully give justice to what my eyes see, but I make due with the little iPhone. The colors, shades and horizons of the city are mesmerizing at times. There is much to see at any hour of the day but it is most intriguing in the early hours between 6-7.30am Enjoy :)