Gonna live while I'm alive, I will sleep when I'm dead

Ηello everyone :) Hope you are all well!

I always have so many things to do, i wonder what if we had more than 24 hours per day and how we will spend them.. Sometimes i crave a long sleep and sometimes i crave to be up all day/night. The past week was the second. It's easy for me, not to be able to sleep many hours for like a week and then one day my body plays the sleeping beauty with my bed. ( the above picture is a reminder that summer will pass soon, hopefully! :P )

Let's start with my adventures during this week. 

Currently i'm reading this baby. Nicholas Nicastro the writer and it's name Antigone's Wake [ for more by him here ].  I bought this for 5 euros and till now seems a great book [ synopsis ].

Shirt from Restyle bought it like a year ago and my hand made necklace with the picture of the Completely stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe. And since i manage to go out more times this week, i discovered some clothes i had forgot in the depths of my closet :P

The weather more than great gave me the chance to make a wonderful walk around my town. Rain took us by surprise and i didn't had the opportunity to take more pictures. We spend a gorgeous night by the sea with friends, acoustic guitars and drinks. I had a lovely week that is for sure :)

And now my indoor activities, aside the book, i abused my torrent. Movies, series, anime and some documentaries, they can be your best friend if you don't have the mood (or the money) to go out. 

The Crimson Petal and the White 

A gorgeous tv series by BBC ( oh yes of course by them, it is a novel first and more back in time inspired by a poem! ) with Romola Garai (♥), Chris O'Dowd, Gillian Anderson (♥) etc. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber is a 2002 novel set in Victorian-era England. Added to my long wish list. 

And of course the title is from a 1847 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson entitled "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal", the opening line of which is "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white". [ Click here to read this magnificent poem ].

Labyrinth

Don't mistake it with the 1986 Labyrinth with David Bowie ( but if you never watched it, you have to! ), its an other mini series as the above. A a historical show based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Kate Mosse. The series' setting jumps between modern and medieval France and follows two women's search for the Holy Grail. 

Hannibal 

Among all the past series i have add some new ones. Yes i am addicted when it comes to good productions. Mads Mikkelsen a charismatic actor ( with his accent ♥ and gorgeous face structure ) who i had the pleasure to see in some previous movies, surely can make you willingly his next... But you have to see it. No spoilers here. ( No i will not compare him to the one Anthony Hopkins, who holds a specific place in my heart)

The Following

I dont think that i ever mentioned here this new series. If you love E.A.Poe you have to watch it. If you like crime, drama and mystery you have to start it. A brilliant and charismatic, yet psychotic serial killer communicates with other active serial killers and activates a cult of believers following his every command.

Ripper Street

A new series, filled with mystery and crime waiting for you to see, set in the East End of London in 1889 during the aftermath of Jack The Ripper murders.

En kongelig affære / A Royal Affair 

And now plz let me introduce you to an other period movie ( Danish ) that i ADORED. History and romance, tragedy and drama with period costumes, manner, music, buildings  decorations.. all those ingredients can make me fall in love. My congrats it was a great production and a great story. 

Queen Caroline Mathilda: You recognized me.

Johann Friedrich Struensee: I would recognize you blind folded.

Lincoln

An american historical drama i found pretty long but Daniel Day-Lewis made it a gorgeous movie with his magnificent skills!!

Vikings and Da Vinci's Demons are waiting and of course millions books. 

So people, until the next big post, wish you a lovely weekend/week and

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

Its all about the spring we never had in my country. Some trees naked yet seem like trying to reach weather's craziness and my balcony flowers are giving birth to some beautiful new babies. So spring < summer is here, and since i am not the biggest fan, at least i will make it less miserable. I will make my balcony beautiful again! :) Yeah!!!

During winter i had some herbs and some vegetables like radish, rocket, parsley, rosemary, 

sage, cardamom and often some mint but sun will give me even more options! 

Nothing like a wonderful plate with strawberries for a breakfast, or a Greek salad. 

So my best friend had her birthday yesterday! We went outside with friends to celebrate it and even if i had a terrible headache at first, after a while it was the least of my concerns.. Wonderful night <3 :D

It was also, all about red as you can see! 

I wore a very simple black dress with an asymmetric lower part i bought some weeks back. A fustian black coat, second handed that i had to make it smaller is a great "hug" to the strangely cold night weather.

Ok, here is the most heartbreaking book i have ever read. I read it years ago and since i managed to have it again i read it once again. The Bloody Soil  is one of the most famous novels by the Greek writer Dido Sotiriou. Issued in 1962, has been translated into many languages ​​(including English, Bulgarian, Estonian, French, German, etc.). According to the publishing house has released more than 400,000 copies.

The book describes the life of Emmanuel Axioti who lived in Turkish battalions of 14-18, later became a soldier of the Greek army and then lived the destruction of Asia Minor, captivity and exile. Refers to the life of the Greeks of Asia Minor and the Asia Minor Catastrophe. I was crying pretty much in every 5 pages. 

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

Hello everyone. Always i believed that time goes by quickly and the only way to remember the moments we lived is by our memories and of course by the photos we take. My big absence from here, is justified partly by the lack of time, mood and ...time! So many things happened during all those weeks some bad, some good but that's life. Leaving the bad behind, i only remember the good one's. :)

Among them? The previous Monday i got officially my degree from the university. A small ceremony with a lot photographers :S Now i feel what celebrities feel with paparazzi !! :P I do not have any of the photos yet so here is a little sample of me.

Other lovely things, my trip to Constantinople, "The city was originally founded as a Hellenic colony under the name of Byzantium in the 7th century BC" as a gift from my grandparents. 

So many photos it would be impossible to post them all in one post so maybe i will make two or more.. 

I didn't like the modern city much but i felt the chills all over my body when i set my eyes and body in to Hagia Sophia. To the Prince Islands where Hellenic people lived there before the battle of 1453 and again before the worst time during the 1922. Hellenic wonderful mansions, other abandoned left to rot, other preserved, all taken away from the people who had them...

During the nineteenth century, the islands became a popular resort for Istanbul's wealthy, and Victorian-era cottages and houses are still preserved on the largest of the Princes' Islands. 

It felt like home among the old ruins/ monuments/ houses... maybe because i have roots from those places or maybe it is just all in head? Who knows...

It had the most beautiful weather ♡♡♡

Hagia Sophia ( from the Hellenic: Ἁγία Σοφία ) is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Constantinople, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. 

The Church was dedicated to the Logos, the second person of the Holy Trinity, sophia is the phonetic spelling in Latin of the Greek word for wisdom – the full name in Greek being Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, "Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God". 

Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture." It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years thereafter, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. 

The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.

Imperial Gate

The Byzantine Empire used Roman and Greek architectural models and styles to create its own unique type of architecture. The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in the copies taken from it throughout Europe. Particular examples include St Mark's Basilica in Venice, the basilicas of Ravenna, and many churches throughout the Slavic East.

You can understand just by looking the people around, how tall big , majestic is that church!

Crosses appear inside the Hagia Sophia ( its truly all over the church! )

We were pretty much all day in the road, i had to keep eating the way i do.  Very expensive life and no alcohol. 

Flowers all over the place , beautiful parks and clean streets around the Hagia Sophia. That was good! 

An Arabic cemetery , some feets away from the Hagia Sophia, gave me the chance to take some photos , enough with the colourful parks! :P

There are Hellenic people everywhere.

The most amazing part of all, is that Turks call us Yunan which derives from the word "Ionian". The Ionians were only one tribe of Greeks but the Persians and other eastern peoples refered to all Greeks as "Yunan". The Persians named the Macedonians "Yunan takabara" meaning "Greeks with shield like hats", because they wore hats. Later the Turks also called the Greeks "Yunan". 

To be continued... Untill then,