Greek Diary (Day 8)

2nd of January, 2009.

Hubby went to work today.

Meanwhile, I went to paint the bedroom floor of the new flat with varnish. I mixed two liquids and painted the floor with it. As our bedroom isn't large, it wasn't a tough work. After one hour, I finished the first round. The instruction says that we have to paint twice and it requires to leave 6-8 hours in between. I will be back to do the second round.

Then, had lunch from the leftover of yesterday. There still is a lot of them.

Today is the third anniversary of our religious marriage. Our legal marriage is about to complete the fourth anniversary.

To do something different, Hubby and I went to eat at a Japanese restaurant in Syntagma. I can live without Japanese food and can have it when I will be in Japan, but as Hubby wants to have some sushi, we decided to try. In Birmingham (UK) where we used to live, there is no decent Japanese restaurant, but I have heard that this one in Sytagma is run by Japanese and makes excellent sushi.

I took metro to Monastiraki station.

The piazza in front of Monastiraki station was now complete with great improvement. There are even two holes to admire antiquities of Athens.

Near Monastiraki station, there are three souvlaki houses. They are all very popular among both tourists and locals. Even in the middle of the winter, many Athenians were eating outdoor. OK, it is not as cold as in England, but it isn't warm either. Evidently, they cannot resist eating open air. It is not because it is prohibited to smoke indoors, as, to my great annoyance, it isn't (Hubby says that it will be in 2010 or 2011). Even non smokers stay outside to eat.

From there I walked up toward Syntagma Square where I had an appointment with Hubby. We met at 7 o'clock. Before going to the restaurant, we walked around about 45 min. It was pleasant evening and there was a lot of peaple strolling between Monastiraki and Syntagma.

We arrived at Furin Kazan at 7:45 as we booked. It was almost full and the waiters were in confusion. The second waiter Hubby approached finally found us a table. But we were forgotten there for good 10 minutes and after calling attention of the third waiter, we managed to get the menu.

On the menu are sashimi, sushi, tempura, ton-katsu, yaki-soba, yaki-meshi, yaki-tori etc. We decided to concentrate on raw fish food, as other things I can cook at home. Our orders were : Sushi Kaze (sushi platter), Salmon and Avocado Maki, Salmon tataki, and Japanese tea as drink.

Salmon tataki and tea were the first to arrive, then salmon & avocado maki, and after a long interval, sushi platter. The last item took about half an hour to prepare. 43 Euros in total.


This is 22euro Sushi set.



On return, Hubby bought a kebab roll (1.80 Euro) from O Thanasis in front of Monastiraki station. He said it was very good. Their kebab is a kind of bifteki (in Greek sense of the word) on skewer, cooked probably on charcoal. I could see how they were cooking, but could not see if it was charcoal.

Back at home, Mum-in-law was waiting for us with a cake to celebrate our anniversary. Splendid.