Winter

So apparently winter is upon us here in Athens.  It has been a miserable day today, with on and off rain and thunder and lightening, and indication of the change in season.  Fortunately, I had no where to go except Starbucks, which was the biggest indicator that it is winter here in Greece.  They now have all the Christmas displays, cups, and music in the store to get you in the holiday mood.  Which is strange because Christmas is not nearly as big a deal here as it is in the states.  They still celebrate it, but Easter is the big one here.

Another way to tell that it is winter is the attire of the natives.  Since space is limited in a typical Greek apartment, they have ways to store everything just so.  High above the closet are cabinets.  These cabinets are high enough that you only want to get into them once or twice a year.  So what goes into them?  Off season clothing.  Winter clothes are stored in here and as soon as it hits a certain point in temperature the summer clothes go up and the winter ones come down.

This does not make much sense to me because I am seeing a bunch of people wearing down coats and it's 70 degrees.  However, I must not make much sense to them because since it is 70 degrees I am wearing shorts.  Which is why I get a lot of stares of people while walking down the street.  But by now I'm used to it because you get a lot of stares here anyway as I guess we are so obviously American.

Here is the storage space (notice the height of the doorway in relation to the cabinets):

      <----- Cabinets