Dear Greek Ministry of Tourism...

Snow on my balcony this morning.

I know that times are tough in Greece right now, and gaining the tourist dollar is very important to you right now, but I have a humble request.  Please tell people around the world that it actually gets kind of cold here in Greece.  I know it's not really the image you want to portray of your country, and I know tourist flock here to see the wonders that are the islands, the countryside, and the monuments, all things that are wonderful to see on a warm spring afternoon.  My problem however, a selfish one at that, is with my friends and family (most of whom live in Canada).  My friends and family keep telling me how lucky I am to be living in such a warm environment, and many believe that Greece is actually a tropical climate.  So when I complain that today is a little cold, I'm instantly mocked and told that I'm being silly.  The reason I'm asking you, the Greek Ministry of Tourism, to tell people that it actually gets cold her in Greece, is so my friends might have an appreciation of the fact that I brought my warm winter clothes for a reason, and that it's not warm here every single day.  If you are unable to launch a campaign that points this out to the world, a simple letter to my friends and family will suffice.

Your friend
Chris Stewart

Signs I Like

Wolfrum is a funny word, the banana makes it funnier.

I believe this sign is warning me about tree snakes.

Sometimes it's better when you can't read the sign and you can only interpret what you think the pictures mean.

Later

Who Said "There's No Such Thing As Free Onions"?

This morning I wandered to Syntagma square here in Athens, only to see a large crowd of people gathering.

As always, a crowd in Syntagma means that someone is protesting something, but today it was different.  Today it was less about the throwing rocks and shooting tear gas, and more about...

Free onions!

There were trucks full of food and they were giving it away.

It's apparently a protest from farmers, although I'm not really sure what free onions symbolizes.

But who can complain about free onions?

Later

Signs I Like

Potato Jim is the perfect name for a place that sells potatoes and is owned by someone named Jim.

Beware of kids from the 70s just hanging out.

I love this illustration.

Later

For All of Your Star Wars/Techno Music Needs

Not posting too much this week, too much on the go with updating Candy Critic with a new look and working on some new art.  I came across this techno remix of the Star Wars cantina song, it made me smile.

Later

Signs I Like

I kept joking with people before leaving Austria that I wanted to hold a koala or see a kangaroo while in Austria thinking it was even somewhat an original idea.  Then when we got there, the place was full of these t-shirts.

Silhouettes of dogs taking poops make me giggle uncontrollably all of the time.

This is an awesome noodle vessel.

Later

Turtle Sex Is Fine Art

Or so this statue found in the gardens of one of Vienna's palaces would lead me to believe.

Later

Mozart Goes Bananas

While in Vienna a stop to Mozart's grave is a must.  It's a little complicated to find, only because he's buried in one spot (sort of) but the main memorial to him is in another graveyard all together.  To make sure we had our bases covered Allison and I decided to visit both graveyards.  The photo above is the memorial in the graveyard where he is actually said to be buried (they're not really sure exactly where he's buried in the grave yard.  All of this searching around was a little strange, but not nearly as strange as what we found lying at this memorial.

Somebody has appeared to leave a bunch of bananas as a tribute to Mozart.  Now I'm not really up on my Mozart history, so I'm not really sure if bananas have some kind historical importance to the man.  It seems a little strange, but what do I know.

Later

Meta Mouse

So here's a mouse holding a block of cheese.  On this block of cheese, there's another mouse, only this mouse is mouse sized compared to the larger mouse.  This whole display blew my mind.

Later

Disturbing Door Knocker

I'm not sure if I feel comfortable pulling on this string.

Later

Signs I Like

No dogs, don't litter, no drugs, don't kick and break things... One of these should be pretty obvious.

I'm thinking that 1.80 Euro is pretty pricey for a "Fahrt".

Is that a photo of Jesus as a baby?

Later

Need Milk Now?

I went to a store that sold carts for bringing home groceries.  They had all kinds of fancy and fun patterns and pictures, including this one:

I'm not sure if I want to walk around with a suckling cow on my grocery bag.  Although it would be appropriate if you were bringing home milk.

Later

The Coolest Poster Ever Made

I want to quickly give you a few examples as to why this poster is the coolest poster ever made.

 First of all, it features Mecha-Godzilla ridding an elephant.  While the house is also featured on the elephant, I believe that the house is more of a decoration than a feature.

 While Mr Mech-Zilla is ridding the elephant, a baboon friend is spinning fresh beats on another elephant.  I also thought that I should mention that the elephants are both African elephants, which in my opinion are the coolest of all elephants.

If this isn't enough for you, then maybe the Owl giving a press conference... or maybe he's reading poetry?  Either way, an owl giving a lecture is pretty cool in my opinion.  These are only a few of the details of this poster that make it so awesome, there is also a lion on a strange recliner, a koala climbing a termite hill in front of a photo of Salvador Dali, and many other strange things going as well.

Later