Oct 22, 2017
My ‘In The Blood of the Greeks: The Illustrated Companion' page has been updated with twenty images (illustrations, war photography and other images). There are over sixty images in the book.
In The Blood of the Greeks The Illustrated Companion is about the events written in the award-winning novel “In The Blood Of The Greeks”. It’s a merging of fiction, coloring images and real historical accounts of the events depicted in the novel.
In Nazi-occupied Greece, Eva and Zoe — one a German officer’s daughter, the other a young Greek woman filled with fury — should be enemies but they come together in an unlikely union to save the lives of Jews targeted by the Nazis.
Real life heroes of the Greek Resistance, life in war-torn Greece and the Jewish fight for survival are portrayed through illustrations, images and real accounts. Featuring War time photography from the Australian War Memorial, the New Zealand War Memorial (The Alexander Turnball Library) and The Jewish Museum of Greece. Brazilian artist Lucia Nobrega’s illustrations of the characters of Eva Muller and Zoe Lambros and other characters bring the novel to life. Part coloring book, part history book.
Discover the history behind the novel “In The Blood of the Greeks” and the Greek Resistance against the Germans and the fight to save Jewish lives.
Oct 19, 2017
Zoe Lambros is a 16 year old that has lived through the German Occupation of her home town in Greece. Zoe survived the war that killed her family, her friends and destroyed her country. She fought alongside Eva Muller and Henry Franz in an attempt to save Greek Jews from the Nazis but now comes a bigger challenge. Together with the only two people she trusts, she must find a way out of Greece before it erupts into a bloody civil war. Finding a way out will be more complicated that she thought and fraught with dangers as they are recruited for one last resistance mission in German occupied Crete before they flee to Egypt and safety. They survived the war, but can they survive the peace. Zoe also has to deal with her growing feelings for Eva.
It’s a journey of self discovery, hope, resilience and courage to see what is beyond her little town
Zoe’s Journal: Surviving The Peace will be released in ebook and print in 2018.
Published by AUSXIP Publishing
The post Surviving The Peace Character List + First Chapter! appeared first on Zoe Lambros Journal.
Oct 18, 2017
I found this photograph. There’s one thing I truly hate about it. It’s not the woman in the cloak but the cloak itself. That long black cloak that brings back so many horrible memories. It’s one of the things I remember from the day mama died. That black cloak, the rain, the mud and my mother dying in my arms. I hate mud. I hate the sound it makes as it sloshes through my shoes. I hate the smell.
I hate that black cloak. I love the woman wearing the black cloak. The universe has been laughing at me for years.
The post On The Streets of Larissa appeared first on Zoe Lambros Journal.
Oct 11, 2017
This is just one of the beautiful photos and so serene. Reminds me a little of Athena’s Bluff. I was attracted to it because it’s in Greece (and yes you would be right my eye did fall on EVIA first…well can you blame me?)
The photo is courtesy of http://amazinglybeautiful.photography/
A little about the island
The island of Evia is one of the closest to Athens and yet it is one of the most unknown. That is because Evia is so large that there is much to know about it. Second in size to Crete, it stretches from the tip of the Pelion Peninsula all the way south to the coast of Attika. It’s southern tip is just a short distance from the Cycladic islands of Andros and Kea though unfortunately there is no ferry connection. If there were, more tourists would come here. As it is, because it is so close to the mainland that you can drive to it, Evia has been and remains a popular summer holiday destination for Greeks and Greek-Americans, Canadians, Australians and others whose families originally came from the island.
Evia, (pronounced EH-vee-ah by most people and you-BEE-yah by archaeologists and classicists) has a rich history and more ancient sites than just about any island other than Crete. It has been settled by Greeks, Turks and Albanians and some villages you will hear a dialect so strong you won’t even understand what they are saying, even if you speak Greek.
The topography of the island is as varied as anywhere in Greece, with sparkling Aegean beaches and coves on its east coast, a mountainous interior with rivers, streams and forests, a west coast that is a mix of beaches, the city of Halkida, large towns, industry, agriculture, beaches and wetlands. And in the northwest the town of Edipsos is the most popular spa in Greece, with hot water gushing from rocks and crevices into the sea and pools of the many hotels and healing centers.
There are several ways to reach Evia from Athens. Which way you choose depends on where in Evia you want to go, because as I said; Evia is a very large island and a very long one. How large and long? From one tip to the other could take you four or five hours by car. You could drive almost to Thessaloniki from Athens in that time. Of course much of the journey will be on narrow winding roads where there is a good possibility that you will be stuck behind a big slow moving truck with nowhere to pass for at least part of the journey. And most likely you will stop to wade in the cool waters of the Kirea river that runs alongside the road that goes north from the modern city of Halkida to the fishing village of Limni, the spas of Edipsos and the beautiful beaches of the northern coast.
Southern Evia
If you want to visit southern Evia, a land that resembles the arid islands of the Cyclades, the ferry from Rafina will take you to the town of Marmari which is a short drive to Karystos, the commercial center of the southern part of Evi,a which sits in a large bay beneath Mount Ochi. At 1398 meters it is the second highest mountain in Evia. The town of Karystos is known for its beaches, fish tavernas, its Venetian fortress, and folk museum. There are a number of hotels in town and along the coast and for those who plan to explore the whole island going from south to north, this is a good place to spend that first night. There are several small villages in the area and numerous sites from antiquity that are well off the beaten path but accessible to the hearty hiker. Most of the beaches on the southeast side of Karystos beneath Mount Ochi are in small coves, difficult to reach, and due to the currents and winds of the Cavo d Oro, (the straits that run between Evia, Andros, Kea and Makronissos), can be quite rough. But there are nice organized beaches near Karystos, with umbrellas, sun-beds, cafes and changing rooms that are sandy, shallow and good for families, children and snorkeling. The sea around Karystos is very clean since the whole city has been hooked up to a modern sewage and waste treatment system. Psili Ammos, Gallida and Rigia are all within easy walking distance of the town. Alykes and Bouros you will need a car. There are a number of other beaches without facilities within just a few kilometers of town. For those who are interested in more than eating, drinking and laying in the sun Karystos has an archaeological museum, Roman ruins, and the Church of Agios Nicholas.
From the small port of Agia Marina on the mainland, near ancient Ramnous, just above Marathon, there are several small ferries that run back and forth to the town of Nea Styra, popular with Greek tourists and Athenians with summer homes. Like many beach towns this close to the mainland the architecture is a cacophony of houses, apartment buildings and fast food restaurants mixed with fish tavernas and fields and farms as you leave the center. The actual village of Styra is an agricultural town a few kilometers inland.
The Dragon Houses in this area are Neolithic monuments that have been a mystery to archaeologists since they were discovered. Debate on when they were built ranges from the 13th to the 3rd century BC. They are called Dragon Houses because of their size. People believes they had to have been built by a very large creature. There are twenty of them in all most near Styra and another above Karystos near the peak of Mount Ochi.
Read more about the island here
The post A Forest on Evia Island in Greece appeared first on Zoe Lambros Journal.
Oct 8, 2017
Today I want to write about a place near my home called Tempi Valley. It’s one of my favourite places in the world because it’s so serene (when it’s not being bombed by the Germans or Italians or Bulgarians or the Turks…or anyone else who feels like invading Greece). It’s also the place that I fell madly in love with Eva Muller. First, it was like, then heavy like and then I fell off a cliff and it’s never been the same since. Athena’s Bluff holds a very special place in my heart. Long before I fell off the cliff for Eva, it became to be a place of refuge for me.
After my mother was murdered in 1942 I didn’t want to go back to the farm in Farsala. There were too many memories and I just couldn’t bring myself to going home. It wasn’t home any more. I couldn’t bear the thought of walking through the front door and not hearing my mother’s voice or smelling the baked bread. Couldn’t imagine not hearing her laugh – even when the war started and we lost my brothers and then my father, she would find something to laugh about. Her name was Helena and she was an artist. A very gifted artist with long, curly red hair and the most beautiful green eyes. My father used to say that mama’s eyes reminded him of a forest. I’m going assume he meant the green and not the bark of the trees. Whenever papa would say that about mama’s eyes I would laugh and tell him the trees were brown and not green. Yes I was a mischievous child. I inherited my mother’s red hair. green eyes, her artistic talent, cooking and sewing skills and the unique ability to remember things. My mama used to call it a photographic memory. I didn’t inherit her height or her patience.
I’m going to stop talking about my mama because I get quite emotional when I think about her. Where was I? Oh yes Tempi Valley. Farsala is about thirty minutes from the valley. It was just far enough that when the Germans came and were fighting in the gorge, papa sent mama and me to Athena’s Bluff which was high above a mountain top overlooking the valley. My second brother Thieri owned the land up there and he built a cabin. He was going to propose to his girl but the Italians invaded and that never happened. His girl died a year after the Germans arrived. Some things are just not meant to be.
I inherited the land and the cabin up on Athena’s Bluff. I inherited all the property that belonged to my family since I was the only one left. Dirt and a lot of memories.
On a good day I could walk there in about thirty minutes. Evy used to walk over there in about an hour. She was slow but she enjoyed the walk because she could be with her own thoughts and the quiet was soothing. How that was soothing to her back going up a mountain is a mystery to me, even now, but then Eva always does things that I don’t understand.
High above Athena’s Bluff I could see Mount Ossa. I also used to be able to see it from the farm and would tell my mother that one day I was going to leave Farsala and see what was beyond Mount Ossa. Silly girl that I was. What was beyond Mount Ossa wasn’t something I should have wished for. Mama didn’t tell me not to wish for that. She knew what was beyond the mountains but she somehow must have wished there was no way I would end up over the mountains.
On Athena’s Bluff is where I realise, now, that I was falling in ‘heavy like’ with Eva. High above on a mountain in the middle of a war I was falling in love. God or the fates or someone was laughing at me. I used to make fun at the girls my age that were flirting with the Italian soldiers in Larissa. Some were even getting friendly with the Germans. Imagine that. I used to call them collaborators and traitors. How could you fall in love with a German? That was just crazy.
Mama used to say not to laugh at the crazy things people do because one day you might find yourself doing exactly the same thing. Yes, well, my mama was a smart woman and I’m not so smart because I didn’t listen to her. I lost my heart to a German. Never laugh at what other people do, Zoe.
Athena’s Bluff and Tempi Valley is where I lost my heart. I’m not in a hurry to go find it.
The post Athena’s Bluff – A Place of Refuge appeared first on Zoe Lambros Journal.
My ‘In The Blood of the Greeks: The Illustrated Companion' page has been updated with twenty images (illustrations, war photography and other images). There are over sixty images in the book.
