greece eb blog

we arrived in athens and with some trial and error found the family flat, which pleasantly but mysteriously had the heater and fridge already on. our first day was quiet, full of great food we cooked ourselves. after 24 quiet hours, suddenly we hear calls of Helen! Helen! (being Eleanor). Thia Maria and Thia Vassso both turned up, beginning our family time with food and walking from both. Thia Vasso, champion of walking or volta, took us all around the city, seeing the acropolis from every viewpoint as we wandered past churches while consuming awesome souvlaki with chips. She chatted endlessly as we walked, helping to kickstart Ellie's memories of Greek and fill in some gaps.

Thia Maria lives across from the flat, solving the mystery of who kindly put the power on for us and providing us with endless kindness and hospitality. we had a great game of Biriba with Thia Maria and Theo Fani, which took two hours and involved much of the requisite shouting and arguing. lots of fun. Theo Fani and me won, mostly due to him.

Seeing Kelly (from Perth/ Kalliope Nikoloudis, to specify which of the 5 Kellys) was a welcome relief from our new immersion in Greek, which Ellie managed well with much guessing and I sat through bemusedly. Thank goodness we acquired a phrasebook with a two-way dictionary! We drove up the top of a mountain in Athens that is not called Laconica because that's a sausage, but that's all Ellie can remember right now. The nighttime view is beautiful. We then had sweets of enormous size, of course mine was swimming in chocolate! it was awesome, as was the mastica icecream.

After much walking, we know the centre of Athens pretty well and can naviagate by the location of the Acropolis, which we finally ascended the day before going to the village. It is stunning, though it takes some imagining to picture its golden days, particularly given the pillaging by the British, which has resulted in half the museum display being plaster casts of pieces that remain BM (British Museum). GGRRRRRRRRRR.

the village is peaceful, surrounded by mountains and olive trees. we are well fed and looked after, though feeling distressed by our lack of greek skills!
it's nice to escape from the cities and crowds. i can't remember the last day i had where no one was pushing at me or walking in front of me. here you just see people drive by on tractors or sitting outside houses.

rules for staying in Greek houses:

- never eat before arriving; you will always be fed when you get there

- don't snack without the family; you'll regret not having room for whatever gets offered next

- resist eating the bread on the table until you've tried everything else

- use the word oreia (beautiful) whenever possible!

Yesterday we went olive picking, better described as harvesting as you don't actually pick them individually. Turns out you smack the branches with a stick - very cathartic. People with more skill fell the branches with a chainsaw and then we whack them till all the olives fall off, to be shaken off the cloth into the sorting tray, and from there into the sacks. after proccessing, a lot of this oil is sold in Italy, where one litre of Krokees oil acts as the flavour for 16L of inferior oils from elsewhere. a sad loss of seriously intense flavour, as i can attest from local sampling of both the olive and the oil that lunchtime, as we sat in the sun dipping bread into oil and eating it with feta. fresh oranges for dessert as we laughed at Ellie's dreadlocks, a talking point no matter where we go, and always involving the question "do you wash them? how?". people occasionally ask if she brushes them too!

Pantelis, one of Ellie's many uncles (or 2nd cousins, hard to figure out) is determined to show us around and took us to the amazing cave system nearby - Diros Caves, the largest in the world. the tourist part is an underground lake system which we glide through on small boats, ducking frequently to avoid hitting the stalactites that are everywhere. My favourite part was the 'golden rain', areas of miniscule stalactites in a golden hue, so thin you could snap them with a breath.

in the tiny museum out front sits the oldest complete example of a Neanderthal skeleton, as well as olive leaves, pottery and weapons from the Neolithic period. I guess greece has so much of this stuff that the remains of a stone age civilization is merely a minor talking point! incredible. the caves were inhabited until 4BC, when an earthquake hid them until 1900.

Today Pantelis continues our sightseeing with a trip to Monemvisia, an ancient town complete with castle carved from the rock. more on that when we return!

yay for the blogging finally being up to date! miss you all!