Today was my five year anniversary with my stunning girlfriend and it was amazing. We are in Athens we woke up lazily and I went to make eggs ( Greek style, which involves a heart clogging amount of olive oil and feta) The food is so good here everything is different when you cook it the same at home. I didn’t break one yoke, we had it with a cup of ‘cai tou vono’ tea of the mountains a herbal tea made of wild sage like plant drunk with honey. We read to each other, and laughed, went for a brief walk through Kalithea the suburb that our flat is in ( sort of like living in North Melbourne) we watched ‘The King’s Speech’ a fabulous film for the second time with lunch a basic pasta with burnt mizthrea (salty Greek cheese and sauce)
Had a quiet nap, played cards and chilled talking much of our years together our memory ‘s joys and pains and what is to come. We talked of home, our beautiful family, housemates and friends.
Then that night we put on our best clothes and dragged ourselves out we had big plans but almost didn’t go.....it is so lovely here and warm...sigh okay we should go. should we? Yes okay. We waited for the trolley.....crap twas a strike so nothing was coming ....hopped in a taxi to the acropolis looking up walking along the paved footpath hand in hand at last we arrived at our destination ‘Dionysos by the acropolis’ a beautiful high end restaurant right under the acropolis.
We had planned for luxury but I certainly felt like we were playing dress ups or something....we had our own ice bucket by the table multiple sets of cutlery. I can’t describe the amazing feeling or the spectacular view but I my mind wondered blissfully, one of those moments you hope to never forget. I ordered a glass of white, my girly an orange juice. Ordered cheese and bread and got something so fancy we hardly recognised it. Also ordered the most amazing Laconika I have ever tasted on a bed of apple, finely sliced cabbage soaked in apple cider with grated walnuts. Girly said her orange juice was phenomenal.
Small talk and gifts, little gestures of our love for each other I brought girly a necklace pendant of a double headed axe a symbol of female strength, she brought me a lovely silver and gold ring that suits the me that I am right now so much I felt like I glowed when I wore it and a cheap bangle I requested from a little stall in Plaka full of Greek swirls and patterns’
We toasted to us, our lives together giving thanks, appreciating how lucky we are to be so in love to have such a full and wonderful life, the opportunity to travel and Bob and Esther Girly’s great grandparents a couple who girly and I greatly admire for their love, respect and comitment they had in their long romance and relationship. For mains I ordered lamb shanks in tomato with gruyere and potatoes baked in a clay pot, girly, pork neck on mashed potato with honey mustard sauce, mine was served for me from the clay pot to my bowl, I felt ridiculous and out of place but was enjoying the sheer over the topness! We had a lot to celebrate.
Dessert was something else entirely Girly had to order hers before dinner as it took a hour to cook, chocolate soufflé with dark orange sauce and vanilla ice-cream served in a beautifully crafted waffle bowl, I opted for a mastica ( a amazing flavour of Greece,a resin from a tree that is truly a breath taking to taste) Parfait with a sour cherry sauce topped with glazed sour cherries and pistachio I was in heaven as was girly. I finished the meal with a Greek coffee and they called us a cab.
I picked up a twig from one of the orange trees that line the street here by the door of our flat “for you my love” I said it 5 years is the wood anniversary...okay so not very glamorous but we are steady and solid now with our roots firmly in the ground and we continue to grow, lush green growth extending out into the universe bring joy to our souls. Blessings!
