Why They Don't Sell Greek Army Knives

We started getting the house settled this week, but it seems every time we start to make some headway, we get interrupted by a trip to the beach or a call inviting us out for drinks. Tough to be productive when there's constant fun to be had.

On Monday, we drove to the IKEA just outside Thessaloniki and bought a bed, some chairs, a desk, and lots of stuff for the kitchen. Our little VW Golf was so packed we were popping wheelies down Karamanli Highway. We managed to get all of the stuff up into the house just before we had to leave for Chalkidiki, the coastal region just east of Thessaloniki. My aunt and uncle, Thea Eugenia and Theo Manoli, have a beach house there in the little seaside town of Nea Plagia. Theo Manoli was out of town, but Thea Eugenia, Runia, and Runia's two children, George and Eugenoula, hosted us for a wonderful three days on the beach.

Nea Plagia was just perfect. It was packed with people taking a vacation for the Panagia, the religious holiday on August 15 to commemorate the Virgin Mary's assumption into heaven. It's one of the most significant days on the Greek calendar; it also happens to be my birthday, so the entire country had lots of reasons to celebrate. We spent our daytime hours on the beach with the children, followed by absolutely delicious meals that my aunt prepared (tasty brezolia, tiropita, and, of course, salad topped with tons of feta). After our daily nap in the late afternoon, we'd walk up and down the paralia and sit down for drinks and catch up with Runia. It was just fantastic.

We drove back to Thessaloniki on Wednesday and met up with my cousin Gregory (whom I call "Aki" because that's what I called him when we were little; Aki is short for Gregoraki, which means "Little Gregory"...he's 6'7" now but old habits die hard). We also met his new wife Maria (they were married in Thessaloniki on June 18), who is just beautiful and so gracious. She and Amanda hit it off right away talking about the pitfalls of wedding planning and about how both Aki and I were of similarly little help...

That night they took us to Kitchen Bar, a swanky new place at the Port of Thessaloniki. We had some light food and lots of drinks. I regretfully admit that one of the highlights of the night is when I tried to order another drink for Aki. He drinks vodka and cherry juice, but when I tried to say "cherry juice" in Greek I was off by a letter. I ordered Smirnoff and breasts. Everyone immediately had a nice laugh except for me and our waitress.

The next day we valiantly made the most of trying to assemble our IKEA bed with a Greek "all-in-one" tool that professed to be adequate for any household job. An hour later, we were left with no bed and one completely mangled all-in-one tool. No wonder the Swiss have cornered the market...

That night we spent a few hours at Aki's just watching each other's wedding DVDs and flipping through Thea Eugenia's photo albums. Pictures upon pictures of Runia, Aki, Polly and I playing together as children. Amanda had never seen many of the photos and it was Maria's first time, too. Next thing we knew it was 2 in the morning. So fun and so nice catch up. Aki and Runia are such wonderful cousins and I hate that 4 years have passed since I last saw them.

OK, enough for now. It's been over 40 degrees Celsius the past 3 days, so we may head back out to New Plagia tomorrow for the day to try and cool off in the Aegean. Later this week we'll hit the Bouzoukia bars, visit my mother's home village of Kolindros, and then tour the monasteries at Meteora--lots to blog about in our next entry. Until then, Yia sas!

Bill