Wedding Crashers

Sunday, September 3: Syros (Amanda)
We made it to Syros only after persuading Thomás that we could handle the rough seas. Maybe we should have listened to our skipper? Actually, it wasn’t too bad and it put us on track to hit Mykonos later in the trip.

Syros is the administrative capital of the Cyclades so it seemed more developed than the rest of the islands we visited. The highlight was stumbling across Agios Nikolaos, probably one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. Just as we were snapping some shots of the front of the church, we heard accordion music coming down the street—a wedding was starting. Like all weddings here in Greece, it began with the groom, his family, and all the guests waiting outside for the bride to arrive with her family and attendants. She was then escorted up the steps to the front doors, where the groom handed his bride her bouquet, and then they all go into the church for the ceremony. It’s a very beautiful tradition that I think we should start doing for all Greek weddings in the states…unless it’s a winter wedding in Ohio :)

Weddings in Greece are very casual and guests tend to mill around in and out of the church, even while the ceremony is being performed. So we took the opportunity to walk in and watch the wedding for a while. Later, we joined Sini and Thomás for dinner near the capitol building. It was a great start to our island hopping adventure and we looked forward to a fun night on the party island of Mykonos.