Happy Rooster Day!

Hi Everyone! Let me explain. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and despite our best efforts, we could not find a turkey anywhere in Thessaloniki. Apparently, butchers who sell whole turkeys hang on to them until Christmas so they can compete with those sold by the American Agricultural Univeristy here. Keeps prices down at Christmas time, but leaves out in the cold those of us wanting to celebrate Thanksgiving. So, Amanda stuffed and cooked a delicious rooster and she, Mom, and I had a wonderful Rooster Day. Hope you all did, too.

Amanda just dropped me off into a crowd of bundeled-up backpack-toting university students, and now I’m on my laptop at the campus Starbucks (the holiday peppermint mochas arrived last week...very excited), listening to Bobby Darin’s recording of Silver Bells. So far the day is a lot like being back at GW.

Sorry it’s been a little while since we’ve posted. We drove down to Athens two weekends ago to see John before he started his new job commuting to Zurich, and also to pick Mom up from the airport when she and Thia Marit returned from Crete.

[Quick side note: if I haven’t mentioned it before, the traffic here in Greece is horrible. It makes D.C. look like a leisurely Sunday drive. The worst of it is the motorcycle and moped traffic, especially in summer when it constantly surrounds you like a swarm of hornets. Well, it took four months, but I finally got in an accident driving around Athens the day before Mom got back from Crete—basically, both a motorcyclist and I tried to make a questionable move in heavy traffic at the same time. Luckily, it was a very small “fender bender” and no one was hurt. In fact, after it was over, Amanda told me how jealous she was that I actually got to hit a motorcyclist…she’s wanted to do that for four months now…]

We hadn’t seen my Mom since we were home in Erie for July 4th, so it was really great to see her again. We spent one night in Athens visiting some of her cousins and then Wednesday drove home to Thessaloniki. Two days later, Polly arrived for a long weekend. Seemed difficult to believe, but that was the first time Mom, Polly and I had been in Greece together since 1981!

Polly was so excited to be back. Amanda and I didn’t have much planned for that Friday afternoon because we assumed Polly would be napping off the jet lag. If she had any, she certainly didn’t show it. She wanted to go, go, go from the minute she arrived. We spent the afternoon walking all over Thessaloniki, sipping coffee as we walked along the paralia to check out the new Christmas lights. We strolled past Lefkos Pirgos and the statute of Alexander the Great, up Aristotle Square and then back along Tsimiski Street, the city’s main shopping drag.

To our surprise, there was a huge demonstration marching up Tsimiski. It was then that we realized what date it was: November 17. Thousands of Thessalonians, all carrying red flags or wearing red arm bands, were marching to commemorate a time when demonstrations and free speech were nowhere to be found in Greece. A little background: from 1967 to 1974, Greece was ruled by a right-wing military junta. Some Greeks believe that the junta helped Greece recover from its post-World War II woes. However, many remember it as a terrible time in Greece, full of mass arrests, martial law, torture, heavy censorship, and violations of civil liberties. When hundreds of students demonstrated against the junta at the Athens Polytechnic Institute on November 17, 1973, most were massacred by the Greek army (although there are no official records as to how many were actually killed that day).

In any case, every year the massacre is remembered, and many Greeks march in demonstrations to honor the murdered students and to voice their opposition to any type of totalitarian rule in Greece. And obviously, every year the marches are also a way for communist and socialist political action groups to distribute leaflets, and, incidentally, for people to loudly shout anti-American sentiments (as Polly commented, it was fine for us to quietly watch the march, but had we been standing there eating apple pie and waving Cadillac keys, we may have had a problem).

With the city center all bottled up the demonstration, Amanda, Polly, Aki, Maria, Runia and I went to dinner at a great hunters’ taverna in the mountains above Panorama where Aki and Maria live. We spent hours catching up over wild boar, chicken, beef, rabbit, and lots of great barrel wine. Polly and I spent so much time with Aki and Runia growing up; it had been 12 years since Polly saw them and twice as long since all four of us were together. A long meal turned into a late night.

Saturday, we drove out to Vergina to show Polly and Mom the tomb of Philip II that had impressed us so much a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful day and with Polly having such a short visit to Greece, we were all glad we could squeeze in at least a little sight-seeing. That evening we took it easy (except for dealing with a surprise power outage that was, well, comical) and turned in early to prepare for a long day in my mother’s village on Sunday. More about that in our next post.

By the way, how ‘bout them Cowboys?! Romo may be the answer, after all.

Yiasas for now…

Bill

The Hotel Bartender's Name Was Spyro, Too

On the 30th, Bruce and Tina arrived from DC for a visit, and we hit the ground running.

[Guest Blogger Bruce: Upon our arrival into Athens we were gifted with a few "travel essentials" to include: fabulous Greek chocolate, a calling card, ouzo, a rather interesting deck of cards, and some laxatives; all of which would or could be used during our trip.]

We first spent a couple days with John and Iro in Athens, including another hike up the Acropolis, a walk through the plaka, complete with the Rex-inspired tradition of stopping for a shot of kumquat liquor, and, of course, some completely over-indulgent meals.

[Guest Blogger Tina: John & Iro provided our first exposure to Greek food - wow! From tasty souvlaki pita rolls to the evening smorgasbord we seemed to try it all within the first 24 hours. Being pregnant I wasn't too concerned about my waistline but I did need to fit into the one pair of jeans I brought to wear all week.]

We then road-tripped north, made a stop at Delphi, and then took the new bridge (Greeks are SO proud of this new bridge because it took a scant 20 years to complete it) across the Gulf of Corinth to Patra. There we caught the overnight ferry to Corfu for two days on one of Greece's most famous islands.

[Guest Blogger Tina: Sleeping on bunk beds in a room smaller than most dorm rooms made me feel like a coed girl-scout as all the juvenile behaviors come out in close quarters.]

Corfu is unlike the blue-and-white-washed islands of the Cyclades that Amanda and I experienced this past summer. Instead, its location in the Ionian Sea and its history of different occupiers has given it many different cultural influences, and the architecture in Corfu Town definitely reflects this. The buildings there range from tall condominiums like those in the large cities on the Greek mainland to Venetian townhomes with wrought-iron decorations. On the main square in town, the Spianada, there are a line of cafes called the Liston that French settlers designed to resemble the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, and the cafes serve ginger beer, a refreshment left over from years of British rule. The square itself even has a cricket field at its center.

We spent the day Thursday walking around the square and then exploring the ruins of the Palaio Frourio--the "Old Fortress"--a 16th-century Venetian fort that juts out into the narrow channel between Corfu and the Greek mainland. Stopped for coffee and ginger beer on the Liston and then walked to Agios Spyridon, a church of particular importance to me because its namesake, St. Spyros, shares my father's name and my middle name (along with, it turns out, like, half of the male population ofCorfu). We then walked around Old Corfu Town for shopping and dinner, and stayed up late at the hotel bar playing cards and talking.

Friday, we jumped in the car and drove through the Troumbetas Pass to the north side of the island. Ventured through Sidari and then stopped at the the beach at Arilas, Greece's westernmost point (and that day, by far its coldest and most windy...I know Tina and Amanda will be absolutely thrilled with the photo I posted above). We then drove to Paleokatritsa, a beautiful resort on Corfu's west coast, before cutting back across the island to Corfu Town. We were all pretty beat from four days of heavy traveling and sight-seeing, so we stayed in that night and had some pizza delivered, ordered drinks from our hotel bartender, and continued the Spades Championship of the World.

Saturday, we caught the early ferry over to Igoumentisa, the busiest port on the west side of Greece's mainland. From there, we took the long and winding road through the Pindos mountains to Ioanina. We stopped there to walk through the ancient walled part of the city, which still holds all the architectural and cultural influences left over from its years under Turkish rule. From Ioanina, we continued east to the monasteries at Meteora so Bruce and Tina could experience what we feel is one of the most unique places in Greece, if not the world. After touring Varlaam, Greater Meteora, and Agios Stephanos, we ate dinner down in Kalambaka and then drove back to Thessaloniki.

Sunday night, we headed out to a bouzouki bar with a few of my cousins: Aki, Maria, Rania, Costas, Nitsa and Dimitra. A very late night led to sleeping in, so we didn't get on the road for more sightseeing until Monday afternoon. We drove an hour west of Thessaloniki to Edessa, truly one of Greece's most unique towns. The entire city is built over an area of natural springs at the top of a cliff, so tiny rivulets run throughout the town and join together to form a waterfall over 80 feet tall, the largest in Greece.

Tuesday, we went to visit Vergina, the site of four tombs that were discovered by a Greek archaeologist in 1977. The tombs include that of King Philip II, King of Macedonia and father of none other than Alexander the Great. You have to see these tombs to believe them. Each one was found exactly as it was built over 2,300 years ago, perfectly preserved for centuries under tons of soil. Inside Philip's tomb, his bones and all of his royal treasures were unearthed, in the heart of a large mound of earth about 40 feet tall and an acre in area. The museum is literally built on top of the site, with all four enormous tombs encased in glass for visitors to view. It is a very, very impressive display, and a nice place to finish Bruce and Tina's visit.

[Guest Bloggers Bruce & Tina: With so many memories we're glad we could share just a few with everyone. We really enjoyed our week touring and tasting our way through Greece with a translator, the best tour guides, and personal advocates (to keep the smokers away from the pregnant lady!). Thanks to both Bill & Amanda and John & Iro for their sincere hospitality and incredible generosity.]

It was so great to spend time with Bruce and Tina; every time we all travel together, the time unfortunately flies by so quickly, but it's only because we have so much fun. And they were such troopers for enduring our Planes, Trains, (Ferries) and Automobiles itinerary, and the fact that on many days in the off-season certain Greek attractions are closed--like the sun, for instance.

Mom is in Greece now, vacationing with John's mother in Crete for the week. We'll see her next week and Polly arrives a few days later for a quick visit, so lots to look forward to and blog about.

Tha ta xanapoume syndoma!

Bill

The Big FIVE for Dimitri!

Hi everyone! Sorry it’s been awhile since we’ve blogged but we’ve been traveling again so we're a bit behind. Bill and I have been spending the majority of our time up in Thessaloniki but last week we traveled back to Athens to celebrate Dimitri’s 5th birthday.

But first, Saturday Oct 28th was Ochi Day, one of the major holidays on the Greek calendar. Greeks commemorate the day their government said “Ochi!” (“No!”) to Hitler and Mussolini using Greek land for military operations during World War II. John and Iro took us to the Ochi Day parade in Voula, where all the spectators waved Greek flags along to the music while all the local schoolchildren and marching bands filed down the street.

After the parade, Bill and I visited Mary, a friend and former co-worker of mine. Mary and her husband Nick live in Athens with their twin boys, Johnny and Teddy (who are so big now and doing extraordinary things). They’ve been living in Athens for the past 3 years so it’s been awhile since we had seen them. Their home in Filothei sits atop one of the highest points in Athens, overlooking the new Olympic stadium and the other Olympic venues. It was great catching up with Mary and getting some more pointers about Greek life, as Mary seems to thrive wherever she is. Nick was out of town but we hope to see them all again before we head back to the States.

That Sunday afternoon was Dimitri’s birthday party and like all Greek festivities, it was quite an event. It was a perfect fall day for the kids (all 30 of them). Iro made a huge spread of delicious food, they hired a really funny clown that the kids (and adults) loved, and most importantly Dimitri had a blast! We were so glad we could be there.

On the following Tuesday Bruce and Tina arrived. It was really good to finally see them and we had so much fun together. Bill will give you all the details…..

Yiasas!

Amanda