Greece
Greece...well... where to start. We have just spent the last four weeks in northern Greece not far from the Turkish boarder region. Cousin Joe moved out there to Alexandropoli about four years back with his girlfriend Maria. Going to Greece was as much about catching up with him as about seeing Greece. The region is mostly an agricultural area with the city of Alex’ being the service centre. So although there are some very lovely areas, this is not a major tourist destination. Things that have stuck in the mind are the lazy dogs, the great coffee, the housing, the good food, the fashions, the scooters, the parking, the food, the smoking, the friendliness of folk, the food, and, oh did I mention the food? We visited a gorgeous little village in the mountains where if you rebuild in the traditional style you get a grant from the EU. Strolled through an ancient Greek temple on the Island of samathoracie, thousands of years old. And partook in many a fabulous Greek meal. Add this to time spent with Joe and Maria and their Whanau, Greece was very much a good time. (We are at the gym most days now trying to get fit again, for the ski season!)
The dogs in Greece seem to have a chilled out life. We saw plenty of un owned dogs. Not wild as such because they were not in any way aggressive. They just lived on the street and cruised around. You could always find them having an afternoon nap during the hottest part of the day. The charm of these dogs was where they would sleep. Inches from the bus wheels in the gutter of the street, in the rubbish on the beach front with the waves getting closer and closer, or on the traffic island of a big intersection. There was one who seemed to own the foot path outside the local supermarket. It never bothered anyone but it just did not move. The Greeks seem to have a sense of total indifference to these dogs and will step over a sleeping dog rather than make it move. Letting sleeping dogs lie no less! One of the cool things about these dogs was that they would come and hang out with you for a while and walk the streets. We thought that this was very friendly until it was pointed out that the only way a dog could cross another dogs territory was if it pretended it was a pet and was travelling with its owner. So they were really just using us!
Going to a cafe for a coffee is a time honoured tradition and there is a very Greek way to do this. First you must be dressed up. The main activity at a Greek café seems to be checking people out and being checked out so try to remember the glad rags and the sunnies. Find a seat with a view and sit back and relax. Sooner or later the waitress will arrive and take your order. After what always seem a bit of a wait to the shaking, addict in Ben, the drinks would arrive with a tall glass of water and a couple of small complementary cakes and the bill. Your job is now to look, chat, and take in your surroundings, your waiter won’t be back for at least an hour to settle the bill. The only down side to the Greek coffee was that as they drink it cold in summer as standard and will spend an hour to drink it so they will occasionally bring it out a bit cold too.
Where we went in Greece the people mostly lived in the city centre. The buildings were a combination of shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors. This made for a large live in population in the city centre. It gave the place a constant hum. There were always people about doing something, always something going on, bands, party’s drinking or just people zipping around on scooters (sometimes 3 or 4 to a bike) as often on pavement as on the road.
This is I guess one way to solve parking issues, the other way is very Greek, park anywhere you want and leave your phone number on the dash, if it needs to be moved someone will call. It’s not uncommon to see double and even triple parking and we saw 4 occasions where someone just parked in the middle of a one lane road with the cars backed up behind them.
The way food is eaten in Greece is my favourite out of all the countries we’ve been to. lots of small plates of different dishes and salads and breads and dips and meats etc are placed in the middle of the table and everyone just digs in – not to heap food onto their own plate but just to eat from the plates in the middle a bit at a time, this is great because you only eat what you want and as much as you want and if you’re still hungry you just order more! you dip your bread in the dips (don’t spread the dips onto the bread) and drink strong spirits to help wash it down, our favourite was ouzo an aniseed flavoured drink which is 40% alcohol there were another 2 similar drinks - chipero around 50-60% and another one that starts with R and I cant remember the name of so that just shows how strong that one was, there is also a wine called retsina made from pine resin, mmmm mm I hear you say. Well yes it does taste a bit like toilet duck but if you add coke (yes coke and white wine) it tastes rather like Jack Daniels and ginger ale. Even the takeaways are supreme, we got to love the chicken yero (known back home as a souvalaki) complete with hot chips – in the pita! At home and at restaurants we ate amazing veil with lemon juice, chicken with lemon juice, or pork with a personal favourite of mine ...lemon juice. The falafel and seafood were drool worthy – the best of which was a tomato shrimp and feta dish (like a pasta sauce without the pasta) and of course all dishes had olive oil in on and around everything. Most of the meals use no marinade so Karen could for once eat anything she liked!
The only thing we didn’t really like was that everyone smoked (we did not meet a single person who didn’t). Although the family avoided filling the house with smoke and seemed either very thoughtful to us or disliked their own smokes smell, it was impossible not to end up smelling like cigarette smoke!!
Cheers, and ‘sweet as’ to all those people we met and hung out with. Thanks for putting up with a couple of wide eyed tourists. And a special thanks to Maria and Chrisa for having us to stay you guys are great and we look forward to paying the favour back when you come to NZ.
The dogs in Greece seem to have a chilled out life. We saw plenty of un owned dogs. Not wild as such because they were not in any way aggressive. They just lived on the street and cruised around. You could always find them having an afternoon nap during the hottest part of the day. The charm of these dogs was where they would sleep. Inches from the bus wheels in the gutter of the street, in the rubbish on the beach front with the waves getting closer and closer, or on the traffic island of a big intersection. There was one who seemed to own the foot path outside the local supermarket. It never bothered anyone but it just did not move. The Greeks seem to have a sense of total indifference to these dogs and will step over a sleeping dog rather than make it move. Letting sleeping dogs lie no less! One of the cool things about these dogs was that they would come and hang out with you for a while and walk the streets. We thought that this was very friendly until it was pointed out that the only way a dog could cross another dogs territory was if it pretended it was a pet and was travelling with its owner. So they were really just using us!
Going to a cafe for a coffee is a time honoured tradition and there is a very Greek way to do this. First you must be dressed up. The main activity at a Greek café seems to be checking people out and being checked out so try to remember the glad rags and the sunnies. Find a seat with a view and sit back and relax. Sooner or later the waitress will arrive and take your order. After what always seem a bit of a wait to the shaking, addict in Ben, the drinks would arrive with a tall glass of water and a couple of small complementary cakes and the bill. Your job is now to look, chat, and take in your surroundings, your waiter won’t be back for at least an hour to settle the bill. The only down side to the Greek coffee was that as they drink it cold in summer as standard and will spend an hour to drink it so they will occasionally bring it out a bit cold too.
Where we went in Greece the people mostly lived in the city centre. The buildings were a combination of shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors. This made for a large live in population in the city centre. It gave the place a constant hum. There were always people about doing something, always something going on, bands, party’s drinking or just people zipping around on scooters (sometimes 3 or 4 to a bike) as often on pavement as on the road.
This is I guess one way to solve parking issues, the other way is very Greek, park anywhere you want and leave your phone number on the dash, if it needs to be moved someone will call. It’s not uncommon to see double and even triple parking and we saw 4 occasions where someone just parked in the middle of a one lane road with the cars backed up behind them.
The way food is eaten in Greece is my favourite out of all the countries we’ve been to. lots of small plates of different dishes and salads and breads and dips and meats etc are placed in the middle of the table and everyone just digs in – not to heap food onto their own plate but just to eat from the plates in the middle a bit at a time, this is great because you only eat what you want and as much as you want and if you’re still hungry you just order more! you dip your bread in the dips (don’t spread the dips onto the bread) and drink strong spirits to help wash it down, our favourite was ouzo an aniseed flavoured drink which is 40% alcohol there were another 2 similar drinks - chipero around 50-60% and another one that starts with R and I cant remember the name of so that just shows how strong that one was, there is also a wine called retsina made from pine resin, mmmm mm I hear you say. Well yes it does taste a bit like toilet duck but if you add coke (yes coke and white wine) it tastes rather like Jack Daniels and ginger ale. Even the takeaways are supreme, we got to love the chicken yero (known back home as a souvalaki) complete with hot chips – in the pita! At home and at restaurants we ate amazing veil with lemon juice, chicken with lemon juice, or pork with a personal favourite of mine ...lemon juice. The falafel and seafood were drool worthy – the best of which was a tomato shrimp and feta dish (like a pasta sauce without the pasta) and of course all dishes had olive oil in on and around everything. Most of the meals use no marinade so Karen could for once eat anything she liked!
The only thing we didn’t really like was that everyone smoked (we did not meet a single person who didn’t). Although the family avoided filling the house with smoke and seemed either very thoughtful to us or disliked their own smokes smell, it was impossible not to end up smelling like cigarette smoke!!
Cheers, and ‘sweet as’ to all those people we met and hung out with. Thanks for putting up with a couple of wide eyed tourists. And a special thanks to Maria and Chrisa for having us to stay you guys are great and we look forward to paying the favour back when you come to NZ.
posted by thekarenandbenshow at 12:08 PM
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