Greek Guide

 What's right and what's wrong

Open palm. Don't flash your open hand at anyone, it's a serious insult.                                            If you're annoyed with someone then flash your palm behind their back.   They can't take offence if they don't see it but it'll make you feel better. A sort of 'same to you with knobs on'. 

You'll see lots of blue and white especially in the shape of an eye or a fish. Or someone's front door.  They're protective symbols.  Blue is the colour to repel the evil eye, illness and bad luck. The blue eye sends negative energy back to its source.

Dress respectfully in churches. Women will get away with trousers these days but no shorts for men or women. Stricter in Monasteries, no 'womans in mans dress'. Cover shoulders and knees. 

Cars don't stop at pedestrian crossings

Toilet paper in the bin. The used paper I mean. Don't flush it down the loo

Beware the summer sun

Never touch or remove anything from Archeological sites. You could end up in jail. Take photos unless there's a sign saying otherwise

Don't book a ferry on the same day as your flight home. Ferries are easily delayed.  Get into Athens a day early and stay overnight.  Holiday Inn has a shuttle service, and probably a few other hotels too

Go to a pharmacy for basic first aid and advice. Easier than finding a doctor

Keep to the right when driving. Pass on the left 

Seatbelts in the front seat mandatory. Don't know about the back seat

Don't use your phone while driving, though you're sure to see other drivers doing just that, and without seat belts.

Road rage is a thing here now. Beware. 

Helmets are essential for motorbikes, quad bikes and E-scooters .  You can hire a quad bike with a driver's licence. EU if you're from an EU country, otherwise international

Road signs are in Greek and English

If you pay cash, not by card, you'll probably get a discount. Cards can be used everywhere. At the kiosk for a bottle of water or a loaf of bread at the bakers

ATMs are everywhere. Preferably used one attached to an actual bank

Greeks don't eat dessert after dinner. Now and again you may be offered fruit

Water from the tap is drinkable however many people, like K, drink bottled water. Bottle caps are attached to the bottle, can't be removed and carelessly thrown away

Don't tip unless you really liked the meal or friendly staff. A few euros will do

Beware of slippery marble steps and paths. If there's water on them and you're wearing flip-flops you'll go head over heels

No public loos. Go to a cafe, buy a soft drink and use their loos

89% of Greeks believe their culture is superior to others 

I speak Greek. What's your Superpower 

50 Years

The Short Version 

  1976 to 2026

 50 years in a foreign country

June 1976, with a friend from South Africa, I  hitched hiked from London to Dover and then across Europe from Calais to Brindisi, me

carrying that heavy pack.  I remember we slept at camping grounds but don't  remember much else. It must have gone smoothly. A big ferry from Brindisi to Patra in Greece and train to Athens. We got on a train going in the wrong direction, towards Kalamata. The guard let us off at a tiny station just down the line and we spent the night on a concrete floor till a train to Athens came in next day

The Greek family

K there in the middle with his aunt, me standing at back left, his cousin, sister, nephews, and m-in-law over there on the left. The baby in the red baby-gro is daughter Elli

My M-in-law - it took a few years but I came to realise that I had literally turned her known world upside down and felt sorry she had to deal with this woman whose life and culture was completely alien to her.  We learnt to live with each other. 

On our terrace in Piraeus 

The 2 little Greek girls

At our very rustic village house down in Crete.  The water supply was a bit iffy and we often hauled water from a pipe across the road.  When it rained you needed an umbrella to sit on the loo. The roof leaked badly.  

The narrative

I was born in New Zealand and grew up in a rural town called Te Puke.

A few years after leaving school I set out to see  the world and all the relatives in the northern hemisphere.  Nowadays this is called the OE (overseas experience) Many young people downunder have that same urge.  I joined the tide north with 2 friends. 

  I had a strong feeIing I wouldn't go back to live in NZ.  Sometimes you just know, deep down inside. It was 11 years before I went back, introducing my Greek husband and 2 small children to my parents. 

  After 3 years working in London and 2 holidays on the Continent (Europe) I travelled down to Greece in June 1976 with a friend from South Africa. We found a job for the summer in a hotel on Poros.  One of the greek girls working with me at the hotel was my husband's cousin Mathitsa. She invited us to visit her home on her name day in August .  As soon as we arrived word shot round the neighbourhood that there were some foreign girls (think 'aliens') at her house and in another instant that little cave-like house was filled with eager 'sightseers' peering in at us, including all the male cousins.  And that's how I met K.

 He was on leave from  the Navy where he served on a destroyer and had a tiny roof top 'apartment' (think store cupboard with a bathroom) in Piraeus.  I moved in with him after the summer and worked teaching young Greek kids English conversation.  We lived happily with not much money.   Days when he wasn't away on the ship we drank coffee with a crowd of his friends, ate snails, squid and fried potatoes at tiny tavernas.  There were usually not more than half a dozen tables, filled  with men from the neighbourhood. Women stayed at home and looked after the children.  We drank wine flavoured with retsina and served in metal jugs .

My Greek was just a few words, their English not much better.  It didn't matter. I used sign language and quickly picked up new words and phrases. 

Ks parents found out and and were not amused. They pressured to make me go home. He didn't listen and I didn't understand. 

We married without his parent's blessing but for me it didn't matter, we lived in the city, a long way from the island.  With the first child came acceptance, even though it was a girl, not a boy.  My mother-in-law told me she would not have objected if I had a dowry, a house, which my brothers should have provided, unbeknown to them or me, when we married.    A dowry?  What the hell was that. A totally foreign and archaic concept. 

I didn't understand Greek culture that well and just rode roughshod over it all and looked down on their 'ignorance' . 

  We married, had two girls and now we have five grandchildren.  Doesn't matter how long I'm here I'll always be a foreigner.  It's not just my accent, it is my whole way of thinking. But I do understand and respect the culture now. 

Back then every good greek wife was supposed to provide half a dozen sons and a couple of girls to look after their parents in old age.  In some places when asked how many children they had, a mother or father would answer 'two children and a daughter' instead of 'three children'.  We were happy with our 'little Greek girls' as they came to be known in my family. 

  I always prided myself on my wonderful grasp of the Greek language and the masterly way I spoke. Until  I heard myself on tape one day and couldn't believe the way I spoke, with harsh New Zealand vowel sounds and the way I tortured the pronunciation was excruciating.   No wonder my grandchildren laugh at my mistakes and my neighbour screws up her brows trying to understand. 

It was, and I believe still is, difficult for a kiwi to stay here for any length of time.  I had to apply for a visa or leave the country every 3 months and re-enter to get permission to stay for another 3 months.  Twice I left the country taking the overnight ferry from Patras to Brindisi, getting an exit stamp and coming back on the next boat to receive another 3 month stamp in my passport.

 1978

We got married in 1979 and I got dual citizenship.  Citizenship and the marriage meant a lot of work.  So much red tape, so many papers to gather, from the embassy, the police, the department of immigration and references from the community.  A paper to say I had not been married before, translated offically by a women in  a grotty office up 5 flights of stairs in the middle of Athens.  Another paper from the church in NZ to say I had been baptised Church of England and could thus be married in an Orthdox Church without being re-baptised. The 2 religions have similar beliefs.  My mother happened to be working as a secretary for a Church of England Bishop and arranged it quite easily.  I had a paper from our local Orthodox Priest to say..what?  I was a nice Christian girl?  I can't remember. That had to be translated as well of course.  And finally I had to swear before a Notary and sign in triplicate that I would let my children be brought up as Greek Orthodox.

Meanwhile my mother in law, through some more educated neighbour, had written a letter to my parents telling them to come and take their daughter back home.  They would find a nice Greek girl for their son.  On the wedding day the Priest almost backed out because someone had phoned and threatened him a with a lawsuit if he carried out the ceremony.  Back then Naval officers were not supposed to marry without the permission of a senior officer.  The Byzantine church of St Catherine in the old area of Athens had a Priest who had married some of his friends and would conduct our wedding.  Once the marriage was official the Navy accepted it without consequences. 

  Now that civil marriages are legal and marriages between Greeks and foreigners are quite normal it is all so much easier and acceptable.  

  We lived in the city of Piraeus, Port of Athens, for 10 years. Then K was transferred to the Naval Station on Crete.  We had 3 wonderful years there.  The girls, who had spoken mainly English, went to small local schools. We all learnt Greek together. I helped them with their homework and we all learnt to read and write.

Then another transfer back up to the island of Salamina where the main Naval Base is located. K was assigned to a destroyer and then a mine sweeper. We lived there for 3 years, K came and went between duty at sea.

Finally in 1991 he was assigned to the Naval School on Poros.  The girls had changed schools half a dozen times and I was relieved to have a permanent base even if it meant living cheek to jowl with my in laws.  There were quite a few disagreements and it wasn't all plain sailing for the girls either.  Somehow we survived, Greek dramas, neighbours whispering behind my back, school bullies, interfering old aunts asking very personal questions, and giving much unwanted advice. We couldn't move a finger without the whole island knowing.  Closed society can be a mean society.  People said hurtful things without realising, repeating harsh gossip. But eventually I fitted in, became part of the community.  I found my place, and stopped giving a damn. 

There was a large and active expat community back then. I made a few friends and became part of the foreign crowd too, found a sister to laugh with and share the strangeness . 

These days I have a pleasant feeling of fitting in as I  make my way along the harbour calling a cheery 'good morning' to a dozen people before reaching the cafe. Through K I'm related to a lot of them.  I know to ask after their children, grandchildren and have the correct greek pleasantries to utter.   I'll always be a foreigner, but now I'm a familiar one, a local alien. 

My family in NZ, Australia and England have always been there, supporting, without question. We are one big, caring, extended international family.  They love Poros more than I do.  Their frequent visits bring great joy. I slip back into 'foreign' mode and am overwhelmed by our memories, the delight of easy family familiarity. 

STUFFED TOMATOES

One of the most popular Greek summer dishes is stuffed tomatoes and green peppers (capsicum).  

Here is my recipe - with photos.  Other popular vegetables to stuff are aubergines and zucchinis and the stuffing is rice,  onions and herbs and maybe a little minced meat as well.   They're delicious and light in the summer heat

The hollowed out tomatoes and topless green peppers ready for stuffing.  The tomatoes are easily emptied by cutting a small slice off the top and digging out the flesh with a teaspoon.  It doesn't matter if the tomato skin is torn a little or a hole made in the bottom by too enthusiastic 'digging'.  The stuffing sits in there just the same.

Method

I put the flesh from half of the tomatoes, the onion and herbs into this little mixer and turn them into a pulp.  

You don't have to precook the stuffing and I never did, for 40 years. But K one day  told me his traditional mother boiled the stuffing for a short time so now I simmer it all for 10 minutes

Here are the vegetables, each filled with the stuffing mixed, ready to be closed.

Closed up, surrounded by potatoes cut into small pieces which hold them all in one place so they don't move around or fall over while cooking.  My mother-in-law always sprinkled breadcrumbs over them all before putting them in the oven so of course I do that as well (for her son).  They have been drizzled with olive oil and salt.  The dish does not need any extra water because usually quite a lot of juice comes from the tomatoes.  You can add a little water or tomato juice towards the end if you think they need it, and olive oil

And behold, this is what they look like after an hour in a hot oven.  A little blackness on top just gives them extra flavour.

RECIPE

- half a dozen tomatoes

- three or four green peppers

(or how ever many you think your family will eat)

- one onion, chopped and put into the mixer

- one clove of garlic

- a small bunch of parsely

 - mint

- basil

- one dessert spoon of short grain rice for each vegetable

- olive oil

- salt and pepper

If you're using zuchinis and aubergines, cut off a small lid and hollow them out the same way with a teaspoon.  Use the flesh in the stuffing.  Put it in the mixer with the tomato and onion.  

- 2 potatoes, cut into small pieces and parboiled for 10 minutes

- a little sugar

- also nice is a small handful of raisins and pine nuts

Hollow out the tomatoes and cut a lid off the top of the peppers, removing the seeds.

Put half the tomato flesh into the blender with the onion, garlic, roughly chopped parsely, mint and basil.  Mix to a pulp.

Put into a pot and start to simmer the mixture

Add the rest of the contents of the tomatoes roughly  mashing up any lumps with your fingers.    Add a small glass of olive oil, the rice, salt and pepper.  That is your stuffing ready.

Put a small sprinkle of sugar in the bottom of each tomato.  This counteracts the acidity of the tomato.  Now fill up each shell and cover with its lid.

Wedge the potatoes in between the vegetables.  Drizzle olive oil over them all, sprinkle a little more salt and scatter some breadcrumbs over the top.

Check that you've filled all the vegetables.

Cook in a hot oven from 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  The potatoes should be soft and the tops of the tomatoes lightly blackened.

If you want to use a little minced meat to make it a heartier meal for your man, then brown the mince a little and add it to the raw  tomato and rice mix and simmer.  I would use a handful of mince for this amount of vegetables.

Any stuffing mix left over you can just add to the dish around the veges and potatoes and maybe a little water.  It will cook perfectly well there and you'll have a little more to put on the plate.  

Serve with bread and feta cheese

Even better cold the next day.

Kali Orexi

A Map and More

 A map on a wall...

We were sitting inside a cafe after one of the islands celebrations, drinking ouzo and wine and enjoying a selection of mezes (traditional Greek nibbles  when you drink alcohol) 

Elli pointed out this map hanging on the wall opposite.  It's obviously Australia down there in the Eastern Ocean but the country is call New Holland

I'd never heard that old name for Australia so I messaged my brother in Perth to ask if he'd heard it called that.  Isn't social media amazing, instant communication from the deep south of the world to the far north. 

New Holland, he said, was the name given to mainland Australia by Dutch explorer Abel  Tasmania in 1644

It was known by this name till the early 19th C

The whole of those Southern lands, including Antartica was known as Terra Australis Incognita, the large unknown land to the South

Part of an ancient column standing alongside a square with crowded cafeterias

How many controls do you need for goodness sake

I cleaned out a couple of drawers the other day.  Found these, all going in the rubbish or recycle.  And we've got even more being currently used for TVs and aircons

The building toy behind was at the back of a drawer too. Bought for our grandkids, over 20 years ago.  I put the pieces in the dishwasher and will try and find a wee babe who might play with them

Or maybe I should keep them for the great grandchildren???? 

Poppi says definitely for the great grandchildren.  I'm forbidden to give it away.  But great grandchildren?  It might be a while yet!

Son in law Kyriakos proudly wearing the tshirt his Secret Santa gave him

'Duck you

You Ducking Duck' 

I wonder who gave him that??? 

My genteel mother would have been horrified

Stormy skies from winter passed

Not Quite Sussed

 All the family is working, long hours in summer heat.  We cook for them now and again. Just simple, traditional Greek summer food.  Dishes we know most of the family will eat.  Everyone has their likes and dislikes naturally enough

Stuffed tomatoes and peppers.

I try and leave a happy face on those one-use containers. A little of Mother's love

Macaroni 'pie' 

Sort of greek lasagne called Pastitsio

When it's hot it just collapses

Looks a mess after I transferred it for delivery 

Papou's famous meatballs, kefthethes

Full of garlic, parsley and mint

The aroma is irresistible

He fried 50 of them. I ate 1, he ate 3 so that left about 7 each for the rest of the family .  

 

Pastitsio and meatballs

Yum, yum eat 'em up

Now and again we make moussaka.  

That's it for the menu.  We do the prep the night before and put it all together next day.  K fries meatballs and I make bechamel for the pastitsio or moussaka. 

Delivery is to Danae' s workplace down on the waterfront. Driving through backstreet neighbourhoods to Ellis house is no longer an option. It's chaos up there.  Last time we went  Ks composure disappeared completely and he was yelling at a neighbour who wanted him to back up around a corner instead of backing up himself.  Quad bikes and motorbikes were squeezing past and it was almost impossible to manoeuvre so we could turn around and leave. This on a narrow road deserted during 10 months of the year

I was cooking in a large baking dish pan and then transferring the food to Tupperware bowls or smaller oven dishes for delivery

One-use baking trays

I finally sussed it out.  Tomorrow I'll be using these disposable baking dishes, one for each family.  I won't be scrambling to find one of my own dishes to use and they won't have a pile of them in their kitchens waiting for return

Well, it sounded like a good idea.  I've got 2 trays of stuffed vegetables in the oven now.  The timer went off after half an hour and I went to turn them around. Our oven is hotter on one side than the other.   I like to dunk the potatoes under the sauce too so they get a bit more taste.  Those aluminium containers were so heavy  they buckled and started to fold up into themselves.  There was boiling hot juice all over the oven door and a burnt finger for me.

I pushed them quickly to the back of the oven and cleaned up the mess .  When they're ready I'll open the oven door and let them cool off before I try and get the trays out.

And I'll go back to the big old non stick baking dish I was using before

Those flimsy aluminium things may be ok for brownies or biscuits but not for family meals

  Back to the drawing board

On the Home Front

 Midsummer has come and gone and days are getting shorter.  How does this happen when we still have the 2 hottest months to come

Preparing the greens K picked this morning. Called Vlita in Greek

They'll be boiled, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. A clove of garlic on the side. 

They're usually an accompaniment to fish or simply fried potatoes 

Greens and zucchini, tomatoes and one melon from our garden.  The melon was sweet and delicious. Alas there was only one

So far the summer is mild without any heatwaves, unlike the rest of Europe.  We had a quick rain shower yesterday and the temperature has dropped a little.

It does finally feel like summer.  The TV is outside for our evening viewing.  It has a waterproof cover during the day to protect it from the searing sun and any rain showers.  The big umbrella is up in the front yard giving us a little extra shade in the morning and protecting the garden from all day sun.  

I water daily.  Some plants like the basil, mint, thyme and hydrangea get water in the morning and the evening.

Poros roads are teeming with cars, motorbikes, motorised scooters, ebikes and pedestrians.  We go shopping very early in the morning, coffee first, then the supermarket  and home again.  If we go to the Navy beach canteen it's from Monday to Thursday, in the evening. Even then it gets too crowded and noisy.

We haven't started swimming yet.  It's too much of a hassle. 

Get changed, drive down in a hot car, haul our gear along the track and hopefully find a space to sit in the shade under the small shade tree on the water's edge, then back into the hot car, home, shower, change again.

  We'll be staying for 2 weeks at the Navy resort in September.  There's nothing else to do there but swim so we'll get our dose of ozone and swimming in the sea.

Our rural road has been blocked off because of the fire risk.  There is a big No Entry sign up at the crossroads.  We are very happy about that because tourists on quad bikes were screaming up and down our cul de sac disturbing our siesta hoping the road would lead to the sea.  No, it doesn't!

There are no ants in the house this year.  Even the huge outside ants are few and far between.  We are very happy those annoying house ants have disappeared.  We couldn't leave any food item out on the bench, it would be covered in a swarm of ants in seconds.  But what has happened to them?  We haven't sprayed or fumigated.  

There are no flies and fewer wasps.  Mosquitoes are still around and it's the year of the spider, huge great things.

Spider in the shower

It's about the size of the palm of my hand.  I didn't manage to catch it so it's still lurking somewhere in the bathroom. 

The cicadas started their screeching much later in the season and their noise level is not deafening as it is most years.  Strange the way nature differs each year.

Last year the nuisances were ants and grasshoppers.  The grasshoppers are still around, eating the leaves of my roses but nowhere near in such great numbers as the previous summer.

Summer birthdays and name days come one after another

This is the service at the Church of the Holy Belt, down at the bottom of our mountain road.  The church was whitewashed, the area cleaned up and the Council put on a full scale fiesta.  40 kilos of bbqed pork was dished out, free wine and cold drinks and live music with everyone dancing well into the evening

Temperatures are rising tomorrow. Up to 39o in some areas.  Not a heatwave though 

Poros Excursions - Methana and the Volcano

50ks from Athens by road, in sight of Poros, is a dormant volcano.  The last known explosion was in 258 BC.

An eruption was suspected but not confirmed in 1922. That's odd. Suspected.  Volcano explosions you'd think would be very obvious. An ash cloud, a rumbling.  No explanation that I can find

Under the volcano

Megalohori, the big village, surrounded by tiny hamlets with picturesque names (to us) like  Mouskes and Kounoupitsa, Kameni Hora (the burnt village) and Vathi (the deep harbour) 

Megalohori, on the side of the mountain, is the village under the volcano where K's mother was born. The village has one narrow road which winds through old village houses, a big church at one end and the cemetery at the other end

The old thermal spa and baths, resulting from volcanic activity

When I arrived in 1976 the spa was in it's heyday.  In July and August the over-60s made a beeline for the sulphuric bathes which specialised in treating arthritis and rheumatism

There were rows and rows of basic boarding houses.  You got a room with a bed and a bathroom down the hall.  The stay and treatment was subsidised by the government.  My inlaws got a summer bonus for 'bathing' whether at a spa or on holiday at the seaside. It was believed, and still is by the elderly, that if you went dipping in the sea at least 20 times over the summer you'd be free of winter flu and seasonal ailments.  So my m-in-law would tell me, though she didn't go 'bathing' .  Water was for drinking only

The old boarding houses have been boarded up, abandoned and are falling down.  

 Modern Methana is a popular destination, easy to get to by road from Athens, with lines of waterfront cafeterias and eating places beside the sea.  There are modern hotels and the usual plethora of Airbnbs

The Spa closed down many years ago.  I imagine it needs millions to upgrade it.  The sulphuric water from the spa flows into the sea across the road and many people swim there in summer and winter.  The sea is a milky blue from the sulphuric gases.  I've always wanted to have a swim there too but my chauffeur whizzes quickly past.  The area around the spa smells of rotten eggs, that healthy sulphur smell that the NZ town of Rotorua is famous for

Back to the volcano.  There is a hiking path up to the crater.  Another place I've never been but children and grandchildren have climbed up there.  It's a popular trek

The Methana volcano is still considered to be active.  Just because the volcano has been quiet for thousands of years doesn't mean it's safe.  New studies show the volcano is steadily accumulating huge amounts of magma deep below the surface.   Experts that are observing the volcano say there doesn't seem to be imminent danger of an eruption but the volcano is not extinct

Methana is only 45 minutes from Poros and we have visited many times.  The beaches look inviting from afar but are mainly covered with sharp volcanic stone.  We visit of course to sit beside the sea at a taverna and enjoy a summer breeze, some fresh seafood and a glass of local wine.

Methana, like all Greek towns and villages is steeped in history with an abundance of ruins.  

The Castle of Faviero, the remains of an Acropolis, the Chapel of the Virgin Mary built with wine and mud and perched on a rock above the sea.  Many years ago we went to this little chapel for the baptism of the daughter of K's cousin.  We all went on a fishing kaïki carrying the wee babe, baptismal font and the Priest with us. 

There are numerous walking tracks and small settlements to visit