Greek Family

 This week we've had a family visitor. A cousin of K's is keeping us company. He's from another island, Salamina.  We lived there for a couple of years, a long time ago.  It's the site of the big Naval Base of Greece.    He has the same name as K, christian and surname.  That often happens here.   They are identified by using the name of their fathers.  One is K Tz, son of George and the other K Tz, son of Thanassi.

He's almost 80, a whirlwind of energy.

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The Two K's

One of our outings was  to nearby Methana, a seaside village under our local volcano.  Then up and over the hill to the enclosed harbour of Vathi for a fish lunch.  They both have their roots in small villages on the Methana Peninsular and we drove slowly so they could point out places they recognised.

Entering Methana the sea is a cloudy aquamarine and the air is thick with the smell of sulphur.  Once there was a public spa where the elderly and inflicted could bathe in sulphurous water to cure all sorts of ailments.  Now the  sulphurous water flows into the sea and you can have a free natural sea treatment.

We had a coffee in the main town and then up the hill and over to the other side of the peninsular

The enclosed harbour of Vathi.

Meaning deep waters I presume.  There are lots of places called 'Vathi' in Greece as there are quite a few named 'Poros', meaning passage.

The people here are either fishermen with their own kaiki or run a fish taverna.

The quayside is covered in tables and chairs

And there are yachts tied up here from all over the world

I walked along and found the flags of Hong Kong, Switzerland, Germany, France

And one from Poland was just pulling in

They come in for lunch after a sail from one of the marinas up the coast from Athens, only an hour or so away

We had horta, greens with olive oil and lemon juice

Fresh grilled kalamari

Only it wasn't fresh but frozen.  The 2 K's are fishermen and know their kalamari.  First of all this is not the kalamari season and secondly the three kalamari did not have the right 'moustaches' to have been freshly caught.  Don't ask me.  But they seemed to be sure about it.

Frozen kalamari is better fried and my K was most indignant that he had been fobbed off with frozen, especially as the owner is a distant cousin and she had assured him of it's freshness.  

We can't have an outing without a bit of drama.  This is life with a Greek.  Fortunately his cousin managed to keep the drama low key.

The meal was not a success.  We were also given a plate of 'fava'.  Split pea puree.  Think 'pease pudding' if you're British.  Fava is usually eaten with fresh sliced onion and lots of oil.  However, the other cousin with us squeezed a ton of lemon juice over it.  Lemon juice goes on most things here, even fried eggs.  But not on Fava.  Oh boy.  There were a few words exchanged there because K refused to eat either the kalamari or the fava.  

Thankfully there were fried potatoes and those, with the horta, bread and wine, managed to keep the wolf from the door.

To finish off we were given fried dough balls with chocolate sauce

I didn't have any of these but I did have a glass of wine

I needed it

And a shot of homemade liqueur 

I enjoyed myself.  Most of the time.  

These three cousins have very different personalities and there are always many clashes when they're together.  My K does not hesitate to let everyone know his feelings on a subject.  There is also the question of who pays when we are all out together.  Most times the bill is split 3 ways but visiting cousin likes to make a timely 'visit to the loo' near the end of the meal and tries to pay for it all.  Not on when he's a visitor!  We would lose face.

Third cousin finds a friend he has to speak to at the next table when its time to pay or discovers he hasn't brought any money with him. 

Now it's time to recouperate before another baptism celebration.