Byron.. Not the Poet

 Dismal

Bleak

All good words to describe today's conditions.....

Darkness.....    Byron 

The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars

Did wander darling in the eternal space

Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth...

Byron is revered in Greece 

He's a hero who gave his life for Greek Independence 

And now he's a bluster and a blitzkreig

The storm has brought flooding all over the country. My grandson Jamie sent us a video of the street where he lives in Athens. It turned into a fast flowing river taking everything with it.  Thankfully he lives on the 2nd floor.  No school for him for a couple of days. 

I bet by the time you read this the sun will be shining again. 

We have over 300 days of sunshine a year. So they say. 

What to do

Decorate

 We have 5 boats which light up.   

6 o'clock sharp our house  turns into a Greek Xmas  wonderland

Lots of lights on the tree too

NZ Keruru 

Native Pigeon

Our NZ Christmas cloth

Thanks Jules

Meanwhile, back in the hinterland Thousands of tractors have cut off main roads and all the northern border crossings

Farmers are waiting for EU reparation for damages from flooding, fires and livestock culling because of sheep and goat pox

In our house 

No flooding 

No culling

Just a little bit of imbibing

Kronia Polla

Kala Christoyenna

3 December

 A day to remember. My birthday and then 23 years ago our first grandson was born on the 3rd.  As my daughter said 'a present that keeps on giving'.

Here we are 23 years later 

I've already had my celebration and George is working in Athens. He's waiting to party away his Saturday night. 

The Birth Day began early with the first greetings arriving here as the day dawned down in NZ , 11 hours ahead of us.

Australia sent best wishes a few hours later.

The first Greek Happy Birthdays beeped on Instagram and WhatsApp at midnight plus 1...minute.

I love Social media at times like this. We have instant contact from one end of the globe to the other.

Or just between Athens and Poros.  Me and my grandchildren 

Thanks everyone all over the world 

The day continued with a trip down to the town.  We hadn't reckoned on a parade at the Navy Base. 800 sailors were finishing their basic training with a parade and an oath of allegiance to the Fatherland. 

We arrived just as the sailors marched off the parade ground, across the road to their barracks. 

All traffic stopped while first the officers passed then the VIPs followed by squads of sailors, guns shouldered, chanting some battle cry. 

Meanwhile thousands of Mamas and Papas streamed out behind them blocking the road for 20 minutes.  

We waited. Impatiently, until a policeman finally got it all under control. 

Cafeterias were full, and on the way home cars were backed up for a kilometre waiting to get on the car ferry. 

They were the last recruits to do their National training here for service in the Navy. From 1 January all conscripts will go into the army to do their 1 year service.

 

We had work to do downtown and decided to have a meal in our one traditional taverna until the crowds dissipated. 

A litre of rosé 

At the Sokaki

It means 'small passageway' 

Pastitsio and meatballs

Cheap and delicious 

And of course traditional 

Home to light the fire

Today a storm called 'Byron' is raging round us

We just got a red alert on our phones.  Hunker down and don't make unnecessary journeys. 

Schools will be closed tomorrow. 

I will happily hunker down. We  brought a good supply of wood inside.  K cooked cuttlefish and spinach. 

Time perhaps to decorate the Christmas tree. 

The Last of the Mohicans

 I have just watched our last foreign visitor, for this year,  walk up the gangplank and away.

I wondered what our visitor, Cassidy, would do on Poros in November.  He managed to fill his days quite well. Once it stopped raining and the sun came out.

He arrived during a bad storm. No boats sailing for 2 days.  But after a few phone calls he found the bus station in Athens and came around by road. Amazing what you can do when you're young, fearless and armed with an iPhone.

Our little car ferry was still sailing. It's only a 10 minute journey from the mainland village to the island. We picked him up from the harbour in drenching rain.

Next day the sun eventually poked it's head out and we did a drive around the island. Then I left him to explore by himself.  He found the free ebikes which I had forgotten about and cycled around the town.

Each visitor rekindles my love of Greece in a different way. I enjoyed the ancient theatre of Epidavros again with our last visitors. I learnt a lot seeing  the ruins of the healing centre with my English cousins.  Hearing their observations brought the stones to life. 

Both my cousins back in October and now Cassidy  made me realise how much I need to relearn about Poros.

Cassidy is studying Ancient History, loves archeology, speaks Chinese, is learning Greek.  He impressed me with the extent of his knowledge of  Greek and Roman history and language skills. He loves what he studies

On our way back from a day in Nafplio I managed to get K to stop at the impressive 3,000 year old bridge.  Cassidy has visited this area before and seen many of the ancient sites but he hadn't seen this.

He's a philhellene. An admirer of Greek culture, history and language

An obligatory photo up at the Monastery.  

Once the rain stopped we had beautiful days.  This peaceful sun kissed beach was so inviting.  He went swimming several times.

The young and the fearless!

Cassidy said it was warmer than the Tasman sea. Maybe it was but you wouldn't see me sticking more than a big toe in the water in November

He was lucky, some may say, to join in and meet more of the family at our beginning-of-December Sagittarian birthday bash.

Half the family are in Athens studying or working but he met our daughters and my dear English 'sister' Jan.  We had a nice noisy day eating food that was more foreign than Greek and drinking prosecco.  

We have 5 family birthdays in 10 days. One of them is mine and I try and make sure it's one day that we don't eat Greek food. 

It was still very Greek though. 

 Sweet n sour pork.  Stuffed chicken roll. Coleslaw. 

But also........ 

Tiropitakia (cheese pies). Lemon potatoes. And K had fried some offal.

All cooked with olive oil, oregano, and  lemon juice. You can't escape that combo. And there was tzatziki and a Greek salad. 

Everyone was happy. 

We wish Cassidy more marvellous travels.  It was great meeting you. 

Taking It Home

Every holiday comes to an end

Farewell 

With cousin Captain Kyriakos

The last night

At a local café 

Lots of Alpha beer and too much local red wine

It was a noisy party but the table next door were english and used to rowdy 'tourists'.  Lots of fun and laughter

They'll be back

Next Morning .....

 

Liquid Gold

The girls had a few problems firstly because of the weather and then that infuriating

' Greek time '

An early morning appointment became a late afternoon visit and even then we had to wait till the farmers finally started bringing in their days harvest, late afternoon . 

 5 oclock became 6 oclock and half an hour for pressing became another hour.

But all those ducks finally got thrust in a line and next day the girls picked up 4 5-kilo containers of this year's harvest

Extra fresh

Extra Virgin

That's 40 kilos of Poros olive oil

they're taking it by boat and Uber, train and plane......

Hopefully all the way back home to New Zealand

Walking UP the gangplank

Seems like Danelle is doing all the heavy lifting

And what happened next is another long story.

At Athens airport it was specially packed and off they flew to Istanbul.

Hate to say this, but those darn Turks put a spanner in the works.  Turkish Airlines refused to allow the oil, specially packed in wooden boxes,  onto their plane.  Luckily we're talking about 2 enterprising kiwi lasses here.  They managed to get some into their luggage and finally home.  

Julie accomplished what she wanted.

Got to see the oil press in operation

And sample the produce

Good luck with the next stage of your new venture

Meanwhile

 back on the farm

 it was calf  castrating time

Look at the state of that girl!

The Oil Press

Hills of olive groves

We live in an area which produces excellent Extra virgin olive oil. So the locals say. But then they would, wouldn't they. They say it's the best in Greece. 

View from the Olive Press 

Farm trucks and tractors roll up to the oil press loaded with their sacks of family olives. 

They back up to the presser when their turn comes, watch the sacks being emptied and make sure all their olives go up the conveyor belt.

The olives are cleared of leaves and twigs and washed before continuing on their journey to be pressed. Everything is done by  machine. It's all shiny stainless steel with control panels and flashing red lights. 
 

The olive men sit around for hours making sure their olives are not mixed with others and waiting for the oil to be pumped out into these 5 litre bottles or 16 litre tins. 

Meantime they chew the fat and have a few tots of raki. 

Julie tests this year's vintage

Looks really thick and green. You wouldn't get me drinking the stuff. It's very strong and spicy

She's a clever lass and brought along a bag of bread.  I didn't mind trying a couple of pieces of bread dipped in the oil.  That's more like it

Danelle and Julie 

They came to Poros to see the olive operation and almost missed out because of the weather. Finally it stopped raining and they got to visit 3 local olive oil 'factories' 

The first oil starts flowing

Every drop of oil carries the taste of Poros....oil harvested from olive trees with their roots deep in ancient soil

Julie and Georgios the Mayor of Poros 

His family owns and runs this press

New Zealanders

Our local oil is going to appear one day on supermarket shelves in these bottles

Spit spit spit

End of chapter 2

Kiwis

 The next visitors were two kiwi lasses

Come and gone but they'll be back! 

October visitors

Julie and Danelle walking the gangplank

Our kiwi nieces

Julie's been here many times  so we  left her to catch-up  by herself

She knows what to eat, where to shop and greets all the locals with a wide kiwi smile and a 'kalimera' 

First stop

Beers on the waterfront

Alpha beer of course

There's s a new one out made with sea salt. It hasn't reached Poros yet but their Alpha draft was cold and the mezes were just what hungry girls wanted

The Greek host at Villa Linda

Host and chef

Ouzo with seafood snacks

Octopus 

Prawns with feta, and tomato

Pickled tuna

All made by K

And meatballs in lemon sauce

These sort of got pushed to the side

K and I ate them for days afterwards. 

Napkins designed by entrepreneur Julie for her new Poros/Greek business

More of that later

Danelle

About to dig in

She entertained us with tales of the huge fish she caught down in NZ oceans

Danelle comes from a kiwi fishing family. So different from this island's fishing

Some of the Essential supplies they brought with them

Neither available here

Thanks kiddos

A bit of rain didn't stop these girls from enjoying themselves

It did almost put a spanner in Julie's olive research

She wanted to see an olive press in action.  They had just opened for the season but with days of rain  no-one was olive picking.  No olive harvesting, no olives to press 

More of that later too

In between rain showers the sun came out and they got a bit of a tan

Spent evenings with family and old friends 

Danae and Julie

Ate at favourite tavernas

Sofia and Julie

Sofia runs the best taverna on Poros

Everyone gets taken to Sofias

Julie is a valued customer from many visits over the years

Comment from Poppi...her cousin once removed 

'I think Julie is considered as a local now'

Julie first stayed with us on Poros in the 90s.  1998?   She was on her way home from a stay with a Turkish family on a University exchange, teaching English in Turkey.

The end of

Chapter One

Workmen

Our chimney cleaner has a vaccum cleaner and scoops up any mess he makes. He even polishes the inside pipe, which is our wood-fire chimney. 

However, not all workmen consider the aftermath as their business. 

 Workman no. 2

Darn this one 

He cemented some holes that had appeared between the flagstones. 

All the stones are now covered in a film of cement. It can't be scrubbed off but we're hoping heavy winter rains might wash the worst away. 

He threw the leftover cement slush over the geraniums and the container he used ended up in the garden too. 

But

He's a cousin and cheap

Thumbs up and a bonus for this young workman

He brought our first load of oak logs 

And stacked it without being asked