The Road Trip Begins

 My dear brother (one of the 3) and his wife have just arrived in Poros from Perth. I can't remember how many times they have visited.  All my family love the island and come here year after year. It used to be just brothers and wives but now it's nephews and nieces, members of the extended family and many friends.   It always amazes me how much they enjoy their stay and it gives me so much pleasure when I see them walking down the gang plank of the Catamaran!! 

This time we are taking Paul and Karen up north to ancient Delphi, the naval of the world, and the site where the oracle Pythia announced her cryptic answers to the ancient's queries. 

From Delphi we go onto Meteora with it's Monasteries 'in the air' 

Paul in his Hellenic Navy cap ready to set off on our road trip 

Paul's cap brought us lots of chat about Greece, brothers in law, and Australia. Every Greek has some family member in Australia, and these Australians have relatives on a Greek island

We travelled along the top of the Peloponese and crossed over this magnificent bridge, Rio Antirio, to the rest of mainland Greece 

Octopus and grilled, fileted sardines

After a wee 'adventure' we found a taverna off the main road. One where locals were eating, and drinking,  and enjoyed a very good lunch. 

Here we are, the table groaning as usual with traditional Greek food

K and I on the left, P and K on the right

The view at lunch

Not bad is it. 

The village of Delphi is way up in the mountains and this is our view looking down to the sea. 

Happy couple 

Cocktail time

We were also celebrating our 46th Wedding Anniversary

Thank you Paul And Karen for making it a wonderful day

And thank you K for driving all the way

It was a 5 hour journey

Much more tomorrow 😊😊

There are ancient ruins to visit

Almost Summer

 

Coffee time at 'Utopia' 

Or this that the brand of coffee

The weather is ok for sitting outside though there is rather a nippy breeze 

We are still in long sleeves and jackets. The foreigners in short sleeves.

The garden shop is doing a brisk trade as everyone clears their winter gardens and stocks up for summer planting

The view this morning

Preparing for the Luxury Boat Show.

Soon there'll be a line up of floating palaces

Once Upon a Time

 Hard to believe our backyard was once a summer paradise 

The sight today

Old iron posts

Piles of broken paving stones

And yet.. 

13 years ago

There was even a small lawn. 

And a lawn mower. 

It lasted one summer. Maybe 2.

The lawn dried up

The lawn mower was sold

The old paving stones piled up

A load of old iron couldn't be resisted. 

ANZAC

ANZAC Day

Remembrance Day in New Zealand

And

Australia

They rose with courage in a world at war

Today we rise in peace, remembering them

From the trenches to today's parades we honour the brave. 

Lifted from Instagram

Thanks

My father's cap and medals 

In a display case on our wall

He served in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy.

Captained this Motor Vessel which spent time working with the Greek Navy searching the islands as the Germans retreated .

His brother Frank Creasy served in the NZ Army and was killed in the Battle of Monte Casino. He is buried in the Commonwealth Cemetary at  Cassino in Italy.

My mother's brother George Perry also served in the NZ Army.  He was captured in Northern Greece when the Germans invaded and spent the rest of the war working on a farm in Austria growing food for the German Army.

We remember 

Family Feast Fotos

 
A photo is worth a thousand words. So they say

These baking dishes are huge

The lamb was lowered into them and dismembered 

Kyriakos

Son in law

Same pose, same photo every year.

Son in law Yiannis

There's always dancing

Yiannis cutting the last of the offal off the spit 

Just beginning

Family fun

Father daughter greeting

The male of the house cuts the Easter loaf 

All the family was present

George and Boem

Elli and Junior

Sunday Fiesta

 Easter morning moments

Early morning it's all about the boys. 

Hard work over, it's breakfast time . Wine, fried innards, offal soup, music and tall tales.

8 am and it's all on the spit

Lamb, head to tail, offal roll, everything from liver to kidney, spleen and heart and probably more I've forgotten. 

Last and not at all least a spit of half pork and half chicken. 

Putting toothpicks in the bits of skin hanging down

It's all turning merrily over the coals

Cracking red eggs for good luck

Sort of egg conkers

Hot no-cross chocolate buns

Not so traditional English recipe

The boys clean up and do the outside dishes.

Well taught by mothers and m-in-law

Last night's midnight meal

Offal soup, mayeritsa. Made with the innards, lettuce, rice and thickened with eggs and lemon juice

Homemade Easter bread

Saturday Afternoon

 Part 2

There's a lot of activity up and down our cul de sac today. The dog at the top of the road immediately starts barking when it hears a car or bike and it's taken up by the dogs further down.  All the neighbours far and wide have arrived from Athens for the holiday.

Elli and Luli

First visitors today bringing extra intestines and sheep's stomach.

Soon after they left there was a loud 'yiasas' from our front gate. Our neighbour across the gulley handed a plate of homemade red eggs and koulourakia over the gate. And a beautiful pot of carnations from their garden shop.

She has three children, the youngest is 2, she works at the shop and still has time to bake cookies, dye eggs and deliver them all over the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile

In Jerusalem the Holy Light has been received and is on its way to Greece in the Presidential plane 

This light is flown, speed boated, trotted by donkey and driven to every corner of Greece. At midnight when Christ is Risen, every candle, including ours, will be lit from this flame and carried to every house around the country.

Easter Saturday

Part 1

 It's all 'go' today, counting down to the midnight mass, the breaking of the fast with offal soup and preparation for tomorrow's spits on the BBQ.

K is off delivering packets of red eggs and easter biscuits to friends who for some reason don't make their own.  I'm cleaning, washing then baking Easter bread, making a cheesecake plus that soup which is made mainly from the innards of the paschal lamb and lettuce. 

 Thank goodness it's a beautiful sunny day.   

In the meantime I'll leave you with some photos of last night's parade.  There was no wind so the candles stayed alight throughout the procession.  There were hundreds of people crowded in together.  Any female with long hair has it tied up tonight.  It's so easy to singe or burn the long hair hanging down the back of someone in front of you when it's tightly packed as it was last night, or you could stumble forward on our rough cobblestones and have your candle dance dangerously around.  

One of the Epitaphios (bier) comes in by water taxi

A stop along the waterfront to greet granddaughter Nels who was working. Working in a bakery and sweet shop which had sweet Easter bread baking in its oven. What an enticing aroma.

That's me on the left holding out my candle, daughter Danae, then Nels.  

We sat there and had a drink after the procession ended. 

So many people, so many old friends back in town. 

We spent the evening calling out 'Kali Anastasi' literally 'Good Rising' and kissing cheeks

The flower bedecked Epitaphios coming down the steps of our church to start the procession

And.....

Drum roll....

Poppi carrying the Epitaphios

As she did last year. It's not often you see a female doing this.  Bravo Poppi

Good Friday

 A day of mourning.  Church bells toll the death knell all morning and flags fly at half mast.

For most it's first day of the Easter weekend.  Cafes are filled with locals and visitors. For some men the tradition is  to drink ouzo. A lot of ouzo.

It's one day in the year that K never touches a drop.  Long story. 

Shops open at 10am after the service where Christ Jesus is taken down from the cross and placed on the bier.

Now for Angela, or I should say Angeliki 😊 in Australia.

When children and grandchildren were young we would do  a tour of the churches, 4 of them, to admire the flower decorations. The tradition was to send them under the biers and out the other side to bring them good health.  When my girls were young we would all go with my Greek sister in law.  Like K, her brother, she knows and follows all the old traditions.

Last years photos

In the evening there is a candle light parade and all the churches with their flower bedecked biers join together down on the harbour .  All the island, all the visitors, Greek and foreign, turn out with their candles, plain brown beeswax tonight.  The procession goes on all the way along the waterfront and we can see the  procession  across the water on the mainland. It's quite a sight with the candles bob bob bobbing along. It's annoying when it's windy and we can't keep the candles alight.

 

Easter Thursday

 Every night this week there is a church service. Tonight is the service commemorating the 12 Evangelists and the Last Supper.  It's a long service and at the end, around midnight, the women of the parish gather to decorate Christ's bier with flowers.   The bier is usually a wooden platform covered by an ornate carved canopy.

All our girls help in the decoration and when they've finished, around 2am, they go off to see what the other two big churches have done. There is always a bit of competition as to which church has the finest canopy.

I'm off across the Straits on the ferry to Galatas .  The mainland.  Taking red eggs and koulourakia to the in-laws who are recently bereaved. It's not done to dye eggs, bake cookies or celebrate for one year.  They weren't watching tv either but the first 40 day memorial has passed and now they can watch the church services and news.

The fishing boats of Galatas with Poros in the background.

Wednesday of Easter Week

 

The grandchildren came up to dye red eggs, make koulourakia (easter biscuits) and help with some heavy work.

It's all Go till Sunday

The first delivery today

Liquid refreshments for Easter Sunday

20 kilo boxes of white and rosé (pozé when written in greek), Alpha beers and softer drinks.

Thanks Yiannis and George

My Dream Team at work

Nels, Luli and Poppi

'Plafoun Koulourakia

Me ta duo heirakia' 

'Two hands are rolling

Easter koulourakia' 

Showing off a fancy twist

Water blasting the back verandah.  It needs a bomb blast!!  

Oiling red eggs to make them shine

And all we had to do was feed them

Fried calamari, fried potatoes and salad 

No meat, fish, eggs or cheese

Thank you Pappou K

They cleaned some more of the smaller rugs.

Poppi pruned the late blooming white bougainvillea 

Koulourakia on the conveyor belt

They've baked these Easter biscuits so many times they need no instructions. The girls set it all up, read the recipe, mix, roll, bake and clean up. 

I have to try and be quiet and not get in their way. 

They made 120 biscuits (cookies) 

Most of these are given away 

Nels dipping the boiled eggs in red dye. There were 34 of them today. All of them went to the grandkid's homes or were packed up to be given to others.

We will dye some more for our own home on Saturday 

They've grown up and flown away but come back happily to continue with Easter, Christmas and the many other traditions. 

The Dream Team roll up in the Dream Machine.

2 of them have their drivers licence. They no longer have to be driven up by Mama.

Now just hot cross buns to make