Greece to Cyprus

Everything has worked out perfectly so far. We upgraded to First Class (a first time for us both) on our Philadelphia to Athens flight, which still put our roundtrip airfare at a few hundred dollars less than the last time we flew to Europe. Thanks to the fully reclining seats, we arrived in Athens refreshed and rested (and fed).

Tina's uncle Argyri readily awaited our arrival and sped us up to Mavromati that same Thursday morning. My Greek is weak. Tina's is better. But it's a far cry from where it used to be, which was abundantly apparent when trying to communicate with a solely Greek-speaking native.

Argyri got us to the village in about two hours as opposed to some 6 hours years ago. The highways are extremely more developed than they were. But the trip really should have taken longer. He hit 200km/hr several times on the way through the Peloponnese.

The village was beautiful. It still amazes me that they have just about every kind of vegetation you can think of up there, thanks in large part to the Klepsydra spring flowing from the mountain: bananas, peaches, nectarines, walnuts, kale, carrots, pomegranites, pears, melons, prickly pear, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, avocado, grapes, cherries, oranges, lemons, mandarins, limes, olives, and my favorite, bright green FRESH figs, and the list goes on.

We dined lavishly, stayed in the family hotel, visited the family orchards, fields and gardens, the Monastery and the Ancient Messene archaeological site (which is even bigger than ever before) all in the company of Tina's uncle Lycourgos, his wife Vika, their children Yannis, Dimitri and Danai. Tina's other uncle Costa's two daughters Amanda and Nikolia happened to be visiting, so we got some time to spend with them before they returned to Athens the same day we got there. Pappou came out to visit here and there; and Vika's mother, visiting from Moldova, was a constant help around the dinner table.

The pace was relaxed. We took advantage of the Greek siesta both days in the village. It was great.

Saturday we had breakfast with everyone and said our last goodbyes to the village and sped back to Athens with Argyri. At long last we finally got to meet his girlfriend, Dimitra, who was a gracious host and excellent cook. She cooked various types of fish and a spread of various salads. I had everything but the fish and everything else was tasty.

While at Dimitra's we finally got to express ourselves fully in English for a little bit, thanks to Dimitra's brother being in town, visiting from London. He was interested in our American perspective and was our go-between for more complicated communication between everyone.

Like real Greeks we went out with Argyri, Dimitra, her brother Taki, her daughter and her daughter's friend to the authentic Greek night life.

Sunday morning (today) we flew into Cyprus and we found a nice, central, affordable hotel, called Pyramos. Blog updated. Time to eat.

J and T