More Greece

PART II

couch-surfing

google it if you dont know it. 'the latest trend in making connections - forget facebook'. or: 'a worldwide network for making connections between travellers and the local communities they visit'. and it's good. highly recommended. even though i had been sceptical as i'm generally tired of meeting new people all the time.

on 6 september, sabrina (on her last night), arvin and i joined the athens couch-surfers on a night out in the cute little neighbourhood of plaka followed by hours and hours of squatting on the rocks below the acropolis, playing the guitar, gazing at the illuminated city and - in my case - trying to secure myself a few couches for the coming nights. with amazing results - i secured 3 potential couches and another few phone numbers of people available for showing me around and having coffee.

for the record, all athenians, and not just couch-surfers, were incredibly generous with letting me use their mobiles to make quick phonecalls to make arrangements. this applied to random people on the street, on the tram, in cafes sipping their frappes - i always found someone, usually the first or second person i asked (!) who would, without missing a beat, hand me his/her phone to make a quick call. and no one ever accepted any money. unthinkable in london, where people would suspect i'm trying to steal their identity, make a call to tokyo, or run off with their phone to buy myself a shot of heroine.

but back to our romantic night by the acropolis. around 3 in the morning, that night eventually ended with me bidding my goodbyes, and - right before leaving - making the acquaintance of a guy who introduced himself as nektarius. and off i went and no longer thought of him.

getting lucky

and now - and here comes the story to tell my grandchildren: two days later - arvin had just left for london -, i was standing with my backpack at a metro station called megaros moussikis, fairly central, but not one of the obvious meetings points like syntagma or monastiraki. at that station, i was supposed to meet with a guy named theoharis, a big blondish teddybear type of a couch-surfer and major foreign language talent who had kindly agreed to host me for that night. and with my gaze fixed on the escalators, i waited. and after about 5 mins, my eyes met somebody else's and i recognised nektarius, the chap i had met below the acropolis. i was very surprised to have 'run into an acquaintance' in a city where i didn't know anyone. and he seemed very amused as well and half jokingly suggested i stay with him instead of with theorharis.

and well, it turned out that 1. theoharis had been waiting on the other side of the street, 2. nektarius had come to that place by pure coincidence to meet with another guy to go to a concert with, and that 3. theoharis, nektarius and the third guy all knew each other, but had no idea of each other's respective agreements.

now, for the londoners among you: athens is not exactly a village. we're talking 5 million inhabitants. now imagine not knowing anyone in london, but really no one, then meeting 10 people at an event on, say, leicester square, and then - two days later, running into one of them at the entrance of, say, edgware road tube station, and learning that another two people were on the other street-side.

so. at the end, we decided i'd first drop my stuff off at nektarius' place, half way between megaros moussikis and the concert, and then we'd all go to the concert.

and that arrangement seemed to suit everyone, and the night eventually unfolded with the four of us, soon joined by another few friends of theirs, sitting in an open air amphitheatre, listening to music by nikos ksadakis, rebetika and langourous sounds from magna grecia and relishing the velvety air of a warm summer's night.

and even luckier

and now - to make a long story short and as you may have guessed: i ended up staying at nektarius' place for more than just one night. and spent the next three days walking about athens in the mornings and sitting in his car, listening to more nikos ksadakis and going on road-trips to nearby beaches (luccia) and sightseeing spots in the afternoons and evenings.

and after three more days in and around athens, i decided that what i really needed was an island. reif fuer die insel. and suggested we go to an island together. and, without missing a beat, he said 'sure, let's go to paros for the weekend. that's where my mother and brother live. there we can stay for free and my mother will cook for us.' too good to be true.

and that's exactly what happened. i left even the next day, a week day. i literally escaped athens, which had started to stress me out bigtime with its hugeness and loudness and horrid buses. i took the ferry from piraeus, spent 3 hours relaxing on deck, and then arrived at paros, in paricchia, where nektarius' brother anthonis picked me up at the harbour and drove me to their family home. there, i was assigned a large space of my own, complete with ensuite bathroom, unlimited supply of steaming hot water, a spacious fridge and kitchenette, fresh crisp sheets on a double bed, balcony and washing line. all at 5 minutes walk from the beach, and 10 mins from the stupendous old town. and i could hardly believe my luck.

paros

but it was even to get better. two days later, nektarius joined me and we spent 2 amazing days between the old town of paricchia, where he showed me the beautiful ancient church and site of pilgrimage in the centre, and inside that church the seats with the names of two of his relatives engraved on the backs of them. also, we visited the fishermen's village of aliki where we had dinner, and, the next day, the village of naussa - a jewel of a jolly little place - with colourful houses and fishnets and little churches with lots of burning candles, glittering icons and sleeping kittens. from naussa, we took a little boat to lageri beach, a far-away and pristine spot on a peninsula, where we spent a day swimming, soaking up sunshine and wading in water as clean and low as in a bathtub and feeling like robinson crusoe.

late on sunday night, nektarius had to leave, and i stayed. well integrated into the family by now (well.. (-;) i spent the next few days discussing important issues with nektarius' mother maria, like where to buy the best kadajfi... or karpusi... or stafilji... (turkish pastries, watermelon, grapes), how to eat the kounoupidhi, whether krio or zesti or with ladhi or limuni (cauliflower, hot or cold, with oil or lemon)... how to prepare the psari (fish)... and whether, at a particular time of the day, to call nektarius sto spiti or at his dhulia (at home or at work).

other than that, she told me that until 2004, foreigners from england, germany, france and italy had come to paros in clusters - but that ever since, tourism has severely declined, which she attributed to the introduction of the euro - and, since, tourists going to turkey or egypt instead. she'd write down '1985 - 2004' on a piece of paper and under that '2005 - 2008' and then gesticulate and explain - and i'd have no trouble understand. as a matter of fact, i didn't see that many foreign tourists - at least not to the point of feeling overwhelmed by them. but then again, i was there at the end of the season. apparently, the western tourists have been replaced by rich and often rude athenians who all buy or build property and hence do not need accomodation. the result is that several times every day, when the ferries from athens arrive, clusters of 'kamaki', blokes 'pulling' tourists to their rooms, are basically falling over each other at the harbour to get their meagre share of what is left of tourists needing accomodation. and the prices are by no means particularly low. a spacious double bed room with ensuite bathroom and kitchenette like the one i was given, would have cost 70 euros a night in july and august and 45 euros in june and september.

olla dzaba

and i got all that for free. and that pretty much saved my holiday. on my fifth day, i tried to give kyria maria a 50 euro note just to cover the odd expenses, which she vehemently declined. then, when she wasn't looking, i placed it next to her telephone - just to have her knock on my door about 10 mins later, with a disgusted expression on her face, holding the 'dirty' bill wrapped in a napkin, and throwing it onto my kitchen floor. and she said 'byebye' and hurried back upstairs. after a split-second of shock, i quickly closed the door behind her and almost laughed my head off.

my next attempt at giving them something back consisted in buying the family some baklava. not just any baklava, but first rate baklava (and i like to think i'm a specialist (-;). and kyria maria, her friend angela and myself sitting upstairs on the terrace and discussing at what bakery i had bought it. megalo, magazin, fornaris, platia, kentro, banka (big, shop, bakery, square, centre, bank) - and a lot of gesticulating did the trick. and they congratulated me on my choice. and later that night, when that baklava had been washed down with copious amounts of wine and water and digested with the help of silly jokes told by ladi, anthonis' albanian mate and neighbour, maria had the grace to once again thank me for the pastries.

i was sincerely amazed by the family's kindness and the way in which they shared their kounoupidhi and psari and krasi with me - even though they were very clearly struggling. for illustration, when kyria maria once boiled a couple of eggs for me, she first placed the eggs in a small pot with water into the warm oven where the water could warm up a little, and only after about 5 minutes, she took out the pot, sized it up, decided against the stove, and instead put it onto a tiny gas cooker - all to save the odd penny of electricity.

on my last day, i finally resolved to do business with anthonis instead, and attempted handing him the 50 euro note. at first, he wouldn't accept it either, but when i - inspired by his mother - dropped it into his pocket and acted annoyed, he no longer resisted. and everyone seemed happy. and with hindsight, i am still amazed at the family's generosity - those 35 pounds really being just symbolic - for a 9-day stay.

terrace bliss

what else can i add? that kyria maria was really a primary school teacher when she was younger. and that anthonis was glued to the TV all day, half-worrying about the global stockmarket meltdown and the collapse of a major insurance company. and that i loved sitting on their terrace in the evenings when it was still warm, joining anthonis and his mates ladi and yiannis, and maria and angela, in their gossip and trying to get the gist of what they were saying - such as when angela, who cleans dhomatije (rooms) for a living, had been accused of having stolen somebody's suitcase, and ladi, laughing his head off, suggested she gets someone to 'look into the coffee' to tell her who really stole it as to exonerate herself.

at times anthonis tested his broken english on me, at times ladi showed off his bad italian, at again other times i simply understood what they were saying, and at again other times, maria or angela used her hands and feet to explain. what helped was the occasional italian word being used by the family - such as valitsia (suitcase) or coverta (blanket) - remnants of the venetian rule of the cyclades islands. and of course the odd turkish words like dzaba - for free - being the same in bosnian. later i was told that angela was really from georgia, the former soviet union - and had come to greece only about 15 years ago - which, judging from her rapid banter in impeccable greek as far as i could tell (and i did hear ladi's accent) and balkanic temperament, i would never have guessed.

beach bliss

in daytime, i rent a mountain bike for 5 euros a day (!) and explored nearby beaches like the one at agia irini, about 10 km south-west of paricchia. there i made the acquaintance of a happy threesome of greeks, consisting of a guy named thomas, born and bred on the island, and his two mates penelope and alexandra, originally from athens. it turns out many athenians have come to live on paros - buying property and moving there - just because they're tired of athens. i met thomas and co. on three consecutive days. on the third day, he dived into the water equipped with a big butcher's knife, and came out with a bag full of ahinos (urchins), a delicacy tasting of mussles and crammed with zinc and other minerals - sold for lots of money in the restaurants on the island - and we ate them on the beach.

at agia irini beach, i tried to cure my chronic sunshine deficit - catching up on three lousy london summers and probably a vitamine D insufficiency (-; - and thoroughly soaked up as much sun as i could. on my last day, i even tried to get myself a sunburn on my whitest and waxiest bits - hoping it would turn into a bit of a tan later on. and i spent as much time as i could swimming and floating in the soft and velvety, clear blue water, trying to imprint its silkyness and smoothness on my skin's 'sensory memory'...

back to athina

after 9 days altogether, i took another ferry and left the island. and made my way back to the capital.

and there i had another 4 days to go before catching my flight back to london. and - hey, i really need to wrap this up now - those last days nektarius and i spent having dinners at a place called barbayan (?) at exarhia..., driving to a most amazing couch-surfing party with overnight stay at the house of a couch-surfing member on the peninsular of evia... and, on my last night, going to a yummy and yet improvised dinner party at the home of an absolutely crazy and funny and very talented chef and couch-surfing member named stefanos.

and talking about delicious food, i can't possibly not mention that at 'barbayan' at exarhia we ate the most luscious fried aubergines with friend aubergines topped with fried aubergines... and other tantalising and orgasmic (ok, now i'm exaggerating...) 'lathera'... - my new favourite word in greek - ... veggies and other bits cooked in oil... papucaki, fasolakia, filled aubergines, green beans, stuffed wineleaves, tomatoes and so on...
- and i knew what i had come to greece for.

but hey, let that be the end of this - hopefully not too boring - tale.
my little greek odysee. which ended up lasting 30 days. and instead of eating up my money, allowed me to save some.

and let's hope i will have the opportunity to come back - which i'm sure will be the case.

and last, but by no means least - i almost forgot to mention that on the morning of the day i met the couch-surfers and nektarius below the acropolis, i had finally gotten my act together and looked up the athenian branch of the SGI - the buddhist organisation i belong to - and joined them for their saturday morning 'service' or meditation. maybe not a coincidence. certainly not in buddhist terms.

hugs from islington!

isabella