My Greek Olympics: Easter...

First Easter:

While I am in Athens on this trip, the Orthodox Easter was celebrated in March. I go to the annex in the morning for a light lunch on Easter eve and find the place packed, they will have a midnight service at the church in the square and TV cameras are being setup and lots of people everywhere. The TV cameras are there so the events can be televised live throughout the country. I hangout for a bit and have some drinks and something to eat that the staff bring me, I wonder off but I will be back in time to see the event later that night. Easter is a huge event, like Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July all in one. 

Since it is Saturday, most people are out but this is also a time when a lot of people go back to their village to be with family so the crowds are not quite the same. I wonder around Plaka and see what I can see, but there are not as many places open, mostly cafes. Later I get dinner and then make my way back to the annex around 10 pm. The events take place at midnight so I have some time to kill. I chat with Silvia as best I can since she doesn't speak much English, later George comes by as does Ron.

Inside the church in the square the major events are going on, the square is filled with people and as the time approaches I go over to see what is happening. All of the lights are turned off in the square and we wait for the procession to come out of the church. At midnight the procession comes out of the church, the lights are turned on and the thousand or so people in the square cheered. I just stood in the back of the crowd, but I could see over every one's head. Turning off the lights then turning them on is to represent the darkness then the light. I stand and look for a few minutes then I go back to the annex for one more Ouzo and I head back to the hotel. The next day we will eat and drink more so I decided to just go to sleep though I could hear all the noise that was coming from the square.

We are invited to Ari's home for Easter dinner, he lives a few blocks from the hotel and since we are new to Athens and the whole country goes on holiday for basically a week, there is no work to do. David, Vic and Jay go with me and Semos is there as well. When David and I try to go up in the elevator, it nearly fails and will not rise, we have to go up one at a time or take the stairs. This is the first meeting of Christiana and "the kid", the apartment is small and modestly furnished, many books are around.

The apartment is standard and I see how an average Greek lives, we go out on the balcony and enjoy the afternoon light before we eat. We have drinks and some little bits to nibble on while we look out at all the people in the street BBQing whole lambs on spits. Just about every lamb in Greece is eaten on Easter and cooking it on a spit is the way to go. The whole thing, head and all is cooked by hand turning it over coals, the smell is great and two or three are cooked by a family at once.

We eat dips and bread, 'red eggs' and olives to start. Then the dinner is served and we make our way to the table, first we get soup made from the internals of the lamb we will eat. I know there was liver and kidneys, possibly brains or lung in the soup, but am not sure. The soup also had spinach or greens and some grains. The soup was OK, but that was the only time I ever ate it. Then we had many types of vegetables and salads, finally the lamb comes out and we all tare into it. It is roasted and a little over cooked, but good. The first of many lambs of the trip, and I can't wait for more. They cooked it in the over so it wasn't quite the same as the BBQ lamb, but it was very good. There was so much food and we all ate like there was no tomorrow. We thanked Ari and the family for such a great dinner and for having us over, it was fun.



Vouligmeni south of Athens center.



Off to Vouliagmeni:

After dinner we were invited to have some drinks with one of the contacts that Jay and Vic had. We took a taxi to Vouliagmeni and went to one of the big hotels out on the point. Really nice place with a great view, nice weather also, this was the first time I had a chance to see the water and the islands. The hotel was part of a complex of hotels on a peninsula and had a view of north northwest. We met Lena and sat on some nice chairs out on a patio that over looks the water. It was warm and the sun was setting, a very nice view. We sat and talked for a bit, I didn't say much and I listened to Jay and Vic talk. There was a lot of talk about contracts on possible work that may follow on to the project. The hotel had a really nice view of the area and I would be back to this place for fun and a party later. We sat and just enjoyed the evening and recovered from the dinner, I was still full from all the great food. We had a few drinks then we went back and got a taxi for the drive back to Plaka and the hotel.

I watch TV at the hotel and saw the celebrations from all over Greece, it seems that Easter is like New Years, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July all rolled into one. The celabrations are different all over the country and some things are quite crazy. A town somewhere makes hot air balloons from tissue paper and releases them with a flaming ball of yarn as heat, a great sight as a hundred multi-colored balloons floating up into the sky, and then fireworks are shot into the group of balloons. Next thing I see are flaming balloons falling from the sky, chunks of fire dripping into the crowds. Another village fights a battle with another village across a narrow gorge, they shoot sky rockets at each other, hundreds of them, and they look like tracer fire from guns. They also show the celebration in the square the night before and I see myself on TV, I really standout or tower over all the other people. A very interesting holiday and I learned a lot about the Greeks.