Four Syllables and a Wedding

I suddenly find myself with a little free time as the summer winds down, largely thanks to the conclusion of Folkfest. We had been practicing pretty much every night for it, plus of course the event itself took three nights. But that makes it sound bad when in reality it was actually a lot of fun and a great time. This year, we danced something Dimitri dubbed 'Tsigaida' since we mixed the steps from some other dances with Gaida. We also did Partalo, an old classic (except I hyperextended my leg doing a stomp), Zonorathiko (one I pretty much got back on the setlist), and of course my long time favourite, Tsamiko (flips and kicks, woohoo!). There were a few added to my repetoire that have been done before but not by me, like Pentozali (tricky!), Zorba (also classic), and, I believe, Zaiko. And then some that we debuted this year like Fesothervenagas (aka the ferry dance). I'll be happy to never dance that one again. But enough talk about the dances, here's my rundown of the Greek pavilion this year and thoughts on the matter:

Entertainment
The dancing was good this year, in fact I heard from many people that it was better than it had been for years, but I would simply stick to good but not great. I actually felt that we'd done better in previous years and that the show has gone together better before. I think part of this is actually because we didn't really do enough with the crowd either as dancers or with our MC. I do not blame her, she wasn't the original intended MC but filled in with no warning right away. And she certainly did well with no notice, but it could've been better with some preparation and more effort spent getting people visiting into the show. I think that next year we need to have something going on between sets to teach people how to do some of the basic steps like Kalamatiano and Trio-trio.

And as for the dances, there are a few like the ferry dance that I'd cut out and some old-school ones with skits that should come back - anybody else remember how the senior boys used to light a table on fire with 151 or ouzo or something and dance on it? The intermediate dancers should've finished earlier as well, they had plenty of dances up 'til the last set and when we were younger it was always the seniors closing out the night. I actually heard this from a few people that they felt they couldn't get into it as much with younger kids on the stage that late into the night. This is all the critical stuff I guess, but there were good things worth pointing out, too. The zembekiko this year was one of - no - THE best I'd ever seen. Mostly thanks to a lot of broken plates and Dimitri doing an amazing flip, landing on his knees in front of the ouzo glass, drinking it, throwing the glass away and kicking it from behind his back... all on time and as though it were perfectly choreographed. Amazing. Dress the Greek was alright, but went a little on the long side with the Amazing Race people coming through.

Food
Without a doubt one of the main reasons that people visit us at the Greek pavilion is the food. How could they not? Unfortunately, this was probably the biggest disappointment this year. On the positive side, the pork souvlaki was very nice, and so were the meatballs. I didn't try the chicken souvlaki but heard mixed reviews. And the baklava was very nice, if I may say. But, woefully absent were my personal favourites, and much more rare but traditional Greek dishes like Pastichio and Gemista (stuffed peppers). This in itself was a problem. But aside from the meatballs, which were tasty but rather unoriginal and not especially Greek (they were done sweet and sour, not like Aunt Marina's much more delicious/famous spiced ones), they didn't replace these dishes with anything. On top of this gaping hole in the food lineup were some really poorly done dishes like the Spanakopita (spinach pies) which were try and lacking flavour. I felt embarassed to even be associated with the Greek pavilion when we were charging for these things - didn't we taste test a few before we bought them? And the dolmathes were served cold which is an option but in my opinion not the best way to eat them.

Venue
I personally love the venue - we host it at the Army and Navy hall on 1st Avenue and have done so for years. The venue is small, cozy, and intimate, and reminds me of a Greek tavern. Yes, it's hot. The AC is no match for all of us in the basement, though sometimes I think that the people we rent from turn it off when they rent to us to save money. But the only thing more annoying than a hot venue is people complaining to me that they're never coming back because it was too warm. Give me a bloody break. Try dancing up on stage under the lights and see how warm it is, but we're here every night dancing for you anyway. Try visiting a tavern in Greece and see how high the AC is. Are we so spoiled?? I'm not saying that AC that could keep up wouldn't be welcome, but come on!

That said, plans have been in the works for a new church, though thanks to some surprisingly childish (and really, that word is far too nice for the reprehensible behaviour coming from some of the so-called community leaders) attitudes, I won't hold my breath. Still, I do hope that we can somehow all agree that steps need to be taken to promote a bigger and better Greek community here in the city. And if the church were to go through, one of its features would be a large basement which we could use to host Folkfest with better capacity and of course it would facilitate other uses besides just Folkfest and hopefully would promote more Greek nights.

Conclusion
In spite of the critical look I've taken here, I don't want to come off as negative about the event as a whole. There was room for improvement, there were mistakes, but in the end, I, at least, enjoyed the heck out of it this year. I had a blast dancing, I enjoyed bartending and helping out where I could, and most of all, it was nice to just see all the people out, Greeks and otherwise. There were a lot of Calgarians and others in town for it and it was great to see them all. A highlight of 2006? Quite possibly. So, in that respect, I would like to thank the organizers, the volunteers, and the other dancers, especially those who helped get the show running in the first place.

Next year will go one of two ways. Either it will not happen, and it will be the first time the Greeks haven't had a Folkfest pavilion since Folkfest started, or we will take our mistakes from this year and go all-out to produce what could very well be the best pavilion we've hosted in Folkfest history. That choice will come from the volunteers, the people who put the blood and sweat into making it a reality every year. Yes, recent divisions have created a sect of people who would love to see it fail, but anyone who is truly proud of being Greek, anyone who really hates to have something Greek be anything less than excellent, will get on board with everything they've got to make next year better. Already, 'retired' women talk of coming back to help make the food next year. Already, dancers talk of getting some new and really excellent dances lined up. And already, the seeds are sewn for a successful year in 2007. So here's to a well deserved vacation, a really fun three-day party, and the beginning of a new and better Folkfest next year.

<Folkfest 2006 Photos>


Read More...

InspIreland

Sure, with Greek weddings, there's always going to be a lot of syllables, but clever title anyway, right? Kon-di-len-ia. Ah, le maux juste. Yes, on Saturday, I had the privilege to be invited to Kondilenia's wedding/metamorphosis from Arvanitis (also four syllables) to Kaketsis. Despite a little melancholy from the lost syllable, it was a great time. The wedding was nice, the sun was shining, and they had a great Greek band from Toronto. Plus, lots of folks (yup, getting old) from out of town that I've not seen in far too long, so it was definitely nice to catch up with them. I don't have much else to tell you of the wedding, really, other than that it was all immaculate and I enjoyed it, but I do have a few photos up. I'm trying out Google's new Picasa Web Albums feature (still in test phase). It's nice in some respects, mainly that I have all the captions and so forth on my computer, and I think eventually it will photocast (as in, I put a photo on my computer and it automagically puts it on the web if I put it in a public place). I know that you can subscribe to a feed on the site, so that you'd be able to automatically download any photos as I add them, seems the next logical step. It has some bugs and I think I like the interface of my current gallery better, but a person has to try these things. So go check out the wedding photos, you can view them here. A few of them were blurry because of the distance and low light, so apologies for that, and as the party wound up my camera wound down.

Time Warp

It's been a busy two weeks and particularly a busy last few days. We said farewell to the Dean "Toronto" on the weekend with a night on the town Saturday and a nice dinner that he bought on Sunday. All of this did nothing but foreshadow my own departure a week hence and was made doubly sad as a result. The week itself went quickly. I hung out with the girls and Sofia as much as was humanly possible, went out for some more Counterstrike with Costa and Theodore, and it got to the point that the guys at Micro cafe knew what to bring me when I sat down... Sokolata Karamella. I also made it to the horio on Wednesday for one last stay. And I ate 20-some meatballs, which I'm generally not that fond of, but my Aunt Marina, well, they were good is all...

The weekend came again, and my departure was looming, but it didn't really feel like I was leaving. Friday night I went out with Niki, Lee (for awhile), Sofia, and a bunch of their friends and we had a great time. Then Friday melted into Saturday and we all stayed home and chatted, ordered crepes, and watched TV, which quickly became Sunday where we had dinner downstairs with Diane and the wine flowed freely (they have some very tasty homemade wine, which is even better with an apple in it). And, actually, in retrospect I think Sunday was crepe night. In any case, Sunday became Monday, and I got all my last minute stuff done, sent a bunch of stuff home so I wouldn't have to carry it in my bag (I wouldn't have been able to fit all of it anyway), went out for coffee with Lee, Yanni, and Sofia, then went home and made baked apples while George made some loukoumathes. Mmmmmmm... and then, strangely, it was goodbye time, as I left early Tuesday morning. Thankfully, it didn't feel like it was really the last time I'd see them for who knows how long, so it wasn't as difficult as it usually is. It just didn't sink in. Then, back upstairs, where I was hoping to have us all sleep in the living room "like old times" but Kelly wasn't feeling great and Lee was tired, so Niki and I stayed up late and hung out before my last day finally ended.

Tuesday morning I was up nice and early, well, wait, let me rephrase that, I was up early (there was nothing nice about it), and packed and ready to go. I woke the girls to say bye, we hung around and waited for my cab, and then off to the bus station. I was sitting on the bus, 8:25 (it left for Athens at 8:30) when my phone rang. It was Niki. I answered the phone as follows: "What'd I forget?". Turns out I had taken her glasses and left mine on the table. Oops! I asked the bus driver if he'd wait as I'd forgotten something, and then took off in a cab "polla grigora" and made the exchange, making it back at about 8:33. Then I was really off. To a bad start. The bus arrived at the metro stop in Athens 20 minutes late, 10:50, and when I took the metro towards the airport, I'd just missed the previous train and had to wait a further 21 minutes, meaning that the train didn't come until 11:35. Well, my plane left at 12:50, so I was assured an interesting hour and a half. I made it to the airport just after noon, checked in, and it turns out, made it with time to spare (about 5 mins) to my plane. Whew.

3 bus hours, 4 airport hours, and 5 plane hours later I was in the heart of Belfast, which even from the bus ride in from the airport seemed very beautiful. It was. I made it to my hostel with little difficulty, only a long walk and some drunk girl coming up to me, jogging on the spot, and saying "This is me jogging" in a heavy Irish accent about 4 times. I asked her friends where they'd would undoubtedly be an interesting venue. They didn't answer me, unfortunately, just laughed.

The next morning, I hit the town with a French girl (Virginie) staying in the same hostel, and we went and checked out the political murals painted all over the place, especially around Divis St./Falls Rd. We were really fortunate to actually run into Danny Devenney, the man who'd painted many of the non-violent political murals, and had a good chat with him and his friends. A very nice guy and after we talked I asked him if he minded me taking a photo of his murals and he got right in there which was cool. Speaking of cool, it was quite chilly, and we wound up going into a pub to get something warm to drink, but had to settle for something warming. A pint, that is. And then in come the regulars, most of whom, they tell us, have been drinking since 6:30 that morning. Right next to us, two Irish men sit, both ex-IRA members. I don't have to tell you it was a little interesting. If nothing else, it was a good conversation, though their extremist views didn't exactly mesh with my not-so-extremist views. I mean, the one guy had done nine years in prison for doing some bombings, and then he's telling me he lost his wife and kids, but that was because when he got out, although he'd promised his wife no more, he went back to it. He was one of the blanket wearers, too, apparently, meaning the prisoners who refused to wear the prison uniform.

Anyway, we left not shortly after, it really wasn't scary or anything, though it probably should've been, but they seemed to like us and we were willing to listen if not agree, so there wasn't really any tension. I continued walking around the city myself because Virginie had a meeting, and saw that the centre is quite clean and nice. The sun goes down early though, and before I knew it, I was taking night shots and my thumb had split because the air was sucking all the moisture from me. I bought some gloves at M&S and continued along photographing and admiring the beauty. I went out with some of the hostel staff (all very nice, here at The Ark) and other visitors for a pint or two across the street and after a movie, Red Dragon, called it a night.

The next morning I took a bus up along the beautiful Irish coast to Giant's Causeway. We passed many beautiful things that I wasn't able to photograph, but also stopped for a few here and there in some small coastal towns, at a castle, and at a lookout where there is usually a rope bridge but it had been taken down for the year. The Causeway itself, supposedly built by a giant who wanted to challenge another giant in Scotland is impressive but not so big as it looks in photos. Still very neat, and worth the trip up, especially because of all the other scenery en route. We also stopped at the Bushmills Distillery, which is the world's oldest licensed Irish Whisky distillery. The distillation process was interesting, but not so interesting as the bottling area. The place can spit out 180 bottles a minute and was a testament to automation. None of my furtive photos came out, but it was amazing. Then, of course, the tasting, which was quite, well, tasty.

The rest of that day was not too eventful, driving back in the dark, doing some stuff around the city, and so on, but I discovered that Franz Ferdinand plays in Dublin the next day (i.e. today) and so I decided to head out this morning to Dublin, which was next on the itinerary anyway, and go see them and some friends I have there. So that's what I'm doing. Hopping a bus in 40 mins and going to Dublin. I'm not sure the itinerary after, but probably over to Galway, down to Cork, then across to England. Time continues to fly, which is lucky because it helps take my mind off all the people I miss, which seems to be just about everyone at this point. Soon enough, at least, I'll be seeing a whole batch of you, though don't be mistaken, I'm loving it here too. But, I should go catch my bus and some food, see you soon! (pictures soon)

One Step East, Two To The West

While I have noticed that time moves far more quickly in Europe than at home (perhaps owing to the greater rotational speed given its relative distance to the equator), what I have experienced since Sunday is nothing short of Einsteinian. Yes, Sunday, aka Halloween everywhere except here. Time warp related? I don’t know. It did seem, however, to drag on longer than your average slow Sunday. My first clue, though I didn’t know it at the time. Monday, I headed back to Hania, thinking I’d take the last highspeed off the island to Athens, and collect my iPod to boot.

I caught the bus Monday, noticing that the wrong time was on the ticket, but having no problems on the bus whatsoever, and I was back in Hania. Nikos was meeting me later that day, so I walked around Hania one last time, noticing that the stores were closing at 3:30. I thought that Niko had said 2:30 was when they closed, but maybe not. I had, incidentally, left my bag at the KTEL (bus station) so I wouldn't have to haul it around with me. Niko met me while I was having lunch, then we took off for another cafe up on the hill overlooking Hania. We went on his bike, and man was it cold. But the cafe was worth it, a very nice view and as it was by now nearing the end of the day, a great view of the sunset before we took off, though not without a couple really delicious desserts. A little alliteration never hurt anyone.

We traded his bike in for the car, stopped at his place for a bit (I thought of my mom or Aunt Joeanne in their house - I counted some 40 flies on the ceiling). His mom Raided them, however, and they soon started breakdancing on the floor, one by one. Then we pointed the car in the direction of the KTEL and grabbed my bags. They closed at 8:30, and the clock was ticking. Not to mention my ferry left at 9:00. We got there a little after 8:00 and there was a massive lineup because the attendant was unloading a bus. I discovered I had thrown out my papers saying that it was MY bag in there, falling apart, on shelf 14. This made me very nervous as I remembered the whole debit card debacle at Eurobank, and I was very tempted to hop the counter and get my bag while the guy was gone, especially since I was waiting in line for 15 mins and they seemed to go all too slowly and quickly at once. If I went at closing time to try to get my bag without papers, it would be too easy for them to tell me to come back tomorrow when someone else could deal with it.

However, I resisted the temptation as I stood there nervously for far too long, though it did play on my nerves quite a bit. Finally the guy arrived at 8:20 and couldn't care less that I'd lost my ticket. Whew. Back in the car, we drove to the port at Souda, arriving at about 8:35, with 25 minutes to spare. I didn't have a cabin, just a deck seat, so I'd wanted to arrive a little earlier to get a good one (maybe missing a neighbouring armrest or with lots of floor space or something), but at least I was getting to the ferry with my bags. That said, for a day after the long weekend when all the cabins were sold and the ferry itself was supposed to be near full, there weren't that many people boarded when I got on. So I got a decent seat, though I should say for future reference that if you're travelling deck class, Minoan Lines are the way to go, not Anek lines, even if they're 5 Euro less. The Pullman seats, contrary to their name, require no pulling whatsoever to recline or sit up, making any attempts to sleep difficult as it shifted anytime I did.

I got a Mythos from the bar to help my cause and pulled out my book, The Cretan Runner, a first-person retelling of Crete's famed resistance to the Germans in World War 2, a very good story. I was hoping that, since I'd arrived with only 25 minutes to spare, we'd soon be under way and there's still be many seats available. 9:00 came, and then 9:10, 9:12, seats filling more and more, 9:20, and so on, until 10:00, when the ferry finally left. "An hour late," I thought, "ahhhh, Greece." Maybe this meaned I would be getting in an hour later to Athens, at 6 AM instead of 5 AM. So there was a bit of good news even though the deck had filled up quite a bit in that extra hour.

I was unable to sleep for more than 10-15 minutes. My eyes did grow heavy, I did feel tired, but to no avail. At one point, when one of the guys sitting closest to me abandoned his chair for a spot on the floor (he had his sleeping bag which I had stupidly left behind thinking I'd have no need for it) I was desperate enough to try the same. I took off my 'jacket' crumpled it in a ball on the floor and tried to sleep, but it wasn't quite comfortable or clean enough for me to try longer than 10 minutes before I gave up on sleep altogether. So I cranked the iPod, read my book, and we pulled into Athens at 6 AM on the nose. Exactly one hour late. At least they got that part right.

I took the metro to Omonia and wandered down the street to Agious Constantinos, where the bus takes people so inclined to the Bus Terminal. I got there at about 6:30, where a man who, well, let's just say had trouble speaking, grunted at me, making hand motions like a "T" for timeout, "10 & 2" for driving, and "Horizontal scrub" for no, I assume, tried to tell me something. Perhaps the busses were on strike, perhaps he was not quite all there, I didn't know. There were plenty of others standing around too. I asked one man, who said the bus would come at 7. I'd been waiting for 15 minutes and that was a long time to continue to wait, but I tried. The next 15 minutes went very slowly, punctuated by people smarter than me getting into cabs and leaving me wondering what was really going on. 7:00 came and went, then 7:05, and finally 7:10 before I decided and managed to successfully hail a cab where I was joined by an old couple. For only 3 Euros, I was at the bus station.

When I got my ticket for Tripoli, I was told that there was one leaving in three minutes. I looked at my watch. 7:30. Sure. I grabbed the ticket and ran to the bus, but looking at my ticket as I ran, I noticed it said 6:30. Hmm. I didn't have time to go back and tell the ticket agent she'd made a mistake, so I hoped the ticket collector wouldn't say anything. They didn't. I made the bus and I even had time to run to the WC quickly. As you may have guessed, however, my suspicions had long been raised about all this time tomfoolery, and I started to wonder if, maybe, there had been a time change. Living in Saskatchewan, you see, I've never experienced one. How would I know?

My fears were allayed only slightly when the clock on the bus matched my watch. My cell phone, which I thought was supposed to sync with the system automatically, also matched my watch. Still, something funny was going on. I managed about an hour of sleep, finally, on the bus. The road to Tripoli is quite different in the fall/winter, greener. More pretty than I remembered. Maybe that's just because my eyes were fuzzy. We finally did arrive in Tripoli, where we passed an outdoor clock on one of those farmacy green crosses proclaiming the time to be an hour earlier than and of my various time pieces indicated (had I checked my iPod, I would've got the correct time). I got a taxi and asked him what time it was, and sure enough, I had experienced the time warp. Which, if one looks back on this story now, is quite obvious and certainly didn't make the trip to Tripoli very easy.

I thought my time warp story ended there, but it didn't. As it is now Saturday (where did the week go?) I realize that I have only 10 days left in Greece before I board a plane to Belfast. If this isn't a time warp, I don't know what is. As for the rest of the week, it's been more of the usual Tripoli stuff. I did manage a few hours of sleep on Tuesday before the other Dean came and then Dean, Kelly, Sophia, and I went out for coffee. We also ran some more errands the next day and I've been looking for a tailor or outfitter to repair my backpack which would be really handy before I depart for Belfast. I'll probably spend a few days in the horio, since I haven't really seen much of Uncle Ted, Aunt Marina, Maria, Kosta, or any of their kids. I've also been continuing my Greek studies here to pass some time during the days when everyone is working. I imagine my next update will probably come to you right before I leave Greece. The Toronto cousins leave this Monday, too, so I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of them and/or hitting the town this weekend. Now, I'm off to fight the warp. Wish me luck.

<Sunset on Hania Photos>

Mohos and Back Again

Another week gone, another slow Sunday here in Greece, and as you probably already figured out given that you're reading it, another update. Last week, I finished my Greek classes on Wednesday. To give you some idea where I am, I just learned how to conjugate verbs in the past tense and other fun stuff on my last day. Which will be useful because I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell in Greek when I return. Presuming that I remember how, that is... In other news, I bought myself some plane tickets with EasyJet, so I now am officially leaving Greece Nov 15, stopping in London for a few hours, and then heading to Belfast. This should give me a week in Ireland and a week in England/Wales before I board that cold cold airplane on Dec 5 for the white fields of home. I'm shivering already.

So, what's been going on? Well, Nikos, a really nice guy that runs a cafe in Rethymno, went to the beach with me a few times. That guy swims like a fish, but I guess living a five minute drive from a beautiful blue-flagged beach with few tourists and an island in swimming distance (barely for me!) will do that to you. The beach itself is worthy of the flag, pristine, and local, and this time I brought my camera so I could get a few pictures. I also went out for coffee a few times with Panaiota, my teacher.

Thursday, I went to the cafe to see what Nikos was up to since we'd been planning to go out to Rethymno that day. His sister, Eleni, had come in on the early morning ferry from Athens and she was going to come with us. He also called Manous for me, a cousin of his in Rethymno, and got me a hotel lined up. Very nice guys, as I've said before. Then, since it was such a beautiful day, we did the tourist thing and sat eating salad and (in my case) drinking a nice big Mythos in the harbour sun. We went to the beach again that afternoon, I did a little strolling around the old town, and then I had a coffee with Panaiota. Panaiota, who really shouldn't have come, since she had some sort of food poisoning which I didn't know until she abruptly excused herself from the table to get sick. Then, I packed my bags up, grabbed some souvlaki and watched a bit of Shanghai Noon until Nikos and Eleni picked me up.

We drove off for Rethymno, and I discovered when we arrived somewhere about 20km shy of the city that we were actually going to see some live Cretan music aka Μιχαλης Τσουγανακις. It was really good, he played whatever instrument that was (Laouta?) very well and the guy playing the Lyra was expert. I actually took a little (24MB) video which you can see by right-clicking and selecting Save As here. It's at full zoom from our table, so not exactly great, but there it is if you want it. Anyway, the night was replete with dancing, clapping, whisky, and more dancing. We left there around 4 AM and went out clubbing in Rethymno. By then, Eleni was justifiably tired and by 6 or so I was getting there, too. Then, we had some gyros, got my stuff from Nikos' car (I forgot my iPod in the front seat, though) and tucked into bed a little before 8 AM.

Friday I was awakened at noon to chanting from right outside my window. It's a long weekend here, Oxi (Oh-he) Day, celebrating, I think, when the Greeks pushed off the Italians in WW2, though the Germans weren't far behind. In any case, there were a bunch of kids out my window chanting and I was not exactly wide awake but I got to look at their costumes and that was enough of a parade for me. I strolled around the old town a few hours later, took a few pictures, and a nap. I went out again Friday night, but on my own this time. You have to be in a certain mood for this, and I wasn't, so I hung out for awhile and then went home. Saturday was much the same. More stores were open since it was a regular day and not a holiday, but it gets dull pretty fast around here. I bought myself a book about the Cretan Resistance called The Cretan Runner, that seems interesting so far, strolled around the town, sat and had lunch and watched the people walk by, strolled some more, and then sat and had a hot chocolate in a cafe and read a bit of my book. This may sound dull, and it can be, but that's sort of life around here, especially when you're in a strange city and don't know anyone.

Today is Sunday, as I've mentioned, and there's even less to do, so I'm forgoing the coffee and using the internet instead. Well, I still may go get a coffee later, it's only 3:30, after all. Tomorrow, I'm back to Tripolis via Ferry, though which one remains to be seen. I was supposed to meet Nikos yesterday but have no idea what happened, so I still have to get my iPod back before I leave. I've gone through enough of a withdrawl to write a song on my cell phone. If anyone has a Sony Ericsson phone with MusicDJ, they can try out this song/ringtone:

Drums - XX-07-15-15-15-15-16-16-16-16-23-23-24-24-25-25-26-26-25-25-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16-32

Bass - XX-XX-09-10-09-10-15-16-15-16-23-23-24-24-31-32-31-32-31-32-24-24-23-24-23-24-24-24-23-24-23-24

Chords- 01-02-09-02-09-02-10-15-10-15-17-18-23-23-XX-31-17-02-17-02-17-18-24-24-23-23-10-15-23-23-23-23-08

Accent- XX-XX-03-XX-03-04-15-16-15-16-23-23-24-24-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-31-32-23-23-24-24-15-16-23-23-23-23

I hope that useless bit of transcription is useful to someone. If not, well, skip over it. I probably should've said that before rather than after, but you'll know for next time I guess. Anyway, I'm off to do... something. See you in another week.

<Rethymno Photos>

Han-ia Feel the Love?

So, another week has gone by. I'd like to report that I'm now completely fluent in Greek, at times even correcting other native speakers' grammar. I'd like to, but of course I can't. However, I now know when to use things like 'va' (pron: na) in a sentence, put verbs into the future tense, and play a new backgammon game called asodio. It was a good week in school in any case, and my class officially ends tomorrow, after which I have a few private lessons to make up for the fact that I started a little late in the week.

For the week itself, there's not much else to say. Aside from my Grecian studies, I've gone out for coffee - by which I mean various flavour of hot chocolate - a LOT. Especially compared to my relatively cafe-free life back home. We (my teacher and I) play a lot of tavli, and as I mentioned, I've learned a new game or two. We also went to a cafe one night with a piano, and since it was dead (there were three other tables in the whole place, and it seats between 100-200 people), and of course I had to play a little bit. I also have been out for a movie once or twice in my weeks here, having now seen 40 Year Old Virgin (not that good) and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (not that bad). I'm excited about this new Zorro I see is supposed to be coming out, I've certainly seen the old one enough times.

The weekend came, however, and I decided whatever else happened I wanted to get out of Hania for it and go somewhere. Since I probably wouldn't have another chance to see my cousins in Mohos, well, you already knew I headed there from the title. I rented a car Friday after class, checked some flight information here about getting to London (I've ruled out Egypt and will probably head to Ireland and then England/Wales a few weeks before hopping the plane home), and took off for Mohos.

It's about a three hour drive, but I had a bunch of new Greek music courtesy of my cousins up north to keep me company, so it went pretty quickly. Not to mention some beautiful night views, though I didn't take this picture until the next day. Incidentally, I'd like to buy some CDs here, and probably will buy one or maybe two, but they're _20_ Euros! That's almost $40 CDN. Or, to put it in a more universal currency, highway robbery. In any case, I have a bunch of music that I think my sisters (and hopefully dad) will like too. But once again, I digress. I got to Mohos and ate dinner with Maria and Ari, and then Maria stayed up with me and we chatted and played some more Tavli while watching who-knows-what movie with you-know-who and that Greek actor, Then Theimame. Oh, actually, I do remember, it's the one where Sean Penn is an autistic father fighting to raise his child. Pretty good actually, though now that I remember it, I don't think Then made an appearance...

It gets pretty chilly up in the mountains at night, and I was surprised again at the Greek weather. The next day, we went to watch Mohos play Iraklion, apparently the number one and two ranked teams in the league, and the game was in Mohos. The field is awesome, carved right into the mountain with a great view backing it from the stands. The game was not even close, and the home team took the game 5-0, but it was still entertaining, if only for the new Greek I was learning from agitated spectators. Not the sort of stuff you see written on a blackboard.

I mentioned the cold, but midday, it was quite hot. I was wearing a sweater because the house was still cold, but on the field it must've been 28 Celsius. Beautiful! I did eventually decide that I should get some photos of the game just for fun, since the talent was skewed a little in one direction, and I wandered up to where some of the hardcore fans were sitting... on the old cliff that had been carved long before the new astroturf had been put down, not to mention the two-year old stands. It was definitely a soccer game in Greece, looking down on the field from the mountain amidst rocks, shrubs, and various degrees of evidence that goats grazed these same shrubs. That night we went down to Stalida, we were going to have dinner with Mina and Maria, but they had company they couldn't get rid of, so it turned out to be us. It was a nice dinner, and a beautiful night to drive back up - the moon was on the water and the lights of the coastal towns were lit brightly - so I got the photo which I'd wanted the prior night. My picture didn't turn out too well, but it's hard to snap a quick photo when you're sitting in a truck on a narrow road in the middle of the night. We tried, darn it!

Today, Sunday, I went down to the cafeneio with Ari and Yanni (their son) and sat there with them for awhile, and at one point, without asking, the priest took off in Ari's truck which didn't even make Ari blink and I thought it was amusing to just see him drive off. He was back very shortly after, and then we headed home, and Ari came down with me to pick some pomegranates off the tree to eat. Then we all sat around peeling them, and the priest came by again and stayed for awhile. Very nice guy, but I guess you'd expect that...

I had to get going at some point, even though I was unsuccessful at removing the virus from Maria's computer (with the internet connection completely disabled, no Windows disc, and everything in Greek, it was a long shot from the get go, but I really did try), so I said my goodbyes and left after lunch and the Karate Kid (man, I love that movie!).

Now I'm back in Hania, I have a week or less of class left, and then I'm probably heading back to Tripolis to visit and pick olives or whatever else but mostly to see the family before I hit the skies. Speaking of family, if someone doesn't mind telling Aunt Soula, I have pictures of everyone over here up for her.

<Mohos Photos>

Home Away From Home

Oh, hello there! I didn't see you come in. It's been a long time and I'm pleased to report that though my internet presence is perhaps waning as I become busier (and ironically have less and less of interest to report) my offline persona is doing just great. I had a bit of a thinkathon and decided that since my primary reason for coming to Greece this year was to learn some more Greek (well, there was no 'some more' in the original mission statement but that might've been a little too ambitious) I should go with the school route. Looking into schools, it seems there are three places where one can educate themselves in a short time whilst here: Thessaloniki, Athens, and Hania. You may recall my fervent dislike of Athens and my recent experiences in Thessaloniki or you may not, but in any case, the decision was clear. Hania. I would be on an island, in a beautiful city, and learning Greek. Case closed. Work, if I could find it, great. If not, well, at least I was doing something productive.

That decision made, I talked to the two schools there and got things as sorted as possible from Tripolis. Then I discovered that my cousin, Dean Katsiris, who lives in Toronto and I've never met, was in the neighbourhood, and Uncle Ted and Kosta came in for dinner with him, the girls, Theodore and Maria, and myself. It was a nice dinner at the Chalet not far from the girls' place. Then, we hit the town. Very interesting to meet Dean, he reminds me a lot of my other cousin, Dean. Katsiris. In BC. That one. Actually, I suspected his existence about a year ago, when I discovered upon googling my name in a poll for Stupidest Person on Earth (see poll and results) and traced the name of the person who put my name up to Toronto. Since I don't know anyone in Toronto, I suspected there must either be a Dean Katsiris there or else one of my other cousins had a runin. In any case, George Bush was already in an overwhelming lead and I decided that while I was in the running he was not going to steal another election, so I asked some friends and well wishers to vote for me and the rest, as they say, is history. This is THAT Dean Katsiris.

Anyway, it was a little early, admittedly, so we went out to a cafe-bar and sat having a few drinks and watching Greece lose out to Denmark on its chance to get into the World Cup this year. Sofia AKA "Kinito Girl" came by and said she'd come out with us later, and somewhere in the evening, Lee's Yanni and a couple that I'd met once before joined us. We finally went out and went to the club where John & I had had such a great time when he was here. The owner seems to really love Niki (and who could blame him) and so we again got a reserved table given to us. Which we used for a spell until a few Thanos Petrelis songs (or maybe it was Polu Kala Lername) came on and then we danced.

The dancing was in full gear, the platters were spinning as were the lights, as they tend to do here, when ours snapped off. It was a bit of a shock to have the light come crashing down on the table, as you may have guessed from this photo which I coincidentally snapped just as it happened. Kelly's reaction = priceless. Anyway, the moral of the story is we had a great time. As always, Tripolis was great. I got to spend a little more time with the kids this time, I babysat Theo & Maria one afternoon (Theo & I finished the girls' 1000 piece puzzle and Maria & I watched Monsters Inc) and I also took Theo out for a game of Counterstrike which I think he enjoyed. And of course, more coffees with Kelly (I won't mention the tavli, don't worry Kelly), more Pacino movies and late night chats with Niki, and introducing Lee to Strongbad emails and going visiting with her and her friends. Not to mention dinners with Diane & George, another stay in the Horio, and all the other day to day stuff that, well, I did say "not to mention".

After that Sat night I caught a couple hours of sleep and the bus to Athens, then the 2:00 ferry to Hania from Pireaus, which made it there by around 7:00. After a bus ride from Souda to Hania, Siba & friends picked me up and drove me to where I'd be staying in Stalos, which was quite nice of them. Stalos, and particularly Pano Stalos, is a nice quiet area about 10 mins from Hania and quite well connected by overflowing busses. Though I'm not in any way a morning person, there is something nice about waking up early, walking down to the bus past vineyards and looking down at the sea and the foggy mountains, hopping on a bus, and then walking from the station to the schools to get stuff done. Even on a Monday morning.

It took a few days and some tests at both schools to see what my options were, but by Wednesday I was sitting in class with two fellow students, both retired, very nice people. Carlos is blind, or nearly I think, and that made things a little interesting, and Carrie is just an interesting woman in her own right. So interesting classes. I definitely am learning things and think that my own Greek school could've been so much better if only the teachers had at least used English to explain what we were doing and what things meant to a bunch of 6 year olds who didn't know how to answer the question "What is your name" and were supposed to be learning about passive/active voice, and so on. You know, that and if we weren't a bunch of 6 year olds who were ripped from our Saturday morning cartoons for four hours of hell that really put a lot of effort into NOT learning any more than necessary in that place.

So the school is good, and I've moved into Hania proper now with a little place that's right by the old harbour and amid the hubbub which I also like. The place itself isn't so great, but a very nice owner and a shower that consists, as many do in Europe, of a faucet dripping onto the bathroom floor. Mmm... cleansing. I've also befriended a few locals that are getting used to seeing my face. There's a cafe where I go a few times a week for a nice Greek salad and Coke (in a glass bottle) after school where I've gotten to know the owners and just this afternoon I went to a nearby beach with the owner's son. It's a nice place with an island that's swimming distance away even for this out of shape specimen, with some small and natural 1-2 m high 'cliffs' perfect for diving.

Also through Siba I've met some Germans working at the NATO base here, and I may go see a missle firing just for something different. OK, and because I'm kind of a geek, it's true. They're all very nice, and we've been over to Enrico's place (I know, doesn't sound German to me either) to watch movies and this past weekend we all went out to a bar in Platanias called the Rock Club or something like that. They have drums behind the bar which, on first glance, seems a neat idea, and then one of the workers starts drumming along to one of the songs and inserting really poorly timed fills (as in, finishing a whole BEAT too late) and then it gets annoying really fast. There was also a little bar dancing which I have some photos of but I'm afraid the girls got a little too out of hand for me to publically post those photos, put it that way.

Anyway, that's in no means comprehensive, but I think it's enough. I really like Hania a lot and am happy I came down here. There've been good moments and bad, as with anywhere (like, for example, Eurobank (those #$%*()#$%#(*!'s) holding my card hostage, or arguments about the meaning of 'skase') but it's really pretty, nice, and still lively. I have another week or two of study and then I may head to Rhodes or Egypt or something (after visiting my family in Crete a little more) before heading back to Tripolis and then back home, with a stopover in the UK first. Oh yes, that's right, I should be coming home Dec. 5. So you will soon be free of the blog. Soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit in a cafe in the harbour and get some homework done...

<Tripolis & Hania Photos>

Last time on: Life of I. John had gone home, Dean was alone in Athens, and a baptism was imminent. Almost all of that has now changed. Yes, John is still at home, or at least in Saskatchewan, but Dean is now with his cousins in Tripolis once again and the baptism (as well as a wedding) are no longer imminent. The baptism, for my cousin's son, George, was nice. I somehow made my way by foot to St. Nicolas church (in the Koukaki area of Athens) and managed to have a much less traumatic experience than George, Diane, Niki, Lee, and Kelly, who hiked from the other side of the acropolis and were accosted less than delightfully in the markets (nothing serious, of course, or I wouldn't be so flippant). Little George did well, hardly crying at all until he was covered in oil, and who could blame him?

It was raining, so the day Trippers (aka the Tripolis Five aka the only other guests at the thing that I knew) skipped out on the reception, leaving me alone though Gus & Christina (& her father) made sure I wasn't abandoned. The reception was quite nice actually, good dinner, I met a guy named Gregory who'd been to Saskatoon and spoke some English, and his wife who hadn't and didn't but humoured my 'interprative Greek' very patiently. They invited me to dinner at their home on Saturday, though I was unable to attend, but very nice of them nonetheless. Then the Greek dancing started up and even little George was getting in on it, good times.

That night also happened to be the night of the European finals in basketball, pitting Greece against Germany. I didn't get to watch the game aside from the final minutes, where Greece confirmed its victory and all hell broke loose in Athens. It was wild. The streets went from empty as we left the hall to full of honking and yelling that could be heard across the city. Gus dropped me off at my hostel, and I quickly dropped off my valuables (except the camera) and grabbed the last metro train to Omonia. We had a bit of an adventure stopping in Syntagma Square, and I say "we" because I was joined there by hundreds of revellers heading to Omonia, where the party was. The train didn't move for five minutes, so we all got out, drums, airhorns, and all, and danced and chanted in the subway until the train was ready.

Omonia itself was crazy when I arrived, but got progressively crazier VERY quickly. I've never EVER seen so many people in one place, cheering and singing and I myself probably sung the Greek national anthem 10 times (one of the few cheers I actually knew beforehand). People had scaled the six storey high public art piece in the square, fireworks were being lit off, flares waved proudly along with flags, banners, and anything that looked remotely patriotic, firecrackers were exploding at peoples' feet, and in all directions car horns could just be made out over the roar of quiet moments. After an hour or two or that, however, it got a little tiring, so I walked back to my hostel (quite a distance) and the interesting part is that almost ALL THE WAY BACK it was lined with cars deadlocked on the road, filled with people singing and waving flags and honking. Unbelievable.

I left the next day to visit my family a little more extensively in Tripolis and the village and have pretty much been doing that since. I spent a night in the horio but it's a little different now that it's not summer and the girls are in the city. That said, Lee was there, I got to spend some time with Maria and her kids, finally see Kosta, and of course with Uncle Ted and Aunt Marina. Stephania has definitely earned her nickname, Tsunami, and little Marina (who just celbrated her first month here) is tiny and cute. As for Tripolis, well, I've gone out a few times with the girls, usually to hang out in the cafes Greek style (which means there's usually a small dose of backgammon involved - current score is Dean: 5, Kelly: 1 though I'm confident I'll lose that soon) and a lot of socialising. I regret not taking John shopping here, there are a lot of cool stores that I didn't see in Athens.

I also went on a grocery shopping binge with Kelly, it really is amazing how quickly food disappears around here! I tried to make my dad's famous baked apples, but I suppose I discovered there's a reason they're my dad's and a reason they're famous. I failed miserably. Well, they tasted OK, to be fair, but they weren't quite right in a lot of ways. Niki and I have been having a Pacino-athon of sorts, Theodore & I managed to finish a puzzle the girls had sitting under their couch for over a year (I'm told Larissa did much the same thing when she was here), and basically, I've just been hanging out with everyone. And I should also do my customary book recommendation for the week: John le Carre's Absolute Friends. But good things must surely end, and I'm off next week to figure out what I'm doing with my remaining couple months in Greece. I'm leaning increasingly towards language lessons, since my reason for coming to Greece was, in fact, to learn Greek and not get some small-time job, but that small-time job is also becoming a necessity as my bank account spirals ever closer to zero, so we'll see. Maybe I can do both somehow. We will see.

One other item of note was that I found out my Uncle Ted was Koubarro (godfather, of sorts) at a wedding and so this past Saturday we went up for it. It was easily the latest wedding I've ever been to (and could ever hope to attend). The wedding started at 8:30 before accounting for Greek time and the fact that the wedding before was also on Greek time, so we didn't really get things going until 9:30. The reception we arrived at just past 11 PM and we didn't get to eat dinner until after midnight. Not often you attend a wedding one day and the reception the next (with bride and groom still in full gear). Unfortunately, as a result of this lateness, the rain (on which our drivers are woefully over-cautious), and even by my standards an hour and a half trip, coupled with the kids getting sleepy and/or even falling asleep, we pretty much ate dinner (which was quite good!) and ran. It was a nice wedding, though, and even if we didn't get to party it up after, I'm still glad we went.

So that's where I am now. I'll be in Tripolis for another day or two before setting off for who knows where. I have a line on a job in Athens working in a hostel (a guy I met in Ios), I saw a lot of help wanted signs when I was in Ios last, I have a line on a language school in Crete (and a friend who's offered me a place to sleep if I do), as well as another friend travelling through the islands for a week or so. So the options are definitely on the table and I will probably investigate all of them.

<George's Christening Photos>
<Craziness in Omonia Photos>
<Wedding Photos>