Season of Gifts: Eggs, Oil and Spinach Pie

Six eggs, a bottle of olive oil, two fish and a piece of spinach pie. . . each a  gift given us by a Greek friend in our small fishing village in the rural Peloponnese.

Christmas decorations in the village

With each gift, I thought of the fellow, another expat, who had proclaimed a few weeks ago on Facebook that Christmas was cancelled this year because the COVID prevention lockdown had been extended to January 7th and stores would be closed.

I felt sorry for him, not so much for missing the retail-based holiday he envisioned, but for not yet realizing that gift giving here is not done by the calendar and holiday; it comes from the heart and as such, nothing can cancel it. Not even COVID lockdown. The Season of Gifts is year-round:

Six Eggs - a Christmas gift

Six eggs gathered fresh for us

My friend's eyes twinkled as she handed me the small plastic bag with six eggs in it a few weeks ago. Mine teared up.  She'd chased us down to give us the gift as we walked the road along the harbor in the village; the road on which she lives. With the help of a bystander who translated her Greek, she told me they were fresh, gathered that morning. And they were for us.

 Always clad in black - both garments and scarf holding her white hair in place - she is usually busy sweeping the area in front of her home when we pass. I don't know when our waves and nods to each other moved into friendship, but they did some time ago. Perhaps it was when I began admiring her plants, despite my Greek being as limited as her English. I still don't know her name, nor she mine. But we both brighten when we happen to meet.

The street on which my friend lives

Last Christmas I decided to surprise my friend with a poinsettia. The exclamation of surprise and the delight reflected in her smile was one of the high points of that holiday season.   

As spring, summer and fall came and went in the village, she has presented me with plant starts and seeds from spent blooms from the garden she grows in a hodge-podge of planters in front of her home. 

Fish and Oil - Autumn thank you gifts

Captain Antonis

Captain Antonis, is the village fisherman with whom we had our outing last September. (If you missed that post, read it here). In addition to writing about the trip here, I posted photos of our excursion on my Facebook page. When we next saw the Captain he said he doesn't 'do' social media and tapping his heart (as they do when thanking someone here)  said I had helped others know about his tours.

Basil seed and fish - a season of gifts

He gave me a large bottle of his olive oil to thank me. Much later in the fall we saw the Captain one morning displaying his catch of the day at our village fish market.  When I asked what kind of fish he'd caught, he insisted on bagging up two of them for us to take home and try. No charge - just a tap of his hand on his heart and again, we were told, 'it is for you.'

A gift of fresh pressed olive oil

In early December the Captain presented us with yet another bottle of his olive oil - this one fresh pressed. When I told him I couldn't take it - that he'd already given us many gifts -- he tapped his heart, shook his head and said, 'this is for you.' 

Spinach Pie - Just Because 

The Scout and Joanna - pre-COVID photo

Our friend Joanna, runs one of our favorite village tavernas up in a hillside village a few kilometers from us. Her restaurant has been shut down for weeks as result of our COVID lockdown restrictions on restaurant operations. We were delighted to bump into her a few weeks ago when we stopped for takeout drinks at one of our village tavernas. 

Home-made spinach/feta pie

As we were chatting together she suddenly said, 'I have something for you in my car!' She returned with an enormous foil-wrapped piece of spinach pie.  'I made a big one, so I give some to my friends.' 

A Season of Gifts - In a time of Lockdown

Village decorations 2019

Looking back across the seasons in this year of COVID uncertainty, we recall the bag of eggs brought to us by the man who trimmed our grove in the spring. The pomegranates given us by friends in late summer when our tree failed to produce any fruit and they had more than they could use.

The gifts have come as gifts should - unexpectedly and with  'just for you' as a reason -- even during a time of lockdown when many are feeling the economic pinch that the prolonged shutdown is causing. 

'To Go' Meals always include something extra

A handful of local eateries and tavernas are open providing 'to go' food and drink. As we make purchases from them, their generosity, often leaves us touching our hearts in thanks.

At our favorite purveyor of pastries and ice cream, we have on several occasions during lockdown, been presented with pastries when we've picked up our cappuccinos. When we object, we are told, 'this will be good with your coffee - take it, eat.'  

Fresh picked gifts

Across the street at Elli's Restaurant we always find something extra in our 'to go' dinner order just as we did at Melissa's taverna in the neighboring village when we picked up our Christmas dinner. That Christmas dinner (pictured above) came with a salad and dessert on the house as well as a bag of fresh picked oranges and mandarins from the owner's yard.  

Chutney, relish and butter

We did have Christmas gifts to be sure - and some of the best things imaginable. . .from expat friends we received wine and chocolate, a jar of homemade fruit butter, another of relish, one of chutney, and a a bag of fresh-picked oranges from our neighbor's tree. 

The village Christmas Star

We hope that your holiday - whatever it is and where ever you celebrate it - was as enjoyable as we found ours to be.  As 2020 comes to a close we again want to thank you for the time you've spent with us this year and send wishes for a happy and healthy New Year! 

Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

In Greece ~ Six Years Later. . .

 Mid-December six years ago . .

Village and harbor from Notary's Office

The tiny cubicle overlooking the village of Agios Nikolaos had once served as a living room in the apartment-turned-Notary's Office.  Those of us gathered within it on that bright, but brisk, December afternoon, gave little mind to the view we had from it of the village and its harbor.

Notary's office in tall building in the distance

We sat shoulder-to-shoulder: the sellers, the buyers, the attorney representing us, the realtor representing all of us. We focused on another attorney only a few feet in front of us who, standing like a sentry,  was shouting out (to be sure we heard it) an English translation of a contract being read aloud in Greek by another attorney seated at a nearby desk.  There was no room for the Notary (here, considered a quasi-government official who oversees such legal transactions) so she supervised from the doorway.

We'd wanted another adventure, a 'final fling' before we got too old, and this was it, I told myself, as I looked about and thought how foreign - and absurd - everything felt at that moment.

Buyers, sellers, attorney and realtor in the taverna

When finally the reading was completed and the signatures of sellers and buyers, initials of buyers, official government stamps and more stamps and Notary signatures were in place on multiple pages of the document, it was time for the money to be paid (done by check and cash back then - no new fangled things like wire transfers).  

We'd bought a house in Greece!

Just like that we'd bought a home in Greece.  It was time for those gathered to move next door for a drink at the taverna. 

'We'll give it five years,' we'd said at the time, leaving ourselves wiggle room to close this new chapter and return to the rather predictable and routine (and, if truth be told, sometimes boring) life we had left behind in the United States.

Six years later. . . 

The Stone House on the Hill

I write this in my den overlooking the upper garden at our small stone house, The Stone House on the Hill. This spitaki, small house, became our full-time residence three year's after we purchased it. Had someone told us on that mid-December day as the purchase formalities were taking place, that we'd be selling our home of 30-years in a Seattle suburb and moving our citified selves some 8,000 miles away to a rural area of the Greek Peloponnese, we'd have laughed.

Messinian Gulf from the Mani

Our decision to buy a home in the Mani, in Greece was not done as result of a lifelong plan to live here in our retirement. It wasn't prompted by unhappiness with the country's politics where we lived. We weren't seeking to escape anything. We didn't spend years looking for the right place.  It just happened. I compare it to finding that one soulmate and partner with whom you want to spend your life:

It simply felt right. And it still does.  

Agios Nikolaos - our village

Moving to a foreign country isn't for everyone. But those who have done it - whether for an extended stay or even those who divide their lives between two countries -- understand that little niggle that makes people like us want to stretch their comfort zones by immersing themselves in a different culture and country. 

Road Repair one of The Scout's new skills

Now stretching that comfort zone has been, I will admit, difficult and downright frustrating at times.  Turning off  'life's remote control' and having to participate with your whole head, heart and soul to get even the most simple of tasks accomplished, to make yourself understood without a command of the language or to understand the events occurring around you is wearing.

The thrill of tasting our home grown olive oil 

On the flip side, each time you realize you have expanded your comfort zone a bit further it is most satisfying, sometimes downright exhilarating. 'It worked!' or 'It is done!' have never been said with as much enthusiasm as we say those phrases here. 

As most expats would agree, you can't help but be changed by the experience - hopefully for the better. There are things about the lifestyle that could drive you nuts, yet, its quirks are what make life interesting. An adventure. And that's exactly what we wanted.

Six Years Later - The Chapter Continues

The Stone House on the Hill

We know that someday, that nebulous date lurking somewhere down the road, this chapter will need to come to a close as all chapters do.  While we often say we came here to grow olives instead of old, we recognize that one does not escape aging by moving somewhere new. 

Our entry stairs - who needs a Stairmaster?

There will come a time our charming Stone House on the Hill with its comforting olive grove and drop-dead territorial views and massive amount of stairs will be too much for old hearts, knees and legs.  These days we've modified our original agreement to that of,  'we hope we have another five years' here'.  

A toast to adventures 

If we don't, we will still agree that our 'last big adventure' didn't disappoint. Sometimes, though, we have started speculating that, 'maybe there is a new adventure left in us yet?' You don't suppose there might be another chapter just waiting to be written do you?

Thanks for the time you spent with us today and to the many of you who have been with us since this adventure began, our thanks for your continued interest and support.  You have been a special part of our journey!   Our best wishes to you and yours ~ stay safe and healthy!

Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

We Live in the Land of Legends

'We live in the land of legends', is how I began the article recently published in The Mediterranean Lifestyle magazine. 

My article in The Mediterranean Lifestyle magazine 

It was my first published article in more than a year as I've become a bit relaxed about freelance writing since moving to Greece three years ago as a full-time expat. It is easy to get distracted from writing when busy learning how to live in a new culture, a new world. By last summer I'd decided it was time to get off my duff and start writing again. 

Discovering the Peloponnese - our new home

So a few months ago when I had 'pitched'  (freelancer slang for 'sending a query to')  the editors of this magazine, I had suggested a travel article focusing on the blending the archaeology and mythology in the Peloponnese. I wanted to take the armchair traveler on a trip through this vast peninsula that resembles an open hand stretching into the Mediterranean.    

The Peloponnese a Land of Legends

The editors liked my idea and I was given a deadline. I had 1,200 words in which to tell my story (that is about two sheets of  'letter-sized paper', or 'A4' on this side of the Atlantic, single spaced).

Because dozens of archaeological sites dot the countryside, I chose four  that could be reached within a two hour's drive from our home. 

The Mani - our slice of the Peloponnese

None of the four are not as hyped in the mass tourism world as are the likes of Olympia, Delphi and Epidaurus, but  you might be surprised at how well-known they are to those travelers who like to get  off the beaten path. 

Because this Greek peninsula we chose for our expat home is teeming with archaeological and other historical sites, I figured that such an article would be a slam-dunk.  What I hadn't - at that time given much thought to -- was that I would not only be taking the reader to the sites but back in time, way back in time, and my sources of information would be both fact and fiction. Now that is a whole new discomfort zone for someone used to talking to people with first-hand knowledge of a place.  

Homer, credited with writing The Iliad and The Odyssey, wasn't going to be available for interviews for this story! Nor could I talk with Helen of Troy or old King Nestor, both among the many of whom he wrote and both key to two of the sites I wrote about. 

Throne room Nestor's Palace - Messinias 

It was writing about one of the sites on TravelnWrite that gave rise to the idea for the magazine article. The dilemma I had with writing the blog post was amplified when I tackled the article: trying to write about a place when both fact and fiction play such intricate roles in its history. 'Nestor's Palace' is a good  example. That legendary old King Nestor, according to Homer, is thought to have occupied a palace on the westernmost point of the Peloponnese. 

Work continues at Nestor's Palace - Messinias

Yet, when visiting the archaeological site on the westernmost point of the Peloponnese, -- it is clearly very real, but Nestor is a legend. . .or was he? You can't help wondering if there was a Nestor or someone upon whom Nestor is based? And if not, who lived in that palace? The line between real and imagined blurs. 

Now not that I was questioning my 'source', but one day I found myself on the trail of Homer himself.  As any good reporter would do, I wanted to know a bit more about the guy on whom I was relying for the basis of information. Well, then the plot thickened!  Was there a Homer as I had always believed or were the writings of Homer a compilation of oral tales, handed down through the ages that had simply finally been written down by some man, possibly named Homer. 

Socrates was right!

Or was Homer given the credit and it was actually the work of several people written at different times?  (There are some sources that claim that possibility.) And if they were oral tales passed down through the ages, could they have begun as facts or were they fiction, I wondered. I was beginning to feel like Sheherazade must have when spinning her tales in One Thousand and One Nights. 

As an English major, I hate to admit I had not only never read the writings of Pausanias, I hadn't even heard of the guy until we moved to the Peloponnese. If you visit archaeological sites here you will often find signs and brochures about the place with information credited to him.  But as I wrote the article I found myself relying on him a lot, but then so do historians so I figured I was in good company.

Pausanias was the source of much of what we know

I certainly hadn't read his 'Guide to Greece' which he had researched and wrote in the 2nd century A.D.  But I 'know' the guy's writings now - as he became another valuable 'source'! 

Pausanias

Pausanias was a recorder of facts, he took what he saw and tried to merge the facts of what he was seeing with the stories he had been told about the place. His travels over a period of 20 years resulted in a 10 volume 'Guide to Greece'.

His volume 2, a copy of which we own now,  focuses on our area of Greece. In fact he was here! Right down at the harbor where the village now called Agios Dimitrios sits at the foot of the hill on which we live.  He had written about the islet  -- the one I wrote about here a few weeks ago -- the one where Helen of Troy and her brothers were born.  

Pefnos Islet Agios Dimitrios Mani Messinias

He referenced Pephnos, as the town of Agios Dimitrios was called back then with an islet of the same name. He referenced bronze statues that had been built there in honor of Helen's brothers the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux.  Today the islet's name is Pefnos.

Pausanias is also credited with providing historians and archaeologists with valuable information about Ancient Messene, another of the sites I featured in the article.

Old roads through history - Peloponnese Greece

In the end it wasn't the slam-dunk I had thought it would be. It taunted the journalist in me and teased my imagination. It made me want to see more sites and know more about the layers of history on which we live in this land of legends. Here is the link to the article. I hope it sparks your imagination  as well:  Land of Legends.

Greek pomegranates - the season is here

And for those of you who are taken with all things Mediterranean, I recommend you sign up to receive this quarterly e-magazine, published in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, as the subscription is free.  This last edition had fabulous articles on everything from pomegranates to olive oil soap. The recipes will make your mouth water. To access the winter edition, click this link: The Mediterranean Lifestyle magazine.

Again, thanks so much for the time you spend with us. We hope this post provides a little armchair travel for you while we wait for the world to return to normal.  Stay safe and well! 

Linking sometime soon with:

 Mosaic Monday

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday