Greek hospitality, take II

Vangelis Pavlidis is a good friend of my Aunty. His wife Noomi is from Sweden, and it is their son Savvas who saved me from the airport.

Vangelis is a cartoonist with a very clever sense of humor. So great is his talent that he worked for the newspaper for many years as a political cartoonist. He is also a great character himself, very knowledgeable, very opinionated and very jolly. He and I met some years ago, before I went to Austria. I have very fond memories of our conversations and debates, so seeing him again was so nice for me.

I went to their place (i drove Martine's car!) and we had a glass of delicious, almost sweet red wine, had a chat then went to Mesanagros for souvlaki. This is the next village up from Lachania, high in the hills. There is a 13th century church there, still standing in decent condition!

Over dinner we laughed, debated, listened to Vangelis playing the harmonica and try started singing Greek folk songs!! It was really nice and so different to having dinner with friends in NZ, that's for sure!

One thing I noticed was how many mannerisms Vangelis has in common with my wonderful dad. This isn't specifically a Greek male thing; no, it's more specific than that. It's the way they animate their words with their hands and faces as they talk, the way they laugh with their whole body, even down to little mannerisms like raised eyebrows... Yes, I have concluded that indeed Vangelis is my dad's older brother, and therefore is my uncle :)

I digress... Over dinner, I tried another Greek traditional alcohol - Retsina. This is white wine with resin; centuries ago it was created by accident when the Greeks lined their terra-cotta pots with resin to waterproof them. Unfortunately this tainted the wine's taste, but then people liked this taste. Hence, we now have retsina!

It was so nice... Coming home, we squeezed five of us into Vangelis' Lada and drove home. We stopped at the taverna at the top of the village (which I just learned existed!) and then said our kalineithta's (goodnights) and I drove Martine's wobbly little hyundai back to the house.

I love this family, and as mentioned, have adopted them as my own!