It Started With an Ouzo

by Stavros Allanopolis

  Photo: Working Donkey And Passenger.

  Photo: The Car As A ‘Flowerpot’

  The week passed all too quickly, and almost as soon as she returned to the UK, another visitor arrived and then another and then another.

  In quite quick succession, our friend Paul paid a visit for a week, followed by Bill and Jeanette for a week, and then our friend George, who also stayed for a week.

  Somehow we went from mid-August to mid-October in no time; a blur!

  Despite the succession of visitors, Valerie goes to Greek lessons for one hour every Monday morning, and along with two friends, the small group study hard and end the session by taking away homework for completion and checking following week. So, in between ‘entertaining’ visitors, every day for the following week, for at least an hour, she does her Greek homework. There is also a module to complete on ‘news’ where she has to write out her news in Greek for sharing with the others. The weeds usually feature somewhere or other and despite being ‘out about’ with our families and visitors, Valerie does do her Greek Homework every day; day or night.

  THE ALLURE OF AAGGI’S BAR

  Although none of the visitors overlapped or met each other, they did have one thing in common; they all insisted on spending some time at Aaggi’s bar during their stay!

  Aaggi is a wonderful young lady, and is the consummate hostess. Mind you, she does tend to change the colour of her hair quite frequently, so you never know what to expect! During the summer, she changed the colour of the seating of the chairs on the deck; half were bright pink and the others were lime green. So, for the next few weeks, Aaggi dyed her hair to match; pink one week and green the next!

  Aaggi apart, the main attraction is the laid back and relaxed atmosphere. Without exception, every single visitor to Meerkat Manor has paid a visit to Aaggi’s bar; most, more than once! The terrace on the water’s edge overlooking the harbour is the perfect place for watching the sun set.

  Photo: Aaggi Behind Her Bar.

  Photo: Drinking With Stavros And Valerie.

  The sun deck is right on the water’s edge at the Eastern end of the harbour in Agios Nikolaos and there is plenty of room between the tables and they all overlook the sea.

  It is a great place to sit and ‘chill out,’ enjoy a leisurely drink.

  Photo: Friend George Lines Up His Glasses (Look At His T Shirt!).

  Photo: Friend Paul Fraternising With Aaggi.

  We spent many happy evenings at Aaggi’s with our visitors. However, when we returned to Meerkat Manor, we usually would have a ‘nightcap’ up on the terrace of the studio apartment where each of them stayed.

  On one such evening, we had dined at Smokey Joe’s, been for a glass of wine at Aaggi’s and we had returned home where we were enjoying a ‘nightcap’ drink; just sitting enjoying the warmth of the evening. It was 32 C even though it was 11pm! I remember the evening quite clearly because of what happened next. I happened to look at our ‘Lady of the Night’ cactus that is growing in a pot on the top of the steps up to the studio apartment. As I looked at it, I wondered if I had had too much to drink, as I saw that it was ‘wobbling’ and somehow ‘coming to life,’ and I told the others “look!”

  It is called ‘Lady of the Night’ for a reason; it only flowers at night time. This evening, it transpired that it was producing a flower for us to marvel at! I rushed inside and got my camera to try and record the happening.

  Photo: ‘Lady Of The Night Starts To Flower.

  Photo: From Red Bud To Full Bloom.

  Photos don’t really do this phenomenal sight justice; a video recording of the happening in ‘real time’ would be better. We sat there transfixed, it was truly awesome to watch the cacti come to life and produce its flower. The whole sequence, from red bud ‘growing’ and producing a flower, took about 30 minutes and the flower looked fabulous; quite spectacular! The flower that it produced was the size of an adult hand. It truly was like a special effects scene from a Sci-fi movie. Unforgettable!

  PART Y TIME IN AGIOS NIKOLAOS

  For 50 weeks of the year, most villages are sleepy and quiet with just the local inhabitants going about their daily business.

  At Easter, for one week the church will be festooned with Palm leaves and virtually everybody goes to the church for the Easter Service.

  During the summer weeks, tourists will arrive and wander around the streets, stop for a coffee and visit the church; altogether quite quiet and peaceful.

  However, also during the summer weeks, there are many village parties in the region, and they are called Panagyri. The main villages in the region take it in turn to have a party in their church square to celebrate the existence of their village and the people that live in it.

  So, for this other week of the year, the village is transformed just for one night; to hold the Panagyri.

  The church square, once so empty and quiet, becomes a hive of activity.

  Table and chairs are set up, very close together and in every nook and cranny available, all of them facing the stage where the band will play. The stage is quite high so that it can be seen by everyone that attends.

  A line of table will line one side of the square and on the night, this will be laden with food. The ladies of the village will spit-roast a pig and make salads and provide a complete meal for every visitor.

  Everybody is welcome to join in the celebration, and not just the local inhabitants. Posters appear on the telegraph poles along the roads and in and around all the villages. The posters advertise the day and the time the party starts. Often the posters are giant banners strung across the road just to be sure everybody knows! Sometimes the party attracts a sponsor, and usually in the form of the Greek beer brand Mythos.

  Photo: Panagyri Poster.

  Photo: Panagyri Sponsored By Mythos.

  On the night, literally hundreds of people will converge on the village, which for the other 51 weeks of the year is usually inhabited by maybe a hundred residents. Everybody arrives looking forward to eating, drinking and partying the night away!

  The party usually starts around 9pm and will go on until the early hours of the morning. All the family attends; from babes in arms to Grandparents. They queue for their food (average cost 5 Euros), buy their drinks and secure a table as near to the band as possible; an impossible crush! Everybody is happy as they sit at the plastic and wooden tables squashed into the square like ‘sardines in a tin.’

  The noise of ‘happiness’ is unbelievable! When the band begins to play, the decibels increase to an unprecedented level! However, unperturbed, the gathered masses start to party, and almost everybody gets up to dance! The experience of seeing hundreds of people dancing in large circles is quite a spectacle.

  Despite large quantities of wine and beer being consumed, there is never any trouble. Everybody is too busy talking and dancing and generally having fun!

  One of the other celebrations of note is the Nautical Festival in Agios Nikolaos. It seems that it ‘mirrors’ the festival held in Kalamata where they have daily sailing races around the Messinian Gulf and parties at night, and again with food and music being available. Apparently, with hundreds of people gathering in the squares; Greeks love having parties; eating drinking and having fun!

  At the beginning of the week, the harbour in Agios Nikolaos is duly decorated with ‘bunting’ and a boat is regaled and put on prominent view.

  There is a lunch at the restaurant on the harbour’s edge to launch the week’s festival and a party in the evening. The party is held in the harbour slipway and once again food and wine is available and a band plays.

  The strangest thing about celebrating this ‘nautical’ festival is that there are no sailing races during the week-long festival; just parties!

  Maniots know how to have fun and party to the early hours of the morning!

  At the end of the week, to ‘close’ the festival, there is another evening party and it concludes with a spectacular firework display. The decorated boat is
the focus of attention throughout the week. Decked out in flag bunting, it takes pride of place in the tiny harbour, there for all to see.

  Photo: The Decorated Festival Boat.

  Photo: Fisherman Preparing The Nets.

  It is so good to see everybody enjoying themselves. One of the most amazing things about this region and Agios Nikolaos in particular is how safe the children are. Their parents let them wander around; groups of kids just playing, having fun, being themselves and their age without any fear despite the late hour of the day.

  However, despite the fact that there is a festival in progress, the serious business of fishing for a living has to continue.

  THE SECOND OLIVE HARVEST AT MEERKAT MANOR

  It didn’t seem possible, but we had been living here for just over 18 months, and we realised that it would soon be time for our second olive harvest; the olives were looking green and beginning to ‘plump’ up.

  We had the olives harvested earlier than last year; one month early. This year’s crop was better than last year’s; we almost doubled our volume!

  Once again Andonis and the team arrived with all the equipment and harvested the olives but this year they pruned the trees harder. The theory is that if you prune hard, the crop will not be so good the year following as new growth starts to appear, but in year two you yield a bigger crop when the new shoots have grown to full size. Clearly this year had been a ‘year two!

  Like last year, they then burned all the pruned branches; the world over, men love messing with bonfires! It was good though to see the smoke drifting lazily into the sky amid warm winter sun.

  Photo: Harvesting Equipment Is Unloaded.

  Photo: Burning Pruned Branches.

  Like the year before, it was exciting watching and being involved in the whole process, and going to the olive press to see our crop pressed, filtered and pumped into the 18 litre cans; it was different pattern this year! Like last year, I bottled the oil myself.

  Photo: Stavros Fills The Bottles From The 18 litre Cans.

  Photo: The Bottling Is Complete.

  This year the harvest has produced 33 litres of oil and it is more than enough for our own use until next year, so we even went as far as to make our own labels for the oil. We put the labels on small plastic bottles that visiting friends from the UK can take back with them.

  In Greek the label reads:

  Meerkat Manor 2009 Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

  Most months, there is a small Bazaar held in Stoupa. So, I will sell any oil surplus to our requirements in readiness for the 2010 harvest.

  We are proud of our achievement in producing such good quality oil. It is especially satisfying as we use it every day of the year for cooking and for dressing salads. The secret behind our success? Well, it’s probably because I spend quite a lot of time just watching the olives grow and making sure they are happy and have enough manure!

  Next year, we are thinking about doing the harvest ourselves. There again, I might just go out for an Ouzo and let Andonis and his team harvest them! Still, that's thoughts for next year.

  Right now, all my hard work is done. I’ve been “watching them grow” for 10 months and I need a break. However, I just might put some goat manure around the base of the trees in February to give them a boost before next year's flowers sprout and then I can start ‘watching them grow’ all over again. Whether they have the potential for a small or large yield, they have to be ‘watched’ and it is a hard job, but somebody has to do it!

  Photo: Proud Olive Farmers.

  Photo: The Table Set For A Celebratory Ouzo.

  OUR FIRST GREEK WEDDING AND CHRISTENING

  The week after our harvest, we were invited to our first Greek Wedding and a Christening combined. Giannis, the man that built our house, was due to marry Eleni and christen their baby Giorgos.

  Photo: The Invitation Matched Our Freshly Picked Roses.

  Greek Orthodox celebrations are fascinating!

  We left our village in a convoy of cars headed for the mountains. Lights flashing, horns blaring nonstop and going at crazy speeds, we set off through the mountain roads behind us and went to a tiny church which sits right on top of the mountain. The road is SOoooooo narrow; it is amazing nobody crashed on the bends!

  Anyway we made it in one piece and arrived in the courtyard of this tiny ancient church - as small as our house. Giannis had been in the lead car and was there to greet everybody. We have never seen him in anything other than working clothes, but there he was in a jet black silk suit, white shirt and bright red tie! He is about 6 feet four and well built and he looked immaculate!

  It was a bright sunny day and they had decorated the outside of the church with coloured balloons and ribbons.

  The inside was so simple with very little in the way of 'ornate' just a few frescos on the walls, but they had decorated the candle stands with white taffeta and red ribbons (it turned out that they matched the bride’s dress exactly!).

  Talk about a right mixture! Some were in suits and dresses and others in jeans and working clothes! It so happens that I brought a suit with me to Greece just in case for Funerals and Weddings! I hadn't worn it for over two years but it still fitted. Even better, for the first time since I damaged my foot, I managed to get my black shoes on, and that was very satisfying!

  Valerie wore her turquoise outfit of long skirt and lace top and looked very elegant.

  The guests gathered (about 60) at around 3.30pm for a 4pm wedding and waited for the bride. She arrived about an hour later, but it was worth the wait; she looked absolutely stunning!

  We crowded into the church and everybody stood as there were no pews. Impossibly full and no room to move but everybody was happy.

  A lady from the mountain village told us that there was a small balcony in the rafters and we went up there to look down on the proceedings. The area was no bigger than our bedroom but something like twenty people were with us too! From our vantage point, we had a very clear view of the ceremony; the Bride and the Groom; the Priests in attendance.

  Photo: The Bride Arrives.

  Photo: Bride And Groom And Priests.

  There was a very small table set up in the middle of the church and the bride and groom stood in front of it. On it was glass and a tray with the celebration wine and that was it. Then everybody stood in a circle around the bride and groom and the ceremony started; it seemed to go on forever! Three priests in attendance stood in front of their little altar and took it in turns to sing the readings, the blessings and the vows (you know, that real Greek ‘warbling’ sound!). Then one priest came over to the couple placed a silk ribbon around their heads linking them together and as they held hands, they started to walk around the Wedding Table.

  Now, whilst this was all going on, everybody was also talking to each other. Often it was such a 'babble' that one of the Priests had to tell them to be quiet whilst he 'sang' - in fact that happened three times and he got quite cross. He looked every inch the part of the rural priest. He had a long beard, and a ponytail and he wore his robes draped across his tall but slim frame and even wore his Top Hat at a rakish angle; a real character! He seemed very ‘fierce and determined,’ however, much later in the evening, we were discover that this was all a ‘front’ as he was in fact a very easy going and laid back individual and an accomplished dancer!

  After being told to be quiet, the focus shifted back once again to the Bride and Groom. As they started to walk around the Wedding Table, everybody showered them with confetti; actually it was small grain rice, which everybody had been given in a small lace bag as they entered the church. They circled the table three times and as they did so they were covered in the rice and it and it crackled underfoot!

  Photo: Showered With Confetti.

  Photo: Christening Giorgos.

  After some more 'singing' they drank a ‘ceremonial’ glass of wine, and that seemed to be it because lots of people just drifted outside.

  However, it turned out to be just a
pause in the proceedings to allow the Christening font to be brought into the church, and it turned out to be a very simple but beautiful copper urn, which took the place of the table that had held the ceremonial flask of wine and glasses for the wedding toast.

  Then we waited. Why? Well it turned out that one of the village ladies was heating the water because the mountain stream water was too cold! It was a bizarre sight just seeing her arrive with this tin bucket full of steaming water! Then, she decided it was too hot and set off for cold to mix it with! After some more time went by and at least 10 or more people had 'tested' the water for temperature, they sent for baby Giorgos.

  Well, what follows next was very funny for us, but very serious for them as they take their religion seriously. As a couple, they looked fabulous in their wedding attire, and it was somehow emphasized as Giannis who is just under 2 metres tall stood next to Eleni who is just 1 metre 50cm tall in her high heeled shoes!

  Giorgos is now six months old and quite a big baby like his Dad and he was so good, considering he was surrounded by so many people all pushing and pulling and generally wanting to be in charge of undressing him and generally overseeing things as he was dipped in the water in the font.