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Life in the Village: Greece - Day 2
The village is an important part of Sarah’s family’s life in Greece. It is where Yanni’s parents live and work on their olive farm (comprised of more than 1000 olive trees). They have lived there, in Prosymni, for most of their life (save for the 5 years they spent working in the US), and the home we stayed in is on the same property where Yanni was born. They go to the village for Christmas, Easter, and as often as they can throughout the year.
A lot has changed in the past 16 years that Sarah has been there. She told me that during her first visit to Greece, it took more than 3 hours to get to the village due to the quality of the roads. Once in the village, they stayed with his parents in a home that didn’t have window screens, a proper toilet seat, or any heating other than the oven in the kitchen. Now, the house is amazing. They just had new doors and window screens installed, the house is heated, the bathroom is in great condition, and in general the life there felt very comfortable. And with all the new highways, it only took 90 minutes to make the trip!
Those 90 minutes of driving were gorgeous – the Mediterranean sea, countless mountains, olive trees everywhere, all sprinkled with relics from ancient Greece and Rome. “Look over to the right you can see a Roman bath.” “Let’s pull over so you can admire the palace of the Corinthians.” It seemed as though the history of Europe was all packed into this one short road trip.
When we arrived at the Τρικκασ house, Yanni’s mother (yiayia - Greek for grandmother) came running out and before I could even say “ya-sas,” the greeting I’d been practicing, she offered such a big, heartfelt hug that I was almost afraid I’d topple over! Soon after, “pappou,” the grandfather, came rolling back into the house on his tractor (their only automotive form of transportation) for a quick lunch break. Even though it was Saturday, he was hard at work in the fields because it is the harvest season and they are worried about not picking all the olives in time. With over 1000 trees to manage, I can understand why! But he is 73 years old and still working full time – what an impressive work ethic.
Yiorgos and Magdalena with their yiayia.
Just as Magdalena described to me, within minutes of our arrival we were at the kitchen table eating the most delicious Greek food: potatoes cooked in olive oil, meat, Greek salad, and bread made by Yanni’s mother. “Real bread shouldn’t dry out,” Yanni explained to me. “Without preservatives, bread should grow mold if its too old.” I could tell from just one bite of this bread that it wasn’t the type to dry out. I ate until I was full and then ate some more because it was all so delicious. After eating, I tried a cup of Greek coffee. I have yet to be disappointed by a cup of coffee, so of course I enjoyed it. Yanni’s mother showed me how it was prepared on the stove, cooked just until the liquid started to bubble. This description will be better with illustrations, and I’ll have the chance to upload my pictures once I’m back in France.
Delicious Greek food! Beef and potatoes fried in olive oil.
Greek coffee.
After lunch, I jumped in the car with Yanni, Yiorgos, and Magdalena and we headed straight for the olive fields. His family owns several fields all over the village, but the ones we went to were up in the mountain, which involved a little bit of hiking after the road ended. I’ve never seen so many olive trees in my life! (well of course I had never seen an olive tree before to begin with…. but still it seemed like miles of trees expanding in all directions). Yanni’s father was taking a break, sitting on a rock, while his 2 workers combed the trees for olives. The process, I quickly learned, involves several steps. A tarp is laid down underneath the tree and then everybody spends what could take between 15 minutes or an hour combing the tree (literally, with a huge comb) to shake all the olives off the branches. With me, Yanni, Yiorgos, and Magdalena there to help, there weren’t enough combs for everybody, so we removed the olives by just sliding our hands down the branches, pushing them off. Once the tree is emptied, all the olives are poured into a little machine with a screen that filters most of the leaves and branches out and funnels the olives into a bag. From there, they are brought to a factory in the village where they are cleaned and pressed into what will ultimately become several tons of olive oil! It was a lot of fun to take part in this process and help out, but Yanni pointed out that its fun for 30 minutes but exhausting as a full time job.
Combing olive trees.
After the olive trees, Yanni and Sarah took me to Napflio, a town on the Mediterranean which embodied everything I picture when I think of Greece. I can’t wait to post pictures, because my words won’t do it justice. We had a wonderful day wandering along the sea (Yanni clearly wanted to go swimming but resisted the temptation in order to be the best possible tour guide. But Sarah told me that it’s a point of pride among Greeks to keep track of how many times each year they swim in the sea. Yanni explained that of course he doesn’t feel the need to keep track. Still, there are few things he loves more than diving into that water) and exploring the town. I got to see the church where they were married and the children were baptized, the Evangelistria Church. It must have felt like a fairytale for Sarah to be married in this church, on top of a hill overlooking Napflio and the sea. I didn’t know this before, but she had to walk up dozens of steps leading to the church in her dress on a hot July night (over 100 degrees!); it is the tradition to meet the groom outside of the church and share a kiss before walking in for the ceremony. Anecdotes like this might only be picked up by going back to the actual location and hearing all the memories as they come back, so it felt very special to be at that church with Sarah and Yanni and be included in their reminiscing.
View from the church.
Sarah and Yanni in front of the church… 16 years later.
We drove up one of the many mountains in Napflio to see the Palamidi Castle, a Venetian fortress built in the 17th century. Yanni pointed out that there were many more important things to do than look at these castle walls, so we didn’t linger for too long. But throughout the day as we strolled through the town, I got to admire the castle from many different viewpoints, as you can see it from almost anywhere in Napflio. It towers over the town, just as a fortress should.
Sarah and me by the sea. Note the fortress in the background.
After hours of walking, we sat down in a café, Napoli, and watched the sun set over the sea as we sipped on coffee. In the middle of the sea rests another castle - the Bourtizi, built in the fifteenth century to protect the town against pirates. The reflection of the setting sun on the water made this castle look like something from a fairytale. I felt transported into another world – no longer a student in the middle of her semester but instead somebody on a long summer vacation.
By 7:00 we were ready to go home, eat some more, and play with the kids. But seeing as it was Saturday night in Napflio, there were many weddings going on. Around 7:05 we found ourselves at a church, watching a groom arrive while a crowd of hundreds of people waited outside the church. “Oh this is perfect, you have to see a Greek wedding!” Sarah exclaimed. Apparently it’s typical for the bride to be a few minutes late to her own wedding (though Sarah will have you know she was perfectly on time), so our timing was perfect. A few more minutes and we’d get to see the bride and groom kiss!
… or so we thought. By 7:28 we were beginning to have our doubts. Cold feet? Runaway bride? But Sarah taught me a Greek phrase: “We’ve eaten the donkey already, all that remains is the tail.” (yes, yes, to all the econ majors who might be reading this (aka Tim and dad). Of course this is a heuristic bias!). But in the spirit of that Greek phrase, we waited. Finally at 7:30 the bride arrived with her bridal party! It was quite a production, the bridal party arrived in a little mini tourist train, surrounded by maybe a dozen cars all honking their horns. Then the bride arrived in a white car, all decorated. It seemed like quite a commotion, but then again, this is Greece. “Now, you can watch ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ again, and really understand.”
