engineering around the world

Life in the Village: Greece - Day 3

I woke up on Sunday to the sounds of the Greek Orthodox church service, which are blasted on a loudspeaker from the church so that the whole town can hear. Yanni’s family lives next door to the church, so the music was especially… audible. It was unlike any Sunday morning I’d ever experienced, but was certainly entertaining to say the least.

Typical view from the village.

For breakfast, I had real Greek yogurt with fresh honey from a local pine tree. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the most amazing honey I’ve ever tasted. And the Greek yogurt is a breakfast staple here, at least for Yanni who refers to “regular” yogurt as “desert yogurt.” But Sarah only likes the dessert yogurt, so I guess Greek yogurt isn’t for everybody. With that delicious honey though, I’m surprised it’s not irresistible for everyone! After another cup of that Greek coffee with a biscuit cookie (‘koularakia’), homemade by Yanni’s mother of course, I headed off to the park with Yiorgos and Magdalena for an hour of basketball (everybody against Yiorgos), swings, and monkey bars.

Afterwards, I went with Yanni, his father, and the kids to see the Panageia Church (Church of the Virgin Mary), a small sanctuary tucked into the Profitis Ilias mountain, where everyone from the village goes in August to camp out for several days and nights of community, festivity, and reflection. Along the way, Yanni casually pointed out more incredible sights: “look over there, the ancient hotel where people would stay on their journey from Athens to Sparta.” Wow.

We hung the camera from a branch to take this picture while exploring the Illias mountain.

Then came another visit to Napflio, where we returned to the same café place to enjoy a cappuccino while admiring the sea. Earlier in the week, Yanni had written an article for the finance section of “TO VHMA,” the largest newspaper in Greece, so he found the article and showed it to us while we were in town. Turns out he’s had many articles published! But I was most impressed by his response when Sarah asked why he didn’t brag about the article to his parents: “My parents should be proud of the person I am. Not because I wrote an article for a newspaper. So this doesn’t matter.” Anecdotes like this throughout the weekend really demonstrated to me what a good man Yanni is, and its been a pleasure to finally get to know him after 16 years of his being married in our family!

Upon returning home, I took the chance to notice some of the finer details of the house. I was amazed to find out that Yanni’s mother seemed to make everything – she embroidered their floral tablecloth, stitched the lace on the curtains, etc. Again, the pictures will show how incredible this is. I also forgot to mention before that their front yard has a lemon and orange tree – these trees are plentiful in the village – so we got to enjoy delicious fresh oranges for a snack. Especially after recently reading “The Omnivores Dilemma,” this experience really made me appreciate the value of freshly picked food. I now find myself dreaming of living in a place where my yard can be filled with fruit trees and a vegetable garden. Similar to my experience in Costa Rica with having a banana straight from the rainforest, being able to smell the strong, fresh citrus scent of the lemons straight from the tree proved that the food we buy in the supermarket isn’t how its really supposed to be. I’ve never smelled anything like that fresh lemon before.

Tablecloth hand-embroidered by Yanni’s mother.

Around 3:00, we headed home – the kids had homework and school the next day after all! For the rest of the evening in Athens, I played games with Yiorgos and helped Magdalena with her weaving project. After 5 months of shuffling from city to city, it has been so comforting to finally have the chance to just hang out with family. Sipping coffee overlooking the sea certainly made me feel like I was on an incredible vacation, but in many ways, the real vacation has been just being a part of the Trekkas family for the week.