Its 9:30pm Tuesday (24/4), Maria is just hopping into bed here in the hotel room in Athens, the kids have been in for a while. Tomorrow morning early we fly off for Paris.
Its with a sense of great frustration that I realise that I am not going to be able to do the last several days justice. Even the dot-point notes I have written cover several pages - breaking them down into a day by day form is at least a solid day's work. I really dislike the thought of putting up a bare-bones summary of what we've been up to and what has happened - a blog should be much more than a postcard (to my mind). However given where the last entry finishes off (the pick-pocketing - note that the Acropolis Now post is out of order and 2 days before that), and just how significant the events of the weekend were, that I needed to give some brief report on everything.
Thursday and Friday (19th and 20th) were primarily concerned with recovering from the difficulties arising from the theft of our wallet and purse. Basically we were left with next to no immediate cash, no cards, and a hotel bill yet to pay.
Thursday morning George (Marika's husband) and Gavin came to our rescue. George dropped around cash in person and Gavin wired us a substantial amount. There were real dramas with the Gavin situation with phone calls, adjustments to what was needed for id etc. A story to be told over a drink or 2. There was a police re4port to file (kids came along - was a real eye opener for them...BTW I didn't see a single computer the whole time, just old ledgers, photocopies and even the use of whiteout) and later pickup. There was also real comedy with the safe in our room. Held our passports (hence getting wired money was hard) and tickets. Key had been in my wallet...hotel didn't have another...first a key was going to be couriered from Italy...then a local locksmith came in and spent several hours drilling the lock out. Eventual it was opened. Replacement/Emergency Mastercards arrived though these turned out to be less than we might have wanted - not linked to our bank in any way so that the only way to obtain cash for us is to visit a bank during business hours and ask for an over-the-counter withdrawal. We had a very trying hour on Friday at Citi Bank (had already tried another) when they said they could not do it because there was no bank backing the card and hence they couldn't tell whether there was credit on the card. Weird...when with a single swipe retailers can still do that (we did that today).
There was further comedy and stress on Friday with us eventually sending a box of goodies home to lighten our burden (had already done that in Nihon). Comedy in that we actually scavenged through dumpsters in the local streets in search of a suitable box to hold our items (I even have photos - ohh how frustrating this incomplete version is), comedy in that the post office closed at 2pm and because of problems with Citi Bank plus lack of language skills on either side at the post-office we ran over time. Still it eventually went...and if we're lucky even to the right address (Jane you should be receiving it within the week).
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were huge for us in terms of emotional significance. We visited the home villages of both Maria's mother and father in Northern Greece in the area of Florina (just the Greek side of the former Yugoslav border). As real fast background Maria's father died when she was really young, she doesn't recall him at all, and has had no contact with the family till Marika and her sister Krisoula (Maria's cousins and the daughters of Maria's uncle Stavros) contacted her by email and post a couple of years back. So this was the big quest to meet the family that Maria never knew. We had had a briefing from Marika and some of it sounded very labyrinthine - fueds and disputes about land etc.
Its a full day's bus trip either way, and that was an experience itself, but yet another story for another time. We were received with great warmth and generosity by Micho (a distant cousin on Maria's side who had stayed in Cowra with Maria's grandmother 2 years ago and who we had met a couple of times) and his family, plus Stavros. I find it impossible to put into words the feelings that their generosity engendered in us.
We stayed with Maria's uncle Stavros and despite his bluff exterior his warm heart and love were clear from the start. Maria took to him straight away and I have to say all 5 (Stavros' wife is in France with Krisoula who has recently had a child so he is alone currently) of us cried when we said goodbye on the Monday afternoon. Of course it was very funny trying to communicate - he speaks Greek, Macedonian, and German (having worked in Germany for most of his life), while we speak next to no Greek, Maria has some recollections of Macedonian from childhood, and of course English and Japanese were completely useless. There was an aweful lot of gesturing and sign language - I have even added a number of characteristic Greek hand gestures to my body language/vocabulary - lets see if they last.
Stavros lives on the outside of the village and doesn't get on that well with the rest of the brothers (there were 10 siblings in all - 9 boys and a girl; 2 of the boys now dead). So Sunday Micho came and took us in to the village proper to see the house in which her father was born and grew up. One of the brothers (just to confuse the issue this guy is called Micho also) lives there now, and most of the extended family - other brothers, sisters, cousins etc. live in houses next door, across the way etc.
What started as a "sneak" walk down a battle-axe to take a couple of pictures of a house turned in the next hour into a swarm of relatives emerging from their houses to meet the prodigal daughter returning home. There were double kisses on the cheeks for Maria, the kids and I from all and sundry. Old widows bent with age, possessing Greek noses that had continued to grow all their long life, and swathed in black were grabbing and kissing Grant and Zoe - I asked the kids later (in jest) if they thought they were in a fairy tale and the wicked witches had come for them. This greeting was very special for Maria and I was very happy for her.
But we also had Maria's grandmother's and grandfather's (on her mother's side) houses to visit in another village. These were abandonded but of particular significance because Lina (Maria's mum) and a couple of the other uncles had grown up there - so we took much footage for home. Then yet another meal we didn't pay for (I don't believe Micho - Maria's mother's side) let us pay a single cent the entire weekend, even buying our return bus tickets (a large sum) against voluble and extended protests.
Sunday we returned to Maria's father's family for a more extended and formal visit. I have lots of notes just about this event itself; and a fair bit of footage as well. There was photo showing, questions (why don't you speak Greek, why did you come for such a short time), food, drink, conversation (halting at first, but better towards the end when a cousin-in-law Mary arrived who spoke excellent English), food, and drink. As you might imagine it was quite overwhelming at times for all of us (especially the kids who have only please/thankyou level Greek), but it was with a sense of sadness and disappointment that we said goodbye and returned to Stavros for lunch - though not before grabbing a couple of addresses.
For me the simple pleasure of sitting outside in Stavros yard (unmown grass - he keeps it long for the rabbits he keeps) in the hot spring sun, with a beer, some bread, and cheese for lunch is something I will hold inside for a long-time.
Farewells to Stavros, then Micho (Maria's mother's side) and family were extended and painful, but made us feel so lucky to have such family. "This was the most important part of the trip mum" said Grant - and there was total agreement from all four of us - for Maria to by association get some knowledge of her father through these relatives, and find that she (and we) were loved. Saying goodbye is hard, but its only because the times together are so good - and who would ever give up those times together just to avoid the pain of farewell?
So we caught the night bus back and arrived in Athens at 5am this morning - with very little sleep (the bus path is through some beautiful mountains - but the twisting roads are not the best for sleep on a coach). Again the hotel Dore were wonderful in letting us into our room at such a time and we caught an hour or 2 of sleep. We then dived down to Athens central for our last day in the city and spent the time walking to Plaka, having lunch at an outdoor cafe, visiting the temple of Olympian Zeus, and then the Olympic Stadium nearby. Then back to the hotel for some dinner and packing. And now...you are up to date...but what a pale shadow of the rich events we experienced this is. Ohh well.
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