Since my last post, I’ve done three things: sleep, eat, and talk about going back to sleep or what’s to eat. The day I got back from Istanbul, I left for the mountains in the Peloponnese, for Greek Easter - which is a huge event here in Greece. About half the Greek population moved to Athens 30 years ago, but their parents all come from villages, and so there is a mass-migration for a weekend every year. My mothers village, which has a permanent population of about 50 (49 as of yesterday), swells to a few hundred during Easter and the August 15 celebrations. It’s certainly a fun time, especially considering it’s predominantly a young crowd now.
Since the Easter celebrations, I stayed in the village with my uncle’s family that is based up there (and in the regional capital, Tripoli). The idea was that I take it easy because I was still trying to get over my jet lag – let alone the Anzac trip which just made me more tired. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to relax as much as I hoped. This was due to my little cousins – one is ten, the other eight – who expected me to play games with them all day. And when afternoon siesta time came, or the later night-time sleep, they would snore. Actually one night when I shared the bed with the elder Theodore, he karate-chopped me. It was on the neck as well, which kind of hurt (they are both Tae-Kwon-Doe students). It was also at about 4am, just before the neighbours pack of eight dogs started barking at five in the morning. Sorry, I meant those eight fucking piss-stained shit-coloured imbred dogs started barking, at five in the morning (and every morning thereafter). Don’t get me started on the rooster.
I spent my week doing that, before I returned to my other Uncle’s family home, in Athens and where I am basing my entire trip from. The day I returned, we went out for one of my (Athenian) cousin’s birthday (all three girls are aged 20-25). In Greece, the person who is celebrating has to shout drinks for the people that are there. i’m lovin it. Having spent a week doing animal noises to entertain the kids, it was time to have a few drinks and kick-back. I thought I only had a few drinks, but my cousins swear they saw me pouring myself a few extra drinks, and a few more on top of that. Either way, whatever I drank, it was a hangover that lasted well into the next night.
One week on, I have been sleeping, eating, and talking about going back to sleep or what’s to eat. I am sleeping 10-12 hours a day, and if it wasn’t for food, I would sleep more. So I hope you don’t mind, but I am going back to sleep now. Good bye.
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