{"id":2703,"date":"2011-04-21T18:20:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2012-04-26T11:17:40","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T11:17:40","slug":"megali-evthomada-holy-week-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=2703","title":{"rendered":"Megali Evthomada – Holy Week in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Preparing Tsoureki - sweet Easter bread <\/p><\/div>\n

With Easter still a few days away, business in Bar Spetsa indicates a busy\u00a0time ahead for Costas …\u00a0an ideal time for me to travel south\u00a0and visit my family and friends on Crete.<\/p>\n

Riding on the hydrofoil yesterday from Spetses to Piraeus … as I see any small island jutting out from the sea, I realise I am in love with the\u00a0 rawness of the Greek landscape.\u00a0 A walk under grey skies\u00a0from Gate E8 to Gate E3\u00a0and a fairly normal for Greece\u00a0queue-less wait to buy my ticket for\u00a0Lane Lines\u00a0ferry boat “Vitsentzos Kornaros”.\u00a0 My observations over many years show\u00a0Greeks do not believe in queues – they\u00a0go to the front of the line –\u00a0create havoc, or – stand in the queue and still, create havoc!<\/p>\n

A hydrofoil ticket from Spetses to Piraeus currently costs Euro 37.50 for a 2 – 2 1\/2 hour ride.\u00a0 By comparison, a ferry boat ticket from Piraeus to Kissamos (Kastelli) currently costs Euro 26 for a 10 1\/2 hour journey – good value!\u00a0 I boarded nice and early then\u00a0found an agreeable posy for people watching, should I feel\u00a0inclined to do so and a\u00a0very full ferry departed at 1500 hours.\u00a0 The on board\u00a0self service Restaurant opened for lunch a short time later, as it would open for dinner later on.\u00a0 I made a start on Nikos Kazantzakis’ Freedom and Death – a fitting read for Easter week on Crete and a constant reminder of the strength and pride of the island’s people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First stop – Diakofti on the island of Kythira at around 2145 hours, saw an almost total disemboweling of passengers and vehicles\u00a0with a skeleton number remaining – less weight – more rolling of the vessel.\u00a0 0130 hours, tired and still a way to go – we would be late arriving.\u00a0 Finally, the call came to make our way down to the Garage and be ready for disembarkation.\u00a0 This was followed by at least 30 minutes of the crew desperately trying to dock the boat\u00a0parallel to the wharf and to lower the massive garage\u00a0door, allowing us to leave safely.<\/p>\n

I became aware of my next challenge even before making land … I could see there were no taxis waiting – how would I make my way to the house, at this hour, with a rather nasty cold wind blowing and only a handful of people to target?\u00a0 With no choice, I began to ask around “Excuse me, are you going to Kastelli?”\u00a0 Fortunately, a lady being met by her nephew to be taken to her village of birth nearby – her nephew\u00a0was happy\u00a0that I could go along for the ride and be dropped off later in Kastelli.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now off the ferry but still unable to move on … my first experience of Police – meeting a boat, talking with\u00a0various passengers and\u00a0checking passports, then\u00a0using a German Shepherd to sniff all our baggage\u00a0but nothing found.\u00a0\u00a0At last, free to go\u00a0and my heartfelt thanks to the young man who dropped me off at 0245 hours where Katina was patiently waiting, surrounded by all she had made ready for a 0530 hours start today – Megali Pempti (Holy Thursday).\u00a0 A\u00a0large quantity of dough\u00a0was made this morning,\u00a0shaped later in the day into loaves of Tsoureki, a sweet Easter bread … eggs\u00a0dyed red, symbolising the blood of Christ, placed carefully atop each one. \u00a0Anna, Katina, Maria (17) and Katerina (15) Katina’s grand daughters, had all been to church too and returned home before I made an appearance.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow is Megali Paraskevi (Holy Friday) … a day of rest and fasting for the faithful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Easter still a few days away, business in Bar Spetsa indicates a busy\u00a0time ahead for Costas …\u00a0an ideal time for me to travel south\u00a0and visit my family and friends on Crete. Riding on the hydrofoil yesterday from Spetses to Piraeus … as I see any small island jutting out from the sea, I realise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}