Note: There are butchery scenes in this which might upset some viewers. Skim over them, you'll love the vegetable market
Breakfast in the tiny dining area at
the Epidavros Hotel. Nice breakfast of plenty of yoghurt, honey, fruit,
cereals, fresh boiled eggs, do-it-yourself toast, baby croissants and Danish
pastries. It came included with the room rate
Off to see the main market in Athens. It
was just meat, lots of it and fish and sea food
They leave the ears tails and lucky
rabbit feet on so you know it's not cat
Look at those yellow birds, we think
they were Capons. And they have smilies
The butchery looks skilful
We had enough raw meat, so we ventured
into the fish side of the market. So fresh and clean. WHY can’t we have fish
that look like this in South Africa. Why do they always look like they have
been frozen for years and then defrosted badly over the last week?
Pink octopus and curly fish, possibly
bream?
Some were the size of crayfish
Mackerel in the front, then salmon and
then squid and many others
Squid, cuttlefish and whole and legs
of octopus
Another great selection. If you work
out the prices per kilo, fish is not terribly expensive. Work on R13.50 to the
Euro
The offal man, nice clean tripe and
sausage skins
And as John says, a flock of sheep
On the high street, some closed shops
with graffiti
Yes H&M are everywhere. We hear
they are soon to open in Cape Town
Back in the wrong door; we were
looking for the fruit and veg, John spotted flying pigs
See, Greece might pay
its debts
On the next corner, a sausage shop
Please come and have lunch here! We
resisted
And then we found the cheese shop
Finally around the corner, the fruit
and veg market. Some lovely stuff
Prices are cheap, even for South
Africans
Courgettes with their flowers
Lovely olives, cherries and veg
Pulses and beans by the kilo
And good seasonal fruit. The cherries
cost about 2 Euros a kilo (R27). We pay so much more and get so much less
A street cleaner keeping the place tidy
and clean
We did wonder if any of these apples
were from SA
Mediterranean veg, shiny and new
There was just so much beautiful
looking stuff
We bought half a kilo for the train
In the same street are the second hand
shops with loads of things people are selling to get cash
John was fascinated by the cameras. Zenit was a Soviet Russian SLR, which was never much good. Cheap then, even cheaper now!
We began to walk down towards the
Plaka in search of lunch and spotted this tiny ancient church
Buckets, brooms and baskets
The square in the Plaka below the Acropolis was
full of tourists. We bought a souvlaki each for lunch, which turned out to be a
kebab, again. Damn. They need a better trade descriptions act.
And some T-shirt transfers to buy
Back to the hotel, collected our bags
and it was off by Metro to the main train station, Larissa, one stop down the
line.
Lynne running for the train. The
B...rd train driver watched and waited till we crossed over the rail lines, got
to the door, John dragging both suitcases, then closed the door in our faces and
drove off leaving us swearing blue murder. Yes, he did it on purpose. Next
train was 30 minutes later
The 'express' on the other platform
going to the airport
Waiting patiently. And it was a cold
and chilly day. Needed two layers of polar fleece. The storm we had in Naxos
had reached Athens
And finally, after two hours on the train and
one hour in his car, we arrived at our friend Terry's apartment in Diakofto in
the Peloponnese
Catching up with a glass of wine, or
two
Terry Rodbard, talented musician.
publisher, tour guide
Time for supper at one of Terry's
favourite Tavernas, Costa's
Old time Greece, we were invited by Costa into the kitchen to see what we would like to eat
Lamb with peppers on the grill
We started with a Greek salad, Tzatziki,
bread and a carafe of white wine
Ah, we have added a carafe of rosé and
the salad has been dressed with herbs and oil. Greek feta is so much better
than the crumbly sour cheese we get
Terry eats here at least once a week
Cabbage dolmades with a lemon sauce,
like mama makes. They were delicious. Lamb, pine nuts, rice and lots of flavour
The food did not stop coming. This is
a stuffed red pepper and aubergine. Stuffed with herb rice; you can definitely
taste the dill
Enjoying the evening air, the chat and
the food
Crisis? what Greek crisis? Everyone is
so relaxed
As the evening wore on, so the
restaurant filled up. People do eat much later at this end of the Mediterranean.
This is about 10.30 and the summer season has just started. Diakofto seems like
Sea Point (but nothing like as big), they have a lot of swallows and lots of
people in the cities have country houses here, as it is right on the sea
Another of Terry's local mates
We then moved to a cafe for coffee and to meet more
friends, who run it
Lynne can't sleep after coffee, but they
served very good hot chocolate. This is the late night coffee shop culture
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
