savannah storytelling

June 15, 2011: 5:30 p.m. – I’m on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Athens, Greece, traveling Business Class for the first time ever. Because of my back problems, I couldn’t bear the thought of being scrunched up in one of the economy seats that keep getting smaller and smaller every year.  These seats are huge and my short legs don’t even touch the floor.  I smile to myself.  I must look like a child (with a senior face) sitting in a grown up chair with legs dangling.  The attendant helps me adjust the seat.  I can’t get over how much space there is between seats.

A couple of the passengers ask me, “Are you going to Greece on business or pleasure?”  I reply that it’s mostly pleasure but I do have a mission, to locate the house in Athens that I lived in when I was a child, the one that is mentioned in my book, “Kiki and the Red Shoes”.  I meet my seat mate, a retired doctor from Texas.  He is going Greece to meet his wife, who is already there visiting relatives.  We discover that we both like to write. This leads to lively conversation all the way to Athens, with the exception of the time he sleeps.

We are hardly in the air when the service begins.  We are given a blanket and a pillow.  Not, the little dinky pillow given in economy, but a regular size pillow and a full size blanket. The attendant wants to know what I want to drink and offers champagne. I have the bubbly and get crab dip and crackers with it. One glass is all I can handle because I suffer from motion sickness on any moving vehicle.  This was followed by a salmon dinner. It was good, but not exceptional.

7:45 p.m.  Everyone is settling down with their pillows and blankets.  After help from my seatmate, I extend my seat to almost flat position. Passengers are turning off their lights and snuggling down for sleep.  Oh my god! What will I do?  I never sleep this early.  I’m too excited to even close my eyes. I get up and go looking for my cousin, Noni, in the other cabin, and talk with her for a while.  Back in my chair bed, I try to read but it’s difficult to adjust the light on my book.  I try my mini-computer but that doesn’t interest me either.  I shut my eyes tight and count sheep.  That doesn’t work so I toss and turn for hours.    At least, I can stretch out and won’t get leg cramps or irritate my back. Fortunately, the night is short when crossing the Atlantic and the International Date Line, and soon it was time for breakfast. I have a headache but feel better after a couple of cups of coffee.

3:30 p.m (Athens time). June 16:  Going through customs is quick and painless, especially since I have Noni to help me.  My maternal first cousin, Taki Karabinis, meets us: we pick up our suitcases and step out into a beautiful sunshiny day.  The ride to their condo in Saronida, a small town outside of Athens, is short. Dragging suitcases, we climb two sets of stairs to their lovely summer home.  I have my own little room with a personal balcony that looks out into their neighborhood.  Trees and flowers are like picture frames around the houses nestled in the hills across from their condo. The sky is cerulean blue.  Taki promises me barbounia (fish) and ouzo for dinner but that doesn’t happen because I am so tired, I go to sleep early. 

June 17: The next morning, my cousins and I try to find my childhood home.  We use maps, the Internet, the GPS, and we ride around and talk to folks who have been around a long time. No luck.  Either my information is wrong (which is possible) or the whole area has been leveled by WW2, or by progress and has disappeared. We don’t go down town Athens to the court house, because there are riots there and Taki does not think it safe.  That evening, I get my barbouni dinner.   The fish, a kind of mullet, is red and is served with the tail and head.  It is cooked crisp on the outside and yummy on the inside.    Along with the fish, we have greens (fleeta) and sautéed vegetables, and an accompaniment of fresh baked bread and butter.  Desert or fruit after dinner is usually complimentary.

June 18: Slept late today.   We drive to Sounion, the temple dedicated to Poseidon, the god of the sea.   The ruins are of Doric design and stand on the cliff at the tip of the Attica Peninsula. It’s a great place to take photos. According to legend,  mythical King Aegean threw himself off  the cliff at Cape Sounion because he mistakenly believed that his son, Theseus, had been killed by the Minotaur.

That evening, we are invited to have dinners with cousins from the Chappas side of the family. We meet them at a large restaurant and enjoy roast lamb and seasonal vegetables. Not having seen them in 13 years, there is much to catch up on.  This side of the family originally comes from Mani, a part of the Peloponnesus which is near Kalamata, the city where both my cousin, Taki, and I were born.

June 19: Today, we hang around Saronida, rest up, and get ready for our ferry ride tomorrow  to the island of Paros.  Read about the rest of the trip next month, right here on my website.

PS.  It’s very sad that Savannah Morning News has discontinued printing the monthly magazine, Coastal Senior. It will be greatly missed by seniors. I will miss writing for CS, as I have been connected with it since the middle 1990’s.  Any comments on this?