I woke up this morning at 9am! I'm still tired but I'm sure it will be better later once we get up and moving. Mom woke at 11pm and couldn't get back to sleep until 3am worrying about her money belt after realizing she had a credit and debit card in there too, then she slept well from 3-9:30am.
We had breakfast on the balcony, both commenting on how HOT it is here, I wasn't expecting it to be so hot.
I had bought some Greek yogurt that comes with honey on the side for breakfast this morning and Mom had half a banana and some nuts.
Maria texted at 9:15am that she had landed so we expect her around 10:30. So while we waited I finished up the blog from yesterday, uploading the photos and cleaning it up before publishing it. I also returned all my emails that came through (23!) which my clients will get when they wake up in the morning. We are 7 hours ahead so at least most of my work is still able to be done during the work day - I'll be in bed likely by 3-4pm home time daily.
Maria arrived and I met her downstairs, mom whistled down from the balcony to welcome her.
Mom had asked Maria to bring her some Advil Cold and Sinus because her nose started running on the plane and we couldn't find a pharmacy yesterday. Maria gave her a bunch of stuff to look through (loose pills) and Mom said "I don't know what these are. It's all in Greek. Oh, It says Advil Cold and Sinus" Lol.
Maria has made it her mission to find Moms money belt. So far no luck. Mom said to me a couple of times "I have my money belt", like I was an idiot for carrying my Euros in my purse - well who's laughin' now Patty, I know exactly where my wallet is! Maria gave up. Mom keeps hoping there is a secret compartment in her backpack she hasn't discovered yet. Or rather she hasn't remembered she discovered yesterday!
We have a walking food tour booked for 1pm. Mom and Dads gift to me for my birthday. And Maria wants to find a Vodafone to get a SIM for her iPad and a stick for her laptop, so we'll go for a walk soon. I just increased my plan to 4.5Gb of data before I left for $15 a month because I go over when I'm away and not hooked to wifi like I am at home.
Mom has asked Maria to write out how to say hello, please and thank you. She told us how to say Thank You and she said it and we both said "oh, that's a lot". Lol. We both have been fighting the urge to say "Gracias". Lol. Just because we feel like we should be speaking another language.
We met Helena at the fountain at Syntagna Square.
She was right on time and our first taste of local fare was a round bread which is a typical Greek breakfast, which Maria had already bought from a vendor on the way to the Square because she said it reminds her of after Sunday church when she was little. The bread is all made at a central bakery downtown, they bake 24/7/365 approx 10,000 pieces a day.
Then Helena said that actually a True Greek breakfast is a coffee and cigarette.
Our second stop was for rice pudding. I mean yuck, who wants rice in their pudding, am I right? It was served with cinnamon on top after Helena requested it, which is more traditional. It was creamy and delicious, it tasted like creme brûlée. We are 3 people who don't like rice pudding and we loved it. Helena said "Success!"
Next we went to a small bakery that is still managed by the family that opened it 100 years ago. Here we had Koypoy is pronounced Kourou and is like a Greek hot pocket with feta cheese inside. It tastes very similar to the cheese appetizers that Maria brings, on request, to my house wrapped in phyllo pastry.
On the way to meet Helena we passed this church, and we came back down this way so she explained some history. It is one of the earliest Christian churches built in Greece over 1,000 years ago. Its dedicated to Virgin Mary and, most interesting to me, it was built at the level of medieval Athens. We now stand on modern Athens, about 4 feet above the base of the Church as it has stood for 1000 years.
Helena gave us some more information today. We were talking about rent and she said that she lives about 5 min drive from the city centre and she pays 175€ per month in rent. I said that didn't seem very high, but she said the average wage is about 400€ per month, so rent is almost 50%. The average apartment costs 10,000€ to buy, but property tax is 1000€ per year, so it still makes more sense for most to rent. She said it is a good time for foreign investors to buy real estate here as the local people are offloading it.
Next we went to Krinos to have my favourite Greek dessert, Loukoumades. A light doughnut, fried crispy and covered in Greek honey. It's almost like a kreuller texture with honey on top. Oh my god. So good. Maria said they were the best she has EVER had.
She said this is normally a portion for one person and she will eat this once or twice a week!
Helena took us into a coffee shop where they roast their own beans in the second oldest roaster in Europe. The shop was established in 1924. They have 3 types of beans and create different blends with combinations of the Ethiopian (South African), Costa Rican (Central America) and Indian beans.
From there we went to the Meat and Fish market. She explained that the prices are so good because it is direct commerce, each stall is owned by a farmer or fisherman. It is open from 5:30am to 7pm and if the stall is empty it's because everything has been sold for the day. In here they hit on Helena non-stop, every stall they had a few words and a smile for her - she was especially popular in the Fish Market. Lol. I asked her if she comes through here every day, she said usually twice! That now she is like a celebrity. Haha. She has to run that gauntlet twice a day! It truly is a meat market.
She took us to a restaurant inside the Meat Market which was very traditional, they change their recipes based on what they buy from the market so there is no menu. Mom said "Anytime you see little old ladies it's going to be good" We were served a vegetable dish which Helena said any Grandma would make you eat as a fasting meal and a meat ball and pasta dish - both were amazing.
The Greek are very literal in their translations as this one translates to big meat balls with pasta.
Meat and Cheese? Why not. First we stopped at a cheese shop and tried two typical cheeses, an olive oil cheese which was very tasty and another Greek cheese. Greeks eat approx 30 kg of cheese per capita and I read something yesterday that said they use 17L of olive oil per capita.
On our way to our next stop we saw this cool spice shop.
Next we went to Miran, where they cure their own meat, which is now importing across Europe.
They sell green garlic powder for 200€ a kg. It is harvested on one day every year.
I should also mention at this point we are bringing a lot of little bits home as we are pacing ourselves and likely to have a mixed bag for dinner on the balcony again.
As we were leaving the store Maria asked me to AirDrop her a photo, which I sent to the guy at the next table by accident. Lol.
On the way to our next location we passed a cool olive shop.
Next we stopped for some spirits and had 4 samples including a coffee anise liqueur (ouzo) and a grappa.
The owner went next door and brought us back these zucchini fritters!
Our last food stop was a little restaurant that serves only pork chops and french fries. Again, amazing. The owner was concerned that we didn't eat it all, but we asked for a take away and added it to the picnic for later!
We then walked through the street art area where the graffiti is artistic in the form of murals.
The first one pointed us to where we just ate pork chops!
Finally we went for Greek Coffee near where we had lunch yesterday. They didn't have Greek coffee in decaf so Mom and I just had espresso. Maria had Greek coffee and after you're done you flip over your cup and can read the coffee. Helena says her Grandma always the same thing, "Helena, you will meet a rich and handsome husband". I told her she had lots of options at the fish market. Haha. She threw her head back and laughed "Dear lord". She is 26 and has a boyfriend but he's not rich enough for Grandma.
She left us in the square where we bought our fruit last night, so went to the mini market and got some more beer and cider to go with our wine and picnic and picked up Greek salad and bread at Nikita's on the way home to the apartment.
There is a beautiful breeze on the balcony so we are sitting outside. Mom said "I thought you were dehydrated, why aren't you drinking water?" I didn't say I was going to drink water, so I got one of my hydrating drinks. (I did drink litres of water today, it's so hot).
Maria went in to get more wine and asked if anyone wanted anything "I'll have a glass of wine, now that I've hydrated". She had commented that the wine was nice. There were exactly 4 white wine options at the mini market, I went with the recommendation of the cashier who asked me two questions "sweet or dry?" Dry. "Good or ok". Good. Lol. Ok so that was the 9€ bottle not the 4€ bottle. I probably could have done that on my own.
It's nice that we're on a square, we don't get as much traffic noise and it's nice to look out over the trees.
I'm cleaning up the blog notes as we sit, Mom is writing her blog, Maria was chatting with her Mom and we are remembering our day. It's 6:46pm and Maria is ready for bed. She didn't get any sleep on the plane so she's been up for about 30 hours and is itching to go to bed. She just asked what time it gets dark - I said "we haven't even eaten our food yet". Mom said "are you even hungry?" No, but I could eat. Maria agrees, we'll eat. Lol.
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