Myths and Moussaka

Many moons ago we drove from Abruzzo down the coast of Italy to Brindisi to catch our ferry to Greece. The weather was pretty grim by the time we arrived, so we were expecting a rough crossing. Happily this did not materialise and we grabbed five hours of sleep in our cosy cabin before the deafening tannoy woke us up a full 1.5 hours before we docked. 

Ahoy there cap'n

Bleary eyed, we gathered in the boat’s main cafeteria and watched quite an interesting Greek documentary about crocodiles featuring an evil pelican. Charlie is still talking about it. Then, with relatively little diesel in the car we drove through a mountain range with not a single service station for an hour and a half. We were just getting nervous when one appeared through the mist, complete with its own murky swimming pool and a gaggle of Greek coachers, all franticly vying for the pastries and loos.

Our flat in Thessaloniki is basic, although mostly importantly, not a tent. Internet is laughably slow and infrequent (Katie exists in a constant internet rage), the hot water tank lasts for two minutes and there is no washing machine. Nevertheless, our hosts are very friendly and in lieu of these basic services have provided us with fully annotated maps of the city’s best restaurants, filo pie shops and cafes.

Thessaloniki, while scruffy in parts, is a buzzy place and reportedly has the highest number of cafes and restaurants per capita in Europe. It has a lovely waterfront along which you can stroll or ride a bike for miles (we did – our trusty steeds are still with us), or pop into the many parks that lie alongside it. You can also buy pretzels and strange gloopy liquid that we thought was coffee but instead seemed to be corn flour, water and cinnamon. Not an experience to be repeated.

Pretzel C

Every Saturday we visit the local fruit and veg market to stock up for the week. The produce here is amazing and really cheap – for example you can buy a huge bag of spinach for 30 cents. We have been cooking meat-free all the time and getting through tons of aubergines, squashes, leeks and pomegranates.

Ed made this dish by roasting slices of butternut squash and beetroot, topping them with feta, walnuts and pomegranate seeds, with a healthy dash of our Italian olive oil and some Greek yoghurt.

It ain't a beauty but it tasted alright

Then Katie made moussaka (when in Greece…) with a ragu of onions, garlic, lentils, mushrooms, tomatoes and red wine, layered with roasted potato and aubergine and topped with béchamel, feta, parmesan and another unidentified halloumi-esque cheese we found in the supermarket.

Feeling smug about not eating baby lambs. This time.

Of course the reason we came here was to volunteer in a refugee camp – which we did for two weeks and which was a valuable experience. All the refugees in our camp were Syrians and we worked with a team of volunteers from the U.S., Germany, Ireland, the UK and Spain distributing clothes and food to supplement the rations they receive from the Greek government. Warm coats and jumpers were gratefully received now the weather is turning colder.

In the course of a busy day in camp, random moments are overwhelmingly sad. The cheeky smudged face of a child Charlie’s age peeking out of a tent. Watching a smart old couple choose warm clothes from those we have had donated, and wondering whether this is how they expected to spend their retirement. Chatting to a young woman who is three months pregnant with her first baby and thinking about how it must feel to start a family amid such uncertainty. Having been to Syria twelve years ago when it was still a peaceful country, each person in camp represents a familiar life brutally smashed apart.

A lone child in the playground on camp

Working in camp and looking after Charlie was much more challenging than we expected. Between us we covered six days a week, leaving just one day together as a family and very little time for Katie to do her work for PEAS (despite impressions, we are still working a bit this year, albeit ‘remotely'. How very modern). The person left in Thessaloniki probably had the harder deal, negotiating a busy Greek city with one of the most confusing bus systems ever, all with a toddler in tow, and it frequently became a bit much. So it’s much easier now we can spend our last two weeks in Greece with normal parenting capacity.

Charlie thinks Greece is brilliant (we think he likes being in a city again) and our flat is near the railway so one of our favourite activities is to stand on the bridge and wait for trains. Sometimes the train driver even waves and beeps the horn at us! We’ve also found a place where we can hire a bike for him and nearby is a mini road-complex for children to learn in, complete with road signs and pedestrian crossings! 

Police on patrol

Greek people seem to absolutely love Charlie and think nothing of pinching his cheek on the bus, or berating us for putting him in shorts in the ‘winter’ (hello – it’s like 20 degrees people and we are British) or giving him a free banana in the market.

We have been making the most of our extended summer, as only in the last couple of days has the weather turned properly autumnal. We spent a wonderful afternoon on a deserted beach in Halkidiki, and after Katie managed to throw the Frisbee into the sea rather than at Ed, he gamely stripped off and swam in to retrieve it! 

 

A bit like Baywatch

We lunched in the sunshine at Perea, which is jam-packed with fish restaurants. We ordered a whole sea bass to share, which came with the most enormous and delicious Greek salad of tomatoes, feta, olives, (very spicy) peppers, aubergine and onions. The fish was among the best we have ever tasted, and it goes without saying we shall be returning before we leave.  

Whitebait starter... pre sea bass

We also drove over to Pozar to visit the thermal baths, which were in a picturesque setting at the foot of a mountain. 

Steamy

A hot waterfall pours into the pool and you can stand under it and get an impromptu back massage and hair wash thrown in for free. In fact, the whole effect would be rather romantic, a bit like an ‘80s Timotei ad, if it weren’t for the numerous 20 stone Greek men with lustrous back body hair. After that we visited Edessa, a pretty town with some very impressive waterfalls, although we weren’t tempted to try and bathe in these ones. 

Wonky waterfall shot

And what it actually looked like

We’ve also been delving into some Greek myths and visited the archeological park at Dion, at the foot of Mount Olympus. Alexander the Great used to hang out there and in preparation for our visit we watched the first half of 'Alexander' starring a distractingly blonde Colin Farrell. It was pretty ridiculous and our favourite part was when Aristotle lectured the young Alexander and his friends while they lounged around in the ruins of a Greek temple. Oliver Stone did it not occur to you that they would not have been ruins at the actual time this purported historical scene took place?!? Also, everyone in it had Irish accents. There's nothing wrong with that, but we're not sure it was prevalent in pre-biblical Madedonia.

Anyway... Dion is quite an amazing place, somewhat overtaken by wildlife and vegetation, but in some parts, even the mosaic floors of houses and baths are visible.

Thinking of doing the bathroom floor the same when we get home

Ed used it as an opportunity to teach Charlie about the Greek myths but Charlie had a few questions we had trouble answering: ‘Is Zeus like Spiderman?’; ‘What car does he drive?’ and ‘Does the Cloud Palace have a door?’. We concluded that yes he is a bit like Spiderman (throwing lightning bolts, rather than webs), that he likely drives something flashy like a Ferrari and that no, the Cloud Palace probably doesn’t have a door. 

In other (important) news - Charlie has learned to raise one eyebrow. He's been practicing ready for the arrival of his Aunty Alex and Grandpa, who who are visiting for our last week here before we drive back to the UK.
 

Quizzical pirate