Mikrokastro - The big cookout!! - Day 23

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A cookout was planned at Pappous and Yiayia's house in Mikrokastro for everyone to come say farewell to Steve, Alice and Magda. We’re not sure whose idea this was or how it ended up being here, but Xristos did at least volunteer to man the barbeque. Steve and I slept in a little and Magda went to Siatista with Xristos to buy paper goods, soda, beer and meats for the cookout. She bought 17 kilos (about 40lbs!) of meats!! Holy Crap!! Steve, Alice and I drove into Kozani to get the CDs, souvenirs, luggage locks (for the bus), tape and packing materials. First we went to the liquor store and bought (to bring back to the States) a bunch of different ouzos and tsipouro. Tsipouro is a strong distilled spirit containing about 45 percent alcohol by volume and is produced from the residue of the wine press. Alice bought some Ursus (vodka based and sloe berry flavored) and I bought some absinthe. Then we got some tost and Alice used the internet while we shopped.

We went back to Mikrokastro and started sorting through everything to start packing. We ended up spending quite a bit of time on organizing the blankets, the rug and all the alcohol in addition to everything else. We ended up vacuum packing the alcohol Steve and I bought inside one of the blankets and plastic wrapping and taping all the wine the nuns gave us at the monastery in Florina. Steve’s Pappous from the States gave us some cheese to bring back and Magda's sister gave us some homemade feta, figs and candied cherries. Other people gave us more tsipouro. Yikes! The luggage is heavy!!

Magda ordered ice from the bar Mythos in Mikrokastro, but due to the heat wave they could only get us 1 bag. Luckily, Steve B. and crew found an ice company in Grevena and bought 2 more bags on their way to the cookout. We had put the soda and beer in the neighbor’s freezer to try to get them cold, but at least now we had some ice to put the drinks in! We went by Xristos for a short visit in the late afternoon and then Steve and Xristos went into Siatista to pick up the meat. While they were gone, Alice and I drove around the village and took some pictures of the churches, some sheep and such. Alice and I went to Xristos' house to shower and when we got back to Pappous' house Xristos was preparing the wood fired homemade grill. Xristos started a wood fire on the ground and then shoveled the coals into the bottom of the grill. At first there weren’t too many people there but after a few hours lots of people came. We think there ended up being about 40-45 people there.

The party didn’t wrap up until 2:30 or 3am and we still had to clean up before going to bed! Xristos promised to come by at 7:30am to make sure we were all up so we could get on the road to Meteora, Delphi and eventually Athens.

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