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Published: August 26th 2009
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Yet again, Greece never disappoints!
On July 17, Aleks and I drove from Novi Sad (NS), going south through Serbia, stopping in Leskovac for some famous south-Serbian bbq and other meat delicacies, continuing through the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM, or as we refer to it, just short Macedonia, (*one of the former Yugoslav republics, now a separate country, not yet in the EU, mostly due to their name, which is also the name of a northern part of Greece (where Alexander the Great came from), which the Greek do not like at all, and henceforth, make it hard for them to become part of the EU - just my interpretation of current events - for more info, check more on Wiki, or talk to a Macedonian, both from FYROM and Greece😊.
When we arrived in Greece, everything seemed beautiful, even their modern folk music playing on our radio (since we forgot to bring our CDs), which is very much like modern Serbian folk music, which is quite disturbing, nevertheless, we could smell the salt in the air, fragrance from beautiful pink flowers you can find anywhere, even on a highway (the little "island" that separates the two directions is
full of those and similar flowers) and finally look at the blue sea, just below Thessaloniki. However, we forgot it's Friday night, so going around the second largest city in Greece was a bit of a challenge since the traffic was jam-packed and everyone was going to Kassandra, (the peninsula with lots of villages and very nice beaches), or so it seemed. We arrived in Polichrono (or Polychrono), a small village on Kassandra, at midnight. Luckily, my brother had already rented an apartment for us, in the same building as their's and was waiting for us. Otherwise, we were prepared to sleep in a tent and two sleeping bags, which we bought just before we left NS. Now that I look back, I am very grateful to my brother, since camping did happen two weeks later, and you'll hear all about it soon (by the way, we're looking for someone to give a tent and 2 bags for free!😊.
Those 5 days in Polichrono went fast, especially since there were quite a few of us, 7 to be precise (my brother, his wife and their daugther/my cute little niece Simonida, also my cousin and her son/my cute little nephew
Nikola) and the whole gang got even larger when my cousin's brother and his wife, who were also on Kassandra, two villages down from us, came to celebrate Aleks' birthday. We went to a restaurant overlooking the beach, decorated in a traditional Greek style, with grape vines cascading from the roof of the terrace, and with a great seafood menu. The food was delicious and in abundance, and we were all so full and just couldn't possibly have a dessert, except that it's not a real birthday, if you don't have a cake or something similar, right? But, since we were the largest table in the restaurant (hopefully not the loudest), the manager sent us free dessert, two huge plates of crapes filled with ice-cream, bananas and Nutella, all drenched in warm dark chocolate. Now how can you be rude and offend the chef by not tasting this delicious feast, right? Of course, we accepted the offerings with pleasure (especially the kids) and asked the waiter just to add two little things on one of the plates: two candles shaped as numbers (guess how old Aleks is 😊. When they realized it's a birthday, they took the plate quickly, put
the candles in crapes, went back to the kitchen to light the candles, and then turned off all of the lights in the restaurant!! In complete darkness, the waiter came out with the plate and burning candles, while another guy turned the music so loud that even people on the street and in the next-door restaurants were wondering what it going on?! As soon as everyone heard the first few lyrics (with a sigh of relief that it's not power outage or terrorists or ghosts - well, kids might have thought that), what might be described as a calypso-carribbean-latin-english-fusion of a (apparently) internationally well-known "happy birthday to you" song, everyone in the restaurant turned to look at our table, now with a burning crape plate and quite a big birthday boy. Completely embarrassed, Aleks was smiling, then blushing, when the lights were turned on, not even remotely thinking that something else is coming next, something that will make him hide under the table. And there it was, another surprise by the Greek restaurateurs, who turned off the lights yet again, turned off the music, and quickly put another CD in. "Happy birthday .... mister president ... happy birthday ...." Marilyn
Monroe was singing to Aleks and everyone (literally, except children who were looking at their parents puzzled) started laughing and clapping their hands, the whole restaurant went crazy, the lights went on, and Aleks was hiding his face with his hands, and laughing too....😊
Swimming, playing with kids, swimming, laughing, eating amazing Greek yoghurt, and more playing with kids, and the five days in Polichrono were over. We said "see you in NS and Bg" (Bg-Belgrade, where my sister lives), packed our stuff, and decided to go to Thessaloniki for coffee and continue south towards Athens.
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katie
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missing you!
Hi Isidora! I am so glad to hear about your adventures and what a great time you are having. And your niece is absolutely gorgeous (must run in the family!). Keep the great news coming. Miss you xoxo Katie