Carnival Weekend

   Monday was Clean Monday and the school was closed, so a trip was planned for myself and Katie. The Dean of Study Abroad also came with us. He drove us all in his Prius - one of 6 in the entire country. He is an ex-pat who has lived in Greece for decades, and his translation skills were crucial to the weekend. 

a bus letting you know you've reached the right place

   We went to the village of Goumenissa. It was only two hours away, but it was very different from the school, the city, and the touristy places I have visited. The pace of life was much slower, people were more friendly, and the scenery was more beautiful than in the city.

Pella

   Friday morning we up, stopping on the way to explore the Pella Archaeological Site. This was the birthplace of Alexander the Great and for a time one of ancient Greece's most prosperous cities. We went to their brand new museum and wandered the ruins. It was a unique spot, not because of the size or number of artifacts, but because you can walk right on top of some of the ruins. Usually, the ruins are cordoned off or in some way removed from where you are walking. There was an ongoing excavation of an temple to Aphrodite and we could walk right through it and touch the pottery fragments strewn all over the place.

   Eventually we headed to our hotel. It was very nice and well known by all the people in the small town. The woman running it recently gave birth to a son, and her parents had come up to help out while her Dutch husband visited home. She acted as tour guide, translator, and guide book while we were there. We ate a lot of really good meals because of her recommendations, and she set up tours and events for us to attend that otherwise would have been impossible.

The best damn mustard I've ever tasted

   Saturday morning we visited a local gourmet food producer. It is a small family run business that specializes in traditional production techniques of fruit preserves and what are called "small spoon foods." These are essentially DELICIOUS jarred foods that you take with wine or bread. We got a tour of the facility a run down of the operation and of course lots of samples. We walked away with several jars of food, and I hope their plans to export to the U.S. work out so I can get more soon. I've already devoured the roast eggplant and pepper spread and I'm working on the spicy mustard and the fig preserves that I took home.

   The next stop was an agricultural museum in the nearby town of Europa (claimed by some as the namesake of Europe). It was really a cultural heritage museum and visiting definitely helped us understand the culture of that area of Greece. It is very close to Macedonia and some of the towns are populated with Greek refugees from the population exchange with Turkey in 1923. This definitely colors their traditions, foods, and attitudes. The dissent spoke entirely in Greek, but luckily our hotel manager translated for us the whole time. We met a very interesting French man that day. He is retired and travels the world working for people who give him room and board. He was helping out with our hotel manager's work and got to spend some time touring around with us. 

Saturday Market

   After a very very good lunch, we walked around the town's weekly market. There was a lot of fresh produce and tons of cheap clothing. The town was packed since people come in from neighboring villages to shop. I broke down and bought a huge jar of honey for only 6Eu. It is incredible, but I doubt I will finish it before I leave Greece. Walking back to the hotel we were stopped by an American woman who lives with her fiancee near the village. She, her fiancee, and their friend had us out for drinks that night. It was cool to get the perspective of a young ex-pat still relatively new to the country. Her family was originally from Macedonia, so most of the culture was not foreign. Her friend also had an interesting perspective. He is from Greece, lives in Bulgaria, and considers himself a Macedonian. He is pretty radical and believes ardently in a greater unified Macedonia - something I wouldn't want to espouse around some Greeks. It is a pretty hot button issue, and it was good to see it from another perspective.

   Sunday we started the day with a visit to the nearest monastery. The monks there are part of a sect based around Mt. Athos and influenced strongly by Turkish customs. They were very friendly and charged no entrance fee. They also invited us to sit and have a coffee. I couldn't resist and had my third coffee since I've been here. They offered all the usual monastery fare: wine cheese oil incense and icons. I went ahead and bought a bottle of their wine.

monastery

   The next stop was a winery tour and tasting. We visited the towns namesake winery and walked through their production. Again, we had to have everything translated. There are some unique grape varieties only grown in that region and their signature wines were quite distinct. I picked up another bottle there since I liked it so much. I promise I'm not a wino, it's just a big part of the food culture here.

vineyard and countryside

   Straight from the winery we went on a long walk through the countryside and saw the crystal clear stream that comes down from the mountains. There was a lot of wheat fields, a ton of olive groves, and some other orchards. The scenery was beautiful and I wish we could have done more hiking. But there was a lot to see and only so much time!

countryside scenery

   For lunch we drove out to a taverna on a cliff side with an amazing view and not so amazing food. Then we headed up the mountain side to a highly recommended coffee shop. I got the local tea made from a wild herb. I don't remember what the herb was called, but that's ok since I didn't really like it. The cafe itself was interesting since it was the only log cabin building I've seen in Greece. Lumber is expensive in most of Greece, but especially in that area.

view from restaurant

   Finally I'm getting to the whole point of this trip, which was witnessing small town carnival traditions. We started the evening by stopping in at an Orthodox service. Despite not understanding a word, I still enjoyed it. The church was pretty lavishly adorned and it was good to see the people coming in and out to pray and hear the sermon. It was a ceremony of forgiveness, but in the sense that we should forgive each other. So people at the end apologize and forgive each other for any slights or feuds from the last year. 

   Now that we had gotten our holy on, it was time to get to partying. We popped in to a few different carnival parties before settling in at one held in an old mill used for community activities. There were a lot of colorful costumes and an interesting mix of music. In ten minutes, you could easily hear a traditional balkan style song, a modern dance track, the Macarena, and then some old American disco. Everyone was very welcoming and it was a good time. Afterwards we went to a bar and left pretty early in the morning. Of course we had to stop and get chocolate crepes before heading back to the hotel. When we realized that it was almost dawn, we decided to stop in at the bakery where they were just starting to put out fresh loaves. We picked up a traditional bread eaten during the fast that officially started several hours earlier. The guy working the register had definitely had a good night and gave us not only a discount on our bread, but also threw in two free pastries. After munching down it was just after 7, the sun had come up, I felt like I had become a little more Greek, and it was time for bed.

the rain didn't stop everyone from dancing

   Not very early Monday morning, I got up and ate some traditional fasting foods for breakfast. Fasting didn't seem so bad - we got delicious herbed potato pastries for breakfast. After packing up we went down to the town's main square where the die hard remnants of a brass band and dancers were toughing it out in the pouring rain. The dancers were spinning in the street with umbrellas and everyone was eating honey covered fried dough. They were so good and reminded me of large soft pignolata. I even think I tasted allspice.

frying up some dough

carnival dancers

   

church being restored

We still had one more thing to see before heading back to the school. There is a restoration project on a huge church in the middle of the village. It is funded by a four million euro grant from the EU. Our incredible hotel manager talked the priest in charge of the project into taking us inside. We walked all over the place and he explained in great detail the history of the site, the story behind the project, and the processes behind the restoration. He knew everything about the building, told us everything and more, and let us see everything. We got to climb the scaffolding to see the frescoes being uncovered and preserved. He even took us up to the roof where we walked on the ceiling beams and could stare several stories down to the ground. He was also an avid photographer and took a ton of pictures of us. His camera was a lot nicer than mine and most of the pictures I took didn't come out very well. After a couple hours of standing in the cold we managed to tell him that we had to leave. We grabbed some seafood in a homestyle restaurant and headed back to Thessaloniki.

inside the roof

fresco at the top of the church