Our Last Night In Athens

After walking around steaming hot ruins all morning and through the hot, touristy flea market, it was time for a good sit down and a bevvy.

There was only one place that could be seen with a water spritzer fan and we headed directly there, ordered wine and everything was fine with the world for a brief moment.

This is Lazarus, our hilarious waiter.

All the waiters were good fun and joked around with us about our Greek language skills.  I was using iTranslate - an iPhone app that is supposed to directly translate what you say into the language of your choice..... however, as we were trying our best to talk to the waiters, it became apparent that iTranslate wasn’t all it was written up to be.  When asking for the bill, I actually called the man an asshole.  The look on his face told me that I had said something wrong.  So he took my phone and tried it for himself.  Here are some of the results:

The same Greek words - the word for ‘The Bill Please’ came up as the following meanings each time it was spoken into the translator:  

Conjuration please

Experimentation

Balance Sheet - sort of right?

Instrumentation to

Solidarity 1

Extract

Gigantism

So the app was put aside and and we learnt the old fashion way, by talking to a Greek speaking person.

We finished off our bottle of Greek vino with the best espresso Madds had tasted in Greece and I opted for a Cappuccino Freddo and it was goooood.

For our last night we wanted traditional Greek fare to finish off.  We walked past a number of Italian and Indian and Modern cuisine restaurants before we found a little taverna with live music and we knew this was the place.

We ordered moussaka, which was unfortunately very average, even though the waiter raved about it.  Funny how he didn’t ask how it was when he saw the big slabs of it still on our plates!  We also had the lamb that just fell off the bone.  Itan nostimototo (Greek for “It is delicious”)  I tell you, we’re fluent.

The live music was two men playing guitars and singing.  It was lovely background Greek music, when all of a sudden we heard the most beautiful tenor voice.  When we looked around to see what was happening, there was a Japanese man, who was dining with about 20 other Japanese people, who had asked if he might sing with the band.  He cut out a couple of strong ballards in a Pavorotti type of way.  When he finished, we realised that an older Japanese woman, perhaps his mother, was filming his every move and another younger Japanese woman, perhaps his sister, was photographing everything he did.  Madds and I were discussing how possible it was that he was in fact a famous Japanese tenor and that we were randomly in the presence of a one off performance in a random Greek Taverna in Athens.  Maybe they were filming a documentary ala In Bed With Madonna or that similar one that Ke$ha just did recently.  We googled Japanese tenors and there weren’t that many, so we named him Yoshi Pavarotti and decided that our story was absolutely true.

And so here ends the MediterraneanMaddfest leg of this tour.  It has been a wonderful trip.  with some wonderful people.  We saw some amazing places and did some amazing things. We learned some languages that we might not have otherwise been required to, although Lu’s Greek was a little dodgey! and we earned ourselves an extra 70 days added onto our lives by trying new food and wine and experiences.  My lovely mother, Jenny told me once that every time you try something new, you add 70 days to your life.  Not only is it a great way to get kids to try things, but even as an adult, it can’t hurt - right? Just in case she was right!

I’ve also learned that heat and travel don’t mix all that well.  I can’t quite believe that I didn’t realise just how hot it would be, even though Lu, who had been there in the same month 13 years ago assured us that it would be stifling...... so parakalō (Greek for ‘please’) remind me of this trip the next time I talk about going to Europe in August!  They were temperatures so high that if we were back at home we would have never left the house.  I’m talking in the 40’s - consistently!  That’s just not right, but we soldiered on making out way through 4 bottles of sunscreen and a bucket load of after sun cream. We hiked in the heat, we sight saw in the heat, we stood and listened to boring tour guides in the blistering heat and mostly without complaint.  Those who know me might know that I don’t deal with the heat well, so I’m super proud of the way that I handled myself in such conditions...... sure, it’s not the worthiest of accomplishments, but for me, it’s up there!

Something I have noticed is that the Turkish men (well some of them) have had a little thing for me.  I haven’t had much luck with men thus far in my life, so who knows?  Maybe I've been looking in the wrong places?  Melbourne has a big Turkish community, maybe I could try my luck there?  Kebab anyone?  However, it was all short lived as I seem to have lost my allure once we crossed over to Greece, so my mojo clearly only works north/east of the Aegean Sea!  It’s a fairly specific area, but we’ll see how it translates back home.  

My fluent Turkish could perhaps be seen as an asset.

So.....Madds is heading back to Brisbane, Robbo will be happy to know, and I am heading back to London for the biggest wedding in the UK..... a bag and shoes have been purchased for the event.  But fear not my faithful followers, the blog will still be plodding along.

Adio Greece!