Odyssey 5: How many Greeks does is take to fly a kite?

The rough estimate would be 12. Plus 6 fairly incompetent Americans.

March 13, 2008

It's been a packed week. Between having Monday off, fitting classes into an abbreviated week, mid-term preparation and leaving for Thessaloniki tonight for 3 days I haven't found much time to write. But here goes!

So, as I mentioned in my last email, I went to the island of Syros this passed weekend for the Clean Monday holiday. However, before we could get clean we had to get a little dirty with the Carnival celebration.

We arrived last Friday by ferry. I slept through the whole ride--the rocking of the ship just lulls be to sleep--but I'm sure it was very beautiful.

When we got there we got ourselves situated in our hotel "Paradise." Paradise is a about as close to Paradise as the Happiness Hotel from the Muppets gets to happiness. We made do though, and it did score major points for having a roof with a beautiful view of the town and harbour.

Next we set out to explore the town and get lunch. We totally by accident stumbled upon the restaurant I had read about in my guide book that had boasted "Veal with thyme, honey, plumb sauce." I don't usually eat veal, but how could I resist that description and such a high recommendation! It was D-lish. One of the best meals I've had in Greece.

After we digested for a bit (I love how you can just sit at your table for hours here and no one will get huffy with you and ask you to clear out...that is until I need the check, which can take another 45 minutes) we hiked up the hill/mountain to the highest church we could see. I took lots of pictures along the way. The architecture is very influenced by the past Venetian inhabitants of the island which makes it look a lot like Italy, and there are a lot of abandoned/dilapidated buildings which make for a really interesting aesthetic. When we reached the top we had a little moment of silence. Not officially (no one is particularly spiritual around here which I'm finding surprisingly annoying), but it was really nice. Between the trip to Volos and this one, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm really in Greece (the one I know anyway). I love Athens for Athens, but it's not really Greece Greece.

The next day we had a funny adventure trying to get a bus to a beach on the other side of the island. It's a pretty big island, so you need a bus, however, the schedule posted on the side of a wall couldn't be more confusing. We finally just hoped on a bus after one one the drivers said "nai" (yes) when I asked if it was going to Galissas, but after about 15 minutes it was pretty evident that that was NOT where it was going. It was just and inner-city bus that took up to the top of the city and then back down. Once we figured it out we just laughed and hung our heads from yet another miscommunication mistake, but on the ride down the hill it became totally worth it. Because the streets are so narrow and people use EVERY inch of space on the street/sidewalk to park it can become a bit difficult for a bus to drive. We were trying to go around a corner, but a parked car was completely blocking the way. After a few moments of the driver not totally knowing what to do, an older man on the bus said something to him and they both got out of the bus, went over the the car (which was unlocked) and pushed the car farther up the hill! then they got back on the bus and we drove off! it was pretty hardcore. i don't know if that option would have ever occurred to me before.

Eventually we did get on the right bus and made our way to the beach. It was very beautiful and we were the ONLY ones there. It's definitely off season, for sure. It was chilly, but the sun was out, so if you laid still enough it was quite pleasant. A few of my friends were inspired enough to go swimming. I dipped my feet in, but opted out of taking the full plunge.

Then that night was CARNIVAL! It was so much fun! The main street was lined with little table of free food and drinks that the shop owners had put out. There were street performers and there was music on huge speakers playing all over. Everyone was dressed up and dancing and having such a good time. The two funniest things though (as in odd things) were that all the costumes were bought (mine was possible only 1 of 4 homemade ones--I was a pirate) and totally synthetic, and all the music was Engish/American and Latin pop music. I don't think I heard one Greek song all night! Not sure what's up with that. Even in the clubs/bars they usually play SOME Greek pop music, if not more traditional stuff. Anyhow, it was a lot of fun! The whole island seemed to be out and everyone was just really enjoying themselves.

The next day, Sunday, was a fairly quiet one. I think everyone was recovering from the big night before. We wandered around, ate another meal at the Fabulous restaurant. This time I had some round grilled meat thing with a delicious honey-mustard sauce.That night we made homemade effigies of Dionysus and did our own version of the traditional midnight burning of them before Lent begins. Mine was cool, but it took forever to catch on fire. I think I used too much tape.

The next morning was then Clean Monday! I had bought a (very cheap) kite the day before so we would have one to fly, so we took it down to the peer to partake in the traditional kite flying festivities. Only, there was only one other kite (I guess it's bigger in some cities than others) and ours had a bit of a disastrous start. First, let me say our kite was a bright yellow, octagonal, plastic, Pocahontas kite. Excellent start. I tried launching it a few times (apparently I was one of the more expert kite fliers--what did these west coast kids do when they were little??) but, it kept spiraling down and crashing. So we took it farther out on to the pier. But, that just meant it either crashed into rocks or the water. Everyone took turns for probably a good 20-30 minutes when we were about ready to quite, but at that moment a group of middle aged Greek men and women walked by us and one of the men said something to me. I said (in Greek!) I don't understand, sorry, my Greek isn't very good. To which he said, Why can't you fly your kite? We said, we didnt' know, we couldn't make it work. So he and one of the other men took it from us to have a look. At that point, the string was all tangled up and he said, This is a mess! (Oh, I forgot to mention I had forgotten the string at the hotel, so we had to swipe our from the construction site near by, so we didn't have that much.) It was. So, they worked on it for a few minutes, remeasuring the string to make the lines even and then took their turn trying to launch it. Their wives thought the whole things was very funny/sad. I'm glad to say, they didn't have the easiest time of it (we were THAT big of dummies afterall), but eventually they got it off the ground and flying! So they handed it over to one of us and said goodbye and left. But as soon as they started to walk away it crashed. We were newly inspired though so kept trying. Eventually another family walked by. The husband asked why it wasn't working. W said we didn't know. So he said we needed a weight to balance it. He took our water bottle and tied it to the end of the tail. That didn't really work at first, but once we poured all the water out we got it off the ground again! And as soon as they walked away it crashed. After a few more tries though, I'm PROUD to say, I launched it all on my own! I had it off the ground for a bit, but because we couldn't let it out very far, we lost wind and it eventually went down. At that point some guy on a moped stopped and asked to see it. I don't know what he did, but it didn't really help. He tried though. I was satisfied with my work so Amanda took over and she did the best job of any of us. She had it up for, like 10 minutes! So, in the end, we flew our sins away on a Pocahontas kite and are now clean for Lent. Wheph!

Now I'm on my way out the door to go to Thessaloniki for a documentary film festival this weekend. It's going to be a little nutty because I'm supposed to write an anthropology paper on the festival on top of trying to go see everything. I'm VERY excited for it though. I need to be around some creativity. I've been lacking that, trying to get grounded and settled here, so this will be really good for me.

I hope you're all well!
Sorry this turned into a novel!
PS. This is my second attempt sending this because the power went out on me the first time. The electric company, along with the trash company, metro company, many banks, and lawyers are on strike this week protesting the new Social Security reform. The city is GROSS, the power goes out periodically and unexpectedly and we can't get around very easily either. It's been fun. Maybe I'll go into that more later, but for now, that's the gist.

Much love!