Gorgeous Greece

Our first full day here in Pikermi, Greece, we decided to take a family walk down a pathway near the Greek Bible College, where we are staying and where Brad is teaching.  We discovered all kinds of things...like this heavily laden orange tree...  (Their fruit is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!)

  

...lots of beautiful blooming bushes...



...and the boys favorite... this type of tree with itty-bitty (1-cm long) pine-cone-type appendages that they discovered if they ruffled the branches, the pollen would douse everyone walking behind them.  They found this GREAT fun, and we all came home bearing plenty of pollen to prove it...

The village of Pikermi is just a few minutes from Rafina, a coastal village, so our first afternoon we headed down to the seashore.  Our friend Jeff insisted we borrow his car, and we were off...(I was so thankful that they drive on the RIGHT side of the street here, unlike our Irish driving adventure!)  We were struck how the buildings here look like we'd thought they'd look in Greece...mostly all white-washed with the rocky, hilly countryside looking just like it does in books...we were not disappointed!

The most interesting thing we saw today was right here on the beach.  This gentleman was an octopus fisherman, and he took the time to show the kids the steps of cleaning an octopus (right in front of our very eyes - Egads!, as my daddy would say), which includes squirting the ink (and innards) into a bucket of water...

(Side note:  note the ship in the background...this is a port town, and it is not uncommon to see ships such as this in the harbor, some of which carry passengers to one of the many Greek Isles...)

...then "beating the fire" out of them with what looked like a small cricket bat to tenderize them.  The octopi still had reflexes as they were tenderized...they weren't the only ones cringing at that point...

We ended our day with dinner by the beach with Myrto, our friend from Cambridge; Jeff Baldwin, the headmaster at the Greek Bible College, and Robert, another friend from Cambridge.  We ate souvlaki gyros, which is a SCRUMPIOUS typical dish, along with a Greek salad (no lettuce), which can be seen in the foreground.  The feta on these salads was fresh, and so yummy.  I didn't think I was a feta fan, but how wrong I was!  I could NOT stop eating the stuff!

Our first day ended with loukoumades, a traditional honey-dipped pastry, similar to beignets, and equally as yummy.  The kids have been great at trying new foods--even ones they can't pronounce and don't know exactly what is...we are REALLY enjoying Greek cuisine!!