Things can only get feta …

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Marjory

CAN you have an adventure in crisis-torn Greece and not come unstuck? Can you take a mad Jack Russell dog to a rural region and not create havoc? Can you ever feel like more than an outsider in a mountain village that has changed little over the centuries?

You might find the answers to these questions, and hopefully have a giggle along the way, in the book based on my first year in the Mani, in the southern Peloponnese, due to be published in July this year. It’s called Things Can Only Get Feta (Two journalists and their crazy dog living through the Greek crisis) by Marjory McGinn.

In the first year of the big fat Greek adventure, along with my partner Jim (which I started writing about in this blog in 2010), we had such an amazing time, having travelled extensively through this beautiful region, and having befriended some wonderful local characters, that I wanted to shape it into a book so that other adventurers/armchair travellers could get a feel for this unique rural way of life.

Chairman: Wallace soaking up the sun in the Mani

Chairman: Wallace sunbakes in the Mani

I was encouraged by many of the regular blog readers who wrote to the website saying how much they enjoyed our mad meanderings in Greece, especially with naughty Wallace the Jack Russell in tow. A big thanks for that and I hope you enjoy the book.

For an outline of the book and details of how to pre-order it, click on this link to take you to the home page of our website: http://www.bigfatgreekodyssey.com

Visit Amazon to buy the book (Kindle version – new edition). A new edition of the paperback will also be available shortly.

Land’s end: Marjory and Wallace at the southernmost point of the Mani peninsula

Looking back

When we set off in early 2010, it was supposed to be for a year’s adventure only. We aimed to live in the Mani region (middle peninsula of the southern Peloponnese), but we had no idea of the exact location, or what our life would be like, or even if we would find a suitable place to live, especially in the midst of an economic crisis. But that’s the whole point of adventure – stepping right into the unknown and taking whatever comes your way.

The village we ended up in surpassed all our expectations, particularly with regard to the location and the wonderful local characters we met, some colourful British expats, and the mad escapades that would unfold. But other things were difficult, as we outlined in the blog: dealing with Greek bureaucracy, buying a Greek car, surviving the first scorching summer, dealing with alien wildlife (the critters, not the expats) – scorpions, polecats, snakes, hornets.

Then there was the problem of getting a tiny Greek village with typical zero-tolerance of ‘pet’ dogs to accept the crazy, barky, territorial Wallace. Many villagers had never seen a Jack Russell dog before and to their mind, he just looked like a small mutant sheep. To find out how Wallace’s immersion into Greek life panned out, you’ll have to read the book.

Branching out: Jim and Wallace enjoying the lush olive orchards in the spring

One year’s adventure turned into another and in the end we stayed almost three years in the southern Peloponnese, having loved every mad and magical moment. Then there was the Greek crisis, of course. I commented on this in the blog along the way and we did see some massive changes over the three years, particularly in the city of Kalamata where shop closures and business failures were a daily occurrence.

The austerity measures affected everyone in the region, sometimes tragically so, but one thing that never changed was the stoicism of Greek people and their enduring spirit particularly in the face of often spiteful criticism by the international media. Stories from outside the country that depicted Greeks as ‘lazy’ and ‘work-shy’ were not helpful, and yet anyone who has lived in the country will know just how hard most ordinary Greeks do work and strive for a better life, with no state handouts.

Water baby: Wallace swimming in a cove in the shadow of the Taygetos mountains

In our three years, we travelled the whole of the southern Peloponnese, through the Mani, Laconia and the Messinian peninsula, much of which we have already written about and many places we haven’t got round to writing about yet. I will post some short blogs on these, with photos, over the coming months, and general thoughts about Greek life, as we found it. So please keep reading, and your feedback, as always, is appreciated.

We are currently back in Britain for the time being but are keeping close ties with Greece and look forward to our next big fat adventure there.

Best wishes for a happy summer.

© Text and photographs copyright of the authors 2013

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When will Greece be loved?

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Marjory

Putting the boot in: Greece doesn’t deserve to be bullied by its euro neighbours

IN the lead-up to the recent Greek elections (one and two), much of the world’s media had a great old time knocking the Greek character, having a laugh about tax dodgers and work-shy citizens. But if the rest of the world thinks that level of criticism will pulverise the Greeks, they’re wrong. Greeks created the word stoical – and they are its best practitioners.

At Kalamata Airport recently, while waiting for two Aussie friends to arrive from Athens, we overheard a tourist (northern European) having a strop with a young Greek guy at a car hire counter. The tourist was late returning his car and was anxious that he’d be charged for an extra day. The Greek guy assured him it was okay, he’d make a note on his form and make sure the visitor wasn’t charged an extra fee. But the visitor still wasn’t happy. As the Greek guy was writing his note, Mr Stroppy started up again, demanding that the guy sign the note on the form and also demanded to see his identity card as well.

The Greek guy was surprised but gracious. He said he wasn’t obliged to show his ID to a customer but took it out anyway to calm the tourist down. But STILL it wasn’t enough. “Write down your card identity number as well,” said Mr Stroppy, jabbing his finger at the form.

The Greek guy finally had enough (as had the rest of us in the car hire queue) and refused, putting his card back firmly back in his pocket, leaving Mr Stroppy to steam away at the counter. I wanted to cheer, but thought better of it.

Yet Mr Stroppy had to have the last angry word. “You know what, you have a lovely country here but you are all totally disorganised. It’s a disgrace,” he said.

The Greek guy just looked at him, shrugged stoically and got on with his work. I’m sure he’s seen worse, heard worse and has more to worry about than a pompous foreigner trying to kick major ass over a hire car.

A Greek acquaintance here who owns holiday villas in the Mani told us that a group of Germans cancelled their holiday a couple of months back because they feared they would get beaten up by Greeks while here because of recent harsh measures demanded by the Troika, and particularly by Germany. When we heard this story we thought it was both sad and ludicrous, that tourists are so uninformed and paranoid about coming to Greece. Get real! From our recent experience at the airport it seems to me that Greeks are more in danger of being beaten up by the visitors.

Flying the flag: OK, Greece isn’t quite like northern Europe – but that’s why we love it

Greeks bearing laptops

THE fact that Greece might be disorganised is completely unfounded. Sure, the country’s politicians faff about a lot and keep doing policy U-turns, but other services here, both private and government, run remarkably smoothly. We took our newly arrived Aussie friends to the telecommunications firm Vodafone in Kalamata to sort out mobile internet connections for their laptops, since they like to keep in touch with the outside world while on holiday.

When the guys at the Vodafone office tried to fit the USB modems they found they weren’t compatible with the couple’s very new computers. The guys would have to talk to techie colleagues in Athens so they could download software to fix the problem. It was all handled calmly and graciously, without any of the frowning or moaning you might expect elsewhere.

While the Vodafone guys were working on the couple’s computers they told us all to go for a coffee nearby, which we did in a favourite venue (Le Garcon on Aristomenous St), which is an oasis of serenity and coolness on a hot day (the temperature was around 38 degrees) as the outside seating area has overhead sprinklers delivering a continuous fine mist of icy water.

Half-an-hour later, we were amazed to see the two Vodafone technicians sprinting around the corner to our table, each holding aloft an opened laptop, much to the amusement of the other café punters. The techie guys needed our friends’ passwords in order to proceed. That was sorted, and off they sprinted again.

Our friends were gobsmacked. “That would never happen in Oz,” they said.

“Not in the UK either,” we added.

We well remember it once took us a month to get a broadband connection in Scotland with a well-known internet provider when we moved house. The corporate bumbling was immense, and so was the aggravation of having to ring an Indian call centre every other night to listen to the same old comedy routine of excuses and then promises of broadband by morning, which never happened. And so it went on. In Greece they don’t outsource to overseas call centres.

Hummus and hospitality

IT’S always gratifying to see Greece through fresh eyes. Our Aussie friends have been overjoyed by their stay in this region of the Peloponnese and only dismayed at the level of misinformation filtering around the world about Greeks. They have found good service and efficiency everywhere they’ve been.

And they are delighted that the old standards of Greek hospitality and kindness have not diminished despite the economic crisis. The couple are staying in an apartment in the Mani and every day their Greek neighbours have brought produce from their garden – fat, juicy tomatoes and cucumbers – and home-baked bread, olives, oil and much more.

Attention all moaning minnies from overseas. If you can’t be open-minded and generous towards Greece during its crisis, go somewhere else. Simple. I hear the Norwegian fjords are pristine and cool this time of year. Canoes are plentiful…

Birds on a wire: Our garden owls snuggle up side by side …

… and have a hoot with some amorous activity

Well owl be damned …

WE have said a lot lately about our little brown owl visitor. Indulge us, we’re new to twitching. We have found out the Greek brown owl is partly diurnal, which is why it appears on our power lines night and day. We started out with one, but now we regularly see a couple sitting on the power lines, sometimes smooching. We’ve had trouble getting a good picture of them. But now we have several, which we wanted to share. We promise to only mention the owls again if they are joined by their extended family … or develop some interesting high-wire routines.

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© Copyright of the authors 2012

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Greek wine’s keener than retsina, Wallace the guitar hero …

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Marjory

The good and the grape: A vineyard in the Nemea region of the Peloponnese

Jim’s writing the blog this month, marvelling at Greek wine …

I’VE just sipped a glass of the Blood of Hercules – and it was superb. Don’t worry, I haven’t joined the Kalamata branch of Vampires Anonymous in Greece, I’m simply enjoying a robust red wine from the Peloponnese.

I’m not a wine buff, but I do know that Merlot isn’t a magician, and I’m amazed at the high quality of Greek wine, especially Peloponnesian varieties – from cheap barrelled wine served in tavernas to award-winning bottles produced on wine estates.

Greek wine has come a long way since I first visited the country in the 1970s. In those days it was all jugs of retsina, with enough resin in it to varnish a 12-seater dining table, and bottles of cheap plonk called Domesticos – or more appropriately known as Domestos by British tourists who compared it to the germ-killing household bleach.

Today, there’s a wide choice of wine produced from more than 300 indigenous grape varieties across Greece. Over the past decade, on holiday trips to several islands, I’ve tasted some excellent wines, such as Santorini’s nykteri variety of white wine and Kefalonia’s Robola, another fine white wine sold in bottles with a distinctive hessian covering.

Vine time: Grapes growing on a smallholding near Kalamata

However, I believe the wines of the Peloponnese are the cream of the crop – and excellent value for money. At grassroots level, some of the loveliest wine I’ve tasted has been produced by village taverna owners and their families and sold for as little as three or four euros a litre.

A lot of mass-produced wine in the Peloponnese is sold in 1.5-litre plastic bottles, and much of it is “extremely quaffable” as one British expat and wine expert likes to tell everybody.

A summer favourite is chilled rose wine – a type I’d never touch with a barge pole in the UK and typified by the sweet Mateus Rose from Portugal. The Peloponnese rose is more red than rose coloured and far less sweet than the Portuguese stuff.

Some of the finest rose wine comes from the Monemvasia area of Laconia. Unlike the rest of Greece, most wines consumed in this region of the Peloponnese is rose, with red and white a long way behind. The Laconian vineyards are planted with varieties of grape intermixed in the correct ratio of white and red to achieve the bright colour and bouquet of rose.

Lovely trio: Two reds from the Nemea region flank the malagousia white wine

In Kalamata, there are two large-scale wineries producing some terrific wines – Inomessiniaki and Bio Vin, which are both near Kalamata Airport – visit their websites www.inomessiniaki.gr and www.biovin.gr Bio Vin wines are made by Ioannis Tsavolakis and come from strictly selected grapes, products of organic viticulture.

The best-known wine-producing area of the Peloponnese is Nemea, south-west of Corinth, turning out dry red wine cultivated from the local agioritiko grapes. One of the finest Greek varieties is called “Blood of Hercules” due to its deep red colour. You can pick up a bottle of decent Nemea red for as little as 3.20 euros in supermarkets in the Peloponnese. Visit the region’s website www.nemeawines.gr

However, try to find these lovely Greek wines in supermarkets in Britain and you’re wasting your time. The only Greek wine I’ve seen on the shelves in Tesco or Morrison is rough-and-ready retsina. As the editor of one wine magazine in Britain told me: “Greek wine is a small, niche market in the UK with little interest”.

Surely Greece, with its economy in meltdown, could seize the chance to boost its beleaguered exports revenue by promoting its superb wines in Britain. It could follow the example of Australian wineries, which came to dominate the British wine market by aggressive marketing – some Aussie wines were on sale in UK supermarkets at lower prices than in Australia. Along with tourism, Greek wines could help get the country back on its feet.

Big bouquet: Moschofilero white wine from the Mantinia region

Another great wine-producing region of the Peloponnese is Mantinia, north of Tripoli, which makes lovely white wine from the moschofilero grapes cultivated on the slopes of Mount Mainalo. One of the best moschofilero wines is produced by Ino wines (www.inowines.gr).

A favourite tipple is the malagousia white wine, sold for 3.99 euros at Lidl. This rare Greek variety comes from outside the Peloponnese and is cultivated on the slopes of Mount Kitheron, north of Athens. It easily rivals those tasty sauvignon blancs from New Zealand’s Marlborough region – bursting with a bouquet of exotic fruits …

Good God, now I’m starting to sound like a wine connoisseur. Someone pass me a tin jug of warm retsina and a dirty glass …

Paw player: Wallace gets to grips with the guitar

You aint nothin’ but a hound dog…

WALLACE our Jack Russell dog has amazed us with his enthusiasm for new hobbies: he’s already mastered high jumping, sprint running, surfing, motorbike riding. Now he’s gone for singing and playing guitar. Great stuff, but why can’t he sharpen up some other abilities as well, like picking the winning numbers for the Euro Millions lottery?

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Big fat Greek blog

Life in the southern Peloponnese with two journalists and a crazy dog

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Things can only get feta …

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When will Greece be loved?

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Greek wine’s keener than retsina, Wallace the guitar hero …

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