Its all Greek to me…
So, here I am, back from sunny Zakynthos- and it was lovely and sunny, except for an hour or two when it rained, but it was warm rain, so that’s alright.
A trying holiday in many ways – my 5-yr-old (I’m not 5, I’m nearly 5 and a half, Daddy!) is going through some behavioural issues at the moment, and does not currently respond well to requests/instructions/threats of toy-removal/etc. There was a major fracas pretty much every day of the holiday, and while we had many lovely times there, the times we didn’t enjoy seemed so much more overpowering, and it’s those I’ve brought back with me. So much so, in fact, that after 11 hours of travelling back to the UK and only 4 hours of sleep, I chose to travel another 5.5 hours travelling to and from work today, rather than have an extra couple of hours of sleep and work from home.
But Greece… ah, how I love Greece.
I’m not a big fan of the weather (any place where you have to apply chemicals to your body in order to prevent the sun from turning you into long pig jerky has something not working in its favour), although I do enjoy the odd bikini or two (spectating, not participating). I love the people, though, and the food. Oh, the food…
Well, I say Oh, the food… but there are two exceptions to this. Firstly, other than ice-cream, Greek desserts are awful. Deep fried stodge for the most part. Secondly, the bread appears to come out of the bakers’ ovens pre-staled. But other than the stale bread and heavy, fatty stodge they serve for pudding, Greek food is glorious.
Oh, and olives suck the proverbial, too, though I’ll forgive them this for their production of olive oil.
So, back in the UK (as the Beatles might have sung if they hailed from Moscow instead of Liverpool), and happy to be here.
Zákynthos is a favourite place of mine, and almost exactly a year ago, I returned from there too (http://tinyurl.com/y9ep5us). It was my little girl’s first trip abroad and she’d just turned 2, so I can sympathise with your ambivalence.
Greek food has influenced our eating hugely since my husband and I first visited in 1995. The one thing I find curious is that a small pile of rice seems to find its way onto one’s plate no matter what dish has been ordered.
Ah, I see from your blog you went to Alykez, too.
It was our first time there (though we go to Greece almost every year). Perfect resort for the kids, but it just didn’t feel Greek. A day in the capital helped with that, though.