Antheia 24/05/08

A day off! Aaahhhh....it's a good feeling.

Sleeping in, then just lounging around till lunchtime, the day is off to a great start. Every saturday Christos and Georgia go for lunch with Christos's mum and today we are invited. It's good to see Christos, like all Greeks, has a lot of respect for his mother and covers his "Muff Diving Instuctor" T-shirt for the family lunch. Classic!

Maria is also an extremely entertaining woman. Warmly inviting us in to her home we get treated to some home-made strawberry liquor as we sit down. mmmm mmmm :) Then lunch is an amazing feast of pork chops, meatball and a variety of salads. Superb! Over the meal we find out Maria is a singer as well (no...not balck metal ;) ), and local TV personality too.

Feeling so full we can hardly walk we all pile back into the car, head home and crash out. Waking again around 6pm it is time for a bit of sight seeing. The highlight of Alexandroupolis is the lighthouse, said to be the tallest in the Balkans, so after getting our "tourist shots" it's straight to the internet.

As we are making our way back to the meeting spot guess who we randomly run into...Maria! There is a charity event on and the local TV stations are in attendance, so after a few quick words in the cameraman's ear we get bundled up for an interview. It was great!!! Thanks!

She then takes us down to the local theater where a concert is being performed and promptly disappears. I remember tonight is Eurovision night...I bet she has snuck home :)

We also had to sneak away because our hosts, and Sabine, were extremely excited about Eurovision too...

Now even though I have spent quite a few years in Europe, Eurovision is never something I have understood. It looks to me like an overly lit up school talent quest, but tonight I'm being forced to watch the WHOLE show. Will I ever be the same again???

So armed with pizzas and a couple of bottles of chippero (home-made ouzo) we head back to the flat, switch on the TV and get comfortable. I'm sure the chippero helps but the experience isn't half as painful as I was expecting. I even find myself cheering and applauding as Greece moves up the table. It looks like they might win and I'm looking forward to the parties tonight if they do...but it isn't to be. Russia comes through at the end, leaving us to get an early(ish) night :)