For those of you that don't know why I started in Greece, it was for the wedding of my college friend Jim (birth name Demetrios; family is from Greece) and his beautiful wife Milena (who is from neighboring Serbia). A Greek wedding is impossible to describe in words; to say it was quite the experience doesn't do it justice (pictures to follow). We were told the wedding started at 7:00pm, showed up at the church (a magnificent structure directly on the beach here at Paralia Katerini) around 6:50 and waited...and waited...and waited. Did Milena change her mind? Was Jim being left at the altar? No...but apparently the lackadaisical attitude that runs the Greek public transportation applies to weddings as well. Not a problem though; it's been the attitude that's dictated the pace of the entire trip thus far and I wouldn't change it for anything.
The entire procession was in Greek (which is a relatively unspoken language, believe it or not - while everyone I met from Serbia, Bulgaria, etc. was multi-lingual, very few actually spoke Greek). This meant, of course, that roughly 75% of the people there did not understand a word of what was going on, but we got the gist of it all. When the ceremony ended there were hundreds of passersby who stopped to see what all the hub-bub was about, which was incredible in it's own right (see pictures). Jim's cousin Joanna(?) was kind enough to drive us to the reception so we didn't have to walk over a kilometre (that's right, I'm European now). The reception was incredible. Major props to Jim's dad for putting it all together. Not too much dancing in the traditional sense, but a lot of group dancing in circles. I am obviously a natural at it. Again, it can't really be described, but the pictures should shed some light on this. I've also never seen so many people run up and literally throw money at the bride and groom - by the time we left, the floor was literally covered with $1 bills. Had our government not completely ruined our currency I might have brought my own broom.
When all was said and done, I looked at Rob and told him that every wedding I've ever been to (excluding my sisters' weddings - I was too young) or heard of always felt like a funeral (I guess that's what happens when your parents get divorced six times between them). The Greeks treat it as a big celebration and make it into one. I asked him 'what the point' of getting married was, and he pointed and Jim and Milena - both with huge smiles - and said "that." No argument here.
I've been invited to Belgrade (Serbia) by multiple people and am seriously considering that my next stop on the journey after Copenhagen. After that, a quick stop in Sofia (Bulgaria) to meet up with my new friend Hristo (sp?) might be in order, and then who knows, a flight to Iceland? Ireland? A train ride to Italy? Unknown at this point. But that's the whole idea, isn't it?
Quotes of the trip so far:
1) "I speak Bulgarian, he speaks Serbian, he speaks Greek, you speak English, but we come together and all speak the same international language: mathematics." (This was said during a game of beach volleyball)
2) "Look at that guy, he's a regular European Conan O'Brien"
"You mean the father of the fucking bride???"
"Uhh...yeah"
3) "These chopsticks suck, they keep breaking"
"Dude, you're using breadsticks"
N.B. I'm not going to bash other cultures unless they really deserve it (apparently Albania has it coming?), so in regards to the Serbian national drink Rakija (their answer to the Greek's Orzo, apparently), I will just say it is 'strong.' And that's an understatement. It hits you like a ton of bricks and just keeps coming. Milena's father put it down like it was water before buying us all a fine meal at this local beach restaurant (thanks again, Mr. Pezelj), which was rather impressive. Also, thus far, I have not seen a difference between Greek food here and Greek food in America, except that the pizza has no pepperoni and like in Canada, bacon is actually ham. Not sure how all these countries keep mixing the two up.
One more thing. In my first blog I said Greek women were some of the most beautiful women in the world. Apparently they are trumped by Serbian women. According to Cali Rob, the reason for that is, and I quote: "once we started bombing them [in '99] the good Lord looked down on the beautiful ones and..." I stopped him right there. His logic was flawless.
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