we meandered toward the other side of town and on the way got stopped by an overly ambitious young greek and his two friends who kind of looked like zombies. ambitious guy asked us our names, picking up allie and tej easily enough but somehow my name was beyond his comprehension. he called me kiwi.
then he asked us to get coffee so we kept walking.
we ended up in the old residential area of parikia and after exploring for a little bit walked down an alley which brought us out to the piazza of an old church, across the street from the sea.
it had been our intention to stroll for a bit before meeting bobs and taylor at the old abandoned church but when we heard music coming from down an alley next to the church we followed.
a few winding alleys later we found ourselves walking by the open doors of a room that looked like someone's dining room, full of happy greeks eating, drinking and making music.
tej & als were a little ahead of me and wanting to get a better idea of what it was that i was seeing, i was going to take a shameless peek inside but then this big happy greek guy appeared at the door and was like, "AH! you must all come in! come in! come in!" and excitedly motioned for us to come inside.
with zero hesitation we went inside and before we really knew what was going on we had joined two men and a woman sitting at a table behind a big group of younger looking people who were sitting near the door. the men and the woman instantly gave us wine and started offering us food which we more than gladly accepted and then a woman from the big group turned around and started talking to us. her name is anna and she's been all over the world and she's awesomeee. some of the guys from their group (there were probs like 10 or 11 of them) were the ones playing the music (on their extra legit greek/turkish instruments) and it was the most wonderfully greek sound i have ever heard.
everyone sang along and clapped and then there were some wooden spoons and a tambourine that were passed around.
OH MY GOSH, SO MUCH FUN.
everyone was SO sweet and so much fun and they kept pouring us wine and giving us delicious batter fried fish and veggies. anna's english is like perfect so we got to chat with her and this other guy, fivos, who is awesome AND has lived in rome AND speaks italian (!!!)
and we thought we were going for a quick stroll. ha.
more happenings...
when we asked anna where we were she was like, "this, is a taverna" and i couldn't believe that any other "taverna" could even try to boast such a title (there are tavernas everywhere but this place was outrageously legit)
marcos, the guy who wanted us to come in, loves us to the max
when i said thank you because he was SO nice, he was like, "no thank you, this is the greek way! this is the way of paros! welcome to paros!"
and when he suspected we were drinking too much (which we were not because who wants to blow such a cool sit?) he was like, "not only drink wine! you must eat! i will get you more, what do you want?" so he got us more fish and it was SO GOOD!
tejey tej did some lovely indian classical dancing
fivos and anna taught us some crucial greek
marcos and i greek danced and he told me that i was a "fantastic dancer." (points)
we played the turkish drum and the wooden spoons
and drank sun dried parian wine
before it felt like any time had passed it was somehow 2:30am so we exchanged info and said good-bye to our new friends.
on our way home we decided to stop by saloon d'or to say hi to kostas and yiannako but when we got to the bar kostas was the only one working. we had barely said hi before he was shaking something up in a martini shaker and like, "i will give you a free shot! but don't tell yiannako because they are very expensive!"
without saying a word except for "yamas!" one shot very quickly turned into not two but THREE screaming orgasm shots.
haaaa.
after that we danced a few songs and then went back to jimmy's, giddy and excited about the wonderful surrealness of our parian lives.
one of the best nights in greece (or in my life, ever) FOR SURE.
other high lights...
saturday the 20th was the day that changed everything because it was the day that i started to fall in love with greece.
we all met in the morning and then drove to lefkes where we dropped off at the head of an ancient byzantine road. we hiked the road and then were picked up in the town below lefkes to be whisked off to barry's awesome house for lunch.
barry, our awesome hisa director, lives with his wife, yuko, and their precious daughter, mona, up in the hills behind parikia. he has a bunch of land on which he's built a beautiful house and studio and lots of terraces for growing fruits and veggiiies. he also has a bunch of olive trees (obvs) which make the most delish olive oil everrr.
before we could have lunch we had to partake in some hisa slave labour which required us removing rocks out of the dirt of one of the terraces. yep.
when we were happily rewarded with beer & wine and later an exquisite variety of salads and meats.
also, it was SUNNY and BEAUTIFUL. and it was pretty warm
which, you know, automatically equals happiness.
we sat on the roof where we wined and dined pretty much all afternoon and relished in the fact that what we were experiencing was indeed reality.
that night we went out and danced and it was perfect!
the weekend of the 27th we went to naxos, one of paros' neighbouring islands
and obvs it was a BLAST!
naxos town was rad to the max
(so greek islands)
- sat in the sun
- explored w. bribs & jarre and laughed the whole time
- ate the most delish gelato since athens
- saw a BENETEAU!
- saw this sexy guy
(obvs i am all about hairy men washing down their boats in their tightie whities)
and also had another intensely greek experience...
saturday night, our one night on naxos
- had the best 4E sangria ever
- we went to this bizarre-o mexican place that we stayed at for WAY too long
- upon leaving the "mexican" place some of us went to explore our after hours options and after getting lost, some people getting feisty and complaining, we split up. four went to a small dark bar and myself & 5 other girlies ended up at this awesome wine bar.
at the wine bar...
- a strange greek named yianni bought us all a shot (ask me about what happened when he tried to take one, it might have been the single funniest thing i have EVER witnessed).
after awhile yianni was too weird and we wanted our other friends to come join in on the experience so i went down the extra greek island alleys to seek them out...
when i walked into the bar it was so dim and our peeps were sitting in a corner by the door. there was loud greek music playing and i think britts was dancing so we busted out the moves and then...
- the waitress gave us a tambourine
- the bartender gave us both a shot
- people at the bar yelled "opa!" and snapped their fingers
- they also threw tons of napkins on us
it was a blast and after awhile the girls from the other bar came down and we danced and played the night away together.
towards the end we asked brayden, our lone male accompaniment, to take a picture of all of us but when he did a man sitting at the table next to us threw peanuts at him so we left.
ah ha ha, best night everrr!
there has been SO (so so so) MUCH more going on but i felt like the two greekest experiences i've had thus far should be posted.
greece is still awesome as ever, this is seriously the most kick a. study abroad program ever.
new post soon, for reals! : )
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