Would you eat a lamb's eyeball?
22 April 2014 | Athens, Greece
EASTER – WOULD YOU EAT A LAMB’S EYE BALL?
Easter morning, we woke up with the sun shining in our window. After a leisurely coffee and an easter bread plaited with a red boiled egg in the middle, we jumped in the car to partake in a traditional Easter lunch in the country. All over Greece, families were barbequeing a whole sheep on a spit over hot coals. People who live in apartments create barbeques on vacant lots. As we were meeting up with some friends of Christos, we saw their neighbours barbequeing 3 whole lambs, heads and all. Bill wanted to take a photo to show Liam our son at home who loves barbeques. A whole extended family welcomed him, pouring a beer posing with grandma for a photo. It was such fun that day with everyone we met in a jovial mood. It felt like Christmas.
After driving through Athens for an hour or so, we arrived at a country taverna for Easter lunch. The roasted lamb came out by the plateful with the head being the most delicious part according to the Greeks. Christos and Bill dove into the delicacies such as the brain, tongue, cheek and the eyeballs! I was happy with the leg part. All around us Greek was spoken but we didn’t care. The taverna owners had put their dogs on the roof to keep them out of the way – a common practise apparently. Christos and Bill threw them bones. The sun shone the rose wine flowed and a good time was had by all.
That night we flaked out in front of the TV digesting our Easter meal. By Monday afternoon we were back in Aegina by ferry back to Lati. As the shops were closed we splurged out on a meal at one of the busiest tavernas full of Greeks laughing and smoking. Our table was next to a very fluffy and pregnant cat called Giselle. She delicately ate a few morsels we offered her but was obviously well fed. Our menu that night included Moussaka, stuffed peppers and Greek salad as well as a carafe of rose to wash it down.
Now that Easter is over, we are preparing Lati for our cruise around the islands. Lati came with a non functioning manual anchor winch which Bill is repairing. After the med mooring/anchoring dramas, we are considering more chain. As this is heavy, we will need a winch. We cant do much about rope on the stern anchor but will try and tie up where there is less traffic if possible in the future. I have begun provisioning which is easy here with a supermarket 15 minutes walk away. I love discovering all the different foods in foreign supermarkets. Tonight we will be cooking pork souvlaki with capsicum and onion. So far we haven’t been charged anything for our berth here. Maybe the port lady will find us. Maybe not!