left home at 8a.m. tues march 30 and arrived at our house in vamos called giasemi (jasmine)

at 10:30p.m. march 31.. about 28 or 29 hours, but at that point an hour one way or the other

doesn’t really matter. those hours cover a lot of time sitting in airports waiting for the next

connection. portland to denver to frankfurt to

athens to hania.

it’s a grueling trip and before we left, i wondered if it was worth it... and

now i know it is! the taxi driver, Manolis, called Elena when we were about half an hour away

so she’d have someone at the house to greet us and let us in. it was dear George. i fell in bed utterly

exhausted and slept til 2:30 thursday p.m. We then headed out for the ATM and then super-

market. and set out for bloumosifi and to the office to see Elena. Elena’s “crazy crazy news”

referred to in an email recently is that she’s pregnant!! bravo! this is wonderful news.Toine

arrives on friday from Holland. on the way down the hill we saw activity at “the other taverna”

which has been closed for a year or 2. it’s now open again with Nikos and Maria who had been

running Liakoto operating it. saw several people we know, including “computer George”, and

got lots of hugs and greetings. it felt so warm and fuzzy!! Nikos offered us raki... we said no

thanks... he came back in a few minutes offering yoghurt w/sweet preserves over and raki...

and this time we said yes. enjoyed it, and headed on to the office then taverna. we were going

to go on by and return later, but i spotted Mr. Yannis, that old old man who is a fixture there every

day from late afternoon til about 8p.m., sitting in his usual place, so what to do but go and say

hello! every time we come back here, i have a fear that Mr. Yannis will be gone, so am always

delighted that he’s still here. after several hellos and how are yous and very goods and shaking of

hands, the young waiter from Syria, Yanni, brought out the raki and did some arm twisting.

after that we found our way home, had a little lie down, then went back to bloumosifi for dinner.

Artemi and Xanthippi came in and had some after-dinner raki with us. she wants us to come to

easter dinner at their home again. and herein lies a problem... Elena had asked us to have dinner

with them and several other friends, including Toine who will only be here for 10 days before going

back to holland to continue treatments for his lymphoma. we really want to spend time with him!

we told Xanthippi that it was kind of a dilemma and next thing she was on the phone calling Elena to see how they could arrange it so we could do both. i guess it’s in their hands now! all i know for sure is that we’ll have a proper greek easter feast with friends!

it’s friday about 6:30p.m. and i’m sitting on the patio which is next to the street. the man with his

pick-up full of fresh vegetables is parked and several women are picking over and choosing what

they’ll need for the big easter meal on sunday to go with the lamb which will be roasted on the spit.

or maybe buying necessaries for the traditional entrail and organ soup they serve after the midnight church and burning of Judas on the bonfire on easter eve..