Feels like home ... In Athens

Feels like Home … In Athens
By: Yoko Ramos-Vingno
It has almost been three years now since my diplomat husband and I arrived here in Athens, Greece in October 2007. How time flies. Fast. Irretrievably. Immersed in a culture all ancient, modern and interesting with a language that is a lot more Greek than any other language. A few Greek words here and there learned through self study committing to memory the Greek alphabet and abusing one’s own eardrums switching on daily to Greek channels, commercials included, and volume turned on to loud.
My hubby and I go through a daily routine of sipping hot coffee and ingesting generous servings of oatmeal mornings on weekdays. Weekends are treats like having fried eggs for breakfast and butter and pate and copious amounts of jam for good measure. Lunch means eating out in our favorite Japanese restaurant Wagamama at the recently built Golden Hall or in our favorite Italian Restaurant at The Mall built during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Having a ten-month old baby at home has added a new spark and cause of joy to our life. A new flavor, so to speak, that provided the missing ingredient to what otherwise would have been a life run by more and more of official responsibilities with me playing the role of a supportive wife to a diplomat husband. More than the usual chores of keeping house the arrival of our little boy have kept us busy and unusually happy.
After almost three years, Athens is now like home to me, I now being used to the Greek ways, their passion that is Greek most evident when you see and hear them engaged in discourse that makes you want to intervene before they kill each other. Other than that, the Greeks are a warm and hospitable people.
We are indeed lucky to have earned the friendship of our newfound friends, the administrator of our building Major General Dmitri Gedeon and his lovely wife, Eugenia, who treat us like members of their family. Eugenia, fondly known as Jenny to her family and friends, teaches French language having mastered that when her husband was assigned in Belgium. Jenny, an only child, is a strong-willed and well accomplished lady who comes from a very good family. She treats me like a sister. She visited me daily in the hospital when I gave birth to our youngest son. Her equally beautiful mother whom we also call Mitera (mother) is also a strong-willed septuagenarian who lives with her. Mitera indulges in her cigarette everyday – she takes it during breakfast.
Our landlady, Kyria Paraskevi Zagana, a puffer as well, is like a second mother to us. She it was who insisted that I call her in case of emergency, though I wondered how since she only speaks Greek. She lives next to our flat and for three years running brought us Easter bread and dyed red eggs during Easter.
The Fojas’: Dr Helen Marcoyanopoulou-Fojas and Dr Marcos Fojas who introduced to us the importance of a good diet --- eating healthy and lots of green salad. Dr Helen Marcoyanopoulou-Fojas shared with us her secret on how to look young, feel healthy and live perfectly well. A well known scientist and cardiologist, Dr Helen treated my husband who was often getting sick and he now is doing quite well.
Dr Pericles Lekoudis my Obstretrician-Gynecologist and his daughter, Eliana – who cared for my son like her own, made sure that I and my son were safe when I gave birth.
The mention of my close Greek friends will not be complete if I did not include several others who certainly have made our stay in Greece pleasant and memorable as well: the friendly staff of Germanos in Golden Hall where I and my husband bought our first iPhones, the friendly attendants of Wagamama and the accommodating staff in Tommy Hilfiger store (also in Golden Hall) and to the other nameless Greeks who graciously made us feel at home in the land of Athina.
The islands: Mykonos, Santorini and Crete. We visited these three islands when we joined the cruise. Though a little bumpy, the boat ride was like an adventure did not spoil at all the fun of visiting exotic places in Greece. Mykonos is lovely and the place very much alive suited especially for young people with a pre-deliction for nightlife!
Santorini got me excited not only because it became famous in Manila because of KC Concepcion’s (female star in the Philippines) film which was shot in the island but also because of the white and blue houses that I have seen only in postcards. Santorini is divine. Tranquil with deep blue waters surrounding the island and a spectacular view of sunset, pretty much suited to newly married couples on honeymoon. Later on I learned that Santorini is host to an active volcano.
Crete did not appeal to me at first – but I was wrong. Crete is rich in history – I Google-d it and found out that it used to be the ‘center of Europe’s first advanced civilization’ and ‘during the World War II, the island was the scene of the famous Battle of Crete!’ We were brought to Knossos where hubby and I were awed by remnants of the buried palace that showed traces of the inhabitants’ advance civilization.
Greece is a wonderful country not just because of Acropolis and its famous islands but also because of its friendly and hospitable people that makes one person’s stay in the country truly memorable and worth keeping in your heart.
Filoxenia. I used to wonder what Greek hospitality really is. Now I know. Greek hospitality makes me feel like I am home.