Sunday 27th April 2008

We had a slow start this morning to recover from the excesses of last night and in preparation for the excesses of today.
Tanya and Chris, two more Tyros friends, had invited Glenn and Venice to Easter lunch and very kindly extended the invitation to us when they heard that we were coming to stay. Nigel, Wendy and Alex were also coming along with four other friends from further away. We arrived at their house high above the village of Tyros and received a warm welcome from Tanya and a slightly smoke-blackened Chris. Their house is enormous and tastefully converted, retaining all of the typical Greek features. The large patio in front has magnificent views down the mountain and across the sea. A sheer red cliff provides the backdrop high above the house and there are mountainside views to left and right. This is one of the most beautiful settings for a house that I have ever seen and could easily grace the cover of a holiday of home make-over magazine.
Chris was slaving over the barbecue, having started cooking the goat at 08:30. He was constantly, adjusting the coals, obtaining more charcoal, basting and checking the goat and the kokoretsi (innards wrapped around a spit – sounds horrible but it is quite delicious). It is an honour to be asked to turn the spit with the goat or lamb and the male members of the family would take it in turns for the many hours that it takes to cook. Fortunately, Chris had adopted the more modern technique of using electric motors. Although we didn't have the honour of being asked to turn it, it was much more relaxing and we were able to chat to Chris and give him moral support instead. Chris and Tanya's four other friends had to cancel and this left just seven of us to tackle the 15kg goat – this was going to be quite a meal! Fortunately, Eleni, a local Greek friend of Chris and Tanya's turned up unexpectedly. Her husband was due to return from the plane way above Tyros but had decided to stay there with his goats, so Eleni came to join Chris and Tanya bearing gifts of savoury Greek Easter bread and red eggs. She was a demon with the red eggs, beating everyone else with hers. The tradition, similar to English conkers, involves hitting the end of your red egg against that of another person – the person whose egg doesn't break is the winner.
Chris's first ever attempt at spit roasting a goat was a great success and it was absolutely delicious, accompanied by a selection of lovely salads (made by Venice and Glenn), Eleni's bread and washed down with red wine. This was followed by two of Wendy's desserts, a trifle and a lemon cheesecake. Wendy told us that she was very keen on desserts and instructed us to eat as much as possible in order to stop her eating it all – we did not find that to be a problem, forcing down second helpings!
Nigel is teetotal and very kindly acted as a taxi for us and he also volunteered to take us down to the Paralia later in the evening for further Easter celebrations. With many thanks to Chris and Tanya, we made our way back to Glenn and Venice's. The weather had been quite cool and it turned to rain in the afternoon. It was still drizzling when we drove down to the Paralia to see if the celebrations had started. They hadn't, but chairs were set out and lots of people were milling around. We went for a walk along the prom and returned to the square and awaited developments. There were lots of dancers standing around in their traditional costumes and discussions going on between the mayor, two priests and the musicians. Eventually, a very short service was performed by a priest double act and then the dancing started. It was too wet for the musicians to perform so recorded music was used and the stately Greek dancers filed in forming a long ribbon with arms over each others shoulders and performing those slow, repetitive and intricate dance steps. More dances followed with opportunities for individual male dancers to show off their expertise and balance with jumps, kicks and slow, intricate movements. This was the adult group and they were followed by the juniors, aged about 16, who were equally enthusiastic but performed less complex dancing without the individual virtuosity. We had kept Chris long enough, so he drove us back up the hill and we thanked him greatly before we headed back up the path to Glenn and Venice's. Once again, we sat on the balcony and watched the proceedings that included a few more fireworks. The weather improved and we hoped that this would have allowed the musicians to play. There was a very good audience despite the weather and later there would have been free spit roasted lamb and wine. To be quite honest, with the amount of goat that we had consumed, the lamb didn't sound too attractive and we were glad to sit on the balcony with a very small snack for tea.
Photos: View from Glenn and Venice's house; The goat barbecue; Chris and Tanya's house; Eleni's Easter Bread looking like something straight out of a recipe book; The Easter meal; Eleni leads Tanya in a dance.