Family in Greece

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  Florina, Greece
Saturday, September 15, 2007

Dear Blog,

On Wednesday morning (12th Sep) we got up very early for a 7am flight to Thessalonki which is in Northern Greec. We arrived at 9:30am Greece time and took a bus to the city and then a 3hour train ride to Florina which is about 30km from the Macedonian Border. Florina is the main town in the area where Vic's Parents were born, they both came from Villages just outside this town. Elias who is Vic's 3rd cousin from his Mum's side picked us up from the station and took us not far up the road to the Village of Skopia which is where his Grandparents live. His Grandfather is Vic's Grandmothers brother who stayed in Greece. We stayed at theirplace for the 3 nights that we were there. The area is very country, everyone in the villages has there own Cows for Milk, Chickens for eggs and large vegie spatches. They are very self sufficient people and i can now understand why Vic's parents have continued this kind of thing in Australia. Now this might start to get a little soppy.Meeting Vic's family was amazing. They are the most generous loving people i have ever had the pleasure to meet. They were sooooo excited that we were there and did nothing but spoil us and continually feed us. They would not let us pay for a thing not to mention the fact that they also gave us money which to them is alot. Only Elias who is around Vic's age could speak english however the rest could not so everything had to be translated. The older generation still speak what is known as the local language but what Vic and his family know as Macedonian. They also all speak Greek, lucky Vic knows Macedonian well so he could communicate with them all which they really enjoyed. The Grandfather (Dedo Ilo) spend hours and hours telling Vic stories about his life and gave him lots of advice, an amazing man at 83 who only recently became a bit fragile as he broke his leg, otherwise he is fit as a fiddle. They lead such simple lives yet they are all happy aslong as theyt are healthy and have food on the table. The don't care for any of the material things that we have all become to depend apon. A real eye opener, although i guess it all has to do with with how you grew up and we live such different lives in Australia. Anyway i could go on for hours about this but all in all i feel honoured to have been able to meet these people and i think it was an important thing for Vic aswell. We got driven around on the 2nd day by Christos who is a 2nd cousin. He took us to Lake Prespa which was the most amazing scenery. The weather was perfect with not a cloud in the sky. It really is a beautiful untouched part of the world. Lake Prespa actually sits between the borders of Greece, Macedonia and Albania, we were on the Greek side. We ate some really nice local food and wines up there aswell. That night we were taken out to dinner by Elias, his wife Nicoletta and their 2 year old Lambos. We ate some yummy Greek food. The 3rd day (Friday) we went and visited Vic's dads Uncle and wife, they are the only ones from the Kroussoratis side who did not come to Australia, more food, ouzo and wine consaumed with them and they live right next door to the old house that Vic's used to live in before to moved to Australia. It is not livable now but is still standing. That night we went out with Elias and his wife and son again for some Pizza, they are such a lovely couple and were genuinly sad that we were leaving the next day. It was a great time and i will never forget it. We are now in Athens. i also don't have any time to spell check and proof read so who knows how this blog will sound

me
xx

PS. pics from Budapest that i haven't posted
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melvic/sets/72157602033949602/

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