Can’t help it, every time I see “Kefalonian meat pie” on a menu or chalkboard, I just start singing that meat pie song from Sweeney Todd (which I had the horrific misfortune of seeing without knowing what it was about…nightmares for a week!)
These island delicacies, which as far as I know are not made with human meat chunks (bleccch, I think I might have just put myself off of all meat), are savory pies made of dense pastry filled with pork and lamb and beef and rice in a traditional spiced Greek tomato sauce. I thought this could have been my pache or my arepa or my pintxo, you know, something local I become fixated with for a week and then drop like a hot souvlaki, but it’s too big and too filling for me to eat any more of them. I’ve had enough. And I’ve only had two. I brought one home from the bakery last week and had one in a taverna last night, and even though it was absolutely delicious with tzatziki and an ice cold Alfa, the thought of eating another one is making my stomach hurt.
So my first morning in my new house, Vagelis came by to give me a tour of my immediate surroundings in daylight. First we crossed a field to get to a clearing on top of the cliff. I got poked and scratched by some nettly plants, but the view was breathtaking and worth the bloody scratches on my ankles. There were two beaches. To the left, the public beach, the tourist beach. To the right, the private beach, the naked beach, “Look, there is a naked German! This is the nature beach, very free” Greek beaches are full of naked Germans. And naked Swedes, and naked Danes and half-naked Brits. Just not a lot of naked Greeks. So doesn’t that make the naked beach the tourist beach? Anyway, now he was going to show me all the ways I shouldn’t go to these two beaches. So for the first beach, the public beach, the tourist beach, we made a right at the road and then a right at the fork, and climbed over the construction blocks of the very ugly house with a very perfect view to see the path I shouldn’t take. The path I should take was behind that, but “don’t go down through the forest, take the path behind that”. We didn’t actually go near those paths, he just pointed across some shrubbery in their general direction and I just kept nodding my head, like I was going to make the right choice between two or more paths. Ha!
Then we went to see the path I shouldn’t take to the naked German beach. We ran into two Danish women, maybe in their 60s, who had already found the path not to take and were looking for the path to take. I already knew I would get lost this way so I was barely paying attention, open fields are very confusing to me, they’re like roundabouts but square. And throw in a couple of lost Danes and that’s it, I’m done. I only retain the first part of directions anyway, and so far they have been “Don’t go that way…” Funny, I always remembered which way not to go. Miraculously, I did find my way down to the public beach, but only after going the wrong way first. And mind you, I can get to the public beach from the village in two seconds, and that’s easy as kefalonian meat pie to find from the house.
The final part of my introductory tour to my new temporary home was the hidden sacred ancient olive tree. A few steps from my house and allegedly 2000 or more years old, it hides behind some bushes in a clearing that reminded me a little bit of a scene from The Blair Witch project. It is majestic as all hell and has wonderful knots and bumps and cavities that could inspire the weakest imaginations. My niece, Reina, loves trees as much as I do, so I hope she reads this post and sees this beauty of a tree. I stared at this one for a long time and even laid on the ground and looked at it from a few different perspectives. I see so so many many different things, but the first thing that popped out at me was the White Rabbit from Alice and Wonderland, what do you see?
The olive tree is a very important symbol of ancient and modern Greek culture and has been a staple of their economy since the Bronze Age. It was first cultivated in Greece, I think in Crete, during the Early Minoan I period (around 3,500BC), and its’ products were quickly exported through common trade routes with other islands, the mainland and abroad. Greek mythology is rife with olive trees and branches and leaves and oil, and the naming of Athens (Αθήνα or Athína) was allegedly the result of a competition between the goddess Athena and her uncle, the god Poseidon. In one of my favorite stories (and a lovely example of the democratic process in its purest form), the citizens of the growing city around the Acropolis needed a patron and both Olympians wanted the job bad. Papa Zeus had to step in to mediate and divined a contest between his daughter and his brother, in which the citizens would choose the protector of their city based on the gift each Olympian offered. Poseidon, with his trident, struck his Acropolis rock and unleashed a gushing spring of undrinkable salt water, offering the gift of power over the seas. Athena, with her wisdom and spear, struck her Acropolis rock and BAM the very first olive tree appeared, offering the citizens the gift of peace and nourishment. The citizens chose Athena’s gift, but clearly weren’t thinking about the future interests of Aristotle Onassis, so that’s how the electoral college was born.
Okay, enough of my yammering, it’s photo gallery time:
Oh dear lord!!! The time I would spend staring at that tree!!! It’s majestically gorgeous! !! The first picture has become my lock screen and the last mt home screen !!! Ahhh Im thinking of making this my above my bed wall picture !! Thank you sooo much for sharing such beauty. You totally werent kidding about this tree! Xoxoxo
I know, I pass our tree (yes, it’s our olive tree now!) and peek at it every day when I walk to the village and the other day I sat in it to read…until the mosquitos came. Just saw the grabs you posted of your phone screen! If you want to blow it up and print, let me know and I’ll email you the original photo, it’s a bigger file and will print better and much clearer. So so so over the moon happy you love it! xoxo
Awee!!! I love the idea of our tree!! And yes please I’m really in love with it and my wall needs it lol . That would be amazing to sit there and read …minus the mosquitos lol . Ahhh I’m sooo in love ! Thanks sooo much for sharing it with me
I just emailed you both image files. You may want to print in B&W, very dramatic, although I do like the original color too. And you are very welcome, our tree is even more special now and taking photographs with my fellow dendrophile in mind brings me great joy, so thank you too! I really am going to organize all my tree pics into some sort of book one day. I do miss film, I would love to do some black and white photography of a lot of trees here and it’s just not the same with a digital camera. Love you xxoo