Greece 2014

Crete

The Villages

Athens & The Peloponnese

The Villages

Sunday, August 3^rd

Panayiotis picked up Charlie, Alexander, and me at the Rex Hotel in Kalamata, and we headed up the mountain to Tourkalaika

Tourkolaika

Tourkolaika is the village and summer home of our Greek Tsoutsouras family, Charlie's first cousin on his father's side, Kostas, and his wife Georgia. In the winter they live in Athens with their daughter Vasiliki and son Panayiotis, who spend their summer vacations in Tourkolaika. This is the most welcoming family in the world. We love them!
Alexander, Bette, Panayiotis & Vasiliki When we visit the Tsoutsouras's in Tourkolaika, we like to stroll up the hill to the memorial park.
Kostas, Charlie & Panayiotis	Alexander, Charlie & Panayiotis. We spend hours at this table.

Monday, August 4^th
Megalopoli

Panayiotis drove us all down to Megalopoli to meet Tsoutsouras relatives visiting Greece from Salem, Massachusetts.
Kostas and his first cousin Theodore's widow, Maria	Vasiliki, Bette and Maria
Maria's daughter-in-law Tricia, daughter Eleni, granddaughter Lexi, with Georgia & Vasiliki	Maria's and Theodore's Grandchildren
Charlie, Darrin (Maria's son-in-law), Kostas, Peter (Maria's son), Panayiotis & Alexander	Georgia, Vasiliki, Panayiotis, Eleni & Lexie

Monday, August 4^th
From Megalopoli to Mauvria.
Charlie's and Kostas's father's village

Mauvria
Charlie's father's village

Sofia, widow of Charlie's first cousin Stavros I immediately liked this lady the first time I met her in 1983. She and Stavros were so welcoming.	My best Greece 2014 buddies! Vasiliki, Alexander & Panayiotis
Sofia's plants and flowers are beautiful & her home is so peaceful.

Monday, August 4^th
From Mauvria, Panayiotis takes us to a special place.

Cool, cool water!
And then we went to pick up the goat Charlie ordered this morning in Megalopoli for Geogia to roast for tomorrow's dinner.

Messina

Tuesday, August 5^th
Panayiotis takes us to visit another first cousin.

Vasiliki, Amelia, Charlie
Demetra's lovely home.
Demetra & her Mother Aimilia, who passed away two months after our visit.

Tuesday, August 5^th
After a lovely visit we spent the afternoon with Demetra and her 10-year-old daughter Nefeli
at the beautiful sandy beach down the street from their home.
Then we went back to Tourkolaika, where a wonderful Greek goat feast was waiting.

Wednesday, August 6^th
Panayiotis, who, by now we were certain, could win a NASCAR race up and down a mountain,
drove Alexander, Charlie, and me all the way to Athens,
a two and a half hour ride from Tourkolaika.

Dirachia

August 15, 2014

Dirachia is Charlie's mother's village. We've been here many times but never on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, a major holy day and holiday in Greece. And, it has been Charlie's goal to go to Church in his mother's village on that day. So while we were in Kalamata, we drove up the mountain to Dirachia, about 45 minutes from our hotel on the Port of Kalamata.
The Village Memorial
Views from Dirachia
Dirachi Chapel	Church down the road, where Mass was held on the Feast of the Assumption.
George, our second cousin, his mother Maria, his wife Effie, his goat and me.
Senia's garden
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The Kefalas family. One of the nicest families in the world! We had dinner with them after Mass.
Sign listing all the events of August 15th 2014.	It was a wonderful day!

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