We had a big breakfast at Marina's Cafe. Good Lord. When they drizzle, they actually rain nutella. It was such a yummy and delightful breakfast. Very sweet!! We were a little weary of today's travels, due to road conditions but we ended up taking a much better road! We saw goats everywhere and they could scale pure vertical cliffs, it was phenomenal.
This day of travel would be just for visiting family!! It was a little hard to get in contact with family through messaging on facebook so I had a bit of a mix up when we got to Fiskardo. Fortunately, there was a guy there who was very friendly and pointed us to the spot where Niko, our distant cousin, works. But then I saw Niko's Taverna and thought... how many Nikos can there be in Fiskardo? We headed over and a guy comes to greet us and I greet him, "Hi! I am from America and I think we might be family!!" I give him a big hug and a galaktoboureko. And he seats us down and introduces us to his sister. We quickly figure out, he is the wrong Nikos but he knows the right one and is related to him. Of course. He calls our (distant) cousin Panagias, who then comes to the Taverna. The taverna is beautiful. You can see a small bay of expensive yachts. It is picturesque to say the least. According to our cousin, it has medusas in it!! Panagias doesn't speak much English but he speaks more than the Greek that we do. He has worked for years on different cargo ships, traveling the world. The lovely man that first greeted us, had a son who was fluent and so fun to talk to. They laid out a huge spread for lunch that they called a "picnic". We were still stuffed from breakfast, but everyone did their duty and ate more. It was a long time sitting there, like a really long time. The kids were dying and at one point Jody had to take Eli down the hill for a talking to. In the meantime there is a bee and without flinching Panagias manages to catch it in an empty coke bottle, shake it violently, and kill it... or so we thought.
1 hour later, the bee wakes up and I have to put a plate on top because I don't want to kill it. Panagias has been trying to reach family so we can all get together, but to no avail. And it's OK, because we have him!! He offers to take us a few places in his little rabbit car. He gets Eli and Ella by the hand and off they go. I'm a little worried at this point and send Jody to drive with them.
He then took us to his sister Maria's house. Her son owns the 3rd largest bakery chain in Greece. I've met her before and she was very tired that day. We only stayed a short time. We then went to Panagias home, which was my Yaiya Irene's home in Maganos where she grew up. It was a beautiful home and Panagias turned on a lion show for the kids and gave us candied figs. We weren't sure what they were and they looked like a dim green blob. I gave my kids the look, the look of death if they made one complaint about eating them. HOWEVER!!! THEY WERE THE BEST TASTING FIGS WE'D EVER HAD IN OUR LIVES!!!! They were magical!!
By now, we are all fried from the heat, the drive, not flushing toilet paper, and all the craziness of vacation adventures. Panagias has a picture of our WEDDING on his wall!! We go to leave and he is very sad. He was so nice. Really, truly it was such a pleasure to visit with him. He had a heart of gold. He had divorced his wife, had 2 sons and a brother who died who possibly dated my mom? He also was trying to tell us a story about a Kangaroo, but with the language barrier, no one is sure what that was all about. Hopefully, God willing, we will get to be together again!!
We headed back on the long drive to the Airbnb. By this time we are all legit fried. Everyone was just wanting to rest. Jody, Ella, and I ended up driving to Argostoli for a delicious 10PM dinner. It was hip and fun. They were carrying tables out to accommodate how many people there were! There were also 2 Yiaya's on top of the restaurant, the 2nd floor, just watching all the excitement below. It was a lovely sunset and a very vibrant dinner! One thing I loved about Greece was all the beautiful dishes they served food on.
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