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| The Greek stereotype |
Forty years ago today, on Saturday the
fifth of February 1977, I left England for a new life in Greece.
Passion made me do it, I had met my
Greek God, (Yes, England had Greek Gods!) and I would have followed him to the
ends of the Earth.
Sunday, the sixth of February dawned,
and so began my initiation into the crazy, yet wonderful ways of the Greeks.
Forty phenomena I have
grasped throughout my forty years in Greece.
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| "It's all Greek to me" Charlotte Higgins |
Literally, I understood nothing; my
question of the day was “What did he say?”
But, within a year, I was speaking
fluent Greek!
2.
Punctuality is a dirty word
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| Living on Greek time |
Time has no meaning, Greeks live for
the moment!
3.
Ouzo, don’t go there
Lethal stuff, especially when your
first encounter with it was “straight up”, no added water!
4.
Men wear skirts
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| Evzones-The Presidential Guards of Greece |
They wear their skirts with great panache, a
proud “Evzone”, the presidential Guard, in his “fustanella” (Pleated white
skirt), is a sight for sore eyes.
5.
Everything is better with feta
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| Greek Feta Cheese Makes things better |
Feta cheese, served with absolutely
everything, and I don’t like it!
6.
Greece is not the name of the country
Greeks are adamant about this, the
name of their beautiful country is Hellas.
7.
Traffic lights, traffic laws and the Highway Code, were made to be broken
The first time driving in Greece, I
felt I was taking my life in my hands, I soon became an expert Greek driver!
8.
Everyone is someone’s cousin
All Greeks seem to be related to one
another!
9.
Lemon, olive oil and oregano go with everything
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| Olive oil and lemons The staples of Greek cuisine Photo property of Julian Merrow-Smith Artist Julian Merrow-Smith |
If you don’t like olive oil, lemon or Origano, you starve.
10.
Every family has a Yiannis
Yiannis
is one of the most popular boy’s names in Greece, and as the tradition is to
name the first born son after the grandfather, every family has one, I have one of
my own, my son Yiannis!
11.
Greeks are never wrong
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| Aristotle, philosopher, teacher of Alexander the Great, (384-332 BCE). Roman marble copy of a Greek bronze. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy |
Well, seeing as they are descended
from the world’s greatest philosophers, and The Greeks Who Made Us Who We Are, how could they ever be wrong?
12.
Greeks dance on tables
When Greeks dance, it’s as if they are
on another level, and they are!
They’re up on the table, dancing with
all their soul, smashing plates and crying “Opa”.
13.
Greeks talk with their hands
Don’t stand too near to a Greek; you
are likely to be whacked in the face by their wild hand gesticulations!
14.
Greeks force feed their guests
Greeks are such generous people. Don’t
bother trying to refuse food from a Greek, just accept everything and then diet
for the next two weeks!
15.
Greeks keep count of how many times they visit the beach each summer
I still don’t know why they count the
number of times they visit the beach, but it becomes quite a Competition between them, you will
inevitably be asked “Posa bania exeis kanei?” “How many swims have you done?”
I've just popped back here to add this, many of you (And thank you so much for reading my blog) are telling me I forgot about the counting of ice creams!
Yes! I had forgotten that, Greeks count how many ice creams they have consumed each summer!
I've just popped back here to add this, many of you (And thank you so much for reading my blog) are telling me I forgot about the counting of ice creams!
Yes! I had forgotten that, Greeks count how many ice creams they have consumed each summer!
16.
Greeks are loud and proud
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| Self explanatory! |
And so they should be, they have a lot
to shout about, Greece is the cradle of civilization, they have been through
thick and thin and they survived, and, they gave the world History!
Herodotus, "Father of history" started it all, with his works; The Histories, and don't forget Homer, the great Greek poet, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, epic poems, central to all Greek literature!
Herodotus, "Father of history" started it all, with his works; The Histories, and don't forget Homer, the great Greek poet, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, epic poems, central to all Greek literature!
17.
Each and every Greek family owns at least one olive grove
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| Olive harvesting Photo by Costanavarino |
Outside of Athens, it’s rare to see
Greek mamas buying olive oil from the supermarket; they have gallons stored
away, all from their own olive trees.
18.
Greeks do not know the meaning of the word “Queue”
Wherever, whenever, it’s a free for
all!
19.
Greeks never say “I don’t know”
The Greek ego, I have learnt to my detriment,
if they don’t know the answer, they’ll tell you anything, always best to check
and double check from some other source!
20.
It’s Constantinople, not Istanbul
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| Sultan Mehmed II's entry into Constantinople, painting by Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929). |
Don’t call Constantinople Istanbul if
you value your life, up until The Fall of Constantinople 1453, it was the capital city of the Byzantine Empire,
stolen by the Turks, a thorn in the side of every Greek.
21.
Pay cash, I’ll give you discount
You want to buy a fridge, a
television, well; it goes for anything really, pay cash, you’ll get a discount,
see that plasma TV there, 1000 Euro, give me cash, it’s your for 900
I like this!
22. Greeks are consistently one year older
When you ask a Greek how old they are,
they will always add a year, you see, if they are forty years old on their
birthday, they are now in their forty first year, so, they are forty one, logical!
23. Greeks don’t read tea leaves, they read
coffee cups
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| Predicting the future with a Greek coffee cup |
A variation on a theme, Greeks predict
your future from the residual coffee grounds in the cup and on the saucer.
You drink the little cup of delicious
Greek coffee (Don’t ever call it Turkish), the cup is turned upside down on the
saucer, left for a few minutes, the residue inspected, and voila, you know who
you are going to marry.
24.
Greeks spit at you
Don’t
worry if a Greek spits at you, three times! They are only protecting you by warding
off the evil eye.
25.
Greeks are passionate
Oh yes they are, in everything and every
way, they love life, whatever they do, they do it
with;
"MERAKI",
with all their heart and soul.
with;
"MERAKI",
with all their heart and soul.
26.
Family is what it’s all about
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| Family What else is there? |
Nothing is more important to Greeks
than their family, they may fight and quarrel, they may not speak to each other
for days or weeks, but, family is everything, the be all and end all.
27.
Greeks eat together
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| My big fat Greek family |
Meal times are happy events; it’s not
only about great Greek cuisine it’s about being together, catching up on news
and gossip.
Most of Greece comes to a standstill
at lunch time, around two o clock, shops and offices close, school is over, everyone
heads home for lunch, always homemade!
Normal life resumes at five!
28.
Greeks never eat dinner before 10 pm
After the large quantities of food
consumed at lunch time, often not over before three in the afternoon, is it any
wonder they eat a late dinner?
29.
Greeks clap when the pilot lands the plane
They did this on my first plane trip
to Greece, forty years ago, and they did on my last, they are just so relived
to be back on “terra firma”, they are also applauding the pilot.
30.
Souvlaki is the Greek equivalent of English fish and chips
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| Souvlaki Food of the Gods! |
In England, on every street corner, is
a fish and chip shop, in Greece, it’s a slouvlaki shop.
31.
Greeks are hospitable, friendly and welcoming
Greeks will invite you into their
homes, feed and water you, and would give you the shirt of their back if you
need it.
An example, once, when visiting Crete,
in the middle of nowhere a shepherd flagged us down to ask the time, and
proceeded to invite us to his house for lunch, and to meet his family.
To understand the kind, generous and hounourable Greeks better, please read;
PHILOTIMO
It says all there is to say about Greeks.
To understand the kind, generous and hounourable Greeks better, please read;
PHILOTIMO
It says all there is to say about Greeks.
32.
Greeks love children
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| My little Greek My granddaughter Melina |
Who cares if they
smash that bottle of expensive wine? Never mind, never mind, “ Den peirazei”, the phrase on every Greeks
lips when children are around.
33. Greeks eat well
Not for the
Greeks fast food and junk, they know the benefits of a healthy diet, full of
fresh fruit and vegetables, fish straight from the sea and meat in moderation.
After all,
The Mediterranean Diet originated in Greece.
34. Always time for coffee
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| Coffee Greek-Style |
No matter
how busy they are, Greeks will stop for coffee, not for them coffee in a
cardboard cup, on the run, coffee means a time for friends, coffee is to be savoured
and enjoyed.
On unexpectedly
meeting a friend in the street, their first words will be “How are, let’s go
for coffee” accompanied by much hugging and kissing.
This
explains observation number two, “Punctuality is a dirty word”!
35. Greeks approach difficulties with
a sense of humour
Greeks get
on with it, they’ve been through worse, is what they are likely to tell you in
times of trouble, today’s austerity measures may mean cutting back on food, “Never
mind”, they will say, “I needed to lose a few kilos”.
Inside they
are terrified, unsure of the future, to the world; they put on a brave face.
36. Greeks have relatives all over the
World
Owing to the
depression of the 50’s and 60s, after WII and The Greek Civil War, many Greeks
left Greece to find a better life, in the factories of Germany, on the streets
of America, in the snows of Canada and in sunny Australia.
And so,
everyone now has an aunt in Stuttgart, an uncle in Chicago, a cousin in Toronto,
or a nephew in Melbourne.
37. Greeks are political animals
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| A poet and one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Solon was first elected by Athenians around 594 BC to enact reform at a time when strife among the social classes threatened to cause revolution. The founder of Democracy |
As well as
being party animals, Greeks, (who, at the drop of hat bring out the ouzo and
crank up the bouzouki, we’ve all heard the phrase “Party like a Greek”), are
also political animals, in fact, the ancient Greeks were the fathers of democracy.
Visit a
Kafeneon, the old-fashioned, traditional Greek coffee shop, usually men only,
at any time of day or night, and you’re sure to witness an ongoing political debate,
sometimes rather heated.
Greeks
devour newspapers, never miss the news on TV, they know what’s what.
From Greek grannies
in remote mountain villages, to smart business men in Athens, they know who the
current minister of education is, who the treasurer is, who’s minister of
culture, and, no doubt, what the Prime minister had for lunch!
38. Greeks leave everything until the
last minute
Trying to
get something done in Greece can send you crazy, Greeks seem to operate in
chaos, start a job from back to front, down tools and head for the kafeneon, and
at your every protest, the answer is “Avrio, Avrio”, tomorrow, tomorrow, yes, major
catastrophes occur, all taken in good humour, but, more times than not, “Everything
is all right on the night”
39. Greeks will prevail
Greece has had
its trials and tribulations.
From 1453
with the fall of Constantinople until the revolution in 1821 Greece was
under Turkish rule, after which, they fought a few Balkan Wars, endured the First
World War, were occupied by the Germans in World War Two and experienced civil
war immediately after.
The Greeks
pulled through, and again, now, in this terrible economic crisis, the Greeks
will survive, they always do!
40. I am Greeker than the Greeks
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| Greek Mama- Greeker than the Greeks |
What have I
learnt from my forty years living among the Greeks?
I have
learned they are proud, patriotic, passionate people; they are kind, generous
and hospitable.
Yes, sometimes,
I can’t understand their mentality; Greek bureaucracy is a law unto itself, and their death wish disregard for safety makes me cringe.
Yes
some days I want to be as far away from Greece as possible, yes, there are
Greeks I don’t like, but, mostly, I love them.
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| Junior Greek God My son Yiannis |
I have turned
into a big Greek mama, with my own big fat Greek family, and, apart from my very own Greek God, I now have
my personal Greek God junior, my son Yiannis, and my Greek Goddess, my daughter
Nais.
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| My Greek Goddess My daughter Nais |
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| Enduring, as Greeks do! Me and My Greek God Tassos |
“Na zisete”,
I wish long life for you all, and “Sas
agapo poli” I love you all very much.
Check out this amazing book by Theodore Pagivlas, a witty account of modern day Greeks, funny pictures and hilarious anecdotes, pure Greekness!
Holy Madness of Modern Greeks
Love lists?
More Greek lists below!
25 of the Most Famous Ancient Greek Statues and Sculptures; Where Are They Now?
Check out this amazing book by Theodore Pagivlas, a witty account of modern day Greeks, funny pictures and hilarious anecdotes, pure Greekness!
Holy Madness of Modern Greeks
 |
| Holy Madness of Modern Greeks By Theodore Pagivlas |
More Greek lists below!
25 of the Most Famous Ancient Greek Statues and Sculptures; Where Are They Now?
