We got up at 6am to catch a 2-hr train to a city called Lorissa. From there, the 15 of us walked our way to the central bus station to catch a bus to the famed village of Tirnavos. The bus pulled up 30 minutes later…I must say pretty much to a ghost town. We were all looking for the costume parades we had heard about. (Melissa, a 2nd semester veteran, had found out about this hundred-year-old celebration) A two minute walk in a completely random direction showed us our first sign of fertility. There stood a group of four men standing outside a taverna…grilling octopus tentacles on an open grill. We walked past and the man controlling the grill literally waved a ceramic (excuse the vulgarity but it is the truth)….penis at us. This was the intro to the show.
The town of Tirnavos holds a festival to celebrate a superstition that apparently brings good fertility for the year. The festival is held shortly after Valentine’s Day and right before lent. The only meat served is fish…mostly octopus and kalamri. Ouzo and retsina are in every glass…men very passively taunt woman with clay male organs…speakers are set up throughout the village, playing the loud songs for everyone to get a groove on…kids throw firecrackers in the streets to strollers surprises…Tables, white table cloths, bread, food and drink are set in most of the open areas, for people to sit and watch it all in. Take a look at pictures and you will get a sense of what went on here.
Anyway, it was such an interesting day trip. I got a sense of what it takes to get to Athens via train. I saw a local village celebrating their uniquness( one of the study abroad students remembers learning about this festival in a Western Civil. Class). I got to know some of my classmates with the help of 6 hours of roundtrip public transportation. It was a long long day but I only have one class tom…so that ain’t bad.
Heard Mikey Drimel will be arriving in Thessaloniki on March 20th. He is bringing a friend. We will hang here for a day or two…then head south to Athens and beyond (islands!) I hope I can show him a good time.
You all have a better one.
No comments:
Post a Comment