Up into the snow and beyond

Well the festival that we thought we going to ended up being in the words of Monty Python "something completely different", but more of that in a moment because the trip to Ioaninna was an interesting place to start. Before we set off last Friday Sandra went down to Thesprotiko to have her hair done, you may remember last year when she had it done it ended up costing me 140 euros well not this time. Because Jorgos was out delivering oil Mantha couldn't leave the kafenion until he got back and being a a typical Greek man this didn't seem that important to him so when he eventually got back Mantha was running 3/4 hr late for their hair appointment, this still didn't mean that she hadn't time for a shower and getting changed before she went, so Sandra ended up taking them down to the hairdressing appointment an hour late and thus there was no time to do her hair. At least it was cheaper this time for me! Anyway when she got back of course she had to set about and do it herself and to my mind she made an altogether better job of it. We were to pick up Jorgos and Mantha at epta ke misi ora (half past seven) but we found them still getting ready so after another 15 minutes wait we were all seated in the car when Jorgos says we need to pick up a friend who has missed the bus! This was the first we had heard of there being a bus to the do, if we had known we would have gone on it and saved Sandra having to drive back!! Anyway we got to the far end of Assos and stopped at the coffee house there and picked up Lakie (I don't know what his real name is but we have spoke to him on several occasions since being here). The journey to Ioaninna is about 3/4 hr on a good day although it's not far it's over the mountain tops and a very winding road to boot in the dark this isn't helped as our English car dips the headlights to the left rather than the right so they have to be lowered so as not to blind oncoming drivers and this means you can't see so good, not a good thing with 50 meter drops off the side of the road. As we got going it started to snow quite heavily and on a sharp mountain bend we met a bus coming in the other direction this turned out to be the bus with all the villagers in which couldn't make it through the snow and then Jorgos keeps saying 4x4 Les 4x4 I said no we don't need that anyway not realising until later that we are permanently 4x4 in high ratio gears anyway. Anyway to cut a long story short we went very sedately over the tops with up to about 3 or 4 inches of snow and no gritters all the way. Sandra and I resolved that we were coming back the long way via Filipiada which is a straight(ish) main road but it goes around the mountains. We eventually arrived at the big city and Jorgos seemed to be working from guesswork to get us to the Crytal Palace, the hotel where the function was. "Sigar Sigar (slowly slowly) Les turn right up here", Thexia (Right) says I, "ohi ohi Aristera" says he, aah left - Things do get lost in translation but I'm used to Sandra holding out her right arm and saying left here!! Anyway left we turn and starts heading to wards some pig meat processing factories and other industrial building along a track without a tarmac surface, after about 1/4 of a mile I am starting to think we must be way off track here who would build an hotel in this industrial area when I spot it a huge hotel with a big Crystal Palace sign outside. The snow has turned to sleet now as we have got lower but it's still coming down. We go inside and it's like the Hilton a beautiful place with crystal chandeliers all over the place and seating for about 500. It is now that we realise that it isn't a festival or carnival at all but a dinner dance. After a bit of talking to people it seems that all villages in Epirus once a year have a village gathering for a meal and entertainment, also the villagers who have left the area organise their own do's where they live so all Assos people who live in Athens or Thesalonika also have a dinner dance in that town just for the village people quaint isn't it. Other villages do the same thing but not necessarily at the same date but always over the winter period. Anyway at our bash there was about 250 people there not a bad turn out seeing as the weather was lousy and the distance to travel in it. We had to wait for the arrival of the bus which had turned round to go the way we intended returning so in about another hour and a half we sat down to a six course meal and all you could drink and live music and dancing and all this for 25 euros a head, pretty good value actually. As the night progressed the snow started coming down with more vengeance outside so by 1:30 am we decided that we ought to go home, the event was scheduled to last until about 4 am but we didn't want to risk the weather and Sandra who hadn't been drinking was in charge as she had the ignition keys, we came home via the low road with snow most of the way although it had turned to sleet by the time we got back to Assos at around 3 in the morning.

The next morning when I got up around 9 am we had a covering of snow around our house and the mountains at either side of the valley were white over, this had gone by about 10ish at the house though.

Later that day we went to Lefkas to see the mighty giant killers Leeds United play Spurs in the FA cup with friends Tony, Liz, Kev, Linda, Mark and Maureen. This meant that Sandra had to forgo the dubious pleasures of her Greek dancing lessons on Saturday night but I am glad we went because we managed to see the game and I had set up the TV to record it and it only caught the last quarter of an hour due to the atmospheric condition on the satellite. We came away with a creditable 2 goals each, a good evening of company it's nice to be able speak English without thinking whether you are understood or not and a belly full of very nice pizza .

It's been a very cold week since then with daytime temperatures of between 3 and 10 degrees although a little warmer this last couple of days. The houses in Greece are not really designed for cold weather and they loose heat quicker than you can throw it at them when it gets really cold, earlier in the week we had the diesel burner on flat out and an electric heater going flat out just to make the lounge comfortable, thank god it's not like this for long here. Although I'll hate to see what the electricity readings going to be as it needs paying next week. Ah well I suppose everything has it's price!