A life Experience

When my good man Eugene decides that you must have a certain life experience, he doesn’t give up until you do! During our trip to Greece this year, we were given no choice but to have one of these life experiences.

Greece had an unseasonably hot summer this year and although the Meteora are blessed with the most extraordinary natural beauty, they are landlocked and the heat is difficult to escape. On a particularly hot day, Eugene suggested we lunch at the neighbouring village of Diava, which is nestled at the base of a mountain. He had taken our boys there on a number of occasions for an afternoon diversion during other trips, taking shelter under the many, majestic plane trees surrounding the village square and enjoying a refreshing drink at one of its taverns. From Eugene’s very first visit to Diava, he began nurturing a strong appreciation for the square’s ‘βρηση’ – natural spring – with its bracingly cold, yet crystal clear water that gushed from the free-flowing tap.

When we arrived in Diava, he immediately made his way to the spring and doused his entire head with the refreshing water and took large quenching gulps of the water too. He immediately asked us all to share this experience, but we happily declined, taking comfort in chairs under the broad and relieving shade of the plane trees. We enjoyed a delicious lunch from the restaurant ‘Τα Πλατανια’ – The Plane Trees – including a wonderful Skordalia with Bread and Walnuts that we are sharing on Kali Orexi. At the end of our lunch, Eugene returned to the spring and with his fervor renewed by a satiating meal, he encouraged us all, with an evangelical promise of a ‘life experience,’ to cup our hands, drink from the mountain spring and revivify ourselves with nature’s precious nectar… and we did…

Skordalia with Bread and Walnuts