Making friends in Athens- Kostas* κανοντας φίλους στην Αθήνα

Shuli Sapir-Nevo: 

Σ’ εχαριστώ πολυ , αγαπητέ  φίλε μας, Κώστα.

Να είσαι καλά .

Θα τα πούμε σύντομα .

 *

Kostas Kefalakis:

I cant believe your Greek!  ΦΑΝΤΑΣΤΙΚΑ!!!

KOSTAS IS OUR FIRST SMILE IN Athens.

From the first moment we got into his taxi and met him,

While taking us from the airport to the city

We talked about music, philosophy, life, Greek food and more.

It took us only few minutes to understand

That he is going to be a friend and that he has become our welcome,

And our goodbye to Athens every time we will be there.

One thing I learned about Greek people, they get so excited

Seeing you love their music, life, food.

And if you learn their language they are so happy,

because it means you really love them and their culture.

So “Don’t mind the mistakes, just do your best”,

I said to myself when I arrived, and I tried to practice my Greek,

Because Greek is music to my ears.

Kostas giving me some great CDs,

with wonderful Greek music

That I keep hearing and enjoy.

And that makes me so happy.

It’s the end of December .

Our friend, Kostas, taking us once again to Beautiful Athens.

It’s Christmas time, so many colorful lights,

The city looks so sparkling and lovely.

Tonight we are going to see,

Γιώργος Νταλάρας, Ελένη Βιτάλη, Γλυκερία ΜΑΖΙ

στην “Ιερά Οδό”

George Dalaras, Eleni Vitali and Glykeria, in one stage, in “Iera Odos.

And we are so excited .

Kostas tells us it’s the best performance in the city.

The next day we went to visit our friend  Maya,

And her beautiful art  gallery, “Pandora”,

That is located on Adrianou Street in the colorful Plaka,

South of the Acropolis, in Athens.

And when we find out that she brought there a piano

A spontaneous music session started.

Soon Heli and Baruch, our friends joined us

And Our Kostas, who was also not far from here

Joined us as well.

We all had a happy hour

Playing  music and singing with Maya and Mel,

In Maya’ amazing  art salon.

Mel and Kostas singing “The Autumn Leaves”.

Looking at Kostas’ face, you can tell that

His heart is full with music.

Then Kostas takes us to Psari ,

One of the most  beautiful areas in Athens.

Filled with restaurants, cafes, ouzeries and bars,

Every place is decorated so nicely. And it is

So much fun to walk around.

Kostas finds  a nice place in Psari.

He chooses for us what to eat, and everything is so delicious.

Kostas grew up in Crete and he introduced us

To the wonderful food and drink of this beautiful island.

It’s a rainy cold day in Athens,

 But its so warm and lovely here.

The music starts.

Those Greek beautiful songs.

You let it fills your heart.

It goes so well with the tsipouro (τσιπουρο)*

And good friends.

Sure enough you stop counting the glasses you drink,

Till your head is loose and you feel so relaxed and good,

As our friend Baruch said, and believe me he knows what he said,

I saw it with my own eyes.

*Tsipouro

Ripe dark grapes are passed through crusher.

The mass is left to settle for a few days,

Just enough to get fermentation started.

Tsipouro is an attempt to get the most out of the plant.

Mel the Jazz lover, joins the group of the musicians,

And after a short lesson he starts to play with them Rempetika.

If you don’t believe it , and you want to hear

Mel playing Greek music

Just watch the video!

Here is another place with a wonderful Rempetika music ,

That Kostas recommended us, and we loved it.

 It’s “Kαπνικαρεα‏” (kapnikarea”) .

Sure, Kostas knows where to take us,

So we all had great time with him, and enjoyed walking with him

In the streets of Athens, discovering more fantastic music, great food,

The talks, the singing.

 But most of all

We appreciate so much Kostas’ friendship.

When we left Athens Kostas gave us bottles

Of that special Tsipouro,

And a huge traditional round cake-bread

With a hidden coin for good luck- 

This is for 2015- the new year to come.

When MEL arrived at the Airport, the local authorities wanted

To scan the bag that Kostas had just given him.

When they found out that it was a New Years bread cake,

They got all excited and told him about the tradition,

That the person who gets the piece containing the hidden coin,

Will have luck all through the year.

Suddenly, the girl in charge of check-in smiled at him.

“We have to scan the cake anyway for security.

Would you like me to tell you exactly where the coin is hidden?”

Of course Mel said yes, and they told him where it was.

This was to be his little secret, which he didn’t tell me about.

Back home, the children and me were so eager

To eat the bread cake and couldn’t wait for Mel,

So we started to eat this delicious cake-bread,

Even our granddaughter liked it a lot.

And Kostas, guess what…

I FOUND THE COIN !

And maybe that means that I will be lucky

And will come to Athens again, in March:).

So if you are coming to Athens, and need a taxi from the airport,

Call our friend Kostas, he is great to talk too

And can recommend the local (not tourist) places

Where you can go for music and food.

Tell him that Shuli and Mel sent you.

Kostas Kefalakis , mob: 6973778519

-taxi services and friend.

Σ’ εχαριστώ πολυ , αγαπητέ  φίλε μας, Κώστα.