An Essay: What I did in My Christmas Holidays, Sauntering and Centauring up in Pelion.

An essay title that could bring on brain-freeze and blank-page panic as the English teacher delivered a task: punishment for the school break you had just returned from! Not that we had been up to anything really exciting in rural Mid-Argyll. In contrast to my niece’s family who travelled from Durham to the USA for a Disney-fest and had a wonderful time. Since then, her young son, Guy, demands that he has his grandma’s home-made pancakes served ‘stacked’!  

Actually, that brings to mind my favourite Christmas story. It’s about Guy, a typical little boy magnetically attracted to all manner of mischief, the word ‘no’ being translated into challenge-of-the-day, an inverted Nike command.  Visiting his gran one day- no doubt on the stacked-pancake scrounge – and on the run-up to Christmas –about ten chocolates down on the advent calendar - Guy asked her if she had an elf in her house. He apparently had an elf called Egbert in his house – undeniable proof being the little red lights (the house security system sensors). In Guy’s scheme of things, as the lights winked off and on as he walked round the house, this meant Egbert was following his every move. (Question: are we now taking CSI-type surveillance as a fact of life? Scary!)  The bottom line was: if you are a good boy, Egbert relays that information back to Father Christmas who will bring you a commensurate gift.

 I commend my niece on her imaginative strategy – she tells me Egbert departed on Christmas Eve, his duties in planning for next Christmas demanding his attention.

 Our Christmas Eve provided this romantic scene: we travelled south to the port of Volos (half-way to Athens) and, just off the full moon, we enjoyed a splendid walk by the sea in very mild temperatures, before heading to a nearby tavern.  With an exterior décor clearly inspired by My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it was a cavernous place which sadly had only two tables occupied, including ours! The eager-to-please singer asked for requests – it was like a karaoke night for the lazy!

                   

 

 

          

Christmas Day saw us driving up to the villages high above Volos. On the way we met this centaur, looking for all the world like a traffic cop. For Pelion is the land of the centaurs, the mythological half-human /half-horse being, embodying untamed nature.

          

                           

 The strife between the Titans and the Olympian gods, mentioned my last post, and the battles between the Lapith tribe of Thessaly and the Centaurs, are said to signify the human struggle between civilisation and barbarism.

 I really like one explanation as to how the centaur concept came about: horseback culture was said to come from the southern steppes of Central Asia. Nomadic, proficient horsemen from there who reached the non-riding Minoan/Aegean culture of the time, would have appeared as one forceful entity. 

 By the way, ladies, there is mention of female forms. A 4^th Century BC Macedonian mosaic depicts one; Shakespeare, in King Lear, explains how:

‘Down from the waist they’re centaurs,

Though women all above’;

 while in that amazing animated film, Fantasia  ,Disney displays ‘Centaurettes’.             

             

And back to Pelion. At Portaria we meet up with our niece, Maria, sister of Konstantina, who was holidaying with friends. It was quite cold up there so we stopped off for a welcome hot chocolate– and enjoyed this ironic sign outside the facilities! 

                   

                       

Here are the young folks, now in Makrinitsa, which boasts some beautiful traditional houses. This one is a little askew of necessity: a few steps backwards to align it properly and I was off that mountain edge!

    

 

  Back to sea-level, where we admire those wonderful palm trees on the sea-front. Volos is famed for its meze and ouzo-like drink, tsipouro. Here is Zissis – it’s about time we used his name, right? – enjoying sea-food delicacies in very warm Christmas day sunshine.

                   

                     

In the evening we found the last available table in a local tavern – what is that crisis everyone is talking about?  All the eating places were packed out that night!

                     

 

An enthusiastic young group of musicians had the guests up dancing, providing a really warm atmosphere against the evening chill.

They served very nice wine and food in considerable portionsand we managed to drain the bottle and clean our plates  – oh, I do love holidays!

                

 

                        

And now just to annoy all those English teachers out there:

THE END.