Monday June 1
We followed our GPS to Antartika for the panayiri, but didn’t see any party, so we asked the people outside a cafe where the panayiri was and they gave us directions. Aba also called a dance friend Yianni who is our hotel host, and he gave us directions too. We found our way to Agia Triada monastery where we met Yianni and had a great time dancing outside in the sunshine. They had started the music at 11am and were still going strong when we got there around 1pm. We knew a couple of the songs and it was fun to sing along. We danced a lot of syrto, a beratis, and toward we requested a leventikos and the band was happy to oblige! There were a couple older men leading the dance line who kept switching with each other and the band would start a new song or dance, maybe the band knew each guy’s favorite song or dance and would play it when he was leading the line. It was really nice and we stayed until around 4:30 when people started clearing out and the caterers started taking down tables and tents, but the band was still going when we left. We met some really nice people who told us about another panayiri tonight in Akritas with Macedonian music! We went to Yianni’s hotel Mimallones and settled in and took a big nap. Then we made pita sandwiches with hummus, tomato, cucumber, feta, olive oil and lemon juice and it was super yummy. Then we followed Yianni to the panayiri in Akritas, which is the new name, but the old name is Buf which is where the dance Bufcansko is from, and we danced Bufcansko in Buf! Horray! We knew a lot of the songs like Stamena, Dafino Vino Crveno, Pusti Mene Sar Planino, Makedonsko Devoijce. We danced so many good dances like Raikos, Bufcansko, lots of Berance, and we learned a new Paidusko that Yianni’s son Simo called Paiduskino. We had a great time and we left close to midnight, even though Yianni said the party might go until 3 or 4, but we were getting tired and we were all ready to go to sleep!
Wednesday June 3
Yesterday we had a nice simple breakfast at Hotel Mimallones and Yianni’s wife Ira recommended some local things to do. We followed her suggestions and went to an island on Little Lake Prespa called Agios Achilleios for a hike. We saw ruins of basilicas, churches, and monasteries, and we walked up to the top of the mountain to see a giant cross and a beautiful 360 view of the lake and the mountains. We also saw some beautiful Prespa dwarf cattle, a special indigenous cow that is protected by the Society for Protection of Prespa. There is also a very small protected population of water buffalos whose presence in Prespa dates back to the time of King Xerxes! We looked it up and there are only about 100 individual water buffalos here, so there are a lot of local efforts to protect and preserve their population. Caleb really wanted to see a water buffalo but we only saw the cows, but it was still very cool to learn about the rare protected species here. A local guy who participates in the environmental protection efforts told us that there is also the biggest pelican population in the whole world, with 3000 pelicans! He explained that there is no swimming or boating allowed in Lake Little Prespa in order to protect the wildlife, but he has a special permission from the Society for Protection to take his boat out for preservation efforts. We looked it up and learned that there are two species of pelican here- the Dalmation pelican is the special kind with the biggest breeding colony in the world here, and the Great White pelican is the other kind with a smaller population here. After our hike we stopped at the small cafe on the island for a snack with Florina and feta cheese, freddo cappucinos, and sour cherry juice! After Agios Achilleios island, we went to Psarades to check out Akrolimni Lazaros taverna. Dimitri, the bartender from Yiali Kafene in Ioannina, had told us about the tavern and said his cousin works there, and told us that we could go out on a boat ride on Big Lake Prespa from there. Ira also recommended the same taverna and the boat ride! We found the taverna and met Dimitri’s aunt Vikki, and went on an amazing speed boat with Lazaros as our captain. He showed us paintings of Panayia Maria (Mother Mary) on the rock walls, and small churches built in the rock walls around the lake, and he told us they were from Byzantine times. He spoke mostly Greek and I translated what I could understand. He went really fast and the waves were a little bumpy but it was really fun and exhilarating. He kept showing us which mountains around us belonged to Macedonia, Albania, and Greece, because Lake Prespa is shared by all three. Every so often, he would stop the boat to show us something, and he would point with his arm and say to us in Greek, “From here to there, Macedonia. From here to there, Albania. And all of this, Greece.” He kept taking the boat really close to big groups of pelicans so that they would all take off fly around close to us, and it was really fun! We were out on the water for about an hour and we had a great time. After the boat ride we went back to our hotel to shower and rest for a bit, and then we went back to the Akrolimni taverna for dinner. We shared salad, more grilled Florina cheese, grilled sweet red peppers, and yummy bread with olive oil and pepper flakes. I got steak, Sophie got chicken, Caleb got fried battered carp from the lake, Mom got trout from the lake, and Aba got bifteki (small burgers). Vikki brought us delicious yogurt with jam for dessert on the house! Everything was very yummy and there was only one other family there so it was nice and quiet, and we could hear the cows mooing and the dogs barking and the roosters crowing. It was a really great day and Vikki said we are good people! yay 🙂
