Happy Easter ~ Xronia Polla

For the past 3 years I have been onboard the ships during the Easter Holiday. With this I am treated to the traditional Greek Feast in the Dining Room. Only complaint, it started at 11:30pm. I don't get this late eating, but anyway... Everyone was pretty darn tired as they had just finished Embarkation and that in itself is enough to send you straight to bed.

The feast included starters such as Dalmades and Feta. We all enjoyed the wine and broke into the Eggs. I'm not sure of the significance of the 'Red Egg' but what you do is each person gets one Egg and you then turn to your neighbour, and you smack the 2 eggs together. Only one eggshell will crack. If yours survives, you continue around the table beating up other people's eggs until your shell cracks. Once cracked some folks will then eat the egg ~ I am not sure if this is the best idea with these particular eggs are you can tell the colour was a bit 'off'...

The next course was the Greek Salad and Meatballs followed up with a platter of lamb, potatoes and brocolli. This is one of the big family holidays for the Greeks and as such is hard for some of them to be away from home at this time. It is the only major holiday that I have experienced on the ship where we are gathering for a formal dinner and toasting to the holiday. Even Christmas doesn't get this type of treatment.

The following day we had the traditional lamb roast as well. As they carved up the lamb before your eyes, I couldn't help but remember my first Greek Easter experience at the Bouras household... Who would have thought that their culture would become part of mine?!?