Week 1 : Happy 30th Birthday, George

For two days we stayed in the beach bungalow George’s cousins Spiro and Efthimios built with their own hands. Here, on our last night in town, we shared a wonderful birthday. Imagine a table of homegrown food spread among 30 people around. Bread from the local oven, vegetables from our gardens, chickens freshly slaughtered that afternoon and wine from our family's fields. We look around and see three generations raising a glass to the cousins who have returned from far. ‘We’ve come here to marry my sister’, George says, as a dozen conversations crisscross the table. When the birthday cake bearing an illustration of a cyclist and the words ‘Corfu to London’ is brought out, John stands to give a toast and cousin Stefano translates, ‘I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the immense hospitality I have been given here. George's extended family here has been more than hospitable, and this celebration for his 30th birthday is a wonderful way to begin our trip. Tomorrow we leave for the long road ahead; and I know that George shares my sentiment when I say that we will never forget this wonderful beginning’.