Day 90...

Those of you who are ardent followers will know that yesterday we went to the wedding of  Xaroula who is the elder daughter of Alkisti and Cristos who run our nearest Taverna. 

So far John and I have not experienced the delights of a traditional Cypriot wedding so we were keen to go to it all - starting with the house in the village. 

It was fascinating...  The house was decked out with a gazebo (which blocked off the road - causing chaos to any driver who was unaware).  The gazebo housed family members, the vicar and a fiddler with a young lad playing the guitar.  Alkisti looked a picture in red and was happy and smiling although she must have had such a long day (and an expensive one!!!).  There were all sorts of traditions upheld like the unmarried girls putting their names on the soles of the brides shoes so that whoever's got scuffed out first would be the one to be married next!!  The shoes were covered and placed in a basket and then the women-folk took turns to dance round the bride with the basket.

There was also some sort of ceremony that involved passing a red ribbon round the bride's waist three times and then knotting it, then taking it off and then handing over some cash which seemed to be paying for the services of the fiddler whose songs all seemed to sound the same and which (judging by the sheet music) had 30 or so verses!  In fact most of the day seemed to involve money being handed over for one thing or another.

Having said all that it was still wonderful to watch and both Alkisti's daughters looked stunning.  

We had to laugh at the attendees - there were a lot of Amy Winehouse lookalikes - big black hairdo's and flicky black eyeliner being the order of the day.  Lots of bodies squeezed into nylon (unpleasantly so bearing in the mind the temperatures) and some very very very high shoes.  All the girls were checking each other out!!!  Some of the more closely related members of the village pitched up - John refers to them as the Dick Emery sisters with teeth like 'sugar puffs at half arm intervals', one of whom appeared to be wearing nothing more than a nightie!!

We left the house celebrations and headed off to the church in Paphos where the service was being held at 6.00pm but we couldnt quite work out how as the festivities in the village were still in full swing when we left at 5.00pm!!  We managed to find the church without problem and were the first to arrive (no surprise there!!) so settled into some seats in the back to observe the proceedings. 

The service was absolute bedlam - people wandered in and out of the service at random.  Most ignored the proceedings carrying on their own conversations, texting, phoning and queueing up to purchase the replicas of the bride's shoes at €10 a throw!!  Kids ran round unfettered and one even took a huge flower arrangement out at one point.  The photographer and person with the video camera where all over the place - even elbowing the vicars out of the way to get a better shot.  The whole service was sung in ancient greek and no-one seemed to know what was going on least of all the happy couple.  This all took the best part of an hour - I was absolutely fascinated and determined to see it through to the end - there was so much people watching to do...  The groom looked like he was a throw back to the 1970s - John Travolta eat your heart out - he was even wearing white patent leather shoes!!!  The photographer kept wanting to drag me up to the front so that I could take better pictures but I declined because it seemed so inappropriate!

On leaving the church we had a cone of fresh rose petals thrust into our hands by a little  Sri Lankan girl.  These were for showering the bride and groom when they eventually emerged from the Church - I half expected to have to pay for them as everything else seemed to have a price tag on it.  We beat a hasty retreat and went home to Mum and Dad's to grab a cold drink and to change into fresh clothes - being trussed up like a turkey is not recommended when the temperature is well into the 30s!

The reception was being held at the Monte Lisa in Paphos and Dad kindly dropped us off.  We arrived at about 8.00 and only had to queue about 20 minutes before we passed the welcoming party of the Bride and Groom, Best Man and Matron of Honour and parents of the Bride and Groom.  I dutifully handed over the card that I had made along with the Euros we were donating and headed off to check out the buffet and grab ourselves a free drink.  The food was excellent and the bar never ending.  We managed to find an empty table and sat down to watch what was going on.  We think the venue held a good 5,000 and people seemed to be coming in and out regularly - the queue for the food never waning all the time we were there.  Eventually we were joined by the bride's uncle, his wife and father and mother in law.  Father in law Rionous so reminded me of Dad - he was a man in his 80s and such a gentleman with a really good command of English (Rionous that is Dad can speak English like a native obviously!!).  He did his absolute best to make sure that we were included and understood what was going on.  His brother arrived together with his English wife of 40 years who originally came from Halifax so Yorkshire woman chatted happily to Yorkshire man and it transpired that her brother had at some point lived in Yeovil.

The welcoming party stood for the whole time we were there welcoming the guests - apparently this was the coming together of four villages so all the inhabitants had been invited and I would hazard a guess that they all arrived!!  We think that possibly up to 10,000 people passed through the doors last night eating and drinking.  It begs the question how much does this costs???? and more to the question how much money was handed over to the bride and groom.

By 11.00 we thought it reasonable to leave although we could have stayed and 'enjoyed' the entertainment - Cypriot guy and girl belting out some Cypriot classics.  Dad dancing at weddings is the same the world over as two or three gentlemen the wrong side of 65 took to the dancefloor.  The bar was still free and people were still filing in getting food.  The welcoming party looked like they were done in and we never got to see the first dance or any money being pinned on the bride's dress - we understand that this probably didnt start to happen until the small hours of the morning.

Outside the venue was the most beautiful brand new black BMW all wrapped up in a bow with Panayiotis and Xaroula's names where the number plate would normally be - we think this was probably a gift!!

What a day - so glad we got to experience it all and got home unscathed.  Dad provided an excellent taxi service.

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