Mythical Peloponnese

In my other blog, which I have written in Spanish, I mention a lot my friend Ahtanasia, who was also my roommate back in Valencia. When she told me that she was going to take part in an exhibition in Athens in December and I was thrilled that I would see her again after such a long period of time! We were talking through skype, but it is not the same to see the other person and spend time with them! Just like old times -we stayed in the same house, this time not in a students' apartment of Spain, but in the same house, where I grew up, in Glyfada. I was very happy to see Athanasia again and, since she was only going to stay for a few days, I wanted to get the chance to see her as much as I possibly could, so I decided to accompany her in the exhibition where she would be working for four days! Unfortunately, the first two days, I fell asleep in the morning and I didn't have the chance to go with her! This is why on the third day I decided to set me alarm very early so that I wouldn't miss yet another chance to help my friend and get to see her a bit more!

The exhibition was named “Mythical Peloponnese” and there were stands that presented and sold local goods. The land of Peloponnese is famous for its goods, so this exhibition was a way to advertise them and promote them more effectively. It was in Klaythmonos Square, right across the street from “Panepistimio” metro station. It is a place where many events and such exhibitions are organised. Right at the entrance, you could find a big kitchen, where professional cooks would prepare some delicious dishes, in the open air... They were using the products sold in the exhibition, in order to propose some unusual recipees, show how one could make good use of the goods and, of course, let people taste the food in order to realize the quality of the products. In the left and right side of the kitchen, began the stands. Each stand represented a certain type/category of products from one of Peloponnese's cities or villages.

In Athanasia's stand the products were from Argos and they were related to honey. But, first, let me explain how she ended up participating in this exhibition. Athanasia lives in Larissa, where she recently finished her studies -I will write about my visit in this city another time. She has studied to be an Agronomous and now she is working with one of her teachers and some of her classmates in a laboratory, doing experiments and working with certain products. There, they had made a type of cream from 90% aloe vera, which they produce themselves in Crete and 10% honey. This is to be used in the skin, as simply a moisturiser of the face and hands, or in order to heal wounds, even sunburns -if you have read about aloe vera, you probably know that it can heal pretty much everything that's going wrong with your skin! In order to see how the public would react to such a product (because it was the first time that an aloe-vera cream was all natural, with no kind of conservatives) Athanasia and her co-workers decided to bring it to the market, starting from selling it to a low price in this exhibition. Alongside the cream, they were selling some honey from Argos -many different kinds and flavours.

Apart from selling products, there were many contests going on in the exhibition. I was responsible to help in one of them: I had a tablet and I was going around the exhibition, asking people if they were interested in taking part in the competition. If the answer was yes, they had to answer 5 multiple choice questions that were about Peloponnese. Most people that visited the exhibition were from there, so they knew all the answers without even thinking about them. After answering all questions, they should tell me their data and I would put it in the system, so that they would participate in the lottery to win a box of local products from Peloponnese or a trip and a stay in a hotel.

Besides that, I was helping sell the honey and aloe-vera. Some of my friends even came to see me and meet Athanasia. On Sunday, the exhibition's last day, we had a lot of fun. Athanasia had put on an original bee-keeper's uniform that they had provided them for advertising purposes. All the kids were running to her in order to ask her about the uniform! I took many pictures of her, because it was really funny seeing her that way. At one point, even I put it on and we took some photos! There were also some real bees, inside the box and people loved seeing them through the glass. After selling all the bottles of aloe-vera and most of the honey, we started to take down the things and clean up the stands. There was music and traditional dancing. Only the people working in the exhibition were still there, so we were making jokes and talking to each other. When we finished taking down the things, we left and went out to celebrate it. We had something to eat and then went out for a drink.

The days with Athanasia brought me back some memories from Spain, as well as some aloe-vera cream for my face and some honey for my breakfast! It was the first time we'd seen each other in Greece, but the next one was about to come soon!