This year COVID-19 has thrown a massive spanner in the works, postponing everything from birthday parties to travel plans.
Many people were looking forward to jetting off to Greece to visit family and friends or have a frappe on the beach, but unfortunately those dreams may not become reality until late 2021.
In the meantime, members from NUGAS Victoria and the Adelaide University Greek Club share where they find their own little slice of Greece…in Australia.
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Connie Sapantzis
Despite our inability to travel to the motherland this year, I like to think that as Greek-Australians we are able to connect with our culture wherever we are in the world. Victorians have done it tough due to extended COVID-19 lockdown periods this year, however during this time our ‘Greekness’ has not wavered.
Our love of food and family, our core values of filotimo and our strong traditions have remained and this is where, in our own backyard, we find a little bit of Greece. For me, my love of Greek music and dance, connecting with friends and family and cooking yiayia’s traditional recipes are integral parts of my identity as a Greek-Australian and this helped keep me sane during life in lockdown. Although, there were many dreams of a summer holiday on the islands, that’s for sure!
Fortunately, with the easing of restrictions we are all able to enjoy the vibrant Greek scene a little more! A classic stop for the ultimate ‘parea’ reunion and one of my personal favourites is Stalactites restaurant in the heart of the city. These souvlakia are up there with yiayia’s!
If you’re from the east side of town, a frappedaki in Oakleigh is the ultimate symbol of summer in Greece and if you’re from the west side of town, Yiannis Pantheon Cakes in Coburg has got you covered. As we get closer to the festive season, how can we forget the smell of the souvla in the backyard.
Although our travel is limited, the Greek way of life lives on in Melbourne.
Nick Teale
As members of a diaspora community, one particularly hard-hitting aspect of the present circumstances for us has been the apparent distance that has been put between us and our heritage country.
Many Greek-Australians have grown up accustomed to the idea that Greece is just a day away. Trips to reconnect with family and heritage, and to experience the country’s wonders firsthand are a common topic of conversation among my peers. I planned to make one such trip this year, and I have now found myself focusing on the elements of Greece I can find right here.
So far, I have found them in two main places:
First and foremost, I find my little bits of Greece in other people. A quick example would be going on drives with Greek friends and ending up at souvlaki shops where we bond over our elation at discovering sour cherry λουξ on the menu.
Then comes the Greece in myself. This year, in lieu of going back, I spent time learning to make various dishes. I shared these with non-Greek friends and felt that same elation as, in my experience, sharing our culture with others is one of the most authentic ways of experiencing Greece.
I have come to realise that my biggest ‘backyard Greece’, the Greek community at university, is ultimately a combination of these two places I have outlined. It is here that I find Greece in my fellow club members and I find it in our mutual drive to share our culture with the wider community.
John Paras
I’ve never been to Greece and like many young Greek university students, I was planning to make my first trip in my mid-semester break. Unfortunately due to COVID all of our travelling plans have been uprooted.
My little piece of Greece is what I like to call ‘The Xwrio’, just a five minute drive from my house to the home of my yiayia and pappou. In the heart of Rosanna resides a suburban brick house.
My grandparents came from Prasino Arcadia and originally lived in Yarraville before moving up north and in true Prasiniotiko fashion, no space is wasted for growing fresh produce. Out in the kipo is where you can honestly get lost in a jungle of lemon trees, horta, lettuce, tomatoes, grapevines, chickens, beehives and much more.
Yiayia Vicki produces enough food to feed a small country and I am amazed at her age of 80 she still gets out in the garden every day to tend her crops. Yiayia always cooks up a storm but one specific dish that always makes me smile is her frikase, everything in it comes from her garden except for the meat and always brings a smile to my face.
The inside of the house is filled Greek trinkets and all things ethnic, items and photos of things all native to Arcadia. Some of the notable items are the wooden watering jugs, old ceramic Metaxa bottles in the form of an Evzona, old animal bells from the village, pappou’s huge collection of komboloi, plastic vinyl over some of the tables and doilies that yiayia made.
My little piece of Greece is a slice from the heart of Peloponniso, a five minute drive from home!
Dion Lobotesis
For me, finding Greece in my own backyard is all about focusing on what is in my opinion the most important element of our country and culture – family and friends. Everyone has been forced to take some time off because of this pandemic, and so ‘finding Greece’ has been all about checking in and connecting with the people who mean the most to me.
We love Greece not because of the beaches, or the weather or the bouzoukia (ok, that might be part of it) but more importantly because that is where our heart and soul comes from and still lives.
Throughout this pandemic, I’ve made more of an effort to connect with uncles, aunties, friends and cousins back in Athens and Zakynthos. These Facetime calls inevitably lead to one of few outcomes – usually me butchering one of the world’s oldest languages trying to talk about anything other than food or how funny it is that the seasons are backwards on the other side of the equator.
At the end of the day, Meteora, The Parthenon and The Agora will always be there – but family and friends might not. Get over how dumb we all sound saying “Yah-Sooo” and give them a call already!