If this isn’t the highlight of my European stay, then I have some incredible times ahead of me. A couple of months ago, I was afforded the great honor of being invited to my great friend’s brother’s wedding in Chania, Greece. I bought my flight pretty much the next day, knowing this was an experience that there’s no way I would miss. It was tough for me to know what to expect, but no matter how high my expectations could’ve been, the weekend would’ve exceeded all of them. I expect this to be a novel of a post, but there is just way too much to talk about. Hopefully I can describe things well enough to keep everyone’s interest.

One of the best friends I’ve ever had, Mano, grew up in Chania (pronounced hahn-YA), which is the second largest city on the island of Crete, which is the largest of the Greek islands. For those of you that don’t know, I was a groomsman in Mano’s wedding last summer in Boston (well, technically Cambridge). His wedding was an absolute blast. As I’ve mentioned before, Mano is an international pilot for Continental, so I get to see him quite a bit here in London, which has been very nice for dealing with the distance between me and my family and friends. When he invited me to his brother’s wedding, I knew I was in for an amazing experience.

So how did I repay my great friend for the incredibly generous gesture of inviting me to his brother’s wedding and completely entertaining me during my stay? By missing my flight out and making things a pain. I won’t dwell on it, but there are few times in my life I’ve felt more awful than when I missed the check in deadline for my flight by 3 minutes. While Mano tried to play it off as no big deal, I fully understand how annoying it was. One theme that you’ll find going forward is the Greek are an incredibly hospitable people. So Mano insisted on waiting for me to arrive on the later flight.

The one silver lining is that like many southern European cities, the people of Chania bump the typical daily schedule back by a couple of hours. Dinner around midnight was pretty common while I was out there. The clubs stay open until 7 or 8am and people say “Good Morning” until about 5pm. The climate is a big reason for this. While Chania does enjoy the benefits of Mediterranean winds cooling the town, the temperatures still are regularly above 100 degrees fahrenheit in the summer months. The Mediterranean sun is also pretty brutal on the skin of a pasty Irishman. More on that later.

I flew into Heraklion, which is the largest city in Crete and about a 2 hour plus drive west across the northern shore of Crete. Had I made my flight on time, we would’ve enjoyed this ride into the sunset over the sea. But since I messed up, it was a nighttime drive. On the highways in Crete, much like many other areas, you drive on the shoulder so cars can pass you in the regular lane. We arrived in Chania around 12:30am, quickly showered, and headed out for the bachelor party. The guys had just finished dinner and were at one of the two main clubs in the city. When we arrived, they were in the VIP area, about 15 guys. If I had to break it down, I’d say that about 5 of them spoke fluent English, 5 of them could operate in a conversation, and about 5 of them only knew the basic phrases. However, all of them were extremely friendly, just a bunch of incredible guys.

Mano did give me fair warning that with me being an outsider, the guys would be making sure I had more than my fair share of drinks. I won’t elaborate on it too much, but a few less “coopas” would’ve made my next day a little more pleasant. However, the night was an incredible time. The club was very cool, which means a lot because I’ve been relatively anti-clubbing my whole life. They played a mixture of American club songs and Greek songs. A couple of the Greek songs had the whole place hopping and singing along. Well, except me, of course. The club opened up to an outdoor area, right onto the beach. It was definitely an incredible setting.

Fortunately the Greek bachelor party didn’t include one of the traditional stop offs that many bachelor parties have. It was just a night of being out with the guys and having a few too many drinks. I felt so welcome from the minute I met the guys. Even those that didn’t speak too much English would always stop over for a high five and a tip of the glass. Eventually we went to the other club and met up with the bachelorette party. The sun came up and at about 8am, we made our way home.

We slept until about 3pm and then made our way to the beach. I was feeling a little rough from the night before. Mano got a couple calls from the guys while we made our way. He pointed out that the guys enjoy getting an outsider to have a few too many drinks, but would always call the next day to make sure he was feeling alright. That made me feel a little better, but didn’t help as much as my first dip into the Mediterranean Sea. It was close to 100 degrees when we hit the beach, but the moment I got into the crystal clear Mediterranean water, I felt much better. Mano and his wife thoroughly enjoyed how much I stuck out like a sore thumb on the beach. Obviously I’m an extremely white guy, and the Greeks are a very tan race. So when I went for a swim, all Mano had to do was sit up and glance for a second to find the super white guy out among the hundreds of tanned folks. If you look at the flickr pictures, you can play the easiest game of “Where’s Lofto”.

Eventually we left the beach to partake in one of the many Greek wedding traditions. We went back to the place the bride would be moving into with the groom after the wedding and changed the bed sheets to prepare for the first time the married couple would sleep in the bed in their new home. The ceremony included the parents of both families. The bride and the groom were present for the ceremony and as I understand it, the first person to sit on the bed would indicate what gender the first child would be.

Then we went out to grab dinner with the groom’s and bride’s families. This is one of the many settings that I’ll never forget. We made our way down to the pier where there are a lot of amazing seafood restaurants. There were about 20 of us who sat down to dinner. I was the only one who didn’t speak any Greek at all (Mano’s wife can understand some of the basics and communicate). So here I am, sitting at a table with two family’s the night before they join together. Mano did a lot of translating, as he did for much of the weekend. When the waiter came by, there were no menus, and a lot of conversation between the waiter and our party. At this point it was about midnight, and Mano told me that the two fathers were just telling the waiter “bring out whatever you have, any food that you have in the kitchen”. Minutes later, many dishes came flying out.

To say that the Cretan food is spectacular would be an understatement. For appetizers, we had the traditional Greek salad, which is one of my all time favorites, fresh onions, tomatoes, peppers, topped with oils and feta cheese. There also was the traditional green dish, which was pretty much a lemonish, oiled plate of leafy lettuce. Although I wasn’t able to understand much of the conversation, the setting was a blast because you could tell how happy everyone was. Later that night, we had a drink at an outdoor bar in the Old Town, which was a great setting.

The next day was the wedding. We went to the beach earlier in the day and enjoyed another incredible day on the Mediterranean. Then we got ready for the wedding. After we were fully dressed and ready, I was able to participate in another traditional ceremony, the dressing of the groom, which since Giannis had clothes on when we arrived, meant there would be an undressing too. So about 15 of us, basically the guys from the bachelor party, packed into Giannis’s bedroom. He was wearing some casual clothes, but as I understand the tradition, he could take no part in getting into the suit he’d wear at the wedding. There was lots of commotion and laughing, all of it in Greek, and since Mano was very actively involved, I wasn’t able to get many translations until later. So Giannis put his arms out and the guys took off his shirt and shorts for him. Then they got out the wedding suit and dressed him in it. I did participate, but since I was a little cautious of infringing on the Greek ceremonies, I went for a not so provocative act, which was putting Giannis’s watch on for him.

Once he was fully dressed and ready, we loaded into cars and drove off to the wedding in a caravan, honking horns loudly along the way. As we arrived at the church, Giannis jumped out of his car and waited by the entrance of the church for his bride. There were about a hundred people congregating outside of the entrance. Eventually you heard cars honking in the distance and then a car turned the corner and pulled up to the entrance. The tradition is sometimes for the bride to stop in front of the church, then to drive off to tease the groom, then to return and possibly drive off again. Possibly because of the time, Rania emerged from the car with her family on the first time. She met Giannis and they made their way into the massive Greek Orthodox Church.

The ceremony itself was a lot of fun to watch, especially since I knew a little of the process from Mano and Stephanie’s wedding. The church was sweltering hot and the mothers of the bride and groom were constantly fanning them during the ceremony, along with the best man using a little towel to take the sweat off the groom’s face. At this point, I definitely want to say a lot about how important the best man is at a Greek wedding. He is considered the guest of honor and much of the ceremony is between 3 people, the bride, groom, and the best man. The best man’s name was on the invitation, he participated in the cake cutting and the three of them made a toast together. There is no maid of honor, groomsmen, or bridesmaids. Just the bride, groom, and the best man. So definitely a very large honor and responsibility for Dimitrius, who happened to be an incredibly funny guy.

After the ceremony, we made our way to the reception. One of the more comical moments was when we arrived and looked for what table we’d be sitting at. The entire guest list was in Greek, so I tried to find the lambda, and thought I might find my name there. However, Mano came walking up and said “The English L comes after the Greek Zeta”. I have a picture of it on my flickr account, it was pretty funny. Although I had been given a Greek name for the weekend, “Phillipa”, the guest list had been made out well before that. We had pretty much the best seats in the house, right up by where all the action was. Eventually the bride and groom made their entrance and had the cake cutting and toasting with the best man.

There were almost 450 people at the wedding, which I was told be a few people was way below average. Cretan weddings could get up into the 1,000-1,500 range. The most interesting part was that with 450 guests, the invitation breakdown was basically this: 150 for the groom, 150 for the bride, and 150 for the best man. That definitely accentuates the honor of being best man. The wedding was outdoors, and it still felt like it was in the 80’s late into the evening. It was close to 11pm when the food started coming out and after midnight when the dancing started, which was the true show of the weekend.

The first dance was one of many traditional dances, and essentially involved the families of the bride and groom in a semi-circle, and one by one, the guests of honor made their way to head the dance line. It lasted close to 45 minutes. There was a traditional live band, which was a blast to watch. After the initial dance, there was a series of dances, one of which I participated in, the friends of the groom dance. Fortunately there is no visual evidence of this happening. The guys were super nice about getting me up there and teaching me the steps. So it was incredible to participate in.

Here is a video of one of the traditional dances. The one I participated in was much slower, but this gives you an idea of what it was like:

The sound on my camera isn’t great, so I apologize. Eventually, about 3 or 4am, was a different style of dances, which involved the groom and others dancing alone around a circle, and glasses of champagne being offered to them. It was very cool to watch. Often times one of the two servers would open a bottle of champagne, shooting the cork well into the sky, pour one glass, over it to the dancer, pointing out who offered it. The dancer would take a taste, acknowledge the buyer and send the bottle off. They probably went through over 100 bottles in these dances. Here’s a video of Giannis participating (may want to turn the volume down, as my camera hates whistling):

About 7am, the wedding started to wind down. Hopefully I’ve explained an incredible setting in somewhat exciting fashion. I know I didn’t do it justice, but I’ll try to refine it, and have Mano fact check it. The rest of the weekend was filled with incredible meals, beautiful views, and a relaxing time. It would’ve been very sad for me to leave, if I didn’t know I’d be back in 6 weeks for a secondary reception for Mano and Stephanie. I was able to see the place they’ll be holding it, and it’s beyond phenomenal. The picture in my banner is from nearby, so during the reception, we’ll have an incredible view of the bay and the city. If there is anyone reading this who has been invited but isn’t sure if they can make it, I can accurately state that you’re crazy to consider missing out on this.

Phil