Growing up and going on vacation with my family, I remember the most important thing my dad used to pack was food! He didn’t care if he only had 1 pair of shorts, or only 1 shirt, so long as he had an array of Cypriot produce packed into his hand luggage he was OK.
Even if we were coming to Cyprus, he’d still pack Cyprus Halloumi and Cyprus figs. “Dad, we’re going to Cyprus, you can buy all this stuff when you’re there” we’d say to him. “I don’t care” he would reply in his thick Cypriot accent, “Heathrow doesn’t sell Halloumi and I want it for breakfast.” Fair enough, we’d shrug.
The most memorable journey I remember, was returning from Cyprus back to the UK travelling by Cyprus Airways. My dad had been given a ‘kalathaki’ (a large wicker style basket) from my aunt, packed with snails – live snails! It was covered by a checkered cloth and wrapped round with string. We are talking about 20 years ago, so the airlines weren’t as strict as today! He checked this in as ‘hand luggage’. As we boarded the plane he hoisted it up into the overhead bins and settled into his seat. My brother and I hung our hands in embarrassment as all other families were checking in duty free bags filled with chocolates and booze, but not our dad. We then settled into our seats and forgot about the ‘kalathaki’ over head.
It wasn’t until about 2 hours into the journey that the screams of an air hostess woke us from our nap. We looked up and there she was staring and screaming at the overhead bins. To our horror the snails neatly tucked away had decided they wanted a bit of fresh air and had escaped the not so secure confines of their village basket. They were everywhere. “Who does this belong to?” the air hostess demanded. My dad, still asleep was angrily shaken awake by my humiliated mother. Holidaying with Cypriot families are always memorable!
My friends always loved hearing my holiday stories with my family as they never went smoothly!
Another holiday hilarity was our holiday to Disney World in Florida around about 1991, during which my dad experienced his first trip to a shopping mall. He was amazed at all the shops and the cheap Levi jeans and branded trainers. He bought himself a pair of jeans that were too tight and too long. We told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen. Being a Cypriot, and always armed with ‘tools’ incase of an emergency, he took the jeans to the car where he proceeded to hack off the bottoms with a pen knife. My brother & I (and my mum) looked on in horror.
“Dad, are you seriously going to wear those?” I asked, my face going red at the thought of walking around Disney World with my dad looking like he just stepped off the horafi (field)!
“Yes of course I’m going to wear them, why whats wrong with them?”
“Well they’re not hemmed dad, they are going to fray everywhere!”
“It’s ok its ok I know what im doing.”
So we shut up and looked on as he put on his customised Levi jeans. This wasn’t the worse part, the worse part was that in his hurry to shorten his jeans, he didn’t measure them correctly and they now came up to his calves! We seriously didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but my dad wore his jeans and my friends all cried with laughter when I showed them the photographic evidence as no one believed me!
Holidays with Cypriot families are always memorable…and you often need counselling after!
