This evening we drove north out of Athens for about an hour, until we hit the sea, and there we met Georges Dassis, the President of the Employee’s Group at the European Economic and Social Committee. We were received like kings and, after melon and water melon and sweet pancakes at the Dassis family home, we preceded to a taverna on the sea shore, literally one metre from the waves, where we ate grilled sardines, squid and octopus, washed down with a local wine. I have already written elsewhere about Georges’s hidden skills as a bouzouki player, and to this must now be added the knowledge that Georges is a diver, a harpoon fisherman, no less, who likes nothing better than to bring back a sea bass or two. As our meal came to an end, the girls from the taverna came out to hang octopus tentacles to the street lamp to dry in the seawind. We could have stayed in that spot, with Georges and his family (that’s a grand daughter in the picture), forever. We headed back to Athens still bathing in the warm glow of traditional Greek hospitality.