Greek wedding

I woke up with a bit bleary eyed.  Dinner the night before at the Greek restaurant had been fun, but we had all overindulged.  I was still sharing the twin room with Reh and he was snoring in his bed.  He was in a far worse state than I was so I left him to keep sleeping off the booze.  I had a shower, got changed and walked out into the fresh morning air of the city.  I was hungry and I needed something to stop the hangover.  I looked at my phone and found the closest diner to where I was staying.

I pushed open the metal door of the diner and walked straight in.  There was no one to greet me and instead I made my way towards the counter stools.  Sitting at the counter, there was a constant buzz of activity both in front and behind me.  The waitress in front of me handed the menu to me without a word but with a smile.  I looked through the list of options and settled quickly on the corned beef hash.  To wash it all down, I had a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee.  The entire spread of food and drink is nothing if not comforting.  It's food that's made for cold weather and hard physical work.  It's certainly not the type of food you would want to be eating all the time if you were working in a sedentary office job.

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel and changed into my suit.  Reh had now woken up and was also getting ready.  It was time for the main reason that we had all gathered in New York, Kosta's wedding!  A whole bunch of us had traveled in from various parts of the world to attend this wedding.  In the early afternoon, we all gathered in the Greek church in Queens and watch our good friend get married.

The ceremony was lovely and full of all the traditions of an Orthodox Christian wedding.  Like the weddings I had been to in the past, I loved to see the pageantry and traditions which unfolded before us.  One of the final acts that occurs between the couple at an Orthodox wedding is the placing of gold crowns on the heads of the groom and bride, which the priest then symbolically switches back and forth between their heads.  It's a nice act and for me it creates a link not just between the couple, but also through to the past and their history.

Once the wedding was over, we were all bused over to the reception in Westchester.  I have never seen so much food in my life.  There was a buffet which had been prepared just for the cocktail hour before the formal reception actually began.  By the time the reception began, most people were far more interested in the party than the food being served.  The band kicked off and in traditional Greek fashion, money was thrown to encourage the band to play harder and louder.

The party kept going deep into the night.  The floor was covered in money and once things started to finally wind down, brooms were brought out to sweep the money into boxes for the band.  Most of us were bleary eyed as we began our treks back to the city.