when arriving finally at the big nice place where the actual after party was gonna be held there was already alot of people there eating and drinking, the total amount guests for this evening was 1200!?!? persons..
I was seated at the "family table" where also later the bride & groom was seated, this table has chairs only on one side so everyone can look at you and say hello I guess..

then the food plates started to come to my part of the table and that continued all along the evening and wine of course..
starters & some cheese you eat with honey, then goat [for me only potatoes ha ha], rice boiled in the goat water with youghurt, greek salad, more meat, then chocolate cake, then new real food startet to come again etc.. what I heard they served goats head to the people who were still there by 04-05am...

after maybe 1-1½h the wedding couple came, everyone clapped their hands and they went to the scene in the front to do the wedding cake tradition, then came the beatiful wedding dance of course.. not many dry eyes there I think especially at our family table..
after this was the line up saying gratulations and giving money part again for ALL the ones who were not at the church, I think for at least 1 hour they continued to shake hand ha ha..

after this I think a short break where they got time to eat a litle bit, then my sister went up on stage to throw the wedding flowers.
then a marathon af same dancing came..
so the bridesmades and some other friends and my sister stod in a line and my sister held the hankerchief from her housband again.
on the other side of the hankerchief held her dad his hand to start the dance, then my mother stepped in between and then my brothers and grand dad "papos" etc. after dancing the 10-30 seconds you walk by the music artists and put some money on the floor infront of them, that is how they get paid.. and each and everyone along this marathon gave between 10-50 euros, so theese musicians will be very rich they they after he he, my god!!

I also dod my short dance with my sister of course, she said to me when I interupted the man dancing before me by stepping in between to just walk forward and back, not to try to do the dancing steps ha ha

so this was going on first with all relatives from her family, then from his, then from the best man/Kombaro etc..

same song, same slow dance with the bride and to pay the musik greek bouzouki music group..

it actually got tiering but so many wanted to participate.. it was more & less still going on at 02.00 am when I was so tired from being up 03.45 the day before to get to the airport, so I went out and slept in the RV my mum had came with.

it all ended up with a short sleep, and then a drive home by some greek relatives of some kind whom drove super slow and then comming back to my mums place and having no kee, only to the taverna.
I slept a short while outdoors on a sofa with one of the dogs, then my mum called and said there are rooms free at their hotel, but they arent cleaned yet.
so I went up and at 05.00 I finally was able to sleep some..
at 11.30-12.00 I woke up, went down for breakfast, said kalimera [good morning] to all the ones who where already there.
then some chatting and then time to leave at 4pm to towards the airport again...

my strongest moments where the dance [the wedding couple dance] but the absolute strongest one was in the monastary/church I suddenly felt this strong feeling comming in my body, I looked at my younger brother who is actually a very sensitive young man and he cares for the family a lot, it is not allways showing but in theese curciomstances it is shown.. he had tears in his eyes and carfully dried some of with his hand, I looked again at the ceremony and felt overwhelmed and felt my eyes started to fill with fluid.
I have no I dea what it was, since I understood nothing of what the pirest said, I just suddenly felt something strong and looked at my brother... a strange beautiful feeling was running thru me..

when staying in line after the ceremony to salute all within the family you say [at least to the younger people and for sure to the bride and groom] "na zisete" wich means something like "long life to you".

so traditionally after the actual ceremony in the church or in the monastery theclosest family on both sides stand on a line and shake hands with the guests and gets gratulated.
then in the end of the line you give a small white certain envelope with money inside and a message on a small note with your name aswell.
and then you get some traditional Cretan sweets to bring with you.

but before that there is a line of traditional events that accure..

for me I missed 2 main ones this my sisters marraige with Vasilis.
the one where "you make the bed" and the housband have to approve so this goes on for a while where he tears it up and then you make it agin. and in hte end you throw money and sweets onto the bed for good luck with getting children etc.

then also the man with his friends etc has an event where they drink and then drag his clothes of him and put new on for the future new life.

the marriage day when I came out to my familys place I lerned some more of the classical traditions.
they dress up etc in the home and the bride steps over the front door fram with her right fot first.
then after her dad comes and puts on her beatiful wedding shoe.

then pictures are taken

in this case the groom went by in a car dressed with flowers etc
his car is followed by many cars making a lot of noice with the car horn [his family side] - this about 6pm
then we waitied since that is custom for the groom to having to wait for his bride ha ha
so we did a similar thng with many cars in a row loudly driving towards the church, but when very closed and they had seen us we turned on a side road for an extra ride to make them wait even a bit more..

then we [the bridesmaids, us the brothers and the mother & father] led her up to meet her future husband.
then inside this small monastery it was super packed with people and on a small surface in the front the actual ceremony was held by 2 priests and a "singer"..

after a lot of old greek talking/praying by the priests and some kissing the bible, and 2 golden head rings crossed over and put on their heads by the "best man"/Kombaro the priest took the grooms handkerchief and they grabbed the other side, and the priest led them around the altar table and at that time the rice caos came, everyone was throwin A LOT of rice at the wedding couple and the priests ha ha.

and then out to be gratulated in the row I mentioned earlier..

after this most people started to leave and head for the wedding reception/dinner/party 1 hour away.

after most had left some traditional "black shirts" men shot out in the air with their guns also along with the tradition in this greek orthodox style on Crete..

the night between thursd & friday my alarm clock went of at 03.45am
it was time to get up to take the bus & express train to arlanda the international airport of Stockholm, Sweden.

I just know since I am so sensitive about getting my sleep that it would be a hard day in front of me.. but a happy day so I didn't mind.
at arlanda when flying with SAS they have changed the procedures when checking in, so all was caos since no-one understood what to do and it took far more time then it usually does instead of speeding things up as their plan was I guess with the new system.

and I as usual came quit late since I dont see the point in spendning overtime at the airport, but this led to that when I finally had cleared my hand luggage and shown my passport and was let into the gate area on the board the sign on my flight said "gate closed" so I had to run to the gate to see if I was let on to the plane.
they said it was fine they were used to late passengers now with this new system ha ha
I was actually only second to last, another family was after me, the funny part there is that I know the woman/mum of that family ha ha.

on the plane I tried to sleep as much as possible sitting in this tight and small charter-style airplane with my body lenght of 184cm, and with SO many families with very young children on it aswell [quit loud],
so when landed I felt totally tired,  stiff and my neck was tensed from sitting still in a strange position for to long..

arrived, picked up my luggage and got a pre-booked taxi to Kissamos where I met up my swedish uncle and his whife.
then we met up with some other swedish relatives to drive together out to my mums place [ www.glykeria.com ] where we later started the procedure of my sister wedding, the whole reason for me to go to Crete, Greece this short trip.

there at the taverna I met some of the greek family/relatives [on my mums housbands side] that I havent met for maaaany years,
and we all had some to eat and then I tried to take a power nap.

I also met the dog with my name "fredrik" wich last year during my yoga holiday was brought there the first time when he was a puppy, now he had grown quit much and looked slightly different.
I wonder if he recognized my smell or energy from that time when I tought him to relax in his small sleeping place/bed that he later has used for to long I heard, so he squeezed himself in there to sleep since he felt probably at home there.. cute!

so then the big fat greek wedding slowly started wich I will write some more about in a separate blog.

the day after I woke up around 11.00 and then had some breakfast and talked some with my mum & sibblings and mostly relaxed in the day after atmosphere.
then off to again to Kissamos to meet the swedish relaitves for a coffe with my mum aswell comming with me.
then I left with my uncle and his wife since they were flying the same flight back as me [but they have been staying for a week].

so 30h after I landed the plane lifted from the ground again back to Sweden with some lovely memories of the time where my sister got married in true traditional greek ortodox style.