Grandparents' ghosts

We spent last week in my father's village of Ag'Yianni. The village is on the southern coast of the Peloponnesus, an arid rough part of the country battered by coastal winds, salty air, and very little rain. Beautiful and wild, I wondered how anyone could have lived here without our modern conveniences. Tenacity, in a word, was the key to their survival. I've met a lot of people from here but never realized before how many faces, expressions and mannerisms of the people of this village remind me of my tenacious grandparents and my father. Many of the villagers saw these same traits in my children and my self, our inheritance you could say. I had a myriad of flashbacks of my first visit here when I was nine and hearing stories of my father's antics as a boy from his parents. Sadly, my grandparents are gone but their home where they bore and reared their children still stands. The old style of architecture can often be seen in converted hotels which keep the old style of furniture, linens, and simple art as part of their ambiance. It may seem clumsy or unrefined but it is often made by hand and is irreplaceable. If you get a chance, stay in one of these hotels and soak up the history and the people. Who knows, maybe you'll see a little of yourself in their faces as I’m sure they’ll see in yours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monemvasia