Eternal Stones and Other Memories of Greece

By Paula Renee Burzawa

Eternal Stones and Other Memories of Greece is the third book by award-winning author Paula Renee Burzawa. Join her on the journey to a Mediterranean vacation home in southern Greece, where time stands still. Detailing vacationing in the village of Vassara and delicately balancing life as an American and native, Burzawa’s intertwined essays entertain as she brings readers on the trip of a lifetime, experiencing the ancient marbles of the Acropolis and walking the quiet cobblestone streets hidden away within the mountains of Parnonas.

Sharing hilarious and poignant perspectives of her mother’s homeland, Eternal Stones and Other Memories of Greece chronicles time spent abroad with renewed reflection, including a quest to locate one of Greece’s secret schools and an account of what happens when a town’s water supply suddenly stops. From visiting Burzawa’s grandfather’s World War II memorial, to a day’s excursion in the charming seaside town of Nafplion, to an unforgettable stay at one of the most exquisite, world-famous hotels in Athens, readers are sure to feel they’ve stamped their passports as well, enjoying this modern-day visit to an ancient, magical destination. Told with Burzawa’s funny yet sensitive style, her detailed descriptions are real and true, making Eternal Stones and Other Memories of Greece an easily loved vacation treat!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532056192

Paula Renee Burzawa

Paula Renee Burzawa has traveled extensively to her ancestral village in southern Greece, which serves as a basis for her writing. Her debut novel, Seasons of Sun, earned the Editor’s Choice Award, Rising Star Award, and Reader’s Choice award. Her second novel, Tasso’s Journey, a prequel to Seasons of Sun, was released in 2015, depicting the love story of her grandparents during the final days of World War II and Greece’s civil war. She lives with her husband and two children outside Chicago.

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Copyright © 2018 Paula Renee Burzawa.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-5620-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-5619-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018910950

iUniverse rev. date:    09/26/2018

For my

wonderful family, the ultimate travel companions,

returning with me to our ancestral home,

making millions of memories along the way.

For John Michael and Athena,

your spirited enthusiasm and love for the village overwhelms me.

For my friends and relatives in Vassara,

I return for you.

OTHER BOOKS BY

PAULA RENEE BURZAWA

Seasons of Sun

When a shy American teenager travels with her mother to the mountain village of Vassara, Greece, after the unexpected death of a family member, she is overcome with grief. As she watches children chase balls across the town square and old widows ride atop donkeys to harvest orchards of almonds and olives, the young girl realizes she has stumbled upon a gateway to a new life. What starts out as a holiday abroad quickly turns into the discovery of a magical place, where love and friendship endure through time and where traditions of an ancient world survive modern change to bring about an inexplicable miracle.

Summer after summer, she cannot resist returning to her mother’s homeland and the enchanting village that enraptures both her heart and soul. Nothing—not even a raging wildfire—can keep her away from the people and place she loves. As she matures from a girl to a woman, she falls in love for the first time and faces the difficult choice between the familiarity of home and the enticement of an uncertain future.

[Paula Renee Burzawa] brings the eternal Greek landscape and

its indomitable people vividly to life.

—Harry Mark Petrakis, novelist

Tasso’s Journey

When the Greek army calls retreat near the Albanian border before the Nazi invasion of Greece, Tasso rushes home to protect his family. Badly injured, he is near death when two Good Samaritans help him get home, but his happy reunion is interrupted when his favorite nephew is stricken with polio even as villagers prepare for an impending attack. Tasso helps the doctors save his nephew’s leg and then leaves to rejoin his military unit, but he’s taken prisoner along with his father-in-law. The Germans take over his family home, bringing unimaginable hardship to his wife and children. After Axis powers surrender, peace is still unattainable as civil war erupts, setting Greek against Greek. Nothing can prepare Tasso for what is to come—not even victory.

Paula Burzawa does it again. She brings family history alive in this gripping saga of survival, faith, and enduring love. If you liked Seasons of Sun, you’ll love Tasso’s Journey.

—John Dedakis, author and former senior copyeditor for

CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

We planned optimistically for the far-off future,

hoping that someday the golden days would return

in a new form or likeness. In the meantime,

they would live on in our memories forever.

—Paula Renee Burzawa, Seasons of Sun

CONTENTS

Native or Tourist

Magoula Remembered

Artistic Morning

The Hangout

Everyone is Welcome

Freedom

Sunglasses

Tasso’s Monument

Where the Fun Begins

The Secret School

The Water is Out

Coffee is King

Athena’s Auction

Eternal Stones

Let’s Be Kings

The Bell Ringer

Yiayia’s Tree

Tanner

Vassara: The Power of the Village

PREFACE

I have traveled with my family to Greece since I was five. With each trip, my connections to the ancestral land grew deep as the country of my mother’s birth inevitably became a second home. Over eight consecutive summers, the time I spent in Greece before I turned twenty-one profoundly shaped my identity. But returning to Mom’s village as a middle-aged wife and mother was an entirely different experience. My perspective transformed like a kaleidoscope, shifting intricate patterns of beauty through mature reflection. The landscape, people, and culture altered into different designs, each unique and wonderful in its own way. Some changes were humorous, others profound, and some sad. Yet all were beautiful, as even life’s heartrending moments of love and loss soften the soul in a most sensitive manner.

These heartfelt essays compile such observations, along with touching recollections I gathered while revisiting Greece, especially during our stays in the tiny mountain village of Vassara, set deep in the mountains of Parnonas, where the seeds of my love for Greece were planted decades ago. As eternal as the Acropolis, my adoration for the village remains, thus the setting and muse for my two novels, Seasons of Sun and Tasso’s Journey. In a way, Eternal Stones and Other Memories of Greece is a sort of Seasons of Sun sequel, offering sincere accounts of living in a unique utopia, thousands of miles away, where time stands still. As seen through eyes wide open as an adult, as an American, as a Greek, and as Vassara’s number one fan, I hope you enjoy the journey once more.

Interior_Greek%20Travel%20Tales%20photos-Cover%20option%201_20180509090320.jpgInterior_Greek%20Travel%20Tales%20photos-Cover%20option%203_20180509090320.jpgInterior_Greek%20Travel%20Tales%20-%20Natie%20or%20Tourist%20photo%202_20180509090315.JPG

SELECTING SWEETS FROM THE BAKER’S DELIVERY VAN.

Interior_Greek%20Travel%20Tales%20-%20Native%20or%20Tourist%20photo_20180509090315.jpg

OUR BOUNTY!

NATIVE OR TOURIST

A plaguing question for people who repeatedly travel to the same country is this: Are you a native, or are you a tourist? Sure, if we are not born in a nation, we cannot be a native of it, but in some instances, after years of revisiting the same place, don’t we see ourselves as natives? In Greece I am a tourist, but after twenty-some visits throughout my life, I can’t help feeling like a native too. My relatives disagree. They remind me without a doubt that I am an American, one whose identity must be confused, dare I think I was born in the Peloponnese region of Greece, home to historical greats like Leonidas and Helen of Troy (in Greece she is called Helen of Sparta).

My passport gives me away as a United States citizen. So does my purse full of over-the-counter medicines, as if Greece doesn’t have pharmacies and people there never get sick. At any given time, I’m Johnny-on-the-spot with pain relievers, anti-inflammatories, antidiuretics, first aid creams, and enough hand wipes to clean the Parthenon. My countless tourist-like traits amuse my relatives, like bringing a flat iron wherever I go or coordinating an array of earrings to match vacation outfits.

Over the years, however, the American in me takes a back seat as I sip a frappe or enjoy the smell of fresh mountain air. In fact, on our last trip to Greece, as my mother battled jet lag and other adjustments to being in a foreign land, she asked with a tone of both irritation and jealousy, How do you turn off the United States so quickly? I rarely check email. Forget about texting. I’ll check from time to time, but that’s about it. Unplugging in Greece is miraculously the easiest thing for me to accomplish within a short period of time.

From the moment I land in Athens with my mother and children, I feel a rush of excitement and a sense of inner peace. Even though there is