We’re lucky. Have moved from strawberry season in Cyprus to strawberry season in Greece. Saturday’s berries from Athens central market were beautiful so back today for more. The punnets that were a euro on Saturday are now €1.50. Still well worth it, beautifully ripe and with a scent you pick up from metres away. But we remember that Monistiraki square, even closer to our flat, had them for a euro yesterday. Maybe they still do.
Well, there they are, deeply red and luscious with a sign posted €1. Until the proprietor snorts contemptuously and tells us they’re four euros. What?! Much of the square does indulge in tourist prices but this is ridiculous. We say so. He tells us to go back where we came from - and the man at the next stall cheerfully sells us a punnet of beautiful strawberries for €1.29. Takes all kinds.
My father, in strawberry season used to quote the seventeenth century writer William Butler: Doubtless God could have made a better berry but doubtless God Never did.