We just returned from a trip to Greece. Our visit to the country was loaded with many wonderful experiences. For some reason, this particular tour also seemed to be a more relaxed experience when compared to our earlier tours to other places – we spent extra night in towns, had more free time, later starts in the morning, etc… We had a good tour manager. Konstantina (Dina) Statha took care of us during our travels, educated us about her country, helped us experience the best of the country, and allowed us to have the time of our lives during the tour.
Greece is a beautiful and generally mountainous country, with greenery abounding. I enjoyed myself taking pictures out of the windows of the bus we were on. Aside from the highways, our travels took us on many narrow and winding roads, in a full sized bus, tackling switchbacks and roads that crossed high mountain ridges and passes. The main highways included many more tunnels than I expected, dug through the mountains. We had some excellent drivers for our buses who got us around safely – two Apostolos and one Taso – the later drivers taking care of us on the islands of Mykanos and Santorini.
The foods of Greece are also quite distinct in their nature. Due to the fertile nature of the soil there, there is an abundance of fruit and vegetable available. They also produce all of their meats, except for beef, locally. (We heard that there are only a few areas in the country where the cows can graze.) Salads full of huge slices of tomatoes, dips made of crushed eggplant (I think it is called Melitzano salad), and from crushed fava beans (with capers on top sometimes), were served on a few occasions. They have the dolmas, spanakopitas, and moussaka. Their regular food included dishes made of mushrooms and olives, two things that are not my favorites. I did not object to the eggplant!
We heard that they use herbs as their primary means of bringing flavor to dishes. (We heard that in countries further east, like Turkey, the use of spices is more common.) They have sweets and savory dishes that make use of Phylo dough for the base and covering. There is some similarity between their sweets and what one gets in neighboring Turkey. They also have their loukoumi (Turkish Delight) and halva, and something similar to baklava.
I have to admit that I usually ended up having gyros at meals when I had the choice. The gyro that I had in Kalambaka, and the circumstances under which I consumed it, stand out in my mind – the taste, the location, the human interactions, etc..
We were told that agriculture, tourism, and shipping, are the three legs of the Greek economy, and that they have no heavy industry,
We learnt about the history and mythology associated with Greece. The country is considered the cradle of Western Civilization. Greek mythology is taught in elementary school in Greece.
We heard that the boundary between mythology and history is not well defined in Greece. In their mythology, the first things to exist were the holy trinity – Gaia (Mother Earth), nothingness (the great void) and love (Eros). Next came the Titans. We heard the story of how the twelve gods of Olympus came to be. The Gods used to live on Mt. Olympus. (The mountain is a natural park today.) From the 8th century BC, the philosophers noted that it was OK for people to question mythology. The gods took on human characteristics, including their faults. Zeus in particular turns out to be a womanizing scoundrel with a few illegitimate progeny, including Apollo and Dionysus.
We visited a few places known for their ancient ruins, some even dating back to the 3rd Millenium BC, with signs of settlements going as far back as the 6th Millenium BC. A few of the more recent ruins that we visited used to be places dedicated to the worship of Greek Gods. There are also later ruins from when the Romans invaded the country. We heard about other invasions – by the Persians (before the Romans), the Byzantine Empire, the more recent conquest (a long one!) by the Ottoman Empire, and then the occupation by the Nazis during WWII.
Greece was historically called Hellas. It is also called the Hellenic Republic today. We were told that Homer brought the name into common usage in the 8th Century BC. We also heard that Homer also introduced a common language for the region during his time.
We learnt a lot about the people – generally easygoing, open to conversations (if they spoke English!), and flexible, not as pushy as in some other places, and often willing to do you a favor without a second thought. Some of the smaller towns that were not as overwhelmed by the tourists turned out to be the more charming. The smaller town centers many a time featured a relaxed outdoor setting where people could hang out. I noticed both men and women hanging out in the middle of the day. In one of the towns we saw young children in strollers out in the park at 9:00pm at night!
Food was actually inexpensive in the smaller towns. The only discomfort was from the fact that people smoke openly in these places. I am not used to this.
Most of the Greeks are Christians who follow the Greek Orthodox Church. Their churches and chapels are primarily influenced by the Byzantine architecture, and include distinctive domes, most of the time blue in color.
We heard about the colors of Greece and the nature of their flag. The design of the flag is connected with the Greek revolution in the 19th century, when they got their freedom from the Ottomans. (When the Kingdom of Greece was established in 1832, the first ruler who was installed was from Germany. His name was Otto!) The color white in the flag represents the purity of their cause, and the cross represents their religion. Blue appears to be a color used historically in old flags of the country. The nine blue and white stripes are noted by some people to stand for the nine syllables in the motto “freedom or death” in the Greek alphabet.
Greece became a part of the EU in 1981. They started using the Euro as their currency in 2002. They have been a parliamentary republic since 1974. The Presidential position is ceremonial. The prime Minister leads the government. The current prime minister’s first name is very similar to mine in spelling. I brought this up during the first days of our travel a couple of times, and there was a very negative reaction to it. Apparently he is not popular. The internal politics of Greece did not come up again during the rest of the trip!
We started our travels in Tessaloniki, in the region of Macedonia (called Macedon in historic times) in the northeast. This place seems to be have been the most influenced by the foreign invaders from the east – Byzantine and Ottoman. We first drove up the hill that dominates the city to see the walls of the fortress of Tessaloniki.
These walls changed shape over the years of occupation by the different invaders, and the evidence can be seen in the nature of the walls themselves.
We were told that the fort is notorious for having been a prison called Yedikule. We heard that people, including juveniles during a more recent period of time, were housed there under inhumane conditions even up to its closing in the 1980s. There are supposed to have been songs written about the place in the 1970s. I have not been able to find outside confirmation about some of the assertions.
We then drove down to the main part of town to explore on foot. One can just hang out in the streets with the locals and other tourists, and also explore the historical sights while you are about it. These include Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman ruins and buildings, and also, most surprisingly, a museum dedicated to Attaturk, the architect of modern day Turkey. Apparently, he was from Tessaloniki.
We visited a few markets in town during our morning walk as a group. We were introduced to Greek coffee (similar in some ways to Turkish coffee), the nature of olive oils, and also different herbs of the region. We sampled distinct foods of the region, including the bougatsa pastry. We hung out at Aristotelous Square on our own after lunch, and then took a walk to the Church of St. Demetrios. The tour company, Gate1, had organized our first group dinner in the Ladadica district of town at the end of our first full day in Greece.
The next day, we traveled westward, passing through the towns of Veria and Vergina. Veria was one of the towns where St. Paul preached during one of his visits to Greece, in the process of bringing Christianity to Europe. There is a memorial at the location where he is supposed to have addressed the people of the area. The podium is called the Bema.
There are actually tours organized for pilgrims to follow in the footsteps of St. Paul through Greece.
Veria is the place in Greece where the Jewish people who were escaping persecution in Portugal and Spain in the 16th Century came to settle down in. The town has a lot of connection to Jewish history. Most of the Jewish population of Veria was forcibly deported to concentration camps outside of the country by the Nazis during WWII. Many Jews of the village were saved by locals. (Fake baptism certificates were even given out by the church in some cases.) The synagogue has been restored since that time.
A few of the Jews who left Veria as a consequence of WWII came back in later years to rekindle their connection with the people who helped them.
Our next stop was Vergina, which is located close to Veria. It was in an area near present day Vergina where archeologists found the former capital city of Macedonia, and close to it, the burial site of King Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. Philip II was responsible for bringing different parts of Greece under a single rule. Manolis Andronikos was the archeologist who finally discovered the tomb in the 1970s, under a mound called the Great Tumulus.
We visited the museum that is located under the mound. One can visit the tomb of Philip II.
This was the first of the many museums that we went to during our trip. I am personally not particularly enamored of these kinds of visits since there is potentially too much information to be consumed in too short a time. But Dina did a great job capturing the significant things from these visits that she felt were worthwhile noting, and showing us the museum pieces in this regard, so that we could make the best use of our time. Some of the sculptures in these museums are amazing. I took a picture of the display shown below at the museum just because I liked how it looked!
We proceeded further east, and in a generally southward direction, to the town of Kalambaka, in the region of Meteora. We spent two nights in Kalambaka. We crossed into the regions of the Pindus mountains on our way. As we approached the town, we left the highway and descended into a valley . We crossed a pretty river and ascended the other side of the valley. We were on winding mountain roads with greenery all around and verdant valleys below. This is a region of remarkable geological formations, with towering pillars of rock rising from the canyon floors. We were told that this was the most beautiful section of the drive.
After a short drive in a valley beside a mostly dry river bed, we arrived at the town of Kalambaka.
The hills of Meteora formed a spectacular background for our hotel
but our room was on the other side of hotel!
This area used to be a sea in prehistoric times, and the structures have been formed as a result of erosion. This is an area of ancient monasteries that have been built on the top of cliffs. The story of how this came to be is very interesting. These were originally places where the ascetics, starting in the 11th century, went to get away from people and meditate on their own. The monasteries came into existence in the 13th century. Only six of the more than twenty-four original monasteries remain. This is only the second biggest community of monasteries in Greece. The biggest one is in Athos.
The picture below, taken from a viewpoint, includes a a majority of the monasteries.
We went on to visit one of these monasteries – the Holy Monastery of St. Stephan.
This particular monastery was actually converted into a nunnery in the 1950s. There are nine nuns left. (Some facts learnt: In order to become a monk, one has to be 18 years old, take a vow of poverty, and also take a vow of Chastity. Interestingly, one does not have to be a priest to be a monk. Also, today, the government plays a role in the running of the remaining monasteries.)
During the stay in this area, we also went black truffle hunting in the woods with Benfra, the truffle hunting dog. The breed of dog is Lagotto Romagnolo. It is an Italian breed. There was a lunch prepared in the woods that made use of some of the truffle that had been found. Unfortunately, it was a pasta made with tons of butter and a load of other another kind of mushroom.
The white truffle is rarer and more expensive than the black truffle.
We also visited a local vineyard.
The claim is that even though the worldwide consumption of Greek wines (meaning they are produced from Greek varieties of grapes) is a new phenomenon that only started around the year 2010, they are already of world renown quality.
We visited a museum of Natural History in Kalambaka.
The museum included stuffed animals and birds from all over the world. We also went to the attached museum dedicated to mushrooms. We learnt about the history of the use of mushrooms, and also learned about the different kinds of mushrooms. We ended up buying truffle chocolate from the museum store. I will readily admit that I am not very fond of them.
Our travels then took us south and onward to the small village of Nafpaktos. It was a cute little place whose population is supposed to be about 60,000. It is off the beaten path and gets less tourists. We stayed in a small boutique hotel. The place had a very different feel from Kalambaka. A unique Venetian Castle on a hill overlooking the town dominated the view on the one side of town,
and the waters of the Gulf of Corinth of the Ionian Sea lay on its other side. Across the water we could see the hills and mountains of the Peloponnesian peninsula.
It was only during our second evening in town that we discovered the town center of Nafpaktos, with its lively square surrounded by coffee shops, eateries, and stores for tourists. I actually think it would be good fun to hang out in small towns like this for a while and explore the local space. I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to climb the hill up to the castle.
We used Nafpaktos as a base for a visit to Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games, believed to have been first held in 776 BC. We first visited a museum at this location.
We then explored the ruins of the site of the Olympic Games itself. Among the things we saw were the ruins of the Temple of Hera and the stadium.
We also saw the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, the area of the Gymnasium, the Palestra, etc., We heard the stories of these Olympics – about how they came to be, and about the nature of these proceedings. The games were initially conducted as a religious activity, held once every four years, and it was a high honor for athletes to participate in them. The participants competed in the nude. Slaves, women, and foreigners were not allowed to participate. (We did hear the story of a woman who broke that rule.) Records show that there used to be a Heraean Games, also conducted once every four years in Olympia, just for women.
The history of the place came alive as we listened to the circumstances and stories of the Olympics. The games were abolished in 393 AD, after Christianity was established in the country, since games were considered to be a pagan event. The modern Olympics were only revived in 1896.
On our way back from Olympia to Nafpaktos, we stopped at a restaurant where we also got some cooking lessons from the chef, and then a lesson in the Greek style of dancing. We did eat some of the food that folks in our group had worked on.
The dancing culminated in some dance lessons.
It included some dancing on the tables towards the end, and some breaking of plates on the floor! I think the only musical number being played in the background for the entire duration was a certain section from the theme for the movie Zorba the Greek. The steps appeared to be simple, but, unfortunately, like me, I think there were other folks also who had trouble identifying their left from their right in the heat of the moment. Our dance teachers danced for us on their own towards the end – to show us how it was really supposed to be done!
From Nafpaktos we moved on to Athens in the east, with a stop in Delphi along the way. The ruins of Delphi, spread out over the southwestern slope of Mount Parnassus, were impressive. This is a view of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, with the valley below.
The ancient Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the world. It was a holy place dedicated to Apollo. There is a story told, a myth, about how Apollo came to Delphi.
Delphi was the seat of the Oracle of Delphi, also called Pythia, the greatest and oldest oracle in Greece. The oracle was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. Major events, like wars, only started after consulting with her. She handled questions from all kinds of people, not just from the powerful entities. The questions were passed to the oracle by the priest. The gods spoke through the prophetess. The answer was then interpreted by the priest and passed on back to the person who originated the question. Apparently, the answers became more and more vague and subject to different kinds of interpretations as time passed. The prophesies of the oracles become less respected with time. We heard that one was obligated to follow instructions given by an oracle. I am not sure what the consequences were of not listening to the oracle.
They used to conduct the Pythian games in Delphi once every four years, just like the games at Olympia. One aspect of the ruins that I found impressive was that the stadium was located at the top of the mountain. We did not have the time to climb that far up the hillside.
We did make a visit to a museum that is at the site before we visited the ruins themselves. This is the Sphinx of Naxos seen in the museum.
Dina spoke to us about the evolution of the Greek style of sculpture, with the heavy influence of the Egyptian style in its initial days. The Greeks sculptures became more realistic in their depiction of human beings in their natural poses. The sculpture of the Charioteer of Delphi is the most impressive in this context. One can even see the vein in his arm.
And then it was on to Athens. My knowledge about the city of Athens was limited primarily by its place in history – with the classic image of the ruins of the Acropolis, with the Parthenon atop the hill dominating the surroundings, stuck in my mind. It turns out that Athens is also a great cosmopolitan city to hang out in and explore on foot. Also interesting to experience there was the fact that there are random ruins scattered all over the place, in the midst of all the typical 21st century street activity. There are crowds on the street, most of them younger people, enjoying the ambiance of the place. We had enough time to explore a little bit on our own, including a visit to the tomb of the unknown soldier, and the bustling Markapolis Square.
During our stay in Athens, we visited the Acropolis, and also the Acropolis museum – where we saw some of the pieces that have been discovered by archeologists in the area. We were made aware of the fact that the British “looted” the excavation site to take many important pieces – like one of the massive caryatids and the whole western pediment of the Parthenon – back with them to display at the British Museum. The truth of the matter is that the British have done many such misdeeds in other parts of the world also. The pieces from the Acropolis have not been returned up to this day. I believe the Greeks are unhappy about this!
We walked up Philopappos Hill later in the day on our own, to get a view of the Acropolis in the evening light. That was a highlight for me from our stay in the city.
From Athens we took a high speed ferry to the island of Mykanos, and then on to Santorini, The islands are part of the Cyclades. (About 33 of the approximately 220 islands are inhabited.) We enjoyed the ride itself, but not the embarkation and disembarkation processes. It seemed that the ferry operators are intent on lowering their turnaround times at intermediate ports to a minimum. These massive ferry ships process a whole lot of people and vehicles in a very short amount of time when they get into port. The process is chaotic, and it was amazing that not one of us lost our luggage in the process. It must be hell for older people, and surprisingly people were not hurt.
Mykanos island was a bit of a disappointment. We heard that the island only began to be recognized as a place to holiday in since the 1970s, when celebrities like Aristotle Onassis went there to try to escape from the paparazzi. To me, the town of Mykanos was basically a place for people to hang around in – to relax, shop, and to eat and drink and be merry. The vibe I was getting from the place did not draw me in. It did not seem “charming”. There was a sorry excuse for a beach. I did get a few nice pictures at sunset. It could be that our introduction to the place was sub-optimal, and that we did not get enough time to explore the surrounding area. It was also a disappointment to find out that folks in some of the establishments did not seem to mind taking advantage of tourists.
The most significant issue with Mykanos Island in my mind was that there was limited scope for us to explore outside of the town itself. The roads around the island that we drove on were narrow and in bad shape, with no place for walkers. We had no reason to believe that things would be better elsewhere on the island. We were also not aware of anything else that was worthwhile to try to experience on the island. The roads were such that there were spaces where two vehicles could not pass each other, and one or the other had to back up to a wider section of the road to let the other one get by. It was mostly the cars that did the backing up and giving way, but our bus was also forced to do this on at least one occasion.
The highlight of the stop in Mykanos was our visit from that island to the island of Delos to see the ruins there. The island is considered the birthplace of Apollo. (Apollo was born of one of the affairs that Zeus had. His mother had to flee to escape Zeus’ wife, Hera’s, fury.) Delos was first a pilgrimage site for the Greeks, but later became a significant seaport commerce town for the Romans. It was supposed to have been a very cosmopolitan place, with people from all over the world residing there. People were allowed to practice their own religions. Delos was destroyed because of conflicts and because of the loss of its position as a commercial center. The island was never repopulated. A story we were told is that the authorities also did not allow people to give birth on the island. This might have impacted the connections that the locals felt with the island itself.
Besides, the island did not seem to be a very habitable place. There seemed to be no protection from the hot sun, and water needed for daily use had to be collected in the underground cisterns when it rained. It seemed to be a very dry space. Regardless, the place thrived during its heyday. The ruins of the town are amazing to walk through. We did see the lions of Delos who are protecting the area where Apollo was born. We also visited the museum.
The setting for the island of Santorini is quite spectacular. It is in the shape of a crescent, and the island, along with a second one called Therasia, mark the edge of a caldera belonging to an ancient volcano. The view of the caldera from a trail that runs along a ridge from Fira to Oia is spectacular. From some vantage points, you can seen the entire breadth of the caldera. One can see cruise ships docked at the bottom of a massive cliff just outside of the town of Fira. People are unloaded onto boats to take a cable car up to the town.
Our hotel was on a ridgetop just outside of Fira. That location allowed us to get views of both sides of the island without doing too much walking! This was a sunrise.
I was not in a position to get a picture of the sunset while on Santorini.
There were a couple of highlights for me of our visit to Santorini (also called Thira, or Thera). The first was a visit to the ruins of Akrotiki. It is an amazing place. The story behind the discovery of the ruins in 1968 by Spyridon Marinatos, is interesting. The ruins are protected by a massive building that covers the space. The recent version of the building was only completed in 2010.
This building replaced an earlier one that actually collapsed on to the ruins. Earliest habitation at this site traced to the 5th Millenium BC. There was significant expansion by the 3rd Millenium BC. It shows how organized its society and its people were at that time. It was a very egalitarian society, seemingly much better in this aspect of life than our current society. The city was remarkable in its town planning and layout, and structure of the homes. They even had a sewage system. All people lived in similar sized homes and no ones’ home was bigger and more ostentatious than the others’. There was no palace. Their technology allowed the two-story homes to have some protection from the earthquakes that were common there. We heard that the people left gradually as the intensity of the earthquakes in the region began to increase. Santorini had a major earthquake in the 16th century BC that destroyed Akrotiki.
My second highlight of the visit to Santorini was a hike that we did on our own to Skaros Rock on the second day, a day that we had to ourselves. We departed the hotel before 9am, when most people had still not gotten out. We walked on the trail that goes between Fira and Oia to the village of Imerovigli. We navigated the narrow pathways between the buildings of Imerovigli, up and down slopes and stairways, on the side of the hill on which the town is located. Boutique hotels, rentals (some even with small swimming pools), and restaurants, lined the narrow path. We emerged from the maze of pathways in the town into an open-air stairway, to descend to the base of Skaros Rock. And then we were climbing again – up the rock. It was a tough walk, but it did offer spectacular views of the caldera all through it. We could see the white towns with their Canava cave homes along the inner wall of the caldera, including Oia, in the distance. Cruise ships sat in the water below us, underneath the town of Fira. Small catamaran party boats sat in the water. The surprise that we got was the church that sat at the bottom of Skaros rock, on its other side, only visible when one walked around to the back of the rock. The white and blue colors grabbed ones attention. I made it to the church!
The display at the base of Skaros Rock indicates that there was a temple to Athena at this location in the 5th century BC. Skaros Rock was also the location for an early settlement and a castle built by the Venetians. The ruins of some of the old buildings can still be seen on the rock today. I was able to get a nice picture of the town of Oia in the distance from this location.
Santorini is a much more developed place than Mykanos. It is also known for it wine, and the unique wreath-like form in which the base of the plants are made to grow – to protect them, and the grapes, from the elements, and to optimize the availability and intake of water from the wind and the soil. The form of the vine is called the Kouloura. We were told that there was no irrigation, but that could be a traditional thing. It can take about 90 years for the base of the plant to mature in its final shape. You would not recognize that you were passing a vineyard at first glance.
They primarily grow grapes of a local variety. Most wines from Santorini are white. Wines are acidic due to the soil and weather.
I enjoyed Santorini a lot, but our visit to the town of Oia on the island was a total disappointment. Apparently the thing to do in Oia is to experience the sunset, and also visit some particular viewpoints in town. Unfortunately everybody else in the massive crowd that we found ourselves in had the same idea. We gave up the effort and went to a restaurant for dinner. I opted for a cocktail with a double dose of alcohol to help me get my spirits back up again! I did manage to get a nice picture after sunset, after the crowds had dissipated.
Our visits culminated in a farewell dinner where we enjoyed the company of friends we had made during the trip. From our previous trips to other countries, I am quite aware that the connections that have been made during these trips in most cases have a limited lifetime. The experiences are to be appreciated and remembered nonetheless.
We took an early morning flight from Santorini to Athens the next day, and headed back home from there.
I took plenty of pictures during the trip. The complete story of our travels can only be fully told via these pictures, very few of which I am able to post here. I am still in the process of posting more of them online in my picture galleries here.
Splattered Brains 
