Greece 2015

For several months before the trip I practiced my Greek every night. Although most people speak a little English in Greece, there were a few hotel folks I talked to on the phone who had a hard time, so I spoke Greek with them. We got by.

Athens, Sunday and Monday

When Elias and I arrived we were disoriented. Navigating Athens in a rented car was a trip. Elias read off the turns from his phone. The car was manual too, which I have not driven in years. Interesting. Hotel Andrianou is on a one way alley that is completely filled with pedestrians shopping. One must almost push them gently out of the way with one’s bumper.

Our room had a little balcony that looked over a square and busy street. Great people watching. There was a roof-top garden for breakfast that overlooked the North side of the Acropolis, Themistocles’ wall and the temple of Poseidon.

Elias and I headed right up the hill once we had settled into the room. The wind was howling on that day. Elias had a hard time with the story of the Parthenon getting blown up, just as I had 30 years ago. The story of its transformation over the years and slow destruction is just as interesting as the story of its destructive creation.

Andros, Monday through Friday

Very windy voyage to Andros from Rafina. We wore our puffy jackets. Off the ferry and up winding mountain roads thousands of feet above the ocean. Crazy, but enjoyable driving. I see what Jamie was talking about when he told me his Italian uncle had first taught him to drive in reverse in Italy. It is an essential skill in the Mediterranean lands.

The old town of Andros is on a rocky peninsula that juts into a bay. There is a little islet on the end, connected by the arch of an old, ruined Byzantine bridge. And on the islet is the ruin of a Venetian castle.

The streets are all paved in worn stone, and the houses are all built together and seem welded to the rock itself. The old town has a few roads that are suitable for cars, but for the most part is to be traversed on foot. After Anders had been very sick for two days we decided to go to the hospital. In spite of his weakness, we all walked over because it was the easiest way to get there.

There is a Dr. Seuss style lighthouse on a rock off the peninsula. The base of the rock has been worn away so that it is narrower than the cap of the rock on which the lighthouse rests. Just a matter of time.

We stayed at an old mansion called the Αρχόντικο Ελένι. Archontiko means mansion. The ceilings were 15 feet high with tall windows that opened onto balconies. There was a marble courtyard. Right off our balcony we looked across into a school and could see children in class. Recess was raucous.

Anders slept and slept. His fever hit 103. Elias was helpful in converting us to metric there. Visiting a hospital in a different country can be unnerving, but it is also interesting. Their English was very good, but I occasionally chimed in helpfully in Greek. Our housekeeper was very solicitous and kind to us; she was concerned for Anders. She convinced us to see a doctor and walked over with us.

I didn’t want to leave Anders alone for long stretches of time, but Elias and I did get out to see the country. We marched up centuries-old donkey paths that wind between fields that have gone to thistle and brush but which were once cultivated olive groves, vineyards and orchards. Walls everywhere where one stone could stand on another without falling over. Shepherds’ huts. And narrow foot paths, μονοπἀτια, between the walls. Now this is all goat or lamb pasture.

We wound our way up a steep, narrow valley with a stream at the bottom, past the ruins of several Byzantine water mills. There were bee hives and small gardens nestled into the pasture land, and some huts or shanties that were clearly inhabited.

We climbed up to another Venetian fort, the Άνω Κάστρο, the one at water level being, of course, the Κἀτω Κἀστρο (Upper Castle and Lower Castle.) Sweeping views of the island and at the top now a Christian church. Along the foot paths one can clearly make out several small chapels, reachable by foot alone, out in the pastures. Those in addition to the little, roadside shrines with their oil lamps kept burning by the devoted.

On the way back, we stopped at a beach in a steep valley with cliffs on either side and went for a quick swim to cool off.

Elias and I enjoy stopping by a café and having two Greek coffees together.

Listening to all the Greek being spoken around me, reading all the Greek on signs and posters – it’s like listening to the birds. I can identify many of the words, I understand bits, but I don’t know what it all means. When I speak it is like jumping into the ocean. A leap of faith. I am usually understood, though. My mind is on fire from the linguistic stimulation. I am hearing some words I have not heard in 30 years. It startles me.

Elias and I walked up a dirt road to a monastery in the hills above the town, Παναχράντου. We got a bit lost, but we ran into a Papas with his small, surprisingly blond son, who hopped in our car with the little boy and directed us up to the beginning of the trail. His wife is a programmer in Texas and he grew up in Romania before becoming an orthodox priest in the tiny village there, Φάλλικα. He was very kind.

From a distance it looks like a fortress. Indeed it acted as a fortress when the Turks occasionally attacked -- “business as usual” as the monk described it. There is a painting in a shrine showing monks shooting their rifles at Turkish ships from the rocks on the mountain. In the kitchen we saw rifles and other weapons hanging on the walls.

When we arrived it was very quiet, there was no one around, and there did not appear to be any official entrance. We found ourselves in a courtyard alone. Elias was not sure we should be walking around on our own, but presently a monk appeared and motioned us to follow. Three women were with him. We went through dark, narrow, stone passages. We stepped under the Eye of Providence. Elias was alarmed. We all sat together at a table in the dark, stone kitchen with the strangers while the monk made us coffee. The women spoke pretty good English. We went back and forth between Greek and English as we pleased. One of the women had 12 grandchildren. One came from Istanbul.

The monk led us to the chapel, which was dark, covered in gold and silver, and which smelled of lamp oil. Every inch was ornate gilt or covered in icons. Small stained glass windows let in a little light. The oil lamps in the chandeliers glowed dimly. There was an ornate, gold box with the skull of a saint inside, visible through a hatch. One of the women told us to smell the skull for a blessing. It was perfumed.

We visited an underground cell where a monk had once lived in exile from the Turks. There were 3 skulls on a ledge in there.

The monk and the women disappeared without explanation and it seemed time to go. There was a spring and fountain in the wall of the outer courtyard, and two others within the monastery itself.

Elias and I drove back to town and had a late lunch of souvlaki. We split an Amstel.

Anders was feeling a little better, so we hopped in the car and drove to a small chapel on a hill overlooking the sea. Anders felt good enough to walk out to it. When we got back he was able to walk down to the end of town and see the old kastro and bridge. I had a χοριατική for dinner and Elias had the local sausage. We took back a cucumber salad for Anders – no tomatoes.

In the town they are building a new outdoor amphitheater out of marble. And we noticed a movie playing in their outdoor movie theater.

Τίνος, Saturday through Monday

Our first morning on Τίνος we walked up the hill from the ocean to “Our Lady of Tinos” or Παναγία Ευαγγελίστρια and also Μεγαλόχαρη Τήνου, a sanctuary that rivals Lourdes in France as a pilgrimage and as a miracle site. We saw several of the devoted crawling up the stone street on their hands and knees. There is a padded carpet that runs along the side of the road all the way for them.

Everyone stood in line to kiss the icon of Mary that had been discovered miraculously on the site of the church. It was so covered in jewels that you could make out nothing. There was a service going on and I listened for a long time to the chanting. I could make out words in the chants, especially Κύριε ελαίσον – «Lord have mercy».

Hung from the scores of oil lamps that decorate the interior were small, metal plates with images stamped on them: an arm, a foot, a leg, eyes, a ship, a house, a family, a crib – prayers for healing or protection.

We went to Κιώνια beach for a hike up to the hill village of Κτικάδος which we could see clearly but which turned out to be further than I wanted to walk. The path was partially cobbled most of the way, mostly stairs in places. Huge stones in the path and in the walls on either side of the path.

Elias explored all the stone huts and found things inside: a trough, piles of snail shells, cans of gas, tarps, the carcass of a decomposing goat. He was fascinated.

We were stung by nettles the whole way. Cool breeze thank goodness. We swam at the beach afterwards and had lunch and beer. Not as cold as Maine, but still pretty cold. Blowing sand stung us. Used my ability to drive in reverse to great effect in a sticky situation on the way back.

In between adventures I wanted to keep doing stuff and Anders cleverly suggested that we give Elias a little down time. Good idea.

We tried to find the trail head to a path that led up to the highest peak on the island but no luck. There is a shrine up there to the prophet Elias.

We had lunch at a taverna in one of the hill villages, Φαλτάδος. Anders and Elias made friends with a dog.

I dropped the kids off at the ruins of the mountain citadel of Χοβούργο and they walked the cobbled foot path back to Tinos town and the hotel, essentially taking the old road to the old town from the old castle.

I went my own way to the tiny mountain village of Αγάπη, “Love”. It is built of right into the side of the mountain: stone village built on a stone mountain. One parks on the outside and then takes narrow, stone paths, stairs and tunnels through the town.

There seemed to be no one around. I was walking through a tunnel when I heard voices coming from somewhere nearby. The voices were coming from a door in the tunnel that led to a tiny café that looked out of the side of the wall of the town, or out of the side of the mountain as the case may be. I ordered a coffee.

The little terrace of the café had a broad view of the valley below. There were the usual old guys sitting there eternally with their beads, but there were also several young couples. I got it: the name of the town, “Love.” It’s a place you take your girlfriend for lunch.

There were many flowers in many kinds of containers and a sound you don’t hear much in Greece – a running stream. Cool and shady below the town. There were lots of little marble carvings over windows and doors of the houses.

I came out of the tunnel and into a plateia, and there was an old woman in black who seemed to be waiting for me there. She pointed to the small tree behind me and said, να φάς! Eat! It was those cherry-sized plums that Kristin and I had eaten in Zagora many years ago. Delicious and perfectly ripe. She gave me her cane so I could bend the branches down and get more.

The guide strongly recommended a restaurant at the other end of the island, Θαλασσάκι in Εστέρνια bay. The bay is really a tiny cove at the bottom of impossibly steep hills with a sandy beach. The restaurant sits on a concrete slab that used to be a wharf, just a few feet above sea level. The waves lap at the edge of your table as you eat. Unbelievable food. Everything is grilled: octopus, sausage, local cheese with stewed fruit. Beautiful Greek salad. Almond cake with orange cream.

Had a swim and lunch the next morning in Panormous Bay and got shots of traditional, Greek fishing boats

Back to Athens on Monday

The ferry from Tinos back to Piraeus takes 5 hours aboard the Blue Star Patmos. Our other voyages were aboard the Superferry II. Love that name. Lots of bored, sexy people sunning and smoking on the decks.

The views from the ferry were spectacular and mysterious. Saw dolphins playing in the wake. Some kind of skimmers or petrels flew really low over the waves.

I may be crazier than previously thought because I rather enjoyed driving from Piraeus to Athens. One must cooperate or die. Traffic is a dance. In America, IPA (Ηνομένες Πολιτείες Αμέρικης), everyone stays in their place – no dancing.

I have been enjoying reading Ritsos in Parenthesis during the trip, although I fail completely to understand his message. The words I know, from modern or from ancient, spring from the page. I like using the dictionary from time to time to satisfy my curiosity about this or that word. The words fly about me like birds singing and sometimes I identify them.

Then sometimes there is an American voice startling me. Everyone speaks English: German, Italian, Greek, Russian, Japanese. But the American voice startles me.

Tuesday: Cape Sounion

In the morning we made a quick visit to the Athenian Agora and the museum in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos. We spent a good amount of time marveling at the very intact temple of Hephaistos.

I enjoyed the intact Herm which recalled the important role that the Herms played in the Peloponnesian Wars. And I was thrilled to look at an ostrakon with Themistokles’ name on it. Some people wanted him out – but not enough people.

Then we visited the tiny Church of the Holy Apostles which has had layers of renovations and additions peeled back to reveal what is thought to be its Byzantine form.

Had a lovely lunch with Jeremy McInerny in Athens. I had crisp, tender, fried veal. Afterwards Elias remarked, “he knows a lot."

Not a cloud in the sky or a puff of wind at Cape Sounion, my last adventure with both boys. Quail wander over the ruins. Anders and Elias scrambled down the cliffs to the shore and found a tide pool to cool off in.

The Temple of Poseidon is just where I left it in 1982. Just as grand. Only a small crowd. I like seeing the bits of columns that rolled down into the sea. There is a resort at the beach north of the citadel and people are swimming. Yachts are anchored nearby.

Wednesday: Anders departs; Acropolis Museum

Sitting in the restaurant of the Acropolis Museum for lunch, looking out on the Parthenon. Another hot, cloudless day in Athens. The Parthenon gleams, but too much scaffolding. The museum was fascinating: a full scale partial reconstruction of the Parthenon. Just as many pillars spaced just as far apart. The friezes all in place (at least the ones Lord Elgin left); the Caryatids with their beautiful, thick, braids; lots of space and light; an unimpeded view of the actual thing on the hill above. Elias was thoroughly blown away.

Elias walked back to the hotel by himself and I took off to explore the Theater of Dionysus. I could not resist taking the scenic route back to the hotel – over the Acropolis. So I climbed up the Southern side to the Propylaia this time and then back down the Northern slope to the Plaka as evening came on.

Thursday and Friday: overnight to Meteora

We drove 5 hours North for one last adventure: Meteora. Just one night and two half days. We drove to Μόνη Ρουσσάνου and looked at the monasteries across the valley. Got drenched by a warm rain on the way up and then immediately dried off. Drove along the ridge to some others.

Dinner at the lovely Meteora Restaurant, where Elias devoured his mixed grill like a true carnivore. Elias is astonished by the rocks.

The owner of the restaurant keeps singing birds in cages and breeds them. He introduced us to his African Grey, which keeps only one true love – him. It tries to bite his wife. The 4^th generation is now working in the restaurant.

From the door of our hotel we hiked up to Agio Triadas – Holy Trinity Monastery – up a lovely, cobbled path through the titanic rocks. Views of three other monasteries from the path. The sun came out and we were able to see Meteora in a new light. The final bit is cut right into the side of the rock, with some parts that are simply tunnels.

We spent some time looking at the frescoes. I was able to translate and explain some parts. Finally figured out the three letters on Christ’s nimbus: omicron, omega and nu: it’s ὀ ών, the Tetragrammaton, “the one who is,” “the being.”

We dined again at the Meteora Restaurant for lunch with our friend, and then drove back to Athens.

Our very last fun thing, once back in Athens, was to go again to the Acropolis Museum and have dinner as the sun set and the lights began to illuminate the Parthenon. Spectacular. At dinner we had ordered a small bottle of Ouzo which we polished off smartly. We felt quite rapturous. When we left it was too late to tour the museum again, but the guard did let us have one last look at the stone maidens.

Appendix

The itinerary:

• Saturday, 6/6/2015 Depart for Athens 4:20 PM
• Sunday, 6/7/2015 Arrive in Athens 9:05 AM
• Sunday night 6/7 Athens (Hotel Adrian)
• Monday 6/8 Athens - Andros (Archontiko Eleni Hotel)
• Tuesday 6/9 Andros
• Wednesday 6/10 Andros
• Thursday 6/11 Andros
• Friday 6/12 Andros to Tinos (Tinion Hotel)
• Saturday 6/13 Tinos
• Sunday, 6/14 Τίνος
• Monday, 6/15 Τίνος - Athens (Hotel Adrian)
• Tuesday, 6/16 Lunch with Jeremy McInerny and off to Cape Sounion
• Wednesday 6/17 Athens (Anders departs for Philly 11:20 am)
• Thursday 6/18 overnight to Meteora
• Friday 6/19 back to Athens
• Saturday, 6/20/2015 Depart for Philly 11:20 AM
• Saturday, 6/20/2015 Arrive in Philly 3:15 PM