Wrapping up

Well, I'm back State-side, though thanks to the generous vacation days from the university, I don't have to go back to work quite yet. Plus I need some time to get used to the fact that not only do I not get to go to the beach every day, I don't even get to see the water. It takes longer than one might think to get that through one's head after prolonged exposure.

This is another picture post. My blog host was having some problems uploading images, so I'll try to link this up to my photo album. I'm in the process of labeling all my pictures so you all have some idea of what you're looking at. But, honestly, the colors are so vibrant and the views so spectacular that it really doesn't matter!

Last moments

My last day on Kasos I rented a car and drove practically all over the island visiting my favorite beaches. I went to Helatros for the cobbled beach and sheer cliffs. I went to Emporios to see all the people I know and say goodbye. Then I went to Antiperatos for the tiny little pebbles and the playful waves. I was completely alone on the beach. My favorite mountain sits in the background and the beach is a hidden cove under red cliffs. I was there till the sun set.

I can think of very few things that move me more than watching the sun set on Kasos. For whatever reason, this particular moment in time, at the end of a day spent in the water or climbing up cliffsides is the moment that everything comes together and all seems right with the world. Kasos is such a part of my life that it is particularly evocative to watch the sun set there.

I'm in Athens now. We baptised my nephew yesterday and he screamed bloody murder. That's always considered a good sign, exorcising demons and whatnot. His parents practically had to be restrained from clubbing the priest as he dunked the poor little mite into the font. My sister-in-law cried. She's Thai and didn't expect the enthusiasm with which we dunk our children here. We really want to make sure the devil is good and scrubbed out. Poor kids. She rallied bravely, though my brother refused to let go of his son, despite the fact that he was not supposed to be the one dressing the child. Still, it's done, they're happy and we moved on to the next phase of the vacation.

My dad and I went in to the center of Athens. I always like going with him. He takes me to his old stomping grounds from when he was a young man trolling the tavernas under the Acropolis. He took me to a kafeneion whith marble-top tables, decorated with late 19th century neo-classical memorabilia. We sat in a window and gazed at the Erechtheion on the rock, drank ouzo, nibbled on mezedes and talked about the eternal subject... Greece. Her goods and bads, her successes and failures. No matter how bad it is here, we Greeks have a sick connection with the place. We simply can't do without regardless of the difficulties of life here.

It's always such a bitter-sweet affair for me to come here. I dread it and long for it. I don't know that I'll ever be free of the desire to return, to find some way to come back. "Back" is the operative word here, too. We want to come back to what we remember when we left. I want to come back to my childhood memories of what life was like, or what I thought it was like. I want to find a way to still be able to touch the reality of my life here, way back when. That's a tough proposition in the US, no matter what I do to bring some of Greece in to my life there.
Whenever I arrive here I'm trilled and filled with trepedation. Whenever I leave, I have some sense of relief that the trial is over and I can return to "my life" but I feel like I'm leaving a huge part of my psyche behind when I step on to that plane to bring me back.
It's been something of a leave-taking on this trip. Life is changing, some decisions are made that create different and new ties to different and new places. In many ways I've come to say goodbye, though I hope only to my memories. I hope to be setting a new path for a different relationship with the people and places of Greece, no less meaningful but entirely changed from what I've been holding on to from my childhood. We'll see.

Eikones (images)

You asked for pictures, folks!


Sunset at Agios Konstantinos

View of Emporios as I walk down the hill from my village of Agia Marina


Me washing sherds from my dad's dig at Ellinokamara

Beautiful mansion. So many gorgeous houses are going to ruin here on Kasos.
Some of you will recognize the library. That's me there, my little brother has difficulties figuring out the camera...
My dad admiring the view from Agia Kuriaki.
The archeologist at work. My dad is showing off the mosaic floor they found at the cave.
Alexander and I walked (!) up the mountain to the little chapel dedicated to Elija for the celebration. The views are amazing and at the end of the service they serve artos (spiced sweet bread) with sitaka (a Kasiot cheese). I washed that down with soumada (an almond milk drink). It's all about the food, after all!

Mountains of Thyme

Yesterday I nearly left my bones on Kasos.

How about that for a catchy first line, eh? Yesterday my 16-year-old brother, his friend and I decided to go for a little hike. Two hours I told my dad. We hopped into the car and I drove us to a parking spot at the mouth of the riverbed that is now dry. This is the area called Skylas, right at the base of my village of Agia Marina. We started our hike. The boys were game and we stared to hike up the mountain from which the waters flow in the winter. And up we hiked. And up. Things started to get a little difficult but the boys were up for it and so was I. We climbed up the rocks, we scrambled over retaining walls and boulders. "Just a little further" became our mantra. And up we went.

We reached the top of what we thought would be the tip of the mountain. We had hopes of seeing the sea from the other side. This is what we saw.

The climb wasn't too onerous and the view at the top, as you can see, was breathtaking. Once at the top the way was very easy. We walked around and found some sort of structure built of split rock, quite a nice little structure. There was no apparent use for it. I can imagine a shepherd up there getting bored and deciding to build this thing. Fascinating.

We walked around, took some pictures and marveled at the whispy clouds that scudded speedily across the sky. Their shadows chased each other across the hillsides and down the mountains. At one point we realized we were inside a cloud. I tried to get a picture of the boys, this was the best I could do:

There is only one peak on the island higher up than where we were!

At the top of this mountain, we could see the Cretan Sea (the water you can see behind the boys) on one side and the Egyptian (Lybian) on the other. What a fantastic place to be.

So we knew the way down was going to be a bit challenging, considering the way up. However, it was such easy going at the very top that we decided to try a different way down. After all, Alexander and I did exactly that at a different site and things worked out very well. Right. History repeats itself, they tell me. Right. What innocent, sweet kids we all were when we were at the top happily hopping our way down the mountain side. And then, we had to stop. There was something of a cliff below our feet. Now what? Can't go back, too much time, too much road to travel. So on we went. About 100 yards into our decent, we're on all fours facing the cliff side, clinging to the spine of the crags hoping to any and all gods who might be watching (and probably laughing their asses off) that we make it down to the next "path" one of us might have spotted from above. By this point I'm covered in scratches and thorns. The lovely, springy bushes of fragrant thyme that stud the mountain no longer provide me with an opportunity to breathe deeply and think on the glory that's in front of me. Now, these spiky, scrubby bushes are often the only thing between me and a 100 _meter_ drop into oblivion. Fun times. And I had the two kids with me. Just great. It took us just under 2 hours to climb down. I was near tears a number of times as the terror of our situation settled in. No views now. I looked behind me once and nearly lost it. Mountain above, sheer cliff below. I did not want to know. I have never been so happy to see the stone-block walls (think roman walls); never have I come anywhere near to thinking that piled slate was a sign of civilization as I did yesterday. We all three draped ourselves over this wall and just breathed. None of us dared, yet, to look up and see where we had just come from. We still had a bit of road to go before we got to the dry riverbed.

Four hours later we made it, living proof, scratches, scrapes, swollen ankles and knees intact. Looking back, from the safety of the car, we all were uttering quite a few choice words about the climb as terror abated and thrill started to take over. Younglings are resilient critters. I don't imagine we'll ever forget our climb and we're all game for another adventure as soon as the swelling subsides, the muscles start working and my heart starts beating normally again.


The evening ended with my family collecting scrub brush and lighting a fire by the sea, cooking lamb on the coals, drinking wine, and star gazing. The smell of the ever-present thyme bushes burning in the fire as well as scrunching under our shoes once again became the balm it has always been, the stars filled our eyes, the sea filled our ears, the lamb filled our bellies. As we licked our sticky fingers clean of lamb juices, washed down with wine, my dad told us stories of his adventures in the mountains and my brother and I plotted the next escapade.

Life is, indeed, good.

Home

Our first Grecian frappe, day one post nap, Athens.


So we're back in the midwest. While it's good to be home, I'm already missing Greece...the sea, the sun, the mountains, the fabulous food and frappes served to us by charming waiters.

I'm not sure I've ever traveled somewhere with so few American tourists. It was quite jarring to wait for our flight from Athens to New York, surrounded by Americans, after being immersed in another culture for a week. We are a loud and obnoxious people, aren't we? I mean, don't get me wrong, Greeks are loud too. And wordy! Every Greek conversation we witnessed seemed to be three times as long as it needed to be for pure exchange of information. Irene would ask someone the way to somewhere, and there would be five minutes of rapid-fire Greek (I could pick out a word here and there...he said "tomorrow"! she said "five"!). Then she'd turn to Neena and me and say, simply, it's this way. We were losing something in the translation.

But thank goodness for ReRe. It was wonderful to see Greece with her as our spokesperson. We weren't treated like tourists, for the most part, and we were able to do and see so many things that wouldn't have been possible without a bonafide Greek leading the way. I'm sure it was exhausting for her to have us asking her questions every two seconds...what's that? what did she say? where are we? But she's a patient soul and knows so much about the history of what we were seeing (with the possible exception of the location of Knossos). Thanks for showing us your home, Irene!

Do you like lions?

Lions of the Rimondi Fountain in Rethymnon, Crete. Fresh spring water, ideal for filling water bottles.

Lion sculpture found during excavation for a highway - Athens airport.


So one of the coolest things about Greece is that you can be right there in the present day...having an ouzo-with-lemon at a cafe in Rethymnon, or heading to the departures terminal at the airport...and you turn around and stumble over something so old, it's mind-boggling. There is so much history there and it's smashed right up against the present. In Athens, you can look up from wherever you are and the Acropolis is looming:

Or you can stroll into the Metro station and see what they found during its excavation:

As you might imagine, every time you dig anywhere in Athens you're likely to find something of historical significance. But things like the Metro need to be built...so instead of halting the project, they preserved what they found...including this glassed-off wall showing layers of Athenian history dating back to, I don't remember, the 5th century BC? There is even a grave complete with skeleton, how cool is that? "Oh, my train is late, no worries, I'll just be over here perusing ancient human remains."

I know that Neena has some great shots of this stuff as well, so hopefully she can continue the story. More to come!

It's either Pavaroti or The Ramones

Howdy folks, it's been a while. I'm on Kasos now but this post won't cover that yet, since I have to catch you all up on Crete.

Our first night in Crete was in a town called Chania. Our B&B was right on the old Venetian port with a view of the old mosque and the lighthouse. And right on top of eateries and cafes and various other nightlife spots. We made it there on the Flying Cat, a pretty cool catamaran sort of vessel that skimmed the water's surface at breakneck pace. The trip from Santorini to Herakleion usually takes 6 hours. This little beaut' got us there in 2! I was impressed with it but I was also a little sad as I love to sit out on the deck of the usual slow boat and watch the water go by and the boat's approach to whatever island it's reaching. Nevertheless, it's certainly a time-saver and as we'd cut our stay in Crete short, this was a good thing. We just made the bus from Herakleion to Chania and we settled in for the 2.5 hour trip. As we were late departing Santorini, we were naturally late arriving in Chania. No big deal, one might think. Well, not quite. My dad seems to feel that whenever I'm in Europe, he needs to be aware of where I am all times so as to offer assistance should it be needed. Very sweet, yes. In this case, the hostelier apparently got concerned when we didn't arrive right at 11 PM, which I had told her we would, and called my dad to see if I had called. Though my dad wasn't particularly concerned about it, I got a tongue lashing from said hostelier about how "if people are going to be late, a phone call is a good idea so that other people don't worry about their whereabouts". Great.

In any case, we got it all worked out, we settled into our room, I called my dad, OK, OK. No sooner do we settle than we realize our B&B is sitting on top of a karaoke bar. Oh, joy! We were seranaded with Elvis Presley, with Wham, with ABBA, if I recall correctly and Ace of Base. SWEET. As we were finally getting rid of the giggles and letting exhaustion and heat take over, I heard a piece I thought I recognized. At first I thought it was one of those modern Italian quasi-operatic sapptacular ballads. But then I wasn't quite sure. I finally determined that it was supposed to be either Pavarotti or The Ramones. And there you have it.

Crete is something of a blur. We went to the lovely beach at Falassarna and then onto another bus to take us to Rethymnon. We intended to stay at the youth hostel there, which came at a very good price, but decided that we were a little old for that so we found some lovely little rooms in the old city instead.
Rethymnon is one of my favorite places (the old city) so I was glad to share it with my friends. Then off to Knossos. It turns out that this particular palace is in Herakleion, rather than Rethymnon. Who knew... My dad nearly disowned me when I told him that I had temporarily lost my senses and told the rest of the party that Knossos was near Rethymnon. Your dad's an archeologist, suuuure he is.

So more or less that was the end of the first phase of the trip. C and N headed off to Athens on the 7th for the return trip. I caught the bus to Sitia at the last minute and from there, on the 8th, flew in to Kasos.

I'm working on getting some of my pix uploaded here, but the returning parties will be posting stuff as soon as they get themselves settled. By my next post I'll hopefully have a friendly understanding with the crew here and get some special favors for computer access. Apparently, my dad's been here too.

Domatokeftedes and sandals

Hi All, here's a quick post from Santorini. It's our last night here. Today we went to the Red beach and the White beach. While the trip was lovely and uneventful, it was quite the undertaking. More details as I have time but we're rushing the sunset and we're starving so I'll get to it later!

Two things I need to talk about. 1) The super-fine sandals I bought our first night in Santorini. Yup, they rock. Bronze-colored leather delicate straps over the toes and snakey bronze leather straps to tie artfully around my ankles. Can I just say it? Woo-freaking-hoo! My feet are sore from wearing them but it's not stopping me, oh no.

2) Domatokeftedes: these are a local delicacy of devine origins. The loose translation is "tomato croquette". It's a wonderful, fried, concoction of tomatoes (local cherry tomatoes, fantastic, world-renowned, apparently), green peppers, mint and dill mixed into a slurry and drop-fried in hot oil. Served hot and fresh, in a little taverna hanging on the cliff in Oia after watching a perfect sunset is just more than I can describe. Neena's review on the domatokeftedes: brilliant! Carrie concurs.

The entire evening was inspired and included a fabulous bottle of local wine, which the nice taverna-people let us drink at their establishment despite not having bought it there. Neena bought another Greek traditional dessert, karydopita (walnus tort) in her effort to try all available Greek desserts. I can't but applaud her efforts.

Right folks, we're off for more fun in the setting sun. Keep well, we'll catch you all up from Crete.

Every weary traveler needs a rest

Howdy all, we're in Santorini now. We decided to shave a day off the Crete itinerary and rest our weary bones in the lovely seas in Santorini. We leave here on Friday.

So, to the meat of the matter, first a brief synopsis so that I get everything in before the clock runs out. Any extra time and I'll wax poetic.




Athens

Through a wine-hazed fog flavored heavily with giddy enthusiasm and jet lag, we wandered all over Athens our first night there. We walked around the narrow little streets in Plaka, ogled the Acropolis from below, visited the Roman Agora, National Gardens, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and headed back to Plaka for a really great dinner at a traditional ouzeri taverna. (Jesse, we'll get you the details of the menu soon).
After that we wandered, happily filled up, around the older sections of Plaka and took pictures of the beautiful neo-classical buildings in the area. I've always loved that neighborhood under the Acropolis. I'm glad I got the chance to stay right there. Some of those buildings are crumbling, which is a sad sight. Other are loved and cared for, often with little postage-stamp, grape-covered courtyards you can catch glimpses of and gorgeous wrought-iron balconies with carved marble floors.
Before it got too dark we headed to the base of the Acropolis (save the actual thing for Monday) and looked out over the hill at the view of Athens. I love that area. Through olive and fig trees you can catch a view of old houses, ancient ruins, temples and high-rises. Old meets new, ancient meets modern. Welcome to Greece. Here I'm home and I'm not. My feet know the way to all these places I was dragged to as a child. I'm here. But I'm not of here so much any more. Bitter-sweet. My heart comes home but my head now marvels at the sights that have now become exotic, even to me.

Monday we hit the Acropolis early to beat both heat and crowds. I've been there a number of times and it never fails to amaze me. It was even nicer to have my friends with me, for whom this was the first visit. We spent a couple of hours roaming there, the theater of Dionisios Aeropagitis and the Herodion amphitheater.



Then we headed down to the temple of Olympian Zeus, to the Zappeion convention center (neo-classical civic building and square), through the garden and on to a cafe for a fortifying frappe before hoofing it to the National Museum. Spent several hours there and saw most of it before our stamina finally gave out. We also had to get ready to leave for Santorini, one day earlier than planned as the ferry we were going to take on Tuesday was, allegedly, booked solid.



Tuesday night was spent of the ferry to Santorini. I slept outside on a bench under the stars after finishing Fahrenheit 451 at 1 AM because despite my exhaustion, sleep just wasn't in the works. I always try to sleep outside. I love the wind that whips across the deck and how dark it is out in the middle of the sea. I love how the sea shines despite total darkness and how you can smell it when you pass close by land, even if you can't see it. There's a very particular scent that the dry islands of the Aegean exude; a mix of oregano and dirt, sun, salt. It's the essence of summer for me and it makes me remember things and people and places. It's so much a part of me that were I blind, I think I would still know exactly where I was were I to smell that again.

Santorini
So we are in Santorini, in case you missed that. I've never been here before. Our arrival at port Athinios (accurately described by Frommers as "uninspiring") necessitated a hair-bending drive up the caldera with views I have never encountered anywhere I've ever been. Up and up and up and around and around and around we went till we crested the top of the mountain. The other side of this drama is punctuated by the most mellow little valleys and sea views you could imagine. Gently slopping into the sea below, covered in grape vines and olive trees just as mild as you please. Quite a contrast!

We arrived at 7:40 AM so that gave us the whole day yesterday. I don't know if you could guess where we spent that day, so I'll tell you. We went to the beach! Oh yes we did. We went to Kamari because it required no walking. That simply could not be part of the equation as all three of us still thought we moving. We rented an umbrella and two lounge chairs, an unheard-of luxury, and boy was it fantastic. We hobbled our way over the black pebbles to the water and finally made contact with the Med. Huzzah and hooray! I fell asleep in the sun, which I've never done before, then hobbled my way out into the water once again. Let me tell you, it's freaking cold! You would think that for a volcanic island the water would be a bit milder but no. Ultimately I prefer that but when you're over-heated, tired and fried it can be a bit of a shock.

Today Neena and I hiked our way UP a mountain, to the very very top to see ancient Thyra. I mean the TOP of the mountain, like, there was no place else to go from where we were. Holy cow was it fantastic. The area up there was settled in pre-historic times and on through about the 8th C AD. It's a big jumble of prehistoric, historic, classical, Roman and Byzantine structures. Each successive culture using the building materials of the previous ones to build their own buildings. It's a huge area, most of which is closed off. The parts we got to see were amazing. Baths and latrines with flushing water, hypocausts, temples, memorials, random columns from the doric to the Byzantine propping up random plinths, walls, doorways and walls. It really was impressive. The wind was tremendous. At the summit, the historical notes indicate that because of the elements, only temples were constructed because no one could live there comfortably. The hike down presented its own challenges as the entire way is paved in excessively slick rock tiles. One wrong step and you'll slide down all the way. However tempting that sounded after our exertions, this was not really an option we wanted to exercise.


We spent the rest of the afternoon on the same beach as yesterday. It was right there, we were hot and dusty, draw your own conclusions... We did try to take the boat to the red beach at Kokkini but were told that, allegedly, we wouldn't have time to do the trip. Whatever. So on the agenda tomorrow is the Red Beach, the White Beach and Some Other Beach as we take the little sea taxi around the island. We thought we wouldn't have time for this as we though we had to leave tomorrow. Then we realized it's actually Wednesday. Woohoo! One more entire day plus most of Friday before we go!

I'm almost out of time. Hope you are all well, we keep seeing and doing things and thinking how much all of you would enjoy them too, so you're all with us in one way or another. We have volcanic stones for most of you and other treats we're brining back to share our adventures. Forgive the misspellings (no time), for give the strange sentence structure (too much sun) but read along and send us some comments. We'll try to get to more posting before we go, but no promises. Once on Kasos I hope to be able to post pictures and link of some interesting sights for you all to get a picture of our travels. I'm off for a coffee and a shower before heading to Oia for the sunset. Geia sas!