Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

For customary post wedding gallivanting, S and I embarked on a trip of Greece. Excellent sights, history, shopping, food (vegetariano!), natural landscapes, all delivered under a mild summer sun, made for a great holiday.

Note: 1) Pictures will be added at later date when time and enthusiasm allows, 2) Further details to be added as and when memories flit in.

We start with a double shot of history. Athens is the epitome of history, and am sure it produces a massive number of history PhDs today. In fact Athens will be a productive destination for a honeymooning History PhD couple. Acropolis, on a table top hill set in the middle of Athens, lords over the city. It is surprising to learn the number of times Athens has changed hands- Ancient greeks to Macedonians  to Romans to Barbarians to Byzantines to Ottomans to Brits to Prussians, and after all of this came the modern republic. The Golden Age was ~400 BC-300 BC.

The monuments atop the Acropolis- the Pantheon, the Erechthion, and the Propylae (entry gate) are majestic, and compare with the Angkor in scale, just that these Greek blokes built em some 1500 years before the ‘Wat. Strolling through the ‘Ancient Agora’ listening to Rick Steve’s is an immersion into the life and times of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and Diogenes, and is a tingling experience. (from wiki: Diogenes made a virtue of poverty. He begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace (which btw is the Agora we were walking) He became notorious for his philosophical stunts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for an honest man) Lonely planet had adviced us to clamber up Filopappou hill for a good view of the ‘Polis. Now as we tentativey started in the direction of the hike, already tired by 7 30 PM odd, we were tempted by a sports bar which was playing Germany-Mexico (World Cup game), with some some noisy fan cheers thrown in to further entice. However, we resisted and pushed on towards the hill- and were we rewarded or what! Trek summits aside, I don’t think I am likely to see a better panaroma- 1) Filopappou hill is some 500 m as the crow flies from the Acropolis, and at the same altitude, and therefore provides stunning views of the Acropolis, 2) Add to that a commanding panaroma of the sprawl of Athens rising up into the lower reaches of the distant hills on all sides around us, and 3) with the ships at the Athens port also visible in the distance. This hill is shockingly thin in terms of number of tourists, and we were thrilled with finding such a spot to view probably the top 5 most photographed monuments in the world. Now that I myself have safely already been here and enjoyed the lack of tourists, I will encourage tourists to go throng this place.

Crete- an island with culture and people very different from Athens- we heard two sets of people from Athens and Crete talking suspiciously of the other! Beaches, hills, and rugged landscape.  A good destination is probably one in which you spend 4-5 days, and after that still think that there are so many more things that could have been done, and Crete is like that. It has a strong Turkish influence, as was seen in the dishes and certain city areas.

Fantastico beaches- we drove to Elafonissi beach which has, hold your breath- 1) Pink sands, 2) A basketball court sized lagoon with 1 foot of water depth, in which you can just sit and wade, 3) Sea water of some 1 foot depth and 300 m length, after wading through which you walk into an island which is a ‘beach island’- nothing but beach sand. Our base was a town called Chania (pronounced Hania). Quaint town with alleys lined with little enticing shops. Also adding further ‘color’ to the pink sand was that we had earlier seen Red sand and Black sand beaches in Santorini, but that comes later.

Samaria Gorge, in Crete starts from ~1,200 m, it is perpetually downhill and culimates at sea level – literally- since we’ve to board a ferry at the end point, to get back. The steep vertiginous walls of the gorge have multiple hues (orange, black, white) and would be a delight for the classic water color technique of paint leaking into a watery area. The brook babbling alongside your path is good company, and so are the numerous pink flowers, a common site in Crete, bobbing in the strong breeze.

Santorini has rich history. It’s called Santo ‘rini’, sounding so Italian (yes- please say out loud Santhoreeene), because of its  Italian past. Santorini is classic honeymoon destination with lots of hand-holding couples (with fingers/arms entwined in myriad ways during side-by-side walks) and view points and (justified) drama around sunset. White houses topped with blue domes, spectacular cliff walls (called ‘caldera’) rising from the sea, which actually is dried up lava from an old volcano , make for some captivating, picture-postcard views.

Home to a bunch of vineyards- Argyros winery with 1 hour of personalized attention from Jonas the sommelier, was great. They have a way of growing grape unique to the island, because the plant has to withstand the loose volcanic sand and strong breeze. Pink Atlantis was excellent and the best of all, but the more famous Vinsanto (sweet wine) was cloyingly sweet. Further, the cheese, since it was Greece- was excellent- while classic cleansing of palate happened thanks to Manouri cheese, the Graviera had a strong taste of its own. Beaches- there was a red one and black one- thanks to the volcanoes. Black one was proper black sand, while the red one was red all around due to the looming rocks, but the sand was still black.

There’s a site we visited called Akrotiri in Santorini which some say was the inspiration for the mythical city of ‘Atlantis’ are the remains from a village from, hold your breath, 1600 BC (dates puts famous ruined cousin Pompei to shame). Elaborate ceramic ware, proper sewerage system, big staircases and 2 storey buildings- living quarters not changed too drastically in the past 3,500 years I must say (Though 1950 onwards we are going bonkers).

Food – Cornucopia for vegetarians – atleast relative to other countries in Europe. How about this- there was only one meal session (an order-in day from a pizzeria) when the food was crappy. Greece is the home of the Greek salad and all those cheeses, after all, and beyond that there are a bunch of local dishes which are vegetarian in nature. Standout among them is the Gemista, (rice stuffing in vegetables (red/green peppers, tomatoes, zucchini flowers)) served with yogurt. Other notable mentions- Boureki, which is a Zucchini-and-potatoe pie, and Favaa- a ground bean started which tasted a bit like daal. A one-off stunner was Iranian Biryani at Crete. This apart, every restaurant has flavorsome pizza and pasta. In breakfast items, the Bougatsas (feta block with some baking done on top) is not fantastic, but what is is Loukoumades, which are like vadas made of flour-butter-egg, served with honey. Needless to say, emergency supplies of ready to eat MTR Rajma and Jeera rice were not dipped into. Oh, and food apart, who can forget the Greek coffee! Bought a ‘briki’ (coffee making apparatus) and some coffee and have been drinking ever since in India.

Lots of shopping was done, and that’s partly because of the classy and fairly cheap fare (relative to Europe) on offer. Greek jewelry is excellent looking -Opals that will forever tease you between blue and green, much like the Aegan sea, framed in alluring Meandros or Spiros frames made of silver. Bracelets made of lava rocks of Santorini of different hues- blue, red, black, with the abrasive and porous mars-like surface of the rock, looking appealing. T shirts with lots of designs (greek alphabet, parthenon, Disk of Phaistos (an unsolved engima). Cermaics. Momentoes. The shops with atful décor and mostly helpful staff. Standard negotiation margin of 10% was arrived at.

Locals- really proud of greek culture (eg: Taxi guy ‘Japan’ is from a greek word, 5 sites to visit in India - Greek temples), helpful (multiple good samaritans- two who volantirly pointed us in right direction when we looked well and truly lost, one who in a small town shopping center talked to us about upcoming Samaria Gorge hike and implored us to take makeshift trekking pole which was actually a broom stick which proved valuable on the hike), and fact that they on average spoke decent English made it easy to connect.

Which brings us to Language- Efkarishton (thank you), Parakalon (welcome) and Kali-mera/spera/nichta were mastered. An Indian Engineering student would love to see all the Greek lettering in the metros, on the shop fronts- full of all the Alphas and Betas and Ros and Epsilons and Thetas that are second language to him/her!

However, will end with a word of caution- beware in Athens. On day 1, I lost my wallet (with thankfully only 20 Euros) and all my cards to a sly pickpocketer in the metro- happy that we recovered admirably from that shaky start (India 2 wickets for no run in 1 over) to post a decent total (310/5 in 50 overs). Avoid metro, walk, keep bag in front, keep passport safe- the usual.  

Efkarishton for reading all the way till here, if you made it. Please put comment below!