Athens/Athinai, The Erectheum, The Parthenon, Aristophenes, Lord, Byron, The Acropolis, The Plaka, and The Phaedra Hotel

The family, minus Keelin at The Parthenon


Keelin at the Erectheum - click to enlarge



Jack in front of The Parthenon-click to enlarge




The family, minus Del, at the foot of the Parthenon. Click to enlarge.


I loved this advertisement for absinthe in a liquor store window. It kind of captures both the spirit of Van Gogn AND absinthe. Click to enlarge.

We are staying in a wonderful hotel--The Phaedra--in the heart of the Plaka, just down the hill from the Acropolis, in the middle of Athens.

Since it was going to be around 104 fahrenheit today, we got a fairly early start, walking up the hill to the Acropolis, and stopping to gaze at a few other monuments along the way. As it turns out, one of my very favorite 19th Century poets, Lord Byron a/k/a George Gordon, made a big splash in Athens, and The Plaka. There are monuments to him, numerous plaques, and even a street named after him. He may have been a scandalous libertine, but the Hellenikis love him!

One monument commemorating Lord Byron lies in the very same plot of land near the plaka where the tomato was first introduced and grown in Greece! Wow. Considering how great and totally ubiquitous the tomato is here, it's amazing.

Since our 1982 visit, The Acropolis has been greatly enhanced, opened up, restored, with new buildings and areas opened up to the public. When we came here in '82, there was one way in, and a lot of closed off areas that have been excavated and restored in the ensuing years, The Acropolis, and particuarly The Parthenon and The Erectheum, with its wonderful Catydid (msp?) statues are even more impressive than before. The theatre is in the middle of restoration, and like all the many theatres we've seen, awe-inspiring.

I love this place! It's so great to walk around the Acropolis again, and see where all those great things happened and all those great works of art were made, and all those great thoughts were thought. Thank you Socrates!


The Odeon theatre, on The Acropolis, where we will watch an Aristophenes play in Greek tomorrow night--click to enlarge

Tomorrow, we check out some more ruins, monuments, and go to the fantastic and huge museum here. And even better, perhaps, tomorrow night we are attending a performance of an Aristophenes play in the ancient Odeon theatre, at sunset. Is this cool, or what? And the next morning at 5 AM we begin the long journey home, first to London, then to Vancouver, B.C., and finally Seattle Thursday night.
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Athens/Athinai, Hellas: It will hit 40 degrees celsius today (e.g., 104 fahrenheit)

The Acropolis

We are in our first full day in Athens, where it will hit 40 degrees celsius this afternoon (104 fahrenheit),

f = 9/5 c + 32

We will be visiting the fantastic and huge museum we went to last time, as well as visiting the Acropolis and its excellent ruins at least a couple of times.

Tomorrow night, on our last night here, we currently plan to attend a play in an ancient theatre. Aristophenes. And in between, we will visit other ruins, if possible, try to keep cool, and face up to our trip coming to an end, about which, more later.
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A few random pictures from Greece

click these to enlarge. A picture we took that turned out colored like a 1960's postcard


On the beach at Naxos yesterday before we sailed to Athens


The dome and stone set in masonry walls of the tiny (no longer used) St. Giorgio's Greek Orthodox church at Hilka


Some of the very intact female statuary recovered from Knossos


some of my favorite faces from the fallen friezes at Afrodesia


Colum with an old still at the Citron shop in Hilka (msp?). Let me publicly apologize to Colum because I just discovered that I have frequently been writing his name as Column! You don't know how many columns I've looked at in the last month!


Love and Mercy,

Jack in Athens, July 15th, 2008 (two days to go...).

Poem: Sailing To Athens

1.

In a pale grey fog,
I see the ghosts
Of ancient Helleniki mariners

Sailing phantom steamships, sloops,
Prams, dories, catamarans, dinghies,
Trawlers, purse-seiners, frigates and tugboats

Across the cerulean blue sea,
Trawling for the fish
That are phantoms now too.

2.

Wine, saffron, ruby-red, pale lemon;
Emerals peppers, rocket, and capers;
Pink carpusi, crystal white Ouzo;

Cheeses in every tint
From snow white to ivory,
Cream, tan, grey, and muted gold.

3.

Gifts of olive oil, wine, raki, ouzo,
Apricots, plums, cake, ice cream,
Citron, carpusi, sorbet, wildflowers,

More caprusi, poetry, more ouzo, and songs
Sung on the street
Direct from the heart.

4.

I leave with a song in my heart
And knowing whatever we sing, eat, play,
Drink, wear, smoke, worship, or dream,

They're all just people
Like you and me.
Amen. Selah. Namaste.
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Poem: Sailing To Naxos, or, The Vortex

Saling through the poly-blue Aegean
On a hot day in a steamy haze,
Our ship makes a wide looping turn
A few kilometers off
The white house-dappled shore
Of Naxos, parked in the sea
Like a gem in a finding,
The houses and villas
Strung along the shore
And two layers above
Like a three strand pearl necklace
On the stout and broad neck of a Cyclops,
Waiting to leap from the sea,
Grab our boat from the water
And use the ship to beat the sea
Into a churning and foaming
Soup of blue whirlpools and funnels
That suck everything in sight
Into a sapphire blue vortex
With the water cooling each meter
As it swirls down and cascades
Into Neptune's drain and picks up speed
As it descends into the dark
And lonely bottom of the sea.

July 13, 2008, on the Aegean and Naxos
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Changes I've noticed in Greece, Part 1, or, I miss the old Retsina

St. Francis of Assisi outside his church in Rhodes - click to enlarge


I don't have much time to do this--the Germans are patiently watching me, and of course, they can read this too, since they sit five feet behind me. OK, I am uploading this off the USB stick, and hope I edited it when I wrote it (I don't remember!).

Changes in Europe in general - I won't focus on how very expensive it is here. Unlike our last trip, we've seen very few Americans. It is very pricy in Europe right now, even in lower cost destinations like Turkey and Greece.



Jack outside a console club in Rhodes...the consoles are Game Cube, PS/2, and XBox

The E.U. seems like the biggest change, and it really feels like the destinies of most of the EU countries are now even more strongly interlinked than ever before. The common currency in particular seems both an aspirational thing and a burden. I kind of miss Drachmas.

Retsina - When we were in Greece in 1982, almost al the restsina you drank came from a wooden barrel, often served in a ceramic or copper pitcher. We have had a lot of retsina on this trip, but none so far has come from the barrel (at least directly). It is almost always served in 500 ML bottles (a regular bottle of wine is 750 ML). It is still pretty cheap. Back then it was about $1.00 a bottle. Now, it is more like 2-3 Euros for the 500 ML size ($3 to $4.50 USD). I kind of miss some of that barrel retsina, since once in a while you’d get some heavily resinated wine. Now, it is resinated, but not too much. I miss that more over the top version, unsurprisingly—who wants subtle? Claire seems to like Retsina, but Column does not…in fact he coined the name Wine-Sol for it.

English - Since this was my first trip to Turkey. I don’t know how their English was way back when. But I thought they spoke a surprising amount this time around. Even though we’ve seen very few Americans on this trip, and not all that many Aussies or Brits, English is spoken much more in Greece than before. Not so much as anaccomodation to language-weak Americans, but as the mutual language between Euro-language speakers. It is common to see, say, a German, a Greek, A japanese and a Dutch person speaking English...their one common language.

If signs plaques, or posters are translated, they are almost always in both Greek and English. Museums in particular follow this convention. In Greece, street signs are often now transliterated. When I was here before, you had to at least learn the Greek alphabet to get around.

The American Presidency - Some things never change. When we were here in 1982, the Europeans did not at all like our President, Ronald Reagan. In 2008, they really really do not like our President, George Bush. Our landlord laughingly made the cut his throat sign about Bush when she asked us what we thought about Mr. Bush. He has not made anything easier for anyone here, and most of these countries—part of the “coalition”—lost boys in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Greeks in particular seem fond of “America.” As far as I can tell, mainly because there is a large Greek community in America, and almost all of them have an uncle, cousin, aunt, or brother living in the United States. Or maybe it’s because of Telly Savalas. More on the changes later. Love, Jack
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Naxos - 37 hours and our final island hop before Athens

The tiny and no longer used St. Giogrios' in a village on Naxos - click to enlarge.

We arrived on Naxos after a stunnning two-hour sailing across the Aegean, right past the Santorini volcano, covered with dark lava scree. It was a massive cattle call getting on the boat, but I raced ahead of the family, sidestepping all the maddening roller-carts, and snagged a table and chairs on the very top deck, in the open air. It was a great ride past dozens of islands. We arrived on Naxos at about 7:00 pm. Naxos is a gorgeous, less hectic island than Rhodes or Santorini. We mainly just chilled out, wrote, swam a little, and had some drinks.

Keelin and Jack on our one night in Santorini/Thira - click to enlarge

Our landlord, Irena. proprietor of Irena II Pensione was sweet, and greeted us with ice cream bars, compliments on our family, and asking us about our Presidente. Then she laughed and made the throat cumming pantomime as we let her know we were glad he would soon be out of office. Like many Greeks and Turks, she seemed to feel warmly about America(ns).

We rented a car today and drove out to an extremely remote and windy beach and enjoyed our last beach day of the trip. I wrote a poem. We watched dozens of parasailers, kites, etc., in the brisk winds. I collected a few rocks.

Our two little friends who thought we'd come to feed them -click to enlarge

On our way home we stopped by one unmarked ruin, an old monastery, and at an old "plant" that makes Citron liqueur, Raki, Ouzo and some other distilled goodies. Then we walked through some alleys and fields and visited St. Giorgio's, an old Greek Orthodox Church that is extremely intact. I don't know if it's been restored or not. And I am blanking on the name of the village--something that has been happening a lot...we've been so many places in the last four weeks, it's sometimes hard to remember!

We saw two adorable lambs, chickens, and figs, grapes, and artichokes growing in fields and yards. Then we drove back to Naxos Town (Chora).

Tomorrow morning, we sail to Piraeus, the port of Athens, for three days in that polluted, hectic, crazy city, to visit the great archaeological museum there, and of course, the Acropolis and Parthenon...definitely the most inspiring ruins I saw on my last visit to Greece.

As always. when I am on a computer at a hotel, two people are waiting, so I'll post the poem another time, and another article I wrote on changes in Greece.

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26 Hours on Santorini

The Santorini Caldera at Sunset. Click to enlarge.



Santorini was once a very large volcano, but when it exploded, the core of the volcano sank to the bottom of the sea. What you see is the outer edge/rim of the volcano. Our hotel room was 100 meters from the edge of the former volcano. In Santorini, there is really no flatland, and all the towns and villages are built right into the side of the mountain (no troglodyte caves, 'though!).

We arrived here yesterday afternoon, and will depart for Naxos late this afternoon. Santorini is gorgeous, heavily touristed, and extremely congested due to the serpentatine paths and streets that thread their way through town (town, here meaning the town of Fira, or Thira, the Greek name for Santorini). Mostly we had wanted to come here to see the geological formations and the famous Caldera. Keelin has long weanted to come here to see the famous ruins--one of the finest in Greece--that has been closed for years now, and which we didn't figure out until the day we departed America.




Houses, resataurants, and streets on the stair-step hillside of Santorini. Click to enlarge.

We had an excellent dinner last night at Lithos, a taverna perched on the edge of the Caldera, with fantastic views, and a window on one of the best sunsets I've ever seen in my life. For dessert, they brought us a concoction of Ouzo and cherry juice. After that, we wandered through the narrow streets, did a little window shopping and went home. The youth attempted to go clubbing but were stopped at the door for an ID check Del could not pass (for the first time on the entire trip). I mentioned yesterday how many tourists come through here, both on ferries and cruise ships. And there is a lot of merch. for them to buy. There are probably more jewelry shops here than in all of Seattle. And ditto for fur stores. Fur stores? I don't know who buys furs when it is 100 degrees outside! But I do have a clue, since virtually every fur store we've seen in Rhodes and Santorini have bilingual signs in the window--not the usual English/Greek, but Russian Greek. Obviously the new upper and upper middle class Russians come through here too.

I am definitely starting to feel road burn on this trip, and long for some of the comforts back home. But not that much. I am not looking forward to out return in five days. Road burn aside, I could keep travelling another two months...

I was able to send two pics to the blog via my camera, but this internet cafe has no USB connection, so more photographs later...perhaps from Naxos. Also, there are four Germans sitting here tapping their feet, waiting to get on this fine Belnea computer, so it is time for me to sign off. But first I turn to them and say "Ich verstehe das nicht." Heh heh.
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Poem: Rocks, flowers, and walls

Ruins at Knossos - click to enlarge

I sometimes see the faces of Turks and Greeks
Fog in bafflement
When a tourist snaps a photograph

Of a pile of shattered bricks
Or a hole in the ground.
I can almost channel their thoughts:

Don't you have your own
Rocks, flowers, and walls
In America, Holland, and France?

Did you really come this far,
This 12,000 miles
To take pictures of a dog?
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Arrival in Santorini, Greece

The Santorini Caldera. What looks like an island out in the water is the volcano.

We arrived on Santorini after a two hour hydrofoil boat ride from the port of Heraklion. This incredible island has been through plenty, including a volcanic explosion that scientists say is the greatest explosion to ever rock the earth. That explosion blew a hold right out of the middle of the once around island...the hole is called the caldera.

In 1956, the island was leveled by an earthquake and virtually everything here was built since then.



It is heavily touristed, mainly with cruise ships docking for a few hours. Right now, it is 5 PM and the boats have departed, leaving only the residents and the tourists staying overnight.

Tomorrow we depart for the Island of Naxos, another two hour ferry ride away.
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My poetry reading in Heraklion, Crete

I am literally falling asleep as I try to write this, so will wrap it up tomorrow. We stumbled into a Greek poetry bookstore today. After some incredible name drops on both sides of people we mutually loved, the owner looked up some of my poetry and then hauled out a bottle of wine, and wanted to talk poetry.

After a glass of wine, he handed me two books of translations of Kazanstakis and Odysseus Elytis. He wanted me to read two long poems in English aloud and we both had a great time hearing them in English. One was the prologue to Kaz's Sequel to the Odyssey. I was very moved by the event, and it was a real highlight of the trip so far. What a great, random find and event. I have now had my first European poetry reading, and made a friend in the poetry world of Greece.
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Sitia to Iraklion to Santorini

The amazing fresco of leaping over the sacred bull, from Knossos. The painting is about 4,000 years old. Click to enlarge.

This morning, we packed and left Sitia and a brief beach interlude (punctuated by one ruin tromping stop). After four days in Sitia, we drove back to Heraklion, along the mountains, with the rugged Crete coast alongside us.


We came to Heraklion for one night, mainly to catch a ferry from here to Santorini tomorrow morning. We will stay in Santorini one night, check out the calderon, and then head off to Naxos for three days.




The Phaistos disk from the Knossos Minoan Palace. No one has ever succeeded in translating it, although they did manage to translate the texts of Linear A and Linear B (or one of them...I forget. The disks were created in about 1,600 B.C.Click to enlarge.

Naturally, while in Heraklion, we found time to visit the great archaeological museum here, with all its great artifacts from the Minoan civilizations, and in particular Knossos.

Heraklion was even busier and crazier than I remembered it from 25 years ago. Aside from the museum, we went out for a very good dinner--with a great complimentary dessert of flan, a Cretan pastry, and a bottle of grappa.

More tomorrow from Santorini (aka Thira)...

jack, Heraklion Crete, July 10, 2008
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