Greece=Cheese Pie=Love

My time in Greece is a bit difficult to characterize. In one sense, it was one of my favorite places with the fondest memories, but in another sense it was characterized by disappointment.  We arrived in Athens from our string of ferries and trains late at night, the day before Easter, made our way through the grungy streets, and put our stuff down in our hostel. The owner of the hostel was an extremely pleasant older gentleman, who seemed to take a liking to us immediately.  When we asked for directions for dinner, he directed us to a nearby restaurant, which turned out to be closed. We were insanely hungry at this point, but almost everything was closed. Finally seeing an establishment with a light on, we sat down in an entirely empty restaurant. I ordered an omelet with “spiced meat” (not sure what the meat was) and got a beer. We had to wait a while, but when the food came, it was AMAZING. It was also fantastically cheap. Thanking the owner, we sleepily sauntered home and passed out.

The next morning Sofia and I made a point to get up early, not wanting to waste a day in Athens. However, upon arriving downstairs, the desk clerk informed us that EVERYTHING was closed that day for Easter. Man, were they right. Athens was a ghost town. Everything from supermarkets to banks to restaurants, to sites were closed. We decided to meander around town, just checking things out. We approached the Acropolis, and seeing people up there, got excited that we could actually do some site seeing that day. However, the Acropolis had only been open for a few hours that morning, and so we missed by about 15 minutes. The area around the Acropolis was much less depressing and ghostly though. Because it was a touristy spot, a lot of the restaurants and some of the shops were open, so we did a little bit of shopping, then proceeded to walk all around Athens. I tried to stay positive, even though it felt like we were wasting a whole day of our trip. But, in the end, we had a great day. We lounged in the National Gardens, and got an Easter dinner of lamb, potatoes, and cheese pie (it was the best thing ever!). It was a flakey pastry like thing with multiple different kinds of cheese inside, and I think a little bit of potato. I wanted a whole tray full of it...everyday...for the rest of my life. It was amazing!!! After we left the restaurant, we wandered the streets and you could see the actual lambs roasting on spits in the street throughout Athens. 

View of Athens

Greek Theater!

Cheese Pie!!

Lamb and potatoes

The next day, everything is Athens really came to life. We got up early once again to get to the Acropolis when it opened to beat the crowds. This turned out to be a very good decision.  Sofia and I ended up being practically alone with these incredible monuments for a good half an hour! We sat and sketched some, although I gave up fairly quickly. I just wanted to admire these buildings and soak up where I was. The Parthenon was right in front of me! Soon, the Acropolis filled up with more and more visitors, so Sofia and I made our way back down the hill. From there we went into the ancient Agora, which was neat to think about, but really just a pile of rubble to see. Then we saw the amazing temple to Hephaestus. This was an impressive structure, not because of its size or historical importance, but because it was incredibly intact. Built around the same time as the rubbly Agora, the temple still stands essentially in its entirety! A lot of the sculpture is gone, but it was just thrilling to see an ancient Greek temple with its pediment, columns, and cella walls.

Me and pieces of ancient marble. woo!

Me and the Erechtheion

Me and the Parthenon!

Acropolis

After all of this we went to Kerameikos, a high profile ancient Greek cemetery. The most beautiful funerary stele have been found in this cemetery, and many of the most important Greeks are believed to be buried here. It was a pretty site, and a nice adjacent museum. The cemetery was utterly tranquil. Many of the graves had become covered in grass and poppies, all of which would gently sway in the wind, the whole site seemingly ignorant of the bustling metropolis surrounding it.

Kerameikos

Following this nice, brief visit, we moved on to shopping. Greece has great leather products, so Sofia and I indulged a bit, finding a woman selling excessively or “catastrophically” (as she put it) low priced leather goods. The woman was a bit ridiculous and quite racist towards Bulgarians, verbally abusing three Bulgarian women away from her shop and down the street, but her goods were insanely well priced, and she gave me some valuable advice on finding a husband; “All you girls need to take off your sunglasses, all the boys can’t see your pretty eyes. You’ll find your husband at school when you go back, then you come here and visit me with him”. She was definitely entertaining. After this we grabbed some cheap gyros for lunch, then I got a thick piece of baklava, and we made our way to the parliament building, watching the absurd duck-like ceremony of the Greek changing of the guard. The guards wear long poofy shirts belted around the waist, making them look like flouncy dresses. This is complimented by the large shoes with enormous pom poms  on the toe, and tights. The guards looked so solemn and proud in their work; it was a serious practice of Greek tradition.  And yet knowing this, it was still difficult to hold back laughter at the spectacle.

From the parliament building, we walked back to our hostel. All went well, until I noticed two men sweeping up behind us, getting unnecessarily close. One of the men tried to reach his hand into Sofia’s bag, but then I shouted at him, and with a simple “Sorry”, he skulked off. This encounter left me angry. For one, how does “sorry” suffice for attempted pickpocketing? And for another, they were really crappy in their attempt…how dumb did they think we were? Tired and generally miffed, we made it back to our hostel and took some time just sit and read, nap, and go on the internet. After our little break, we went back out to grab some dinner. A lot of places were still closed, so we ended up where we had gone the first night. As return customers, the shop owner gave us a whole free carafe of wine! Full and happy, we went home to get some sleep for the next day of travel.

Getting up at the crack of dawn, we made our way to the ferry terminal to get to the island of Naxos. Everything went fairly smoothly, and after a 5 hour ferry ride where I was almost constantly breathing in cigarette smoke (everyone smokes there constantly), we made it to our island. We had planned 2 and a half days of beaching and a bit of sightseeing, having booked a tent on a beach side campground for two nights. We were looking forward to warm, sunny days. Unfortunately, upon our arrival, the whole island was overcast and chilly. We were optimistic it would turn around soon, so with a Canadian couple we had just met, we shared a cab out to the campsite.

The campsite was utterly empty. Having arrived in off season, most of the site’s amenities were closed or generally lacking. There was no toilet paper in the bathrooms, and the bar area was closed. The adjoining supermarket didn’t provide much to eat, other than spam and alcohol. We settled into our tent, which was fairly spacious for two people and walked along the beach for a bit. Sometimes the sun would peek out , but for the most part it was chilly and generally sad. After a lot of killing time by walking, we got dinner at a tavern down the street. The way it seemed to work was that they had pre-prepared a lot of food like moussaka, grilled vegetables, and spinach pastries. They also had another display of whole fish, beef patties, meat skewers, and lamb shanks. You walk up and order what you want and it’s priced by weight, not by set portions. Sofia got a whole fish, and I got a “stuffed burger”, which is ground beef in an omelet shape that had been filled inside with more meat (ham), tomatoes, and some cheese. This, with grilled vegetables, a mythos beer, and a great view of the ocean made our first disappointing day on Naxos seem less so.

That was before I checked the weather. This tavern also had the benefit of providing free wi-fi.  I logged on and decided to check the weather for the next few days, hoping to see sunshine. Instead I saw days and days of rain. It was going to rain that night, and the next day. Quickly Sofia and I formulated a plan, deciding to leave Naxos the next morning on the earliest ferry. We had a miserable, cold, wet night in our tent, having to huddle together for warmth under our towels, since we weren’t provided blankets. It was 6 euro a night, so it was at least a cheap way to suffer. The next morning we packed our bags, gave some cash to the owner, and took another taxi to town. When we got there we were informed that the ferry we wanted was full, and so we were sold some tickets for the 6pm ferry. This meant that we had to hang out in the town from 9am, when we got there, until 6pm. So we killed time. We had a long coffee break, then walked out to an ancient arch, sitting there for a bit, then had a long delicious dinner. Finally we were on the ferry, and off of Naxos. I can see how it would be wonderful during high season, when everything is open, and the weather is guaranteed to be warm, but it just didn’t work out for us. Disappointed, we made our way back to Athens, then took a train to Thessaloniki, then an overnight bus to Istanbul.

Stuffed Meat

Dinner and beach view

I loved Greece. The people were all extremely warm and friendly, with a great amount of hospitality, but between Easter with everything closed, and Naxos’ rain, it was a bit disappointing.  Now thawed out from that night of camping, I already look back on Greece with happy memories.