Athens Adventure

It’s Friday afternoon here in Attiki (you know the drill, when in Athens…)

We are at the Athens Airport awaiting our flight to the island, Paros – via Olympic Airways (yes , we have already signed onto their Icarus frequent flyer program –
wasn’t Icarus the unfortunate putz whose wings melted while airborne? Quite the moniker for a frequent flyer program, a name that instills nothing but confidence)

Speaking of Olympics, Athens is hosting the Summer Games in August 2004, and they’ll need Olympian efforts to get this place ready – it seems the entire
city is under construction – dirt, dust and debris everywhere – and as you’d expect, every time they dig a hole in the ground they unearth an ancient relic or two.

They haven’t done a great job maintaining the ancient sites until now – graffiti and garbage strewn everywhere, wild dogs roam the streets hardly worthy custodians here.

Sitting here in the airport observation lounge, which doubles as a McDonalds, assaulted by very loud disco/techno music (?), it’s tough to argue that globalization isn’t the real thing – Starbucks has also landed, along with many other brands. There is a Greek Mac on the menu, for the purists.

As for the old stuff, we spent the last 2 days trudging and traipsing our way up, down and around the Acropolis, ancient Agora, the Roman Forum, and flea markets. Our timing has been perfect – the taxi drivers went on strike the day we got here – so shlepping on buses and subways was a matter of necessity with economic advantages included

In contrast to recently visited San Francisco and Costa Rica, we not only found the local synagogue, but also were surprisingly allowed inside. The Rabbi invited us into his office for a chat. A native Greek, he doesn’t speak any English, so my Talmud Torah Hebrew was pressed into service.

The Jewish Museum of Greece was a worthwhile visit too, with mementoes of an almost-destroyed, once- thriving, now decimated community. 87% of Greek Jews perished in the Holocaust. Few survivors stuck around.

After breakfast this morning we headed for the central market, where locals buy their meats, fish and hardware – no shortage of hardware stores here, by the way. Nothing like the unforgettable aromas of abundant fish stalls at 8:30am!

Hope all is well

Your intrepid reporters

Sharon and Phillipus

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A Post from Paros - It’s Nice in Nouassa

Sent October 14, 2003

Monday evening here in Nouassa, a quiet village on the quiet island of Paros

Hope all is well where you are.

We arrived (finally) just 3 short days ago; it’s our fourth and final night here. ‘Finally’ deserves some explanation - getting here became a challenge, when we discovered at Athens airport that internal flight schedules should be more accurately described as ‘suggested departure times’.

The departure time monitor at the airport is more like a stock ticker in a bear market, disappointed travelers gather round to watch the emerging bad news as flight times are repeatedly pushed back. Compounding our dilemma was the fact we arrived at the airport w-a-y too early, so a good time was had in the airport observation lounge (that doubles as a McD’s) composing our
previous email from Athens.

So after all that waiting, we boarded a 37 passenger Dash 8 for the 30 minute hop to Paros. We knew in advance that the high season for tourism ended a few weeks ago, but never expected to arrive at our hotel to find it deserted. No signs of life, nada, period. No cars in the lot, no towels hanging anywhere, zippo.

That bit of consternation was soon remedied by the arrival of the owner’s 80 something year old mother-in-law accompanied by a 12 year old son - we were soon enough settled and on our way into the centre of town, on foot, a 10 minute hoof - turn right at the big church. No car traffic allowed, streets less than 10 feet wide, all mazes, and too easy to get lost. Keep your eye on the church that dominates the ‘skyline’, a worthy landmark set high atop a town of one and two-storey buildings.

So for the last 3 nights we have been the sole occupants of this very nice place, at the bargain rate of 26 Euros a night. The room is equipped with a hot plate and fridge that we provisioned with a crock of Bailey’s, abundant feta, olive oil, tomatoes, cucumber, etc - delicious Greek salads are easily produced.

The weather has been beautiful - clear and cloudless skies, cool at night. Constant breezes that often howl - little wonder that this is the windsurfing capital of the Greek Isles. And we forgot to pack our boards!

Aside from that wind, it really is quiet here, a handful of tourists in town, mostly German and French, a few Limeys, that’s all folks. Half the restaurants and retail shops are already closed for the season - all of which worked to our enormous advantage at Spanopoulous’ car rental - our 2 day Ferrari rental (did I say Ferrari? - I meant to say 900 cc Fiat) amounted to a total of 35 Euros, including taxes.

This entire island is only 80 km around, so in the last 48 hours we have traversed the island - and some places more than once - quaint little villages, lots of small churches. With rare exception every edifice whitewashed, all the doors and shutters painted Azure blue - forget McDonald’s, the trick here is getting the white paint franchise!

An ancient marble quarry abandoned in the 1800’s supplied the raw materials for Venus De Milo (probably cost an arm and a leg) and Napoleon’s Tomb (he probably didn’t even notice)

Shockingly, there’s very little fresh fish available - so the menu prices are astronomical. Our Danforth eateries are a bargain, at double the price! It was only a few days ago that we walked through the fragrant fish markets of Athens and Piraeus - they were swimming with the fresh stuff - why in the
world don’t they send some of it over here?

This afternoon we ferried across to Antiparos, a smaller, even quieter version of Paros - for a visit to their world famous caves. Previous visitors and stalactite signatories include Lord Byron and countless other graffiti artists and vandals who defaced the caves for all to enjoy.

Tomorrow we are off to another island - Santorini - a 4 hour ferry ride, will it be on time?

We’ll keep you posted

Sharon and Phillipus

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Spectacular Santorini

Sent October 16, 2003

Tues Oct 14 – 1pm - enroute to Santorini aboard the Blue Star Ferry, a 3-hour cruise (kinda Gilligan-esque, n’est pas?)

This is some ferry! Nothing like our beloved Samuel McBride (that’s the ferry to Toronto’s Centre Island, for readers unfamiliar).

We boarded just an hour ago in Paros, and now sit in the harbor of Naxos, another Isle of the Cyclades, as fellow travelers, including transport trucks and tourists, get off and on. This is a luxurious ‘milk run’. To our delight, it is one big beautiful boat, with an ATM machine, Internet Corner, restaurants (fast food and dining), escalators, and, well, you get the picture.

Our premium (an extra 2 Euros well-spent) 1st class tickets allow entry to this well-appointed air-conditioned lounge with comfy banquettes and the requisite bar – and plenty of Greeks with their cell phones, producing a constant cacophony of ring tones. By the way, Nescafe is a big hit here – aside from Ouzo and retsina, the popular drink is a Nescafe frappe!

9 pm – in our Santorini hotel room - What a swell ferry ride! We dodged a horde of hotel hawkers promising chic accommodations (whereabouts unknown) and jumped into the cab of an enterprising hack who cleverly used his taxi to block all his brethren until he’d scooped a fare. A fast meandering ride up the side of an almost-vertical mountain, and opa! – we arrived at our hotel unscathed.

We were taken to our first room, and then played a quick version of Goldilocks (hold the cream cheese) – “this room’s too small, we were promised a blah, blah, blah” and were soon ensconced in superior digs.

Headed into the centre of town, a 10-minute walk, you already know the drill - look for the church -and found another maze, with this one glittering – mostly jewelry shops and other overpriced priced stuff. This place is a gorgeous, almost impossible to snap a bad pic, try as we did.

A 3 Euro fun ride aboard an Austrian-supplied cable car whisked us down to sea level, for a stroll along the old port. You’d think the ticket vendor topside dispensed ‘round-trip’ ducats – ixnay, as the mule ride hustler who offered a not-as-fast ascent informed us down below. So in Let’s Make A Deal fashion, we had 3 options to choose from: Hoof it up a zillion stairs of almost straight vertical, cough up another 3 Euros for the cable car, or pay homage to Donald O’Connor aboard a 3 Euro mule – we took the least fragrant option.

By 6.30 we rented another Fiat, from Costa’s Car Rental this time, for a thorough examination of the island in the next 2 days. Dinner was yummy, further feta variations and olive oiled delectables. More to come….

Wednesday 10 pm – What a day! We have covered the entire island, top to bottom, literally - from sea level to the highest points. The natural beauty is truly breathtaking. There’s an ancient archeological site nearby called Akitotori, touted as a ‘must see’ in every travel guide. Quel disappointment, a dusty pile of rubble awaits unsuspecting visitors – all the beautiful frescoes, including those prominently featured in the brochures at the ticket window, have been carted off to museums, leaving a bunch of shmutz with no redeeming qualities, other than the fact (?) that it’s old shmutz.

Dropped into every town on the island, climbed plenty of steps, saw a red-sand beach, a black sand beach and lots more churches.

In late afternoon we headed for the town of Io, pronounced “EE-oh”, on the western tip of the island to verify that it truly hosts the most beautiful sunsets on Santorini (which means Saint Irene, by the way). And it does. Our viewing pleasure was enhanced by a sea-side dinner in a lovely cove – grilled Red Snapper, requisite Greek salad and garlicky tzaziki – splendid!

On the subject of snapper – we are snapping pics like papparazi here; every view beckons.

Costa expects his buggy back by 6:30 demain, so we’ll probably re-cover the island again, clockwise this time. Hoping to hit an Internet café tomorrow night to send off this epistle.

Thursday – 5 pm

More touring, more sunshine, a bit more feta

Today’s highlight, altitude-wise and otherwise - a rewarding steep climb up a mountain to the ancient capital of Thira, almost 3,000 years old (it didn’t look a day over 1,800)

Must return our chariot in an hour, so time to get some pics organized

Leaving for the Island of Rhodes tomorrow – next post from there

Hope all is well

Sharon & Phillipus

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The Relics of Rhodes (Not us, the really old stuff!)

Sent October 21, 2003

Hello again

Our 3 sunny days on the island of Rhodes were filled with adventure and discovery. The weather was summer-like, despite the fact that many hotels have already closed for the season– the place we stayed in closes Nov 1st.

The description of Rhodes Town in the guidebooks (we brought Let’s Go & Frommers) as the best-preserved medieval city in all of Europe, prepared us for an interesting ancient place – it easily exceeded our unexcavated expectations

It’s the largest island on our itinerary, about 200 kms around, and we circumnavigated the whole thing. Plenty of stuff to see, all the usual suspects (an acropolis, beautiful beaches, tavernas, fishing villages, churches, monasteries, et al), but the best places were all within the walls (up to 40 feet thick in some places) of the Old Town, a 10-minute stroll from our hotel.

The City of Rhodes consists of 2 parts, Old Town and New Town - Toronto and Thornhill should not come to mind. Old Town is in near perfect condition. From the outside, it resembles a gigantic, moated and walled fortress, what a coincidence – it is! The main drag is Socrates Street (Odos Sokratous for all you purists), formerly an Ottoman bazaar. As for the other streets,lanes and alleyways, they don’t form a grid by any measure, so getting lost is a breeze.

On the subject of breezes, there’s an almost constant warmish wind – which probably accounts for all the windsurfing that goes on when the now and soon-to-be-shuttered hotels are packed with tourists. Sunshine-wise, it enjoys more than 300 day’s worth a year, so business can be brisk for Coppertone peddlers and pineapple growers alike.

An unbelievable number of stray cats and dogs everywhere. They must like warm breezes too. Shopkeepers and locals ensure the creatures’ comfort by thoughtfully placing food and water in a various vessels on the streets.

Unsolicited travel tip - avoid the usual name-brand car renters in favor of local operators for much better deals - another Fiat car rental (that’s 3 islands and 3 Fiats, for those keeping track) from another ‘opolus’ operated outfit by an whisked us to all the “must-see’s”, most of it near the sea.

Much to our sanitary surprise the washrooms are spotless everywhere – the humblest gyro joint might not have any toilet seats, but the rest of the facilities are pristine.

On the topic of gyros, there’s an enormous franchise opportunity you may want to pursue – pic follows.
Worry beads are spinned by the male species wherever we go - what are these Greeks so worried about – haven’t they read the collected works of Alfred E. Neuman?

The island has attracted tourists for a few thousand years. It started out humbly as a Greek city and soon attracted a succession of unwelcome ‘visitors’ – Romans, Crusading Knights, Sultans’ Turks, Mussolini’s Italians, and Hitler’s troops – they all left their indelible marks.

The Colossus of Rhodes straddled the harbor entrance - an official Wonder of the World, it was destroyed many years ago – two statues (a doe and a deer) now occupy the spot where a giant bunion once stood.

The Castle of the Grand Master was a stunning highlight – it puts Casa Loma squarely in the wannabe department. Those Crusaders sure knew how to decorate – intricate mosaics looted from other places, gigantic galleries,
and enormous well-statued courtyards. The Hearst Castle does come close; you’d think they shared the same decorator.

The once-thriving Jewish community of almost 2,000 was shipped off to Auschwitz, only 7 families remain, and we met most of them during our visits to the Synagogue in the Jewish quarter. German bombs destroyed the ‘old’ synagogue, this start-up was only 400 years old, a very modest exterior, beautiful inside - pebbled floor, carved wooden ark, stained glass. Around the corner is the Square of the Jewish Martyrs where a memorial was erected not long ago.

Admission prices at the famous Butterfly Valley were specially reduced from 5 to 3 Euros – a pic explains why.

Remember Gregory Peck in The Guns of Navarone? – It was filmed high above the town of Lindos, the giant gun barrels are gone, but the fortress and surrounding caves remain.

Next stop Kos

Hope all is well wherever you are

Sharon & Phillipus

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Let’s Talk Turkey

Sent October 24, 2003

It’s Friday morning here in Kos, our 4th and final Greek island. We arrived here on Monday via ferry from Rhodes, stayed a single night, and departed the next afternoon for Turkey on a hydrofoil. In a mere 20 minutes our high-speed crossing transported us to another world, both literally and figuratively.

Dominated by another crusader castle, with the red crescent flag of Turkey flying atop (don’t you love that irony too?) the port town of Bodrum bustles – vendors and hawkers everywhere, hustling knock-off watches, luggage and handbags, various collectibles and assorted merchandise – all the familiar logos are available, all of dubious provenance.

The currency system in Turkey makes every shlepper a millionaire – a single dollar converts to more than 2 million lira – so bottled water at 2,500,000 isn’t quite the extravagance you’d suspect.

In a previous life Bodrum’ s name was Halikarnassos – it’s also the site of another ancient Wonder of the World – the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos – so including Rhodes, that’s 2 Wonders covered (more to come!)

Our hotel sat high atop the harbor, with a splendid view of the water. Mosques and minarets everywhere, (duh, no surprise) with loudspeakers mounted high to facilitate the calls of the muezzin for prayers – 5 times a day.

At 7am Wednesday morning we were picked up at the hotel to begin a whirlwind 800 km (that’s 500 miles for metricphobics) 2 day/1 night spin. We first visited Ephesus, one of the best-preserved ancient cities in the world. It was huge, yet only 20% of the goodies have been excavated. We walked along the actual marble streets to the baths, sat in the bleachers at the theater (with seating for 25,000 bloodthirsty pre- Russell Crowe Gladiator fans), public toilets, brothel and an incredible library building. No quite sure in which order the former inhabitants visited them. Lots of mosaics, columns and other miscellaneous ruins.

Another Wonder of the World was conveniently located nearby – a single column, with a newish birds’ nest on top, is all that’s left of The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. So that’s 3 Wonders scratched off the list so far. The other 4, incidentally: Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Pyramids of Giza, Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria and Zeus Temple of Olympia.

It was very sunny, very hot, very dusty and all very interesting.

Along the way we passed countless cotton fields and cotton-pickers (nomadic people who live near the side of road in tents). Late that evening we arrived, exhausted, at our hotel in Pamukkale, for dinner an evening of belly dancing.

We awoke yesterday to the spectacular view of the white cliffs of Pamukkale, an area 5 km square of formations created by calcium for who-knows-how-many years. It’s been there for at least a few thousand years. Nowadays, it’s a big moneymaker for the Turks – visitors flock to it, barefoot. Walking in shoes discolors the pure white, so a whistle-blowing shoe cop is on constant alert. We climbed down, then up, the whole thing. The sun’s reflection was intense, much like the Eskimo experience with snow.

Our final stop was a Carpet shop, no small enterprise this, an enormous labyrinth with “presentation” rooms and sales staff for every language. I didn’t ask for the Hebrew-speaker. The show begins with demo of how the carpets of made – how the silk gets extracted from the cocoons, how it’s spun, and how the weaving works. The weavers are all scarved (not starved) women in similar peasant garb.They begin to work full-time when they finish their schooling, we were told. It’s a youthful workforce – some were 12 years old. At this point, photography is verboten.

In the presentation room, we were offered apple tea, Turkish coffee or Reki (their higher-octane version of ouzo or anisette). A lead pitchman/ringmaster is assisted by up to a dozen able-bodied lesser lights who haul out scores of carpets. Once a few layers of the foregoing litter the floor, the “closers” descend like locusts, each one assigned to a tourist or couple. The prices were astronomical; it’s all a numbers game. No takers in our group.

A 5-hour ride whisked us back to our hotel at 7:30 last night, exhaustion encore.

By 8 this morning we headed back to the port, through the passport police and customs, and onto the hydrofoil for the trip back here. Remember Midnight Express? While we never felt threatened while in Turkey, the atmosphere can be unsettling – a fundamentalist Islamic majority in government is counterbalanced by a strong and vocal secular military. We both heaved a sigh of relief when we arrived back here in lovely Kos.
Details to follow.

Hope all is well wherever you are

Sharon and Phillipus

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Coast to Kos

Sent October 29, 2003

Sunday night here at the Athens airport McD’s – awaiting our connection to Tel Aviv, a brief layover of 7 hours (ouch). The throbbing techno beat surely constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in some jurisdictions.

We’ve completed the 4 Greek islands. Unlike Goldilocks we found them all different and enjoyed them all.
Least touristy and most ‘authentic’ – Paros
Most natural beauty – Santorini
Best variety – Rhodes
Most cozy – Kos

The shockingly great weather continued – much to our surprise. We expected sunny/chilly and got summer/gorgeous every day.

Our feta festival also continued - the olive oil now coursing through our veins is in gladiator-inspired competition with the red and white corpuscles. Did you know that Hippocrates was born on Kos and started the world’s first medical school there long before the discovery of medical malpractice? The hippster himself planted an enormous tree in the centre of town only 2,400 years ago – it is claimed to be the oldest tree on earth.

Lovely beaches surround the island – the most popular are Happy, Magic and Paradise – there’s even a Club Med. We visited a small beach with a thermal spring – a stream of almost-sizzling hot water for only the very brave. We dipped our toes.

No shortage of ruins, there’s something old around every corner. The proximity to Turkey keeps the armed forces busy – active army bases all over the place, and conspicuous navy patrol boats too. Fewer churches than the other islands, many mosques now converted to other purposes.

A beautiful art-deco synagogue is all that’s left of a peaceful Jewish community that fled the Spanish Inquisition to be shipped to Auschwitz in 1944. There’s nothing left inside.

We marveled at the climbing prowess of goats on the rockiest hills, and happily stumbled onto a goat farm this afternoon (we scrupulously scraped our shoes off afterwards). An accommodating goat herding couple even brought us a new kid on the block for an up close and personal experience that was a highlight with a bleating video souvenir.

Next stop – head office – Jerusalem. No plans for bus excursions, or attendance at crowded cafes.

Hope all is well wherever you are

Sharon and Phillipus

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Jerusalem Post

Sent November 3, 2003

The eternal city is very quiet, tourist-wise and otherwise. The flight from Athens took less than 2 hours, on a Macedonian Airlines plane. It was unremarkable except for the kosher meals that were hermetically sealed “extended-life meals” provided by a Belgian caterer. There are 3 types of meals, according to the accompanying pamphlet – hot (fresh), cold (fresh) and LongLife – that means an infinite shelf life. Feh! Processed stuff with the look and aroma of cat food. Can only imagine the taste, we’re not that brave.

Fellow passengers included an athletic-looking group of a dozen+ Greeks that were all at least 6 ½ feet tall – I fit right in. Turns out they were a basketball team headed for a game in Nahariya last night – we saw them lose in a surprise upset to the Israeli team on TV last night.

Despite the 3.30 am arrival at Ben Gurion Airport the terminal was bustling – flights arriving from all over the world – security checks were evident, in fact we saw 3 arriving passengers plucked out of our entry line by 20-something plainclothes agents.

Our carefree Greek odyssey came to a screeching halt here. The frequent sirens that are trivial background noise elsewhere in the world are extremely unsettling. The daily newspaper reports on how many suicide-bombings were thwarted the previous day. Few tourists here – and few locals on the streets – this is a country at war, unlike the London blitz there aren’t any sirens or warnings until after something happens, G-d forbid. Accordingly, we haven’t strayed very far from the hotel and the old
city.

The spiritual highlight here is The Wall, of course, where we gave thanks, up close and personal. An adjacent archeological park opened since our last trip in March 01, it’s a very large excavation, though not on the scale of what we’ve seen in Greece. It was very refreshing to climb through ancient relics with a Jewish connection.

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary in a unique way - packing food boxes for indigent families at a distribution warehouse operated by Yad Eliezer (more details at www.yadeliezer.com). Volunteers from local schools, young boys and girls 10-13, worked joyously and at a frenetic pace. We didn’t know that hunger is a large and growing problem here. We awoke this morning with sore muscles from all the twisting and schlepping.

We’ll pick up our rental car (Avis for a name-brand change) and head for northern Israel tomorrow. It’s saddening to report that we are genuinely looking forward to exiting this eerily quiet, so beautiful city. Can’t imagine how the Israelis live with this albatross every day, waiting for the
next outrage.

Editor’s Note: The ubiquitous internet cafes we expected failed to materialize, forcing the kosher piggybacking of 2 emails

Spiritual Safed

Sent November 3, 2003

Monday night here in northern Israel

With a variety of spellings (Safed, Tzfat, Safet, etc) that confound spell checkers, this ancient town of 25,000 high above the Kinneret, or Sea of Galilee, has attracted mystics and kabbalists for hundreds of years. The mavens proclaim Jerusalem and Safed the 2 spiritual centres of Israel.

Literally built on the side of a very steep hill, it’s a navigational nightmare of one-way streets and multiple levels – it’s a challenge just getting back to the hotel every day. A word on our accommodations – the Ruth Rimonim Hotel was built in the former horse stables of Ottoman ‘visitors’ – lots of stone and brick, high arched ceilings, no horses. Familiar Goldilocks room changing redux – 3rd time right.

We left Jerusalem a few days ago, and haven’t stopped since. Picked up our limey cousin Ronnie from a beachfront Tel Aviv restaurant. A 3 hour drive north, up the coastal highway and we arrived here for 5 days with Sharon’s family from the UK and Israel

We’ve crossed the Jordan River, visited a former (pre-June ’67) Syrian outpost high above the Golan Heights, and dined in a Druze restaurant. Finding ancient Jewish sites here is a no-brainer – we’ve visited ancient synagogues, Talmudic towns, and the graves of famous rabbis that continue to draw throngs of worshippers.

Security seems a no-less-obvious concern here (can you remember a roll of
toilet paper delivered to your room by a good-looking gun-toting guy?) But here in Safed, security fears don’t keep people indoors – they are outside and carrying on with their lives.

Sarah and Shraga