Travel Chronicles…part 2

Last week, we had the first of this four-part chronicle of our most recent family trip which covered four countries: Greece, Turkey, Israel and Jordan. As with any trip, it all starts with your choice of airline, and as it turned out, we made an excellent choice with Qatar Airlines which has regular flights to this route. It was a comfortable 9-1/2 hour flight and we enjoyed the food, the service and the in-flight entertainment.  The cabin crew was attentive and helpful, and hot food and drinks were available all throughout the trip.

As mentioned in the earlier column, this 15-day holiday, from April 21 to May 5, was a hectic one, but for the most part it was a discovery trip for everyone. None of us have ever gone to Greece, though my wife Babes and I had been to Israel and Jordan about 10 years earlier as part of an organized tour group, and I have been to Turkey several years ago. So much have changed in that time in those countries we earlier visited, so much so that it felt like the first time again for Babes and me.

We spent four days in Greece, mostly in its capital Athens, and we took this rare opportunity for some cultural immersion. After a half day at the Acropolis (see Part 1 of this series), we set out for the Acropolis Museum but were advised that we couldn’t get shots or videos inside.  With only four precious days here with still so much to see and cover for my planned documentary for Business & Leisure the TV show, we decided to venture downtown for a slice of Greek life.

We lingered a while at the Olympic Stadium while Vassilis Antoniades, our professional driver/friend gave capsules of knowledge for our consumption: this was the first Olympic Stadium built in modern times in 1896, with an 80,000 seating capacity. This was also where they held the archery competition in one recent staging of the Olympic Games. Incidentally, the Greeks are also crazy about basketball and football, their top sports here.

There are very few new buildings in downtown Athens.  Most of the buildings are built low and adjacent to each other, the tallest building not more than six stories high, pursuant to their strict building code as a guard against earthquakes. Most of them in fact were just about three or four stories high, a fact that lends a sense of old and quaint to this capital city with an unimpeded view of the Acropolis.

Our next stop was the ruins of Delphi, next only to the Acropolis as the most popular archaeological site in Greece, some 180 km from Athens. In ancient Greece, Delphi was the center of the world, the center of worship for the God Apollo as well as other gods like Poseidon, god of the sea. The Delphi Museum had an amazing collection of artifacts, from statues to ancient gold and silver and was a veritable record of Greek history and mythology.

 It was in the sanctuary of the Delphi, the seat of the sacred oracle that athletes from all over the vast Greek world (which then encompassed other countries as we know them now) gathered to compete in the Pythian Games, evidently a precursor of the modern Olympics.

Pythia was the priestess at the core of the oracle of Delphi whom the ancient Greeks sought in the same way that Christians seek Jesus – the Greeks sought the advice and prophesies of the spirit of Apollo through Pythia.

The Greek government has preserved the site impressively, and one has to walk up the unpaved mountain slope to reach the ancient site of temple ruins and the gymnasium (3,000 years old) that overlooks the Gulf of Corinth and affords a nice view of the valley. Delphi is now a town with business centered mostly on tourism, with several hotels and taverns. A long stretch of narrow, perfectly paved winding road has tables and chairs set out where tourists love to sit after touring the old sites to sip Greek beer. Here we found a small shop that sold Greek cheese—big slabs made from lamb or goat’s milk of various blends and flavors. Babes settled for a big piece of smokey cheese that tasted beautifully after trying out many others. The tavern we went to had an abundant supply of spring water that flowed continuously out of a spout which was sweet tasting and potable.

Next on our itinerary was the island of Hydra (pronounced Hid-ra), a 2-1/2 hour scenic trip by boat (Catamaran) that costs about $65/person. Greece is well known for its splendid islands, and the tourists who flock to this country in springtime inevitably end up in these islands. Just sailing comfortably on a cool spring day past a few big islands like Poros was a treat in itself as we drank in the beauty of the islands and the white cliffs.

Not having read up on Hydra, we did not know what to expect. Hydra has no automobiles or motorized bikes, and tourists and the locals rely on bicycles, horses, mules and donkeys or the taxi boats for travel. Amazing, in this day and age, and the epitome of simplicity and old world charm! The air was clean, the narrow roads that dipped and rose were very clean as well, and we walked through half of Hydra in amazement. Souvenir shops lined the roads fronting the dock and we noted several boatloads of tourists unloaded every now and then, most of them European by the way they dressed.

We chose an old tavern that was obviously converted from a house and chose from their home-cooked specialties. The usual suspects, namely grilled octopus, calamares and Greek salad were still among our choices, but we also had fried Zucchini balls, fried zucchini strips, veal with veggies, lamb in tomato sauce with potatoes, grilled salmon, pasta with big meatballs and moussaka (which was a bit disappointing). Is this a feast or what? Well, that meal set us back some 95 Euros, but we enjoyed it immensely with the usual Greek beer.

Some inexpensive finds include pure olive oil soap at 2 Euros each, a fine table cloth that cost about 15 Euros and Greek souvenir T-shirts at 5 Euros.

Some travel tips: Again, wear comfortable shoes for the long hike at Delphi, have your camera on hand to get fantastic shots of the ruins and the docking area at Hydra where mules await. Best to reserve ahead for the boat trip too.

On the way home we drove to the southern part where we espied some magnificent estates. Vassili said the flats here cost about 1,800 Euros per sq. m. Incidentally, petrol here costs 2 Euros per liter and their VAT is 23 percent.  The Greek economy has not recovered fully well, although austerity measures in place are expected to help. The minimum wage here is 580 Euros, down from 780 a couple of years back, and the advertising billboards are conspicuously absent or blank.  Still, the resilient people of Greece know that they can weather the storm, like they have been doing for centuries, and they smile through all these.

Well, there is a lot to smile about in Greece.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.  

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