Off-season Grecian sojourn

I shared this blog with my writing group, didn't give them much context; not a good plan. The feedback was not great plus I was told it was self-indulgent, which is true. They expected a pure travel, history, recommendations kind of blog, mine is too far away from it. Wrong group share. Therefore, disclaimer-ing again - not all of Greece and far from comprehensive, purely my experience with the parts of history I got to see. All content is a mix of reading the descriptions as we walked around, guides, Wiki and some articles (very few).

So popular in travel circuit that it’s hard to really find something new in Greece. The western hemisphere's romance with Greece has permeated so much, that it is an unmissable destination even for the occasional traveler. 

Enabling the birth of democracy is no small feat and the Grecian influence is seen in every aspect of many a powerful nation. In the book, ‘the origin of greek thought' Vernant writes, in detail of how the integrated cultural history of greece paved way for the rational & public oriented political thought-process. Minoans, Dorian tribes, Cycladic, Mycenaeans, the Hellenic and the Greek dark ages culminated in moving towards ruling power distributed and shared rather than controlled by one person. It is an excellent book. My notes on it, will eventually be shared.

The trip was a special one, more than it just being Greece, my adult child and I were on a trip together for the first time, just the two of us. It was the first one so I pendulum'd between normal expectations of how fantastic it would be or extremely abnormal expectations of how disastrous it could be - like you might have guessed, we landed in the middle leaning towards fantastic. Also some very good conversations were had, which always helps, any relationship. Of course there was no escape from the usual mother irritating child and vice versa narrative.

The more I read about the country’s history and mythology the more I realised that it would help if we had someone guide us through all of it. As I navigated through the important sites, I was exhausted, but it did not stop me from also admiring the massive preservation efforts. Always needs the interest of the monied and the powerful to take history seriously but they are also the best at repeating and not learning from history; the rich and the monied, that is.

Off my soapbox and off to Greece, well Paris and then Greece. Off-season Greece was amazing for the most part, it would have been nice if there was a tiny bit of the tourist buzz, too quiet in some spaces. Next time I would still stick to off-season but convince more people to travel with us, create our own buzz. 

I let a travel professional plan the rest of the tour, with some directional inputs from me; we had only six days so we had to prioritise. My child was clear, she wanted to immerse, which meant, on our feet all day and sound-sleep at night. 

Athens

I picked a neighbourhood which had easy access to all things important and was walkable, Plaka. I checked in late evening, was appalled by the open bathroom concept that seems to be a modern design disaster; no two people whether related or not should be subjected to that, especially after paying good money. I put in a request to shift to a larger room for the next day, luckily my child was getting in a day later. 

Day 1

I had the whole day without a set plan in place. Walked around Plaka areas, as promised, the area was beautifully european with a touch of the mediterranean. Lovely cobbled streets, stores and restaurants everywhere and if you looked in the right direction, you could catch an arresting glimpse of the Athens acropolis, especially the Parthenon temple. Also came across a few protected archeological sites, avoided them as I wanted to see it with my kid.

Ran into this beautiful church in the middle of a prettier courtyard - the church of Panagia Kapnikarea, 11th century Greek orthodox, built over a demolished temple dedicated to Athena or Demeter, one is not certain. One of the oldest churches in Athens and one that was possibly used as a monastery for a while. It was locked, so sat outside for a bit, listening but not understanding to the explanation a school teacher was giving to his students.

I wandered for a bit longer, getting lost a few times, eventually got tired and headed towards the Athens archeological museum. A treasure trove for sure, also the chronology of the history of ancient greece and its influences was all new information; devoured it for the next 3 hours.

Took a wonky picture of the chronological chart, zoom in, one of the best ones I have seen.

This is my rudimentary map - of places we went, the civilization it was a part of and when it existed.

Sharing a couple out of the hundreds of the exhibits that caught my attention.

A walk back to the hotel was a pre-Christmas wonderland.

The child arrived and the holiday was officially on.

Day 2 welcomed us with rain. The first stop on our guided tour was the Acropolis, which translates to 'high city', usually a stronghold built on top of a hillock. Many ancients cities in Greece had an acropolis of their own. Evidence shows that the compound of this one was built by the Mycenaeans, next the Athenians built the massive, most impressive, still mostly standing Doric temple (Parthenon) and eventually a temple for Athena (Athena, goddess of knowledge, born out of her father's head - sound familiar. She was also a goddess that was part of greek's ancient history adopted by the hellenic greeks - there she represented handicraft, practical reason and war). The complex also housed an Ionian temple, again in honour of Athena, a beautiful one with massive sculptures of six maidens. The dark ages saw a neglect of the acropolis, destruction by the persians and a grand revival by Pericles of the Hellenic descent, around the 4th century CE. Through the rest of history it was destroyed and protected depending on who was in power. The preservation efforts started in the modern era.

Despite the winds, rains and cold - it was impossible to not be awed by the magnitude and vision of the ancient grecians. Also the labour of the many, many men and women.

The museum dedicated to the acropolis and our guide filled in the gaps which included who built what and why. One of the coolest parts was the underground active archeological sites.

We drove past Hadrian's arch, a more recently built monument, compared to the other sights. The arch was built in 132 CE in honor of the roman emperor Hadrian. The inscriptions on the gate name Hadrian as one of the founders of the city of Athens, the other one being Theseus.

Lunch was at Zorbas, local and off the tourist path, thanks to our guide. We had lunch with two of our tour-mates. Amicable chatting finished the morning on a pleasant note.

The tour bus dropped us off at the Panathenaic stadium, built in 330 BCE for festivals. The entire stadium was built in marble. Half buried for the longest time, modern reconstruction of the stadium started in early 19th century, eventually the earliest of Olympics were held here.

Our next tour, the same evening was to cape Sounion, don't miss it. It was a Deme (township) in the early 700 BCE, was fortified in and around 400 BCE to provide safe passage to the ships, went through the same trajectory as the acropolis - destroyed by persians and rebuilt and fortified by Pericles. Dedicated to Poseidon, the area is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.

Surreal is the only word that comes to mind. The evening sun, the sea and the temple ruins. Nothing more poignant than to see the greatness of man's ability, diminished, over time and nature casually unchanged. And yet the lessons remain unlearned.

We were quiet as we drove back to the hotel. There was not much to say after a day of constant amazement.

Day 3 was an exciting one, Delphi, considered the sacred centre (navel) of the ancient country. We were just the two of us on this trip. And at the site itself, there were 10 more people. We heard from every guide, 'you are so lucky, in season most of these places have a wait of 2-3 hours to even get in'. We were lucky, of course, the downside was, it was a bit too quiet in some places, only solution, travel in your own large group.

The drive took us to Delphi, a spectacular site, nestled in the mountains, blending with the valleys and mountains. Delphi was a religious site in the 8th century BCE, probably older, some indicate 14th century BCE, during the Mycenaean era, but no certainty on that, yet. Pythia (oracle) was said to be the priestess at the temple of Apollo (god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more). An oracle is usually a woman, powerful beyond human capabilities and also all-seeing. The tradition of the oracle is the most documented religious practice in Greek history. People would come to find out about their future, pray for health and give offerings for what they wanted from the oracle. The choosing of the oracle was done from the town of Delphi. The tradition was alive and well till the 4th century CE, before the temple and its belief structures were destroyed.

We climbed up the hillock, passing all the five temples, the place where the oracle sat and offered her 'visions' was still preserved. In some places you could see etchings of the cross and the destruction done to the temples. Never can understand why every religion needed to destroy the other in order to validate their space. Isn't faith supposed to be unshakeable if you are a devout hindu/muslim/christian/etc? Why so insecure in the belief and build over existing instead of building next to? A question that will never get an answer until most people who are in control, change their mindset.

The museum that was attached to the site was again, a marvel. The archaeological treasure is a side-effect of the western world's obsession with everything greek, roman & egyptian; a good thing. Understanding who we were to explain who we are and who we should or shouldn't be is the only truth in the world.

A drawing of what the temple would have looked like back then was one of the few pictures I took in the museum.

Before we left, we drove down to the temple of Athena Pronaia (temple of forethought), which was supposed to be archeological older and dedicated to Gaia (mother earth). Again part of the Mycenaean culture. Many of the Mycenaean figurines in the museum are ones that were gently excavated from this site.

Both the sites in Delphi exuded a peace that was a bit more than many ruins. Possibly only in my head but still, it felt right. Considering my understanding of Greece and its history is minimal (compared to Indian that is), the connect I realise is with the pagan roots that we have abandoned. I feel like that's when the world over, we as people, were deeply connected - to each other and to the earth. So, maybe Delphi felt familiar, like parts of Egypt and Lebanon did.

Day 3 was going to be a long one, we had a 4-stop tour. It would have been good to take a break, but limited time in Greece propelled us to stick to the plan.

Our first stop was the Corinth Canal, an artificial canal that connects the gulf of Corinth in the Ionian sea with the Saronic gulf in the Aegean sea. Many attempts were made over the millenia to build the canal, 7th century BCE to Nero in 67 CE to the Ottomans in 1830 - with many in between also having tried and failed. Finally when it was built, it was too small for the bigger ships to go through so only the smaller ones use it. Why did it need to be built - well, to save the ships the dangerous 700 km voyage around the jagged peninsula.

I know we took pictures, I just can't find them!

Our next stop was the Mycenae site. Massive and up on a hill, again. Flourished in the times of Agamemnon, yes, the same one who fought in the Trojan war with Achilles, not the best of men. In fact there are deep and really large dome shaped tombs where he was supposed to buried, one for his wife too, Clytemnestra. Devoid of anything, right now. Of course, we call it mythology but doesn't hurt to believe in it, a bit. Mycenae is said to have been a main and important centre around 1500 BCE. The lion's head gate and the tombs were the most prominent features of this site.

We walked around the area, sharing each other's understanding of the greek myths that we had heard. My child had just read the Achilles story, written by Madeline Miller and definitely helped connect more than what I could. It was the site that we had the most context about, quite exciting.

The areas in the site are marked as Grave A and B, the treasure found in all these sites are prominently displayed at the museum in Athens, so much gold and ornaments. And many familiar designs, so universal.

Our lunch stop was Nafplio, a beautiful town situated by the water, with a bit more recent history. Just a quick note about greek food for vegetarians, it was a feast, everyday. We ate healthy and delicious vegetarian food everyday, was just the best.

Back to Nafplio, we stopped at the castle of Palamidi. A walk up to the most spectacular views of the city, including a palace surrounded by water. It is said that the people of Nafplio had egyptian heritage and it was an important sea port. The Palamidi fortress was built by the Venetians, during their rule, which would be mid 18th century CE.

A walk around helped us see that the architecture and design was very different than what we were used to the last couple of days.

The last stop for the day was Epidaurus, the centre for healing and rejuvenation. The town was named after Apollo's son and the centre was run by the cult of Asclepius, ancient god of healing. Again the era that it flourished seems to be around the 6th-7th century BCE - the myth was that the people who needed healing would sleep a night in the enkoimeteria, a big sleeping hall, and the god would come in their dreams and tell them what they needed to do to get better. Like many modern healing sites, this one was very prosperous. It went through its cycle of destruction and resurrection - was destroyed in the 4th century BCE, revived by Hadrian in first century CE and and again destroyed by the Goths in 3rd century CE and finally became a christian healing centre in the 5th century CE before the oracle and paganism was completely rooted out.

In the same site, the ancient theatre was notable. Built in the 4th century BCE, the theatre and spectacular views around and exceptional acoustics, a science marvel for sure. We tried it out, if you stand within a circle drawn on the stage, the sound carries all the way to the back benches - more or less. Theatre was a part of the healing process.

Drove back and shopped a bit before getting ready to fly out to Crete the next day.

Crete, day 4 & 5

I had picked Crete because prominent remnants of the older civilization of the Minoans was present there, so chose the town of Heraklion. Had covered Mycenaeans & Hellenic and some post Hellenic, not much of the Minoans. The Minoans are still a mystery, like the Harappans, many aspects of them cannot be completely corroborated, as much of the language is still being deciphered. We flew to Crete and what a stunning island it was.

But at Crete, the off-season hit harder and I felt strangely isolated from the world. Not a fun feeling. We both stood out like sore thumbs as we walked the streets of the island. The hotel was not like its pictures and I felt a mild discomfort throughout. Nothing to do with the place, just felt like I had taken this thing of being with the locals, beyond my comfort levels.

Such a beautiful island though.

We had no plans for Day 4, so walked around, shopped, went to a coupe of small museums and spent the second half of the day in our room - hanging out watching funny videos. Was nice. I spent the rest of the night dealing with the travel agent and the airlines as they had cancelled our return, just imagine. Woke up the next day and sorted it out so we could fly back to Athens Day 5 evening rather than Day 6. Feeling much better, we headed for the tour.

Took a cab to Knossos palace as it was in the outskirts of the city. The site itself is said to be about 9000 years old. The most visited after the Athens Acropolis. The 'palace' was known to have been built in the 4th century BCE!. For a long time it was identified as a palace but the recent understanding is that it was a religious and/or an economic centre. Economic only because it seem to have political bearing.

I am using a picture of the entire complex from this pinterest account, it is the most well drawn one of the all the ones I have seen. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/370280400603988095/visual-search/?x=16&y=16&w=532&h=416&cropSource=6&surfaceType=flashlight

We had a spectacular guide. She blended facts, old hypothesis, current hypothesis and physical functionality and brought the entire site alive.

1. The oldest surviving parts are below ground level and closed off - any disturbance would only cause further deterioration. Some archeologists have been there and therefore able to confirm the antiquity of it - 7000 BCE. Unreal.

2. We saw some parts of the next level, which was dated 4000 BCE and onwards - it was refurbished and renovated multiple times through the millennia - natural calamities, invasions etc. And around the turn of the century, the importance of the site took a back seat in historical makings of Crete.

3. Little is confirmed about the Minoans - just like many ancient civilizations, they were dated and identified using their pottery styles as primary physical evidence. Also like other ancient civilizations there was a early (starting 3100 BCE), middle (starting 2100 BCE) and late (starting 1700 BCE) minoan period. Each of these periods were heavily influenced by the integration that happened with the other civilizations (cyclades, Mycenae) of the times.

4. Early minoan - trade, painted pottery, masted ships

5. Middle minoan - earliest palaces/religious centres, writing systems, large frescoes of landscapes & major

6. Late minoan (most profound changes) - prosperous palaces, snake goddess figurines, religion and ritual was very inportant.

7. The minoans were traders and their trade extended to Egypt, Cypress, Canaan and the Levantine (Lebanese/Central Syrian (including Beirut, Damascus, Druze Arabic, Cypriot Maronite), North Syrian (including Aleppo), and Palestinian/Jordanian).

8. Three things the guide said stayed with me - one, the minoan ships were not built for war, so either they were peace loving or hired other battle-able communities. Also many a physical evidence points to a woman being the queen/high priestess - especially the way the private chambers were set up. Finally, much of the area was designated for storage, we saw really large pottery - held grain, wine, etc; solidifying the hypothesis that their main work was trade.

There was so much more. It was my first tour where I did not wander away from the guide.

The frescoes you see are recreated, originals are tucked way in the museums to prevent further wear and tear.

The levels

The storage

And finally some art & culture

Flew out of Crete, happy that we stayed back and visited one of the oldest sites in Greece and loved the fact that so much is yet to be understood. To be an archeologist in this era, uff.

We were done with boutique hotels in off-season, moved to a known one, 50 meters from the airport. Still had all of Day 6 and were lucky that it was a sunny and warmer day. So wandered the Parthenon again and I saw the archeological museum again. Both places were so much better the second time around, we had a deeper context and more things fell into place.

Last day lunch views.

Day 7 was travel back to our respective countries, my child had a longer and more painful (delays, waits etc) flight back, and I mentally supported as she got home.

It was incomplete for sure, no one country can be covered in one trip. Both of us know we will go back - hopefully sooner than later.