It's All Greek to Me

April brought with it a long weekend, thanks to a Turkish national holiday, and I felt I really had to take advantage of that to do some serious travelling. While thinking about places I could go, my Korean friend here at METU, Dong Kyu, approached me about joining him and our mutual Korean friend Jiin in Greece. It didn't take me long to accept the invitation.

We headed out on a Thursday, by plane, to the Turkish coastal city of Bodrum, in the southwest. We got in to Bodrum fairly late in the evening, and from the airport to our hotel was quite a haul, involving both a bus and a taxi. We were tired when we got to the hotel. So it was the worst time for things to go bad.

At the hotel, the receptionist asked to see our passports to register us. Jiin and I procured ours easily. Dong Kyu, however, did not. He searched frantically through his backpack and pockets, but it just wasn't there. We had all used our passports to board the plane a few hours before, but somewhere in between there and here the passport had disappeared. We then spent the evening making phone calls to the taxi company, the bus company, and the airline, with the gracious help of the hotel staff who obviously would have preferred to be in bed by now.

No luck.

Since we were heading to Greece, a passport is essential and so we slowly and sadly accepted that Dong Kyu, even though it was his idea in the first place, would not be joining us in Greece the next morning.

We bought beers and drank them on the beach and talked about life and religion and culture and skipped stones into the darkness. Because what else can you do, sometimes, when someone's lost their passport and brought the vibe of the vacation to a sad, sad place?

The next morning, we got up early to catch the ferry and the comedy of errors that was last night continued. We thought we could walk to the dock, and what a beautiful walk it was, in the cool morning air of the seaside city. The streets were narrow and pretty, and we had a nice view of the Bodrum Castle across a small bay.

Bodrum in the morning - a view of the castle.

And then we got lost. We couldn't find the office of the ferry company, where we needed to check in, and time was running out. We asked some taxi drivers, and they explained to us that we were in the completely wrong spot. We didn't have time to walk all the way back to where we needed to be (which was actually quite close to our hotel), we took a cab. When we got there, all of the ferry company offices seemed to be closed. A man standing nearby asked what we were looking for - nope, still in the wrong place. In fact, the right place had been a good 200m from where we got the cab in the first place. Back into a taxi, back across town.
In the ferry office, finally, more trouble - Jiin, who had purchased her ticket separately from Dong Kyu and I, had never actually received the e-ticket in her email, only a confirmation of the purchase. It was early morning and the travel agent she had purchased from was not open yet. For a second it looked like I would be proceeding to Greece alone.
But things got sorted - the ferry company was able to change the name on Dong Kyu's ticket since he wasn't using it anyway. We sadly bid farewell to Dong-Kyu and headed through customs.

The ferry ride from Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos was short and pleasant (only about an hour). We were in sight of land on one side or the other the entire time.

The last bits of Bodrum as we leave Turkey.

Bye Turkey

The town of Kos - the biggest settlement on the island of Kos - is a pretty little place. It's dominated by a big castle right on the water, which I'll talk more about later. The weather and temperature were both perfect.

Walking along the Kos harbour, Kos castle on the left.

Kos harbour-side. Castle on the right.

The first thing we did was head to a cafe (we needed wifi to download our e-tickets for that evening's ferry) where we had Greek coffee. In many ways it was similar to Turkish coffee, also thick and dark, but sweeter and perhaps less strong. Already we were feeling the subtle differences between Turkey and Greece. In many ways, the cultures - especially, but certainly not exclusively, on the islands close to the Turkish coast - are very similar. After all, they have been interacting and mixing and sharing for as long as there have been people here. But there are also subtle differences, some of which I don't think I can even articulate. Just some subtle differences in architecture, in atmosphere, in body-language and tone. And of course pork.

I didn't think I would miss pork in Turkey. It's certainly not my favourite meat, and when I'm at school I eat it virtually never. Bacon and pulled-pork poutine are perhaps the exceptions, but even that is really only at restaurants or special occasions. And when I spent my summer in South Asia, I didn't eat pork even once for a full three months and thought nothing of it.

In Turkey, in the span of a month, I had three dreams about eating pork. Bacon, pork chops, pork sausages. I don't even usually remember my dreams.

Sorry for this strange tangent, but the point is I took advantage of the Greek pork (and have not had a pork-related dream since).

We ate lunch at a family-owned restaurant. The owner/chef made me a fresh shepherd's pie-like dish which was absolutely delicious and warranted a picture (but does food ever REALLY warrant a picture??)

First lunch. So Greek. No pork, but I still haven't come across anything like this in Turkey.

The we took to exploring Kos. There was a pretty old mosque in the central square, from the 18th century when the island was under Ottoman rule.

Nefterdar Mosque in Eleftherias' Square.

Our first main stop was the ancient agora of Kos. Kos, of course, used to be the home of an ancient Greek civilization, and weaves itself into a number of myths and stories. Kos sent ships to Troy in the Trojan War. Kos is where Heracles met and married his wife, on his way home from securing the girdle of Hippolyta the Amazon Queen. Kos is where Hippocrates, the father of medicine, lived and practiced medicine and taught the first-ever genuine cohort of med students. Anyone who knew me as a kid would know that I used to be outright obsessed with the Ancient Greeks and their complex mythology. Being here in Kos seeing the Greek ruins brought all the passion and excitement of that 10-year-old kid back at full blast.
The agora was a cool bunch of ruins, some better preserved than others, strewn around a field that was quite literally in the heart of Kos town. Weirdly, the paths were unclear and overgrown - maybe because it wasn't yet tourist season - and so we just found ourselves sort of wandering through a meadow and stumbling across different old ruins, which themselves were pretty well marked.

The ancient agora

The remains of the ancient agora

Old, overgrown, and fascinating.

What was once a beautiful tiled floor.

An old column

A column peeks over an old wall.

This was once a temple to Aphrodite, which also housed a shrine to Heracles.

Once upon a time, people prayed here to the goddess of love. Can we even conceive of how long ago that was?

This stone is old, but maybe less so. The fancy cross tells us this would have been from the early Christians in the region. In the 5th century, the ancient agora became the site of an early Christian, the Limenos Basilica. At the time, the Basilica was one of the largest in the Mediterranean region.

One of the things I found most fascinating about Kos, and especially about the ancient agora - how within five hundred metres of each other, we can find a shrine to Aphrodite, the ruins of a Christian Basilica, and an impressive mosque from the 1700s.

Exiting the agora, we emerged into a quiet part of the town, near a classic-looking Greek Orthodox church. Across the path from the church there was a little money box, with a sign in both English and Greek: "For the animals". Intrigued, Jiin and I stepped past the money box into a small clearing in a patch of trees. There was a cat, grooming itself. It meowed at us as we slowly approached. So cute.

Suddenly there was  rustling in the bushes behind us. The cat bolted away and we whipped around. We sighed in relief when it was just another cat. But then there was another, and another, and another. And another.

The cats begin to emerge.

It was rather intimidating. There were so many of them, and others emerging from other sides, and continued rustling all around us. I felt surrounded. They all stood there looking at us, and then started meowing. It was weird, and also hilarious, but when I fumbled for my camera to catch the moment, a bunch of them just retreated back into the woods and those remaining started to just look bored. It was as if they knew that if I got a picture of them looking all coordinated and intimidating, I would show the outside world and reveal their secret of an underground cat mafia ruling the island of Kos.

I swear, a second before they were all looking me straight in the eyes/soul and demanding something in their meow-based language.

The Church of St. George tou Arrenagogelou, across from the cat sanctuary.

Leaving behind the cat sanctuary and the ancient agora via an old stone arch.

Palm trees and pretty white buildings.

Next we went to Lotzia Square, famous for an ancient plane tree. It was under this tree that Hippocrates allegedly taught his students. While some people dispute whether the tree could actually be as old as this myth implies, there's no doubt that it is very, very, very old, and it is now held up by metal scaffolding so it doesn't collapse. The square is also home to the Hajji Hasan Mosque, an impressive old building with two-stories.

Hippocrates' tree, where he once taught medicine.

The metal scaffolding holding up the old plane tree.

An old Greek tomb, converted into a fountain by the Ottomans, in front of Hippocrates' plane tree.

The minaret of the two-story Hajji Hasan Mosque, built in 1786. The greenery you see is that of the Hippocrates plane tree.

Some random Greek ruins by the plane tree.

The tomb/fountain and an old column.

From Lotzia Square, we crossed a pedestrian bridge - known as the Avenue of Palm Trees - to the Fortress of Kos, which sits on the edge of the Kos harbour and was the first thing we saw when we got off the ferry that morning.

From the Avenue of Palm Trees, looking towards the sea.

The castle is a fascinating place. It was built and expanded over a period of almost two centuries by the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, also known as the Knights Hospitaller. If you're not familiar with them and/or are interested in Crusade history, it's worth taking a skim of the wikipedia page here.
Anyway, the Knights captured the island in 1314, and held it until 1522, when the Ottomans successfully captured it. They built castle as well as the castle now in Bodrum, allowing them to control access across the straight between the mainland and the island. The castle was originally the site of Greek and Byzantine constructions, but those were replaced by the Knights' defenses.

Inside the castle. They have set out a whole bunch of ruined columns that you can browse as you walk by.

Old walls - the outer fortifications.

Looking off of the castle battlements up the coast of Kos town.

Pretty yellow flowers, and old stonework overlooking the harbour.

A tower of the Kos fortress.

Looking from one corner of the castle to the other, and beyond.

Where there is grass now was once a moat, separating the outer walls (from where I took the picture) from the inner walls.

Pretty yellow flowers and old medieval walls.

An olive tree in the castle.

Blue and white against blue and white: the Greek flag flies above the Kos fortress.

Old cannons, once used to guard the castle, now lay abandoned.

The fleur-de-lys on the old stonework.

Looking along the Avenue of Palm Trees as we leave the castle.

After visiting the castle, we wandered around the town, We came across this church, the Agia Paraskevi church, exactly as you would imagine a Greek Orthodox church to look.

Agia Paraskevi Church in Kos town.

Bright depiction of Jesus on the wall of the Agia Paraskevi Church.

Further wanderings brought us past this cool old building. Not sure what it is, but I thought it looked neat.

For the rest of the evening, we decided to rent bikes and bike along the coast. I didn't take any pictures really because we were biking, but it was beautiful. The temperature was just perfect - warm but not too hot, and we took the road out of the Kos town and along the length of the coast and back, which was very pretty and a lot of fun. We ate dinner at a Lonely Planet restaurant recommendation which seemed to live up to its description as a place full of locals. I had a delicious Greek-inspired hamburger and paired it perfectly with a glass of local Kos red wine. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

As it became dusk on the island, we headed back to the harbour to catch our ferry off the island. We had just been on the island for a day, but it was a fantastic one.

Our ferry arrives at the Kos harbour.

Our ferry arrived on the island of Santorini in the middle of the night, so we headed immediately to our hotel and went straight to bed. But the next morning we awoke to a beautiful, beautiful island.

Fira is the main town on the island, and walking to the downtown was a 15 minute walk from out in-land hotel. Fira - and in fact all of Santorini - is incredibly touristic. Even with us being there in the shoulder season, there were already tons of tourists, from Europe and Asia and North America. I actually can't imagine what it would be like in high season, but I imagine it would probably very on unpleasant with all the crowds. Fira is full of cheesy souvenir shops, overpriced restaurants and designer boutiques. But despite all of this, it was a fantastic place to be because it is just unapologetically drop-dead gorgeous.

Santorini (also known as Thira and historically as Thera) as it exists today is the product of a whole lot of seismic and volcanic activity. Once a round island, a volcanic eruption  caused the centre to collapse (perhaps the inspiration of the myth of Atlantis, since the island was inhabited at the time. Santorini then became a ring, and after various other eruptions and earthquakes, much of that ring also sank into the water, leaving Santorini as a sort of crescent-moon shape, around what is called a caldera. There are steep, jagged cliffs up from coast and the towns of Santorini are perched precariously on top. This creates some truly stunning views. The beauty is then helped along by prettiness of the towns themselves - buildings are painted in bright solid white and other pastel colours, and the roofs of many Orthodox Churches are blue, creating the classic image of the Greek islands that I'm sure many of us have in our imaginations.

Fira, looking down to the end of Santorini, and across to the island of Thirasia

A cruise ship in front of Nea Kameni Island. Thirasia Island on the right and Palea Kameni Island on the left.

A panorama view from Fira.

Looking down to the south end of the island.

Narrow steps up to a church in Fira.

In Fira we visited the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, a relative anomaly as a Catholic cathedral on the predominantly Greek Orthodox island. It was a truly stunning church, and the inside was pretty and calm and it was really nice to just relax there for a bit, away from the already-scorching sun.

Cathedral of St John the Baptist

A bright sun over the Cathedral of St John the Baptist.

Attempting to capture the grandeur and beauty of the inside of the Cathedral.

Greek flag waving in front of the dome of Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral.

We also visited the Museum of Prehistoric Thira, which was a small but fascinating museum with many ancient artifacts found in excavations of the island. One of my favourite parts was the wall murals that had been found and were displayed. Considering their age - these are ancient Greek frescoes - they are incredibly well-preserved in my opinion, and colours are still quite distinct. And I thought they gave a really good idea of what the walls of ancient Greek home or business may have looked like back in the day. They were hard to capture properly on camera, but here's one to give you an idea.

Frescoes from ancient Greek civilizations in the Museum of Prehistoric Thira

Another shot of the Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral

Since it was such a beautiful day - after noon the sun was still warm but not quite so scorching and a light breeze was blowing off the sea - I convinced Jiin that we take a 10km hike along the edge of the island to the town of Oia on the north end, where we could catch the famous beautiful Santorini sunset. I think this was my best idea of the whole trip, because not only was in fun to hike, we soon left most of the tourists behind and were left virtually alone to walk across pretty little churches and beautiful meadows.

A Greek Orthodox Church

Leaving Fira behind. You can see its cramped little old port down at the water.

Off the edge of the caldera.

Fira

Me

Jiin

Pretty blue against white.

Classic blue domes on an Orthodox church in the next village down the island.

Aegean splendour.

We pulled off the main path and stopped for lunch at little restaurant full of locals. Pork souvlaki to die for.

Blue and white, blue and white.

As the island narrowed, we could see off both sides of the island. This is looking east across a meadow. Not sure of the island,

A donkey in a meadow! Such a great visual. This picture is dedicated to Dong Kyu, who should have been here to see the donkey.

The caldera

Looking back along the path.

The caldera. Fira is now across from us.

Later in the day, approaching Oia at the northern tip of the island.

Aegean Sea and farm fields below.

The caldera again. Note the reddish rock, the product of the volcano that formed this caldera.

Panorama view. Jiin looks off towards Oia, our final destination.

Pretty church, all alone.

We made it to Oia, 10km later. This is the main square.

Oia, the destination at the end of our hike, is another classically-pretty town. It's famous for the view you can get of the sunset, so we were excited to see that. We managed to snag a pretty good view of the sky. Unfortunately, the weather didn't seem to be holding up. While it had been sunny all day, clouds now rolled in, it got colder, and there was a bit of spitting. It was about fifteen minutes before sunset and while it wasn't an ugly view, it also wasn't as cool as we had hoped. We overheard tour guides telling their groups that they might as well leave, since it didn't look like the view would be that cool. As the rain started to pick up a bit - and we weren't ready for rain - we thought we too would throw in the towel.

The "sunset"

We left our great vantage point and headed back into the village to catch a bus back to Fira. But just as we were about to get on, someone cried out, and we looked behind us, and there was real sunset. Yes, perhaps it would have been even more beautiful if there had been less clouds (and if we had stayed in our place) but it was still amazing.

The real sunset.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in Fira - with the help of Lonely Planet, we located a seafood place which wasn't overpriced and was of amazing quality. Another perfect wine pairing of my cuddlefish with a local white wine.

We left Santorini early the next morning, and headed on the excruciatingly long ferry journey to Athens. At least it was a beautiful day to look out on the Aegean sea. It seemed as there was always at least once island in sight during the journey which was pretty cool. I actually also did some homework on the ferry, which I'm pretty darn proud of.

Islands of the Aegean.

We got to the Athens port in the mid-afternoon, and took the metro to our hotel downtown. As we emerged from the subway, I found myself quite impressed with Athens as a city. The architecture of the city was quite pretty, and I found the atmosphere warm and positive - this feeling would only grow as I saw more of the city

Kinda pretty, no?

At our hotel, we got our keys and headed up to our room. As soon as we opened the door, Jiin and I both immediately dropped our bags and ran to the windows at the far end of our room. Stunned, we looked out at the ugly building across from us and, rising above it in the distance, the Greek Parthenon on the top of the Acropolis.

I have seen a lot of cool stuff on my travels. But seeing the Parthenon for the first time, even from so far away, caused one of the most impactful responses in me to seeing a simple building. Perhaps it is because, as mentioned Ancient Greek history and culture and mythology defined my childhood so much. Or perhaps it's because to me, this image represents so much about the world I live in today - a Western democracy, based on many of the principles first developed or utilized here in this very city. Probably, it was a combination of both. Anyway, I felt genuine chills and even got weirdly emotional.

There she is, off in the distance!

Our Turkish friend back home in METU, Baki, had visited Athens a couple times and made friends with a couple of Athenians. Baki had helped us get in touch with these two - Ali and Giannhs - who agreed to be our hosts around the city during our brief stay. Funnily enough, neither is technically Greek (Ali is Iranian, Giannhs is Albanian) but both have lived in Athens plenty long enough to be incredibly helpful. They were both also super hilarious and fun to spend time with - it was so great to make new friends in a foreign city so quickly! Humans really can be cool sometimes.

So anyway, after we had dropped our stuff, we went immediately into the city to meet Ali, at Monastiraki Square, which is kind of the downtown of the central historic core of the city.

Athens

A pretty church in Monastiraki Square, with the Acropolis behind it.

Beauty and timelessness, Monastiraki Square.

Stunning ruins, casually integrating themselves into the city life.

Ali brought us to dinner - delicious pork souvlaki, again, and then brought us to one of his favourite places in Athens - Areopagus Hill, where the God Ares was once tried for killing Poseidon's son, where murder and treason trials were heard in ancient Athens, and where St Paul delivered his 'Sermon to an Unknown God' in the year 51. Filled with young people, the hill has a great view of both the city below and the Acropolis above, even prettier in the light of the setting sun.

Athens from Areopagus Hill, with the Temple to Hephaestus on the left emerging from the trees. I didn't really realize previously that Athens was surrounded by mountains, but here you can see that's the case.

Looking up at the Acropolis from Areopagus Hill

Near-360 panoramic view from Areopagus Hill.

Jiin is way better than I at getting good backgrounds in our selfies, but at least we're happy.

As it got darker, Ali brought us to a rooftop bar (a little overpriced, but so worth it) to get a beautiful view of the Acropolis lit up at night. Ali kept having to pull us back into the conversation when we got caught up on the distraction that was the Acropolis. He was incredibly patient though - maybe he realized we couldn't help ourselves.

Photo doesn't do it justice, but Acropolis lit up by night.

Ali then took us to the neighbourhood of Exarhia, which is where a lot of students hang out thanks to the presence of Athens University. Here, we met up Giannhs and brought some beers to drink in a park teeming with students doing the same. The beer was SO CHEAP. Ali told us that this was where the anarchists hung out - Giannhs quickly corrected him: this is where the wannabe anarchists are, those who have rich parents and only hold themselves to anarchist ideals while it suits their comfortable life. I don't know enough about urban Athenian politics so I don't want to weigh in, but I found his assessment funny anyway.
After the beers, Ali left us for some other commitments and Giannhs showed us around the neighbourhood. There was a lot of really cool street art and graffiti in the area, and in our brief visit to the city I think it's the closest I got to seeing into the world of those negatively by the economic crisis here, expressing themselves through wall art.

Exarhia walls.

Then, Giannhs brought us to one of his favourite haunts - a 60s-style dance club. It was not at all what I expected but it was super cool! Everyone comes dressed up in period clothes, and they dance (really well) to music of the period. Giannhs and some friends at the club tried to teach Jiin and I and we awkwardly fumbled through a couple songs, but I'm not a good dancer on a good day so we mostly just enjoyed watching. Giannhs does a lot of dance and theatre and the like, and is really friggen good at this style. It was pretty nifty.

The next morning we got up later than we wanted, but headed to meet Giannhs to head up the Acropolis.

Passing the market on the way to the Acropolis.

The Acropolis was SO GOSH DARN COOL. Really, it was. Despite our later start, we still got there early, beating out most of the crowds and avoiding the height of the sunlight which would get brutal around midday.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus, seen from the ascension to the Acropolis.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Hill of the Nymphs in the background.

Up to the entrance to the Acropolis.

Passing the pillars of the Temple to Athena Nike, marking the entrance to the Acropolis.

Temple of Athena Nike.

Giannhs and I in front of the Temple of Athena Nike

Porch of the Caryatids and the Erechtheion (Temple to Poseidon) on the Acropolis.

The Caryatids.

Old beauty.

Jiin in front of the Erechtheion.

Looking out at Athens

Look at that design.

The Erechtheion.

An olive tree by the Erechtheion - Athena's gift of the olive tree was considered more useful than Poseidon's gift of a salt water spring (or depending on the version of the story, his gift of horses), thus inspiring the people of the city to name it after her.

Looking down off the Acropolis.

The Parthenon.

The Theatre of Dionysus

Still standing after all these years - the Parthenon is truly glorious.

The Parthenon.

The Parthenon

Finally leaving the Acropolis, we met up with Ali again and the four of us headed to the Acropolis museum a short way away. It was a very cool and very comprehensive museum of ancient treasures, and is a beautiful building too, with lots of natural light.

A stone defining some foreign policy with neighbour city states. Ancient international relations, so fascinating.

The view of the Acropolis from the museum.

As we came to the end of our day, Jiin and I presented Ali and Giannhs with a gift from our friend Baki in Turkey - two ODTU t-shirts from our university.

One of the coolest parts of the museum was the way in which it was built over old ruins, but in such a way that they can still be seen!

We left the museum and enjoyed nice strolls along the paths around the Acropolis and downtown core. I guess a lot of these pedestrian-friendly, tree-lined paths are relatively recent, having come just for the Olympics when they were held here, but they nonetheless made the city absolutely gorgeous. We had gyros for lunch, and it was a perfect end to our Athens visit.

Ruins every which way you look in the city.

Giannhs, Jiin and Ali walk down a street of restaurants. To their right, ruins.

Right in the heart of the city.

We said goodbye to Ali and Giannhs and took the subway to the airport. In a sadly fitting circular way, the trip ended much as it started; no sooner had we got through airport security that Jiin realized she didn't have her wallet. It must have been nabbed on the subway or something. Lucky for her we were heading home, and not the other direction!

And thus ends my Greek trip. This blog post is 2/3 of my promised posts. It's getting tight, especially with lots of essays still to write (I'm one week from being finished my undergraduate degree!), but I'm still optimistic I'll have another up by the 6th! Stay tuned!