My Holidays in Greece by Bert Hertogs
Χάρικα πολú που γνωριστήκαμε
‘Excuse me, can I help you?’ These were the first words by a Greek girl in Athens I have heard. Something in my expression must have told her that I was a tourist. Ok it’s true, I had a suitcase with me and I was wearing a bag. I must have looked clumsy to her as I was trying to read my map in the middle of Kidathineon Street dealing with the main question: “should I go to the right or to the left?” She told me I had to go to the left as my youth hostel was a few meters on the right of Kidathineon str. We talked a little bit about our countries, habits and cultures. She was a very honest girl telling me that she never was in Belgium. That nice first impression of Athens is important. I felt to be welcome. I cherish the idea of Greeks being friendly, open, warm, giving you the feeling of cosiness.
After check in, it was time for me to find a place to have dinner. That’s not a difficult question to deal with in such a street. I liked the terraces a lot. When waiters asked me to come in, I was charmed that they tried to speak a little bit Flemish. It seems that waiters in Kidathineon Street have been travelling around the world for many times. But if you ask more details, you figure out that it’s just a role they play. I like that.
A nice thing about Greek culture is their cuisine. It’s a very refined one. I especially adore the Μεζέδες, to share the small dishes together with friends or family. This makes from lunch and dinner a social event. I like to eat heartily: having a nice dish and drinking nice wine. Most of the times when I visit a country, I’m longing to the Belgian cuisine. In Greece I have not had that feeling. In their cuisine, their optimism and friendliness I see Greek people as bon vivants, happy people who live and enjoy life for the maximum. I completely agree with that style of living. Maybe that’s a reason why I felt like home. I tried Retsina wine and Ouzo on the rocks. It was a great experience to have that last one on a terrace with some Greek friends who offered me a drink. Again this proves the hospitality of the Greeks which I have not noticed in that many countries.
Besides the food and the nice mentality of the Greeks, there are many nice historical places to visit. For the Ancient Agora and Acropolis, Keramikos and the site with the temple of Zeus you already need a full day. Other must sees are the National archaeological museum with the mask of ‘Agamemnon’ which seems to be the mask of a dead king who died 3 centuries earlier. Climbing the Lycabettus hill and wandering in the national garden are a must too. The Benaki museum, the Zappeion, the Panathinaiko stadium were very nice places to visit but my most favourite one is the museum for Cycladic art. OK, Best of Athens, 282 reasons for loving your city, tells me that it looks like a bank. And yes, it looks like a bank. But I liked the way the objects were presented. My favourite sculpture is the Dromeas at Megali tou Genous Scholi Square. Of course Athens has some ugly places too. Omonia Square is according to me the ugliest one. I like to see some ugly places too as it makes you aware of what beauty is about. Nice places to shop with friends are the shops nearby Monostiraki and the flee markets. My favourite place to hear only the flashes of photo cameras during sunset: Sounion! My favourite place in Athens to spend some time in the evening (just before dinner) with a girl: Anafiotika!
I staid 6 days in Athens. This was of course not enough to get a good idea about Greek culture and life. I only got a fast impression. When I walked in Kidathineon Street towards Sindagma to catch the bus to the airport, I saw a boy with a suitcase and a bag, reading his map on a clumsy way. He must be dealing with the question ‘left or right’ I thought. “You have to go to the left, it’s just a few meters from here”, I told him.
I definitely have to go back to Athens as I figured out that my Greek friends should take me to ΑΡΧΑΙΟΝ ΓΕΥΣΕΙΣ. Other things I still have to discover in Greece: wine from Naoussa and Greek love…
Μπερτ
Bert Hertogs berthertogs@yahoo.com Belgium
My Holidays in Greece by Marija Sotirov
When I say “Holiday”, I actually mean “Greece”! Those two words are synonyms for me, because since I was eight years old I didn’t miss either one summer in Greece! I’m twenty two now which means that this summer will be my fifteenth jubilee summer in Greece!
When we went to the Greece for the first time, my father, my mother, my sister and me, we fall in love immediately with the warm Aegean Sea! We also fall in love with the “three fingers” (Halkidiki) where we always stay in some of the shore cities at least ten days every summer. As a matter of fact, that love between Greece and me could even not happen! That’s because first time when my family come to Greece, we didn’t book before our apartment for sleeping. So, we had to sleep first night in the car on the beach! That special first night spent in Greece on the seaside with open sky covered all over with stars, was probably the crucial moment when we fall in love with Greece and decided with happiness to come again and again every summer.
Morning in Greece starts when words “FRESH FISH! FRESH FISH!” wake me up! Those words shout the fishermen who just now come back from the sea and bring their fish landing. Dad and me, we went out together and we buy FRESH FISH! Mostly we buy little passage fish which I eat only in Greece, because they seam to be perfect just there! However, if I’m buying fish alone, I buy squid which I also adore!
Around ten o’clock, when the sun takes the chill off the sea, we go out to the beach. I’m not the type of the person who just sits on the shore and do nothing. I like to walk and search out, so long greek cost is just ideally for me! There usually exist the urban part of the beach who is settled in the city and full of tourists. But, there also exist the part of the beach which is proceeding forward in great greek wideness where there are no many humans. On that kind of the beach I can walk mine’s heart content, I can sing, I can dance, enjoy to the beautiful, wonderful nature surrounded by palms and olive’s trees while nobody watches me! That is the earth paradise! There is also one thing witch I like to do. I like to go for a walk with my family. We are going in tandem (one behind the other) on the beach and I like to be the last one in the row, because then I can watch how water rased our footprints on the wet auriferous sand! I wonder who else walked on this sand… That just the sea knows.
When the sea is really warm, I’m butting into! I was bathing in many seas, but just in greek sea I can “butt into”. That’s because only in Greece, sea is warmer than the water from the drink fountain! Than I take a bath, after I take a walk and take sun… than I again take a bath, take a walk… and like that the whole day! Sometimes I’m plunging on the parts of the sea where there is a stony terrain, and I’m mixing with interesting sea world!
Once, I was swimming with my friend a little bit farther from the cost. We both were ten years old and we adored to climb on the mattress and to leap from it into the sea. I leaped that day nobody knows how many times! Everything was normal, but suddenly I bounced from the water and started to yowl and scream “HELP”! My friend didn’t know what happened. I was swimming towards the cost as fast as I could! Everybody on the beach was frightened because they didn’t know why I’m screaming! Actually what happened…When I leaped from the mattress, I dive more in dept, I opened my eyes and I saw another pair of eyes! But those were not the eyes from my friend! Those were huge, red eyes and they looked straight to me! After few seconds everything was just black! I ran away. Later that day I heard from older people that “the red-eyes monster” was probably an octopus. Although they said me that octopus is not dangerous if it’s a small one, that summer I didn’t leap more from my mattress. Neither my friend did.
In the evening in Greece starts a party time! I’m walking with my family and my friends along on the quay and look on the fountain with interesting shapes and colors, admiring the great greek culture. We are eating big ice-creams. In that evening time, the centre of the city became a real market-place, and we buy beautiful fruits and vegetables with inevitably haggle! There is always great greek blue plums, “bald” nectarine, tastefully grapefruit, paprika, tomato, cucumber… Later, when nights come, when I walk on the quay and when I feel freshness of the seaside, some place with greec music always attracts me! I got into the greec dance sirtaky and I’m not escaping till sunrise! Greeks are very similar to Serbs because we are both very temperamental people and we adore to amuse and enjoy in singing and dancing!
This is how days passed in my holidays in Greece till the time when I had to come back in Belgrade. Always in returns we go to Thessalonica, beautiful city with nice buildings. In Thessalonica I went with my mom and my sister to the shopping and that’s how our holidays end. At the end I’m sad because I’m leaving, but I’m cheerful in the same time because I know that I will come next year again and that the warmest sea will wait for me!!
by Marija Sotirov from Serbia
My Holidays in Greece by Martina Dočkalová
If I told someone, I’m going to visit Greece in January; he may think I’m crazy. If I told him, I’m going to visit Greece in January for skiing, he would be probably sure, I’m completely a fool. Because Greece – that’s only sea, sand and sun… Or it is not?
My winter trip to Greece had actually started shortly after my arrival at the airport in Prague. When I was checking my position there and thinking where to go, I saw a big noisy group of people coming closer to me. They seemed like a flood to me and maybe I scared a bit, but only till moment I could hear them better – “Maria? Maria?! Pou einai i Maria? Pou einai ta pedia? Dipsas? Pinas? Maria?! Pou eisai?” Aha… the Greeks – I recognized immediately.
The Greeks are quite noisy, because they love discussions. And if the discussion is somehow connected with food – they love it much more! I still remember, as I was sitting in the plane and the Greek man on my left side started his food related monolog shortly after fixing the seat belt and finished it only to get some board-refreshment. This was probably the first time I realized, how important role the food plays in everyday’s life of Greeks. If you mind the fact that the mothers here in Czech Republic teach us to finish meal always completely and as fast as possible (– because there are more serious things to do), maybe you can imagine how much I suffered in Greek taverns with my friends and never-ending quantity of varied giant meals… “We never can eat it all,” I told to myself and was quite confused and upset… but only until the moment I discovered, that the right purpose of eating outside is the same as when the Czechs go in a pub to have a beer – just for fun. I think the Greek way is at least very interesting!
Personally I feel, that is really not important what season you choose for visit of Greece, because that country is not just a big beach, but first and foremost the lifestyle, the philosophy and the people… the people, who can always surprise you, entertain you and pass you a part of their unlimited energy. I knew this very well already when my plane was landing in Athens, and I wish all those skeptics of my country would know the same!
by Martina Dočkalová (uznemamhlad@hotmail.com), Czech Republic
