2012 Trip to Greece

Day1：top priority is a visit to the Acopolis, followed by a stroll through the Plaka district

Day2：visit the National Archaeological Museum, with its unparalleled examples of Classical art, followed by a trip to the Agora and the Keramikos Cemetery

Day3: Don’t miss the Benaki Museum and Museum of Cyladic Art. Watch the changing of the gurd before seeing the Olympieion, the National Gardens and Odos ermou.

Day 4-6: Rent a car to see the sights of the Attica peninsula, Delphi, Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nauplion.

Olympic Games

The Games, which the ancient Greeks traced back to 776 B C, were part of a religious festival devoted to Zeus. The event became so important that by the 7C BC, for the duration of the Games, a truce was declared by states at war so that athletes could not be prevented from journeying to Olympia  in the Peloponneses. Only men participated and women had their own single running event.

Cafes and bars

Every Greek village has a kafenion, usually dominated by male customers playing cards, chatting or reading newspapers… the aperitif of choice is the anise-flavored ouzo, diluted with water.

Useful Words and Phrases

Hello:YahSU

Goodbye: Ah-DEE-oh

I don’t understand: THEN Kata-la-VAY-no

Thank you: Efcaree STO

Yes: Neh

No: OH-hee

How much is…? POH-so-EE-nay?

Where is…? Poo EE-neh…?

I want: ThELL-oh

Lifestyle:

Greece is the most homogeneous country in the Balkans-the result of the early 20C population exchanges with Bulgaria and Turkey. Modern Greeks have a very strong sense of culture and history, based on their language and the Orthodox religion, both subjects that are taught in the school syllabus from an early age. Instinctively, the Greeks look to the West for the values they helped disseminate, but this natural inclination is tempered with suspicion based on centuries-old interference of the various Great Powers in Greek politics. Despite globalization, regionalism thrives and the best opening line to start a conversation with a Greek is always “where do you come from?” Like the wider homeland (patrida) of Greece, the specific native town or village is always a source of pride.

Like many cultures along the Mediterranean, the Greek family is the most important social unit. It is the family that is expected to shield an individual against unemployment, help the children’s education and provide health care for the elderly. Such family ties can be extended sideways with the tradition of godparenting which is till important in Greek society. As a result, there is an unwritten but succinct set of relationships which determine individual behavior towards parents, uncles, siblings, grandparents and even strangers. Tourists will benefit from this since threating guests as anything less than royalty would be unseemly. In return, Greeks, who are very keen on their individual and the national reputation, will expect some sign of appreciation. A smile any a thanks (efcharisto) goes a long way.

Religion

The importance and influence of the Orthodox religion on the average Greek cannot be underestimated. The removal of religious affiliation on Greek ID cards, under pressure from the EU, was met with an unprecedented wave of protests from a people who could not comprehend how someone could be Greek and non-Orthodox. This independency on the Orthodox church stems both from the tradition of Byzantine theocracy, but also from the long Turkish occupation. The Ottoman Empire was divided into religious streams with different laws, taxes and obligations from Muslims, Christens and Jews; even the exchange of populations in 1922/23 was based on religious lines and not ethnicity. Ultimately it was the Orthodox church, dominated by Greek speakers, that instilled the sense of a nation and led to the War of Independence in 1821.

History:

The origins of Greece are buried in legends, and it can be difficult to determine where myth leaves off and reality begins. The nation’s complex and turbulent history was born of many waves of invasion and conflict: the city-states of the classical period; the empires of Macedonia and of Rome; and the long period when Greece virtually disappeared within the Byzantine and Ottoman expires before finally taking its place as an independent European nation.