greece

for those of you who are curious...here is just a little snippet of some of my thoughts on greece. i wrote this down a while ago for a few friends who asked me about it, and decided to save it. it is not nearly everything i could say about it, but it's what i was able to get down. here it is:

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greece was amazing. not exactly what i expected…just in the sense that i felt uncomfortable more often than i realized i would….uncomfortable as far as being stereotyped as the “obnoxious, american tourist” and not knowing what i was doing…and confused about such things as "should try to speak greek (badly, but attempt, nonetheless)? or if that is dumb if i can't understand their response or if that would end up being more offensive, etc, etc…and also just trying to find places and do things that would give me a sense of the true greek culture and not the façade that is set up so many places for the tourists. does that make any sense?

despite those sometimes uncomfortable times, and the exhaustion of being in a different culture, i loved being surrounded with the greek language- it is a beautiful one. and the island we went to- santorini- honestly, it is one of the most beautiful places i have ever been.

athens was of course astonishing- the acropolis and the parthenon and the temple of zeus and the ancient agora. we went to this little mountain town, too- delphi- that was one of the most sacred sites of ancient greece (it’s where the oracle was who prophesied, as well as the treasuries which housed the gifts to the Gods, and there was a big theater and several other sacred buildings). that town was breathtaking- right up there in the mountains, with traditional looking buildings, little markets, and in between each building a glimpse into the mountains and the sunset. needless to say, it took my mom and i about 5 hours to get there, when it was only supposed to take 1.5…..we got a bit lost. it’s always good to get lost in greece when 99% of the roads have no name, we can barely speak greek, and the farther into the mountains you get, the fewer the signs that have any english on them. but I did start to recognize the greek characters for “Athens” which was helpful!

on santorini my mom and i rented a car and that was another interesting day of driving down mountain roads not knowing where we were going and almost running out of gas (!), but we ended up finding the ruins of an ancient monastery a ways up the mountainside near a little town. it was like finding treasure. it just felt like a sacred space- the wind was blowing hard, and it was just my mom and i up this mountain, walking around and imagining what all of those buildings used to be, looking out to the sea on both sides and thinking of how isolated those monks must have felt…on the mountain…on a little island in the middle of the sea. i loved that day.

i ate some delicious gyros in athens, and on the last night, my mom and i met these two amazing traveling woman who were also staying at our bed and breakfast right outside of athens. One was from france (but greece originally) and the other from canada (england, originally). we were having conversations in a mixture of french/greek/english- with the canadian woman translating the french woman’s french for us. we had a most enlightening conversation on travel, ancient sites, politics, social systems…so many things. it just made me so happy that we happened to get to eat dinner with these amazing women who sort of served as this special reminder of why it is i love traveling and what it is that you get from it- such a great mix of people with great perspective. i don’t think the trip would have been complete without that.

it was an important trip…but coming back and looking at my pictures and even just trying to talk about it…it was just so much to take in, in only 10 days that i already want to go back…but maybe being there, in the place, it is harder to be able to put your energy into taking it in, and relishing where you are, when you are just trying to be there. does that make sense? who knows. anyway, that is greece in a not so concise synopsis. i hope pics can go up soon- but i have to figure out how to make room on my computer first!
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and there you have it. a little snapshot of anna and mom in greece. by the way- still working on making room on my computer for pictures....ughh.