Athens Day 3 -- Battlefields

This is the first battlefield day and the first step on our Greek road trip. Yannis picked us up to drive the 26 miles 285 yards to the Marathon battlefield which apparently is just a field and very little else. Nobody goes there these days and Yannis told us we were only the third group he’d ever had in 10 years!

It was just a field with a large burial mound in the middle. A tumulus it is called here. It holds the bodies of 192 dead Greeks whilst the Persians who were seriously routed lost 6,500 or so.

What brought the attack was simply the Persians who had a simply enormous Asian empire, were concerned about their noisy neighbours in Europe who they kept running into around the eastern Mediterranean. Diplomacy failed, so to war. The Persians sent 25,000 men by sea to the gradual sloping beaches at Marathon at the behest of a banished former Greek tyrant (there were many of those as the Greeks have a history of quarrelling over everything, still today) who promised to be a good neighbour next time if the Persians put him back in charge. The Bay of Marathon these days has been heavily silted up so is pretty much unrecognisable from what it was like 2500 years ago. Same for many of the coastal areas. The battlefield today is some 5 kms inland as a result. The Persians landed with a lot of cavalry to meet 10,000 Greeks, mostly Athenians, who stayed resolutely in the surrounding mountains. After 3 days the cavalry took off for the ships and more food so the Greeks launched a sudden attack on the remainder of the invading army. Taken by surprise the Persians formed up and the two armies met. The Greeks under Militiades were weakest in the centre but strong on both wings. The Persians pushed forward in the centre as the Greeks gave way, soon the Persians were surrounded and the killing began. The lack of cavalry lost the day for the Persians. History has it that one soldier ran back to Athens with the news….. apparently not. This man’s name was Pheidippides and in actuality a few days earlier he had run some 200 kms to Sparta to ask for help. Bad timing as it was a big religious festival (another one!) and the Spartans said we’ll come along after it’s over. He ran back to Athens and thence to the army at Marathon. After the battle, the Persians reboarded their ships and set sail for Athens proper. They still had a superior number to the Greeks so a direct assault on Athens was still viable. The victorious Greek army to a man ran the 26 miles and 285 yards back to Athens so as to be able to form up on the shoreline showing the Persians they were ready for them again. The Persians went home. Pheidippides ran back to Sparta again to say don’t bother, we won and it was there that he really dropped dead. The real road race therefore would have to be a mere 200 kms or so. The classic 26+ mile Marathon route is marked out still and it was that route taken in both the 1896 and 2004 Olympic Games. I’ll bet no Turks took part. We followed up with a tour of a nearby archaeological museum and went into a tumulus for the Plateans who had been killed in the battle at Marathon, another 12 of them.

After this we set out for Cape Sounion to the south of Athens with Yannis talking away about history and mythology. On the way from Marathon to Cape Sounion, we stopped at one of Yannis’ favourite rest stops near the airport for some Freddo cappuccinos (again)!! Very nice. He added to what Theodora said about the Athenians using the Parthenon rebuild to project Athenian power amongst the independent city states. Apparently it was the later war with the Persians, the one that was lost and when Athens was subsequently sacked, looted and destroyed. The Athenians demanded recompense from the other cities. If the city had sent troops, like Platea, that was OK. If they did not, like many others, they sent money instead. It was a lot of money and even with the early reversals, they found themselves at the end with a huge dollop of cash. So being democratic, the leaders asked the people if they’d like to spend the cash on a big glowing memorial to Athenian bravery, skill and honour. Not necessarily Greek, but Athenian. The people said yes and so the money was used to rebuild the Parthenon and a bunch of other destroyed buildings. So there you have it. On the road, Cape Sounion was at the very end of the promontory which led out from Athens. Today it is the beach area. Very affluent. Further along and out is the Cape where there is little other than a lovely bay with two beach hotels and the cliffs upon which stood the Temple to Poseidon. You may remember from yesterday that Poseidon and Athena competed for supremacy in Athens. Poseidon provided a miraculous spring of sea water, Athena provided the first ever olive tree. Athena won so the Athenians cautious about offending a major God like Poseidon decided to dedicate a temple to him on this spot. It is a spectacular spot.

Yiannis told the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Part bull, part man this beast lived in caves in Crete and ate everyone that tried to kill it. Theseus son of the King of Athens, named Aegis, offered himself to try the next time. He told his dad that if he succeeded in killing the Minotaur he would return with white sails on his ship. Theseus went to Crete and first thing he did was meet the beautiful daughter of the King, Ariadne, who helped him first find the caves and then with a ball of twine helped him find the way out of the maze in which the Minotaur lived. Killing the Minotaur was pretty straightforward but getting out was tricky but the ball of twine helped. Theseus returned to Athens. All good so far but in all the excitement he’d forgotten quite what he’d promised his father about the colour of his sails. He used black ones. Standing on the peninsula of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, the entrance into Athens, all Aegis saw was black sails which meant his one and only son was dead. Aegis threw himself off the rocks in his grief. In response the Athenians called the body of water the Aegean Sea in his memory. Why would you ever have children? This was where Cape Sounion was and the temple is located. Utterly spectacular!

It was nearing 4 pm and Yiannis said there was a nice seafood restaurant nearby that would be great for a late lunch. It was! What a great spot too, right on the bay opposite the Temple of Poseidon. And if you think either of us was ready, willing and able to think about dinner after, think again.

When we returned to Athens no more than an hour or so later, we decided a meat feast was called for. First though we felt the need for a brief wander around the gardens nearby where stood the Temple of Zeus and the Arch of Hadrian. The Temple had been destroyed by the Persians centuries before and was a gift by the Emperor Hadrian to the people of Athens when he visited the city. In return the Athenians built a ceremonial arch to the emperor as thanks for the gift.

Nearby was the Parliament building where Yiannis had told us that on the hour there was a change of the guards that we really shouldn't miss. We queued up with maybe a couple of hundred other tourists and waited. First of all the guards dress in what is loosely termed 'traditional' fashion. I never 'knew' much about fashion as a youngster but one thing I did 'know' was that Greek men wore skirts. Quite how and why this was a 'known' fact when I was growing up is unclear to me but that was one of the things that I as a young person 'knew'. I imagine this was it. It is a thick tunic with what look like really thick stockings and those shoes with the bobble on top!

Of course there must be some basis for it in practicality measure. Greece can be very cold indeed so thick clothes would be a boon. As for those shoes though, we came across some in a museum a day or so later and they are very simply hob nailed boots with that bobble on top. Presumably they took the bobble off to fight. And of course OK, OK in England we have the guards at Buckingham Palace wearing those busbies. The changing of the guard ceremony itself took about 10 minutes and looks exhausting. Lots of stamping around and leg and arm swinging. The leg movements look like something out of Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks. After it was all over and the guards had been changed, one of the senior officers presumably came around with a towel to dry off the sweat on their faces. It was really hot so those guys must have been suffering. After last night's faux pas with our dining choice, we'd asked Anthony at the travel agents for a recommendation where local people go. It was out in some suburb or other so we took a taxi there. It was a kebab shop called Kir Aristos. Talk about grumpy and useless! The waiters did virtually nothing so we waited and waited. But when the food came it was fantastic but enormous! We chose a mixed grill to share with another salad. Really stuffed.

We would go back to that place again. Grumpy or not!! This is the route we took today.

The Odyssey -- Athens Day 2

 Day 2 in Athens would be a humdinger. All about the Acropolis. The itinerary said:

'We will arrange a private walking tour of Athens for 5 to 6 hours if you are up to it to visit all the important sites including the Acropolis and the New Acropolis Museum.'

We met our guide Theodora at the hotel and walked the 5 minutes along the street to the entrance to the Acropolis. There were lots of people. Theodora said today would likely be the busiest day of the year as a number of cruise ships had arrived at Piraeus with passengers’ first stop likely to be the Acropolis. 

Viv and I wondered why we would visit today then, or rather this morning as we could easily have visited in the afternoon. Oh well. 

The Acropolis hill is big. And tall. It was tough going slowly dragging ourselves up hill in the heat. Theodora told us the story as we went along.

Nearly there! First selfie du jour at the Greek theatre on the south side of the Acropolis

This is what it looked liked during the Hellenistic Period

The Acropolis had been populated for possibly 4,000 years initially as a fortress for people in the surrounds to retreat to at times of trouble and war. It certainly was imposing yet Theodora advised us that the Acropolis had been attacked, sacked and destroyed many times. Huh?

Very true. 

The Acropolis and the temple on the top known as the Parthenon (there are several other temples on the top but smaller) are relatively recent creations. One may think it looks like something of a rocky ruin, but in fact it’s only about 1,000 years old.

After the Persians attacked Athens, defeated them (Thermopylae was lost if you remember) and occupied Athens, they destroyed everything they could before they left the following year of 480 BC. That included the buildings on the top of the Acropolis hill. These included a partially built Parthenon as well as several other temples. The entire site was ruined.

The Athenians together with a full compliment of Spartans this time (not just the famous 300), annihilated the Persians the following year in 479 BC at Plataea removing all threats to the independent Greek states. To show that they were now the big dogs on the block, the Athenians immediately embarked on rebuilding on an immense scale.

The building of the Parthenon was completed in only 9 years while the crafting of the wondrous sculptures took a further 6 years. Marble was brought from a mountain 17 Kms away and was laboriously lugged up the hill that we were now stumbling up. 

Theodora continued with gusto. 

She certainly had a huge passion about the subject and had definite views on things that had impacted the Acropolis over the years. 

First were the Romans. Of course it would be. For some reason, the Greeks thought they could beat the Romans in the first century BC but the Roman tyrant general Sulla in 87 BC routed them, captured the entire region which wasn’t yet a country including Athens, sacked it thoroughly and enslaved the population. That is the entire population including all those philosophers that were still around.

Greece remained a Roman possession until 1458. 

Huh? I hear you say. What about the Byzantines? There were never any Byzantines. That is the name historians gave the eastern Roman Empire looking backwards at some point. The Romans themselves always called themselves Romans, even until the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453. Byzantium was the name of the original Greek settlement that the Roman Emperor Constantine renamed in the 4th century AD when he moved the capital of the entire Roman Empire to Constantinople. So forget Byzantium. Actually you can't for every guide book says Byzantine this or that, mainly churches, so it is most confusing. Best to see Rome at the same time as you see Byzantium. 

When I was in Rome a couple of weeks ago I found a wonderful excerpt from a 2nd century AD travel book comparing the architecture of Greece and Rome. In typically patronising fashion, the writer said that the Greeks do build some pretty impressive structures but the stench, the disorganisation and the overall mess of Greek cities was something beyond the comprehension of a Roman. Happily Rome provided aqueducts so that every villa has its own water source for their fountains. Sewage for the endless ordure and stench. Plumbing so that buildings would remain well serviced during the wet season…. And so on. 

It was a Roman traveler from the 2nd century, one Pausanias, whom we all should thank for even the possibility of reconstruction and renovation. For it is only his writings and the earlier Herodotus (the Greek historian from centuries earlier) that give us the idea what these buildings and monuments look like. Fortunately both wrote at very great length and in Pausanias' case drew thousands of sketches and drawings, many of which survive.

The Romans in addition to their renowned organisation, also introduced a fully integrated taxation system that lasted until 1458 and beyond for the conquering Ottomans discovered they couldn’t do any better.

Specific to the Acropolis though were the changes wrought by the Romans to the amphitheater, the new theatre and performing arts centre that was built. Where the Greeks starting with Thespis, a comic writer of the golden age, wrote monologues, dialogues and drama, the Romans dug a big ditch, raised up a marble wall around the orchestra (aka stage) and staged mock naval battles and gladiatorial combat. The walls enabling the area to be filled with water for the first, and prevent blood spatters covering the 5,000 person audience in the second. Who needs monologues! 

Theodora was not impressed, then moved onto the Emperor Justinian (6th century emperor). She was even less impressed by Justinian. I couldn’t figure out exactly why but as he was the mover and shaker in rejigging the imperial tax policy for the final time, perhaps it was this. Certainly the Byzantines which Justinian was about to morph into (even I am falling into this Rome vs Byzantium thing), as opposed to the eastern Roman Empire, were not fans of the old pagan gods still widely revered in Greece. Under the ‘Christians’ (spoken with gritted teeth) they basically trashed everything to do with the old Gods. This is why most of the faces on statues have been disfigured. I didn't ask about why the male genitalia were also missing from most statues.

We hadn’t reached the entrance to the Acropolis at the top yet and Theodora wasn’t slowing down.

The British didn’t miss out either. Theodora was scathing about Elgin and his plundering of Greek antiquity in 1801 (this is the so called Elgin Marbles in the British Museum). Yet less so for the French who even before Elgin stole everything that was not nailed down (this in an instruction specifically written by the French ambassador in 1784 to an expedition in that year). And almost glossing over the Venetians who in their sack of Athens in 1687 had fired cannons at the defending Ottomans who’d retired to the Acropolis which they used as magazines. This cannon fire hit the magazines which exploded and destroyed about one third of the Parthenon. They then tried to take the remaining massive sculptures from the mantles which caused them to fall 30 feet and be irredeemably smashed. 

An even minded person may consider deliberate cannon fire, explosions and wanton destruction of rather more concern and remark than removing a few bits of marble that had been lying around anyway for centuries, a practice I should note that continues to this day.

We reached the entrance with some hundreds of other tourists and snaked past the temple to Nike and made it to the top of the Acropolis.

Athens' Acropolis is huge. About 3kms long by 1.5 kms wide. Lots of room for lots of temples, and there are lots of temples in varying levels of decay. Impressive. 

The Acropolis during Roman times

Theodora was a fantastic source of information and could talk on almost any related subject. She had artists' reconstructions of what the buildings may have looked like. They looked spectacular. Check out www.ancientathens3d.com to take a look. They may not be entirely accurate but are best guesses. 

The top temple is one to the goddess Athena who supposedly gave the gift of the first olive tree to the city, whilst the bottom temple is the Parthenon from the end where Elgin supposedly cut down all those marbles. Imagine the temple with a triangular shape on top of those flat bits. Inside that triangle were dozens of massive sculptures. It was these the Venetians and French could not cart off. It was Elgin's crew that devised the method of cutting the carved frontispiece off the monster 12 ton lump of marble that solved the logistics impasse. These statues we saw in the museum.

By now we were fading so decided to head for the Acropolis Museum which had A/C and a cafe to take a few minutes rest. There we had Freddo Capuccinos which are worthy of conversation in and of themselves.

The museum contained many of the remaining statues from the Acropolis where Theodora was able to demonstrate which were original and which were reconstruction due to either being plundered (yawn) or destroyed. It was all very interesting.

View from the museum coffee shop

What is not understood is the size of the statues. They are truly enormous and in marble which means every block weighs some 12.5 tons. The practicality of how the blocks were transported was fantastic. Each block was dragged 17 kms and when the oxen could go no further up the hill, the carts carrying the blocks would be attached to a pulley system and a herd of mules would be encouraged to pull ropes that were at the other end of the pulleys. As they descended, the cart ascended. Thousands upon thousands of blocks.

So the simple art of pillaging was also very difficult. Lord Elgin was ambassador to the Ottomans based in Constantinople in 1799, this during the Napoleonic Wars. He canvassed the Caliph to enable him to survey some Greek sites with a view to removing any interesting objects. Silver smoothed the way and the Caliph, very keen to stay out of the way of the war as the Ottoman Empire had begun to weaken irredeemably, agreed. Elgin sent in a crew to see what they could find. 

What they found were the debris from previous multiple lootings and occupations from over the centuries. Athens had been sacked by the Herulians in 267 AD, by the Huns in 396 AD, the Goths in the 5th century, by the Slavs in the 7th century and so on. Long list. The Franks occupied the city in 1204 during the 4th Crusade and fortified it whilst the later occupying Byzantines built over original Greek structures. As well the locals had simply taken building materials just lying around for their own home construction. No metal. This had already gone. So not much in perfect condition. (Not many people either. Athens had become depopulated over time and it wasn't until 1834 when it was named capital of a newly independent Greece that people began to return to the city. Many government buildings for example date from after this date. Not antiquity at all).

What Elgin's crew did find were portions of sculptures and depictions of events carved into the marble blocks. However each weighed tons. Literally. So they cut the front of the blocks to save weight and shipped what they could back to England. In the museum today, on display are the original part blocks with plaster casts of the bits Elgin's crew took stuck on top. From my uneducated perspective it does look like bits and pieces of rubble. Sort of 'Oh look, Hercules' left shoulder' that sort of thing.

Several years later in 1816, Elgin canvassed the British Government who paid 35,000 GBP for the items which were then immediately displayed in the British Museum.

View from the Museum

These are the friezes taken down from the side of the Parthenon. Restoration is slow for a decision was taken by the EU (if you can imagine) that restoration should only happen when over 70% of the original materials of say a column are found. If these are lying around nearby then the columns can be put back together which is what happened. If not they are left to lie around, which explains the endless piles of rocks everywhere. Very timely, costly and difficult. Greece is a poor country so often has other priorities. 

Statues taken from the ends of the Parthenon, in those triangular parts I described before. If the sculptures are white, that means they are recreations. Often plaster casts taken from the originals in what ever museum they are currently displayed. Yes that means the Elgin Marbles but also the French, Germans and Turks hold plenty. As for the Venetians, well half the city is decorated with Greek stuff looted from their various occupations. If the sculptures look old and yellow, that is because they are the originals. The museum hopes to get back all the other yellow and old bits.

Theodora says that attempts are being made to recover these items which the British Museum is resisting. The French are not being pressed to return their pillaged items. Nor are the Turks who took over the items already removed by the Byzantines and Ottomans in centuries past. Just the British. Probably think the British are the softest touch. Could be right.

Fantastic day. So much history to absorb. Very painful on the brain cells.

The flowers were gorgeous, particularly the Bougainvillaea. The colours were so intense and vibrant.

We's asked Yiannis and Anthony at the travel agent for recommendations for a good restaurant that locals would go to. Trying to avoid the tourist traps. Mistake actually as we discovered many of the tourist traps turned out mostly to be as good as the local spots. But anyway, Anthony suggested Dionysus as an option. We had a reservation at 9 pm.

Short walk near the Acropolis again and in a big car park this restaurant grew up the hill opposite to the Acropolis. It was rammed with people at a special event with many guards preventing the hoi pilloi getting in. It was a shipping company event obviously with some politicos or other big wigs. Armed guards at the front. Flunkies carried champagne on trays. Amazingly we were allowed entry, but turned away to the non event section. 

What a view of the Acropolis!! The menu was a typical fine dining menu from anywhere in the world but with a couple of local things. The 22 hour braised lamb was finished sadly. 

Fish soup and the other lamb option for me. Salad for Viv. Bottle of white wine, different grape for us. Chocolate soufflé to follow.

Very nice walk back along the ‘most beautiful street in Europe’ per Theodora. We decided we would not eat at such a place again. Bring on the tourist traps and grilled meat!

The Odyssey: Athens Day 1

We'd caught a latish flight from Heathrow to Athens where we were met by Yiannis, the guy who would be our driver up and down Greece for the next 19 days. He dropped us off at our hotel in central Athens where we'd had dinner in the roof top restaurant which had a great view of the Parthenon. 

My notes are from a diary kept at the time. This is what our itinerary for the day stated:

22 May 2022 -- Arrive in Athens at different times and meet and greet by our English-speaking driver and transfer to your hotel.

22 – 26 May -- 3 nights at Hotel Athens Gate (4 *) – 1 double superior room with a view to Temple of Zeus and breakfast.

***

Busy day today (23/5), our first in Athens and all unplanned. Early start too, straight after a really rather blah breakfast at the hotel. 

Nice location though. Opposite the Temple of Zeus and just turn left and left again and there is the Acropolis. We have a tour there tomorrow so today is for exploring the streets. 

The Temple of Zeus from our balcony. Almost everything is under restoration.

What's a Greek Urn? This is.

The Athens Gate Hotel is on the outskirts of the Plaka district. Very touristy but jammed full of ancient buildings and ruins. The whole city is full of them. Our general aim was to start at the Roman Agora or Forum and go from there.

Our fantastic tour hats that we bought immediately. We melded right into the local environment wearing our tour hats. It was only when we chose not to wear them that we got picked as tourists.

Typical touristy stuff!

Athens has 4 million people and the same number again in tourists, many from cruise ships. Ok that’s an exaggeration but it feels like it. This was Sunday so it wasn’t so bad just bimbling around. 

Athens and of course Greece has a very rich history. Birthplace of democracy, Alexander the Great and of course the Spartans!!!! But if I have my history about right, Greece hasn’t won a war since Alexander and was occupied by conquering nations between the late first century BC and 1821 when a coalition of western nations helped them gain independence from the Ottomans who had occupied the country for 400 years. That’s about 2,000 years of being occupied by someone or other. Not Greek. 

First it was the Romans. The great general Sulla sacked Athens in 87 BC and that was about it for the Greeks for some reason they thought they could slide out from under Roman rule in Augustus’ time and discovered rather rudely that that was not the case. 

First the western Roman empire, then the eastern empire after the split in 330 AD. They morphed seamlessly into the Byzantines until 1456 when the Ottomans overthrew the empire and that stayed the case until 1821. 

Since then I don’t believe that the new Greek republic has won any wars. They joined the Allies in WWI almost by accident. The king was pro-German, the PM Venizelos was pro-Allies. The British and French landed in Salonika anyway so the Greeks almost reluctantly joined in. That gave them a seat at the table in Versailles, but not an important one. 

They attacked the remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in Turkey in 1919 seeking territory in Asia Minor and were resoundingly beaten by the new Young Turks of Kemal Attaturk. The loss of all the age old Greek cities in Asia must have been hard to take. 

The Italians invaded in 1941 but were resoundingly beaten back by the Greek army forcing Hitler to divert the Wehrmacht through the Balkans and into Greece fatally delaying the start of Operation Barbarossa for 6 weeks.

When the Germans withdrew in 1944, that was the signal to start the Greek Civil War which stretched on for several years. Greek fought Greek (again) but this time it was Communist versus Democrats. With much help from the USA and Britain, democracy won in the end. 

The king was voted out in the 1970s after an army coup, and the country is now a republic. Anyway back to Athens…

We walked nearby Plaka and passed by several monuments and Byzantine churches on the way. Streets are of course narrow and windy and hilly so it wasn’t all plain sailing. Then we reached the Roman Agora. Obviously not as big as in Rome but then again the Greeks had one already so all the Romans did was adapt what was there and make a few tweaks. 

The Roman Agora

The Greek version is huge. But then again they’d had a couple of millennia to get things in order of which the last 500 or so years related to their ‘golden age’. The age of democracy. The age of when the Greeks were the top dogs. This was the 500 or so years between 600 BC and the Roman conquest.

I really liked the Tholos, this is the small round building that held the 20 or so decision makers that ran the city state of Athens for 35 days before passing the job off to one of the other 10 tribes of Athens. This was the democracy that ruled. Everyone had a chance to be ruler for a day.  The building doesn’t exist any more but the foundations remain. The building is tiny yet so important.

The Greek Agora extends over a really huge area in the midst of which is a roadway that was used amongst other things for the annual processional during a religious festival all the way up to the Parthenon, where all the other temples were as well.

This temple is in much better condition than the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis (hill on top of the town) and is in the Agora

If you like ancient history, this is the place. Just like Rome except it is older and  as the Roman travel writer I’d read in Rome a week earlier said from a 2nd century travelogue the Romans did drains and sewers far better than the Greeks even though the buildings could be pretty impressive. As for the aqueducts….

In one of those did you know moments, we learned that statues of Roman Emperors like Hadrian here (in the Agora) often didn't have the correct head. This is because the sculptures were tricky to make so the heads were swapped once the Emperor died and the new one's head was affixed. The head was therefore simple to lift off. They know this is Hadrian because of the statue's armour and the fact that he loved Greece very much, or rather one particular Greek boy, and visited the province three times during his reign. He didn't build a wall though but did arrange for lots of aqueducts.

The Romans loved the Greeks and identified with them strongly even though they considered the Greeks to be wimps by the time they’d taken over. Every Greek God had a Roman equivalent. The mark of an educated Roman was the ability to speak Greek. Many if not most serious teachers of wealthy Romans was a Greek scholar, often slaves. Yet the Romans also knew they were superior and patronised the Greeks accordingly.

Almost everywhere in Greece had a statue of Hercules doing something or other, mainly in connection with his 12 labours. Statues always had a lion skin (one of his labours) somewhere assisting identification.

The Greek Agora is the place where all activities in Athens took place. Start to finish. Rich or poor. Noble or slave. Truly a unique place. The remains are very impressive yet modernity wasn’t far away as today the Metro goes right through the middle of it. 

We spent several hours in all this and felt the need for rest, recuperation and refreshment to be in order and selected a lovely looking cafe for the task. Antica.

Beer was cool. Moussaka was hot and satisfying. Greek salad was immense chunks of everything topped with a vast slab of feta. Just great!!

Viv discovered the delights of ‘Freddo’ Espresso. Essentially iced coffee but done differently with style. Simply but differently made. Two shots of espresso plus a few chunks of ice and a bit of sugar in a blender. Whizz a while and you get a coffee confection with a mass of foam at the top. Pour over ice into a Whisky tumbler and voila!! Really nice. 

We also visited the central market to check out the fresh fish and meat. Very interesting and the produce looked great! 

After this we bumbled back checking out various stores along the way as we had to meet one of the tour guides from the firm we’d used to arrange the trip. The message we had at the hotel when we got back said this meeting couldn’t take place at 5 pm but at 7 pm as something had come up. We couldn’t make this so rearranged till tomorrow and went out for dinner.

There is a central theme developing here centring around eating and drinking! We found a road side restaurant in Plaka nearby which provided Greek wine, ouzo and vast amounts of Greek meat. We couldn’t leave until we’d tried and tasted everything in the house…..

The reason for the blur. It is normal for Ouzo such as this to be served in 200 ml bottles as opposed by the glass. It doesn't travel so you have to finish it...

The rest of the day was a blur!

Great day.

Skate, the Korean Way

My last post left Viv and I departing Penang for London at the end of April. Our overall plan was to spend some time in the UK with Indy, Cat and Charlie and then for our paths to divide: Viv to Bermuda with her Mum Ann whilst I would go to Rome with my tennis buddies for the Italian Open, pasta and wine. I would then head to Bermuda to reconnect and then we would all troop back to England and thence on to Greece, our ultimate destination and realistically the reason we were doing all of this traveling in the first place.

Despite the raising of Covid restrictions, fair to say that travel is not yet back to its pre-Covid levels of seeming normality. Simply handling all that bloody paper work and getting those tests is a real pain in the neck. But at least we are able to travel. First comment is to say that British Airways is just about hanging on. Number of flights may be fewer but they are trying hard.

On the way from Bermuda to London I couldn’t watch any of the drivel shown on BA’s appallingly low standard in flight fare that was in English. I did find a cooking show concerning 2 Korean chefs who flew to Malaysia to eat seafood and in particular skate.

As they discovered Skate is not found in Malaysia but various rays are, so their quest began in a Kuala Lumpur street market eating sting ray mostly in various ways.

They loved them all. I do too even though I haven’t been to eat ray in KL, only Penang in the north. One such favorite was skate cooked in a creamy durian sauce.

Durian is a soft fruit indigenous to Malaysia. It is everywhere in Penang. It is something you either love or hate. This is because it has the same texture, smell and to me anyway the taste of shit. 

One of the chefs loves durian, the other does not. The non lover found the dish delicious whilst the lover waxed and waxed ever more lyrical about it. It looked slimy to me. Thankfully no smellovision.

The chefs then went to eat at big restaurants, Malay, Chinese and Indian which are the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia. Having savored the fare (non sting ray fare) and lapped it up, they then decided to do a big cook up for their new Malaysian friends and feature skate which they would import from Korea.

Koreans love fermented food. Kimchi for example is fermented cabbage based. Fermented for the unwary means aged in polite terms or nearly rotten if you want to put it plainly. 

The skate was 15 days old.

Thank goodness for no smellovision!

They cooked a dish each. One chef prepared a sort of kimchi appetizer featuring deep fried fermented skate. The other cooked a dish where the skate was first braised then mixed in with a sort of Mediterranean salad featuring avocados. They also did a together dish featuring a cream of durian sauce.

The three chefs sat at a table excitedly discussing what they might expect and then the appetizer appeared. The kimchi and fried skate dish. They took their first bites. 

Silence.

I know that sound from my own experiences with cooking something. Probably the first time was when I was on a boat on the Norfolk Broads in England with some work friends. We took turns cooking and one day was mine for breakfast and I pushed the boat out. We'd had quite a bit to drink the night before so I thought a nice greasy cook up was in order, including a favourite of mine; fried bread. My mum always fried the bread in lard so I'd bought some and added it to the rest of the delicately fried goodies. To me it was great if perhaps a little leaden both on the plate and in the tummy after. To the others, it was just plain silence. I never had to cook again that trip. 

Back to the story...

One chef took a drink of water and said the dish was very interesting and contained flavors she’d never had before. This was the Indian. The Malay chef said ‘yes it was interesting and very nice’ before taking a sip of water. The camera didn’t show what the Chinese guest chef said.

The braised skate came out next and the guest chefs took a bite.

No silence this time. The Chinese chef said it reminded her of stinky tofu, something often found in Chinese cooking. The Malay chef said yes and after a little while again said it was nice.

The final durian dish came out. The Indian chef had left by now and generous portions were heaped out with rice. The two remaining chefs took a bite.

Clearly both chefs love durian for they waded in with gusto. Both said the creamy durian flavor dominated the dish …. Aka they couldn’t taste the fermented Skate, thank goodness!!

As someone who likes fresh skate very much, I think I may have struggled with these dishes. Great fun to watch though.

Starting Over Once Again...

OK I know, my last post suggested that I may pick up the blog again after a bit of a gap. That didn't work very well. A combination of laziness and the endless periods of lockdown and other restrictions certainly didn't help morale either. Hopefully this time I shall do better. 

We'd been planning a long trip to Greece for 3 years now. I'd looked around on the internet for a tour operator that could help us put together an itinerary. I found a US firm called Zicasso who immediately referred me onto an Athens based firm called Antelope Travel and in particular Anthony who was my direct contact and a wealth of knowledge.

Neither of us had ever visited Greece before and given how the last two years had basically been lost to recreational travel globally, we figured we may never have a chance to visit again so we decided to spend a long time there now and visit as many of the ancient sites as we could as well as throw into the mix plenty of R&R. Anthony asked for our personal preferences on a whole range of things and began to put together an itinerary. I bought a guide book as well and briefly contacted another agency who provided a basic mainland itinerary and then lectured me for not agreeing and paying up at once. I took their ideas but of course ignored them totally.

I don't think we are that picky or difficult people but suffice it to say that any time there is a language differential involved, I have difficulties effectively communicating so it took several go's before an itinerary that fitted our goals was formulated. Things like 'Why do you want to go to Olympia? There's nothing there' being a prime example... the answer of course being that it is the site of the original Olympic Games and I want to run on the track in what remains of the stadium. OK? That's why we want to go there. Another was that we wanted to visit the sites of the several battlefields that had historical global impact for the west: Thermopylae, Marathon, Salamis and Lepanto. The last two were sea battles of massive historical importance and were the most difficult (in actuality they weren't, quite easy when you are on the spot actually) but the first two were land based but Anthony said there's nothing at either location these days (again he was wrong but he was right about few going to visit the sites). I ended up saying 'Don't care just please include it in the itinerary.' I think I said 'please' by the end of the to-ing and fro-ing on this. I definitely said 'thank you' and absolutely avoided having a telephone call to discuss things as from experience I know this is where the opportunity for mutual misunderstanding is greatest. At least with email you have a permanent record where you can look back and see exactly what it was that you had said when the party of the second part has memory failure. It works for the party of the first part as well. 

One of Indy's friends who has a Greek wife suggested that we should avoid driving as traffic is bad and the drivers crazy so I put it to Anthony that we would like to have a driver for the mainland part as well as tour guides for the major locations. In retrospect this made no sense for traffic is only heavy in Athens and getting around was actually pretty easy and also added quite a bit of cost to the tour, but by the same token we didn't have to think about directions or finding parking anywhere. 

We wanted to visit some of the islands. Now there's hundreds of islands in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Ionian Seas and visiting all of them would be impossible. So I asked for suggestions from Anthony first saying that we did not much want to go the tourist party islands (Mykonos) or the tourist trap, Santorini. However Anthony convinced me that Santorini was so different that we shouldn't miss it (he was right incidentally). 

I also said that we wanted to travel by inter-island ferry as much as possible too as in the early iterations he had suggested flying between the islands.

So our itinerary was largely assembled when Covid struck and put things on hold.

Fast forward to this year, 2022. Vaccines done, lockdown over, restrictions being gradually lifted. I contacted Anthony again and Yes he did remember us. In the time since when we had last been in contact I had added some extra things, one of which spawned another 'Why do you want to go there?' moment. Turns out that it wasn't that it wasn't worthwhile adding, it was just that nobody from his company had ever included it in a tour before so they knew nothing about the places. Ha!

We studied the calendar and fixed the dates which enabled Anthony to book hotels and travel details. Last thing was payment ... Gulp ... and then at the end of April we lifted off from Penang on our summer tour.

I hadn't found the opportunity yet to say 'It's All Greek To Me' but felt confident I'd get the chance soon! Here is the final itinerary. 35 days in total!!