SketchTravel in Greece

First to Athens

We had mixed feelings about going to Greece. Some people said there are way more interesting places to visit, while others said they loved visiting the old clifftop monasteries in northern Greece, and chilling on the Greek islands.

So we booked a trip there, though only for 8 days. Athens proved to be more interesting than I expected, at least the old historical part in the middle of the city where you find the Acropolis and the Parthenon. We started off taking the short 10 minute walk (according to the hotel) to Ancient Agora. We did find it about an hour later. Our GPS seemed to have dimensia. There was an old museum with lots of pottery shards, and the grounds were full of ruins with pillars and a few still-standing structures. Instead of taking the “5 minute walk” to the Acropolis Museum and Parthenon, we took a cab and skipped the GPS maze. The Parthenon was especially interesting, but with crowds and wind, I didn’t try to do a sketch.

We also walked through the nearby old district of Plaka with its narrow streets and interesting merchant shops, then on to Monastitaki Square, where the change of the guards happens each hour for some reason.

We had dinner a couple times at what we were told was an authentic Greek tavern that served food. Although they have an extensive menu, you only get to order what the owner says you should. We ordered the grilled calamari, and he said "no, you order the stuffed squid". Ok… Another night we ordered the grilled calamari from one of his sons, but he came over and said "no, you order the baked stuffed fish". Ok… But it was all really good, and his son slipped us a couple drinks to try. One was what he called a mistake, no explanation. Some kind of port but tastier. The other was raki, a Greek moonshine made from leftovers of wine making. It was a family business and they were all so friendly, as was everyone in all of Greece EXCEPT one, who worked for the airline and so we just thought she probably hated her life.

On to Meteora

With the traffic in Athens being rush hour seemingly all the time, we opted to take a 2-day bus tour so we could visit the ruins of Delphi, and the amazing clifftop communities of Meteora further north. Since we were traveling off season, the only tour for that day was Spanish speaking, which we decided to book although our Spanish consists of 2 or 3 phrases like “dos cervezas por favor”, “un café con leche”, “banyos?” etc. We did meet English-speaking people on the tour, from San Diego, Brazil, and Chile, who helped us with the details. I didn’t mind the tour being in Spanish since I tend to ignore guides anyway, as they go about pointing out the obvious and being entertaining. But she was completely baffled that people who don’t speak Spanish would be on her tour, and didn't really warm up to us.

Meteora was really a kind of jaw-dropping experience. I can see why it is a World Heritage Site, with its enormous rounded boulders and natural pillars jutting out of the ground all of a sudden in this relatively small area. Some of them reminded me of the giant ribs of rock side by side in Arches National Park, listing close to each other like giant drunken dominoes. Originally, monks moved into the area and built some 24 monasteries beginning in 1344 AD, for protective purposes. The only way to reach them was from long ladders or nets that were pulled up for protection.

There were so many things I wanted to sketch, but being on a bus tour is very limited. For these sketches I took a few minutes to get a quick pencil skeleton of the view in place, and then worked on them later with my photo reference. Not ideal, but when the bus starts up it’s time to go!

Vacationing in Atlantis

Next we skipped the 8-hour ferry ride to the Greek island of Santorini and took the 45 minute flight to give us more time to explore. Again it was nice being there a little off-season to avoid much of the crowds. I love how everything is painted white, and how cars can only get you so close. Then you have to walk the narrow roads to get around. You have no business being here if you don’t like steps. I love places like this that were built for foot traffic, before the world was blessed by the automobile. We dropped our luggage off and caught a cab to the northern village of Oia. I still can’t pronounce that name. It is a cool village with an old castle ruin that has become the most popular spot on the whole island for watching the sunset. We saw the village and castle ruin during the day but decided to watch the sunset from our deck instead, sipping a glass of 2017 Atlantis red. A killer view with no crowds.

It’s not really Atlantis, but who cares?

Santorini is built on the caldera of an active volcano. It blew it’s top 3500 years ago, which destroyed a Minoan village there that must have been like the ones in neighboring Crete – with running water and indoor plumbing. So many people believe this volcanic island of Santorini was the fabled location of Atlantis written about by Plato. It wasn’t, but the islanders want to think so. We visited the excavation site at Akrotiri, but the two main museums were closed on the days we were there. Bummer, but whaddya do? Instead we visited the old part of Emporio Village. It reminded me of a Southwest US pueblo, with a maze of wandering narrow sidewalks full of tiny living quarters, all with no running water, heat or electricity. It was amazingly windy, so again sketching was kind of problematic, though exploring on foot worked just fine.

We were told that 2 million people visit this little island each year, and that tourism makes up 90% of the economy. Wine producing makes up only 10%. If you don’t like crowds and tours (who does?), off season visiting seems like a must. We definitely liked our time exploring here, and never got tired of the views of these old towns clinging to the steep cliffs, all brilliant white with the deep blue domes of the churches. There are around 500 churches on the island, but it’s hard to know the exact count because they keep building new ones.

SketchTravel in Greece