Greece: A Promise Made and Kept
December 30, 2022 – January 7, 2023
A distant memory of a poster of Santorini from high school. Whitewashed houses, blue domes, an impossibly blue sea. I remember looking at it and deciding I would see this place someday. A few years later watching a video of Yanni's "Santorini," performed live at the Acropolis reminded me of that promise. Between the poster and that music, Greece became something I carried for years.
The last week of December 2022, when we landed in Athens, it felt less like a vacation and more like manifestation of a distant memory.
Athens: Warm Light, Long Walks, Ancient Stones
The drive in from the airport came under a low, pale winter light, Greek Signboards passed by. Hotel Electra Palace put the Acropolis right outside our window — lit up at night, close enough that it felt like we were living next to it for a few days.
The Greek salad at a rooftop cafe- tomatoes, cucumber and olives under a block of feta, bread crumbs baked locally and scattered on top. Plain food, delicious, welcoming.
We walked Plaka's narrow lanes, past balconies and tavernas spilling onto the cobblestones. Syntagma Square had its Christmas tree up, lights strung through the square. The statue outside the Holy Church of the Virgin Mary, worn by weather and time, looking up in devotion.
Mnisikleous Stairs had restaurants stacked up the slope, and Anafiotika Café sat above them, a good place to stop before the climb continued.The walk up to the Acropolis and Areopagus Hill was the best half-day of the trip, maybe of the last several years. An English speaking guide at the entrance to Acropolis walked us through the ruins and, more usefully, found the fastest route up through the crowds onto Parthenon the center of attraction. Onwards from Areopagus hill, looking back at the Acropolis instead of up at it, the view said something different — about the ruins, and about the years it took to get here.
Monastiraki Square and the Roman Forum filled a morning with lunch afterward at a restaurant with the Acropolis in full view. We walked the National Garden, quieter and greener than the streets around it, and stopped at the Panathenaic Stadium, white marble curved into an oval, built for games two thousand years apart. One evening, a bus tour took us past the museums and monuments lit up after dark — a different city once the sun goes down.
A day trip ran through Piraeus Port on the way to Cape Sounion, where the Temple of Poseidon stands at the edge of the sea and gives us spectacular sunsets.
Santorini - Sun, Rock and Sea
Landing in Santorini put me back inside that old poster with the rousing strains of Yanni in my ears. Lime-washed walls, black volcanic rock, the Aegean from the balcony. The walk up to the sunset spot earns its reputation. The whole caldera turned orange and pink, then the island's lights came on below it.
Breakfast happened on the rooftop most mornings, rooftops and the Aegean beyond them, no rush to leave the table. One day was for the volcano- a walk down to the ferry, a boat out to the volcanic island, Santorini rising dramatically from the water behind us. We walked the edge of the volcano itself, the ground faintly warm underfoot.
There was a second sunset. Santorini doesn't really let you stop at one.
An early bus to Ia took us through the shopping lanes, the windmills and we ended up at the three blue domes — the image, from the distant past manifested before me. Standing in front of it was strange: familiar and new in the same moment.
Goodbye Quatrain
We returned to Athens and stayed at Hotel Electra Metropolis this time, a different view of the Acropolis. The last evening, one more walk around the Acropolis, timed with a full moonrise over the stones. I stood there a long time. The Yanni piece came back once more, no orchestra this time, just the memory of it against the real thing at last.
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