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Part VWe made the trip to Samos, Greece via the ferry from Kusadasi, Turkey. Turkey is packed with interesting sites and we'd go back again, but it's not a comfortable place to travel when compared to Greece. It's the difference between spending time at a great museum or spending time at Club Med. Both have their merits. Actually, it's more like the difference between standing for days in a great museum with no toilets in blistering heat or Club Med. At this point in our trip, we made a handy list of the top ten reasons why Greece is better than Turkey.
In hindsight, this list is a bit harsh, but we were giddy with the comforts of Greece at the time. The Greek isles are by no means self-sufficient. Without tourism, most would be empty. Once you leave the tourist areas, the islands are largely barren. Many farms exist, but with too few grazing spots for cattle and very limited crops. Just about everything else comes in by boat and the tourist dollars pay for it all. On our first day in Samos, we were surprised to find that all but the most touristy shops and restaurants that were open at 2:00 were now closed at 2:30. We guessed correctly that this was Siesta time, but we couldn't have guessed that Siesta would last until around 6:30 (or whenever). Even the museums observed Siesta. Festivities go very, very late into the night, though we never stayed up to witness them. We noted a bar advertising that they opened at 9:00PM and closed at 6:00AM. In every hotel we stayed in from here on, we would hear early morning revelers in the streets, so we must have been the odd balls. Boat service between the islands is fast and efficient, though the schedules are a little loose. All of the companies operate near-new vessels and they are very large, seating around 2,000 people. Things aren't very organized in port, though. The boats stop in a port for only about fifteen minutes. In that time, dozens of vehicles and hundreds of passengers depart the vessel and about the same amount get on. It all happens at once as though someone fired a gun and yelled "Go". Officials are all around with blaring whistles, pointing fingers and shoving hands. It would probably be more effective to have a priest on site praying that no one gets crushed. The vehicles are a weird mix. There are scooters and cars from Italy, the US, Germany, Japan, Russia, England, Korea, China and perhaps worst of all, France. I don't know how they keep them all running as we haven't seen any repair shops. The majority of people get around on motorcycles and, mainly, scooters. We rented scooters on several islands to get around. I would think that everyone on a little desert island would be happy to standardize on a single, reliable vehicle that could be maintained, such as a Toyota truck. This is not how things are, however. This would be boring. There is a law requiring cycle riders to wear helmets in Greece. The scooter rental shops will inform you of the stiff fine for not wearing a helmet. Trish and Doug gladly wear helmets after hearing of the death and dismemberment rates on some of the more populous islands. No one else wears a helmet. No one. The food is wonderfully diverse once again. We can always get a Gyro, but we can also get Italian or Mexican food if we feel like it. One restaurant we ate at served "Goat by the Kilo". I'm not a metric-kind-of-guy, but still I would never have thought of a cute little goat in that way. It's relatively boring here when compared to Turkey - just the usual paradise stuff. That's why our photos and notes are primarily about Turkey. It's tougher traveling in Turkey, but the memorable sights and experiences are everywhere. We took a six-hour ferry boat to Mykonos - a beautiful city packed with Greek Orthodox churches and all of the sins of the world. Even though we live in very diverse California, we couldn't help staring at the old Drag Queen with a mustache who sold us our boat ticket to the next island. Paros was our next stop. It's a lovely island with lots of beautiful beaches and lots of sailboarders. All of the islands we visited were nice, but Paros was our favorite. From Paros, we went to Santorini. Santorini is an obviously volcanic island with shear cliffs and dramatic landscapes. It would never occur to me that a city should be here, but the island has a rich history with ruins that pre-date the volcano's eruption. From Santorini, we flew to Athens. Athens, of course, is a big city. It reminded us a little of Rome, but lacked the many public squares and beautifully maintained old buildings found there. The central sight here is the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is located. It's high on a hill in the middle of the city. The Temple of Zeus is an interesting sight. The photo shows how the ancient sites in Athens are now crowded amid urban sprawl. Construction of the temple began in the 6th century B.C. After many delays and many conquests, it was finally finished more than 700 years later. Hadrian dedicated the completed temple in AD 130. The Temple of Zeus once had 104 columns, but by 1765 it had only twenty-one and today is has sixteen. In 1907, at least sixty columns traced to this Temple were discovered in a first century B.C. ship wreck near Tunisia. It is believed the columns were on their way to Rome. There is great controversy about Lord Elgin's taking (plundering) of many of the choicest pieces from these ruins in the early 1800's. These are now displayed mainly in the British Museum. It would, undoubtedly, be best to see these structures in their original form. Alternatively, it would be preferable to have the artifacts in a museum near the original location. This issue is not as cut-and-dried as it seems when one realizes that a single statue pillar pillaged from the Erechtheum in the Acropolis is much better preserved in England than the remaining five statues which were moved to a pollution-free nitrogen-filled chamber in the Acropolis Museum in 1979. Countless scores of other historical objects remain exposed to the elements and the weight of tourist's feet. It's time to tally the various modes of transportation we've taken on this trip.
That's enough. It's time to go home to our hot showers and comfortable beds. It's been a great trip! |
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