Greece - Day 10 - Farewell Syros …
October 2, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | Leave a Comment
It’s Monday and I have a few hours before the ferry leaves … one last walk around the waterfront of Ermopoulis and a stop to say farewell to me friends at the cafe before heading for Santorini via a two hour stopover at Mykonos.
Farewell Syros …
Greece - Day 9 - New and old on Syros …
October 2, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | Leave a Comment
Syros is a thriving community with deep traditions and important ceremonies secular and religious with the lines well blurred between the two. But Syros is fully part of the modern world as well. Sunday night at the famous marble town square in the main port city of Ermopoulis started with a ceremony to unveil a new bronze bust with blessings from the Orthodox church, speeches by politicians, and participation from the military … followed by a rock concert for the entire city.
Old and new seem to meld well here, as well in fact as the Greek Orthodox and Catholic communities on the hills reigning over Ermopoulis.
Greece - Week 1, bigger and better …
September 27, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | Leave a Comment
Just set up a separate single web page with my choice pics for my first week in Greece … they are larger and easier to see than on this 640 pixel constrained blog. Still way too many for a good edit but my favorites nonetheless, at least today.
http://www.hydeimages.com/greece1/
yassus, tom :))))
Greece - Day 8 - Back for Backgammon
September 27, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | Leave a Comment
Back at the cafe this morning … i love Syros :))
Greece - Day 6 - The Boatyard
September 24, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | Leave a Comment
Next to the big shipyard on Syros in Ermopoulis is a colorful little boatyard …
the space between …
Greece - Day 6 - A day with the living and the dead
September 24, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, Uncategorized, greece | Leave a Comment
Met my favorite priest today. Actually we’ve met briefly twice before but this time we talked. He is the Greek Orthodox priest with the church on the hill above Ermopoulis. Yesterday though, he had duty with the dead at the only Greek Orthodox cemetery on Syros. But he’s not at all morose, particularly serious or at all what you would expect, he’s more of a comedian and very helpful. “Yes, yes, it is my turn to sit this week here with the dead. I much prefer the living,” he says with a big smile. “It is much better down here than it is up there,” his finger pointing to heaven. “But what are you going to do?”
You can find him at the only Greek Orthodox cemetery of Syros during the day. Here’s there all week.
Greece - Day 5 - Politics and Greek Coffee
September 23, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, Uncategorized, greece | 1 Comment
This was my third day at this little cafe on the waterfront … and the first I was acknowledged. “You’re back,” a big smiling face from the next table said to me. “I am here everyday.” Me too :))
We chatted a bit through broken English. He didn’t know of Seattle near where I am from in Washington State but he did know smaller Tacoma, a large seaport. Of course, he sailed the world when he was younger on the great Greek shipping lines and visited every major U.S. seaport between 1961 and 1985.
A man stops by to talk politics and while I don’t understand the conversation, it’s clear he’s talking about the U.S. Presidential election. The Obama t-shirt he’s wearing with “Vote for Change” emblazoned in red is a bit of a clue. He doesn’t want his picture taken … too bad. I point to is T-shirt, he smiles and says, “Ne, Ne, good man,” and rushes off. My new friend at the table turns to me and explains he does not trust Obama, “he will kill,” he says, “he will kill, he is an American.” Tough, tough words to hear in this the birthplace of democracy. It breaks my heart but I know much of the world feels this way now, and for good reason. Emerika has lost it’s way I am told. I nod in agreement, “Ne, Ne but Obama is best bet,” I say. It will be a long uphill road back.
He smiles, slaps my shoulder and with booming voice and beaming face says, “take my picture.” I am in :)) It’s about time, I was starting to feel like the creepy quiet guy in the corner at the party.
I have decided to stay here on Syros through Sunday before meeting Sue on Thira (Santorini) Monday for our 6th wedding anniversary. She is at a women’s conference on the Pelion Peninsula in mainland Greece right now. We have been together 18 years and have only set the reset button once, recently in fact during dark, dark days, but it has all been for the good. We are both shifting careers and our way of life right now … more experiences, more meaningful work, less “stuff” … working for ourselves and our life instead of “stuff.” Change is never easy, though.
So I am here through the week to really experience the center of the Cyclades. I have found the right island, the real Greece with balance of modern and ancient, I am just unpacking my bags. I owe it to my friend Chris Nelson, who was also the matchbook minister for our wedding, a lifelong photographer who attended the Aegean School of the Arts in the ’70s. He told me to come here. Tonight, singing in the taverna! I stumbled across it at 3 a.m. this morning … the singing of Greek songs echoed through the streets. Beautiful. Greece is LIFE, big and bold … Zorba lives.
Off to siesta, much shuts down here between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and then reawakens to go long into the night.
Efharisto Chris!!!!
YASSUS!
Everyone is giving this guy a hard time about always losing in backgammon. “Lose again?,” they ask him teasing. He explodes, in good spirit, in a long string of what I can only guess are curses to conclude with this unmistakable gesture. The cafe explodes in laughter.
Greece - Day 5 - My Room
September 23, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | Leave a Comment
I find even my room in Greece inspiring ….
Greece - Day 3 - My Innkeeper
September 21, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, greece | 3 Comments
I found Paradise on Syros, literally. Paradise is the name of the inn, a family operation with a wonderful patriarch. He speaks no English and I speak just a few words of Greek but we get along wonderfully …
yassus and a smile …
Greece - Day 3 - Emerikan wedding crasher on Syros
September 21, 2008 | Filed Under Cyclades, Syros, Uncategorized, greece | Leave a Comment
“Happened” upon a traditional Greek wedding today … well that’s not quite accurate, I was invited, then uninvited and then re-invited but it’s a long story … suffice it to say the village life on this island of Syros, one of the most “Greek” of the Cyclades, can be very traditional and some emerikans fotographers here before me have not been, how should i say, “culturally sensitive.” Of course, I speak only a few words of Greek and am totally on my own here … so I am honored I could just attend and be allowed to take a few snapshots with my point and shoot even as a bit of an emerikan wedding crasher … Greek weddings are wonderful :))))
