" Travel lays the table for the feast you enjoy sitting still back home. Stillness is the end point of any trip; it's the way you convert sights into insights and bring the experience home." Pico Iyer. KINFOLK - The Travel Issue
This is another tale from many moons ago. A visit to Greece in December. Not my first trip to Greece which was when I was much younger and my family had a stopover in Athens on the way back from Kenya where we were living. That was in the deadly hot oily humid days of summer. What I took away from that trip was an overwhelming sense of bucketloads of sunshine. I have a vague memory of scrambling around the Parthenon and trying to hide from the scorching sunlight like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights of a car. My main pleasure was to escape back to the hotel to cool down in the tiny swimming pool on the roof of the hotel with the constant hum of honking traffic rising up from down below.
Later on I had another stopover in Athens on my way back from South Africa. I suppose Olympic airlines must have been the cheapest airline for these long distance hauls to Africa and Athens was always the stopping point on the way back to London. This second visit in December was perfect, Athens was still warm and bright. We got off the plane and headed straight out to a cafe for a strong Greek coffee and pastries. Next stop the Acropolis which was a comfortable temperature to walk around. But what I remember striking me the most was the pleasant surprise of seeing citrus fruit on the trees at that time of year. It is an association I hold deep within me, the delight of walking down an avenue of waxy trees, a smattering of rotund parcels of sweet orange delight littering the green leaves in December.
But that is not the trip I am writing about today. My third visit was for a week in 2012 and this time I flew in to Athens to meet Matthew from where we immediately took a train out to Corinth where he had just finished studying. Pretty much all of the photos that follow are his. ( Photo credits Matthew Colthup)
Above the striking Corinth canal. A narrow passage chiselled out of the rocks, just wide enough to allow a ship through, thereby saving them the long trip around the headland.
No time to write at length about the day we spent in a hire car trying to explore inland but ending up a nervous wreck after navigating mountain roads, Greek road signs which we couldn't decipher, swerving to avoid potholes and achieving a spectacular double tyre blow out! At the end of that day we limped back home by slowly free wheeling the car back downhill on 3 good tyres ( we changed the spare tyre but were still one tyre short) and collapsed in a wreck at the bottom of the hill in a local garage.
Putting hire cars and that nerve wracking day behind us we set out for a Greek island. Above, Spetses island which we reached by a convoluted combination of juggling trains, a bus journey, a taxi ride and a hair raising motorboat ride in the dark.
We left Corinth in the morning and ended up very grumpy at the end of a long day when the bus journey came to an end in the middle of no-where at dusk. Thinking we must have finally arrived at the harbour opposite Spetses island I was very surprised to find no signs of any water or any boats. We wandered in to a hotel to find out where we were. Ascertaining that we were still not at our final destination we hailed a taxi and drove another ten minutes through what had rapidly become a dark inky night. This time we were thrown out beside a stretch of water lined with bobbing boats. A good start. But it was late and it took a frantic search before we found a lone motorboat that would take us across to Spetses. There followed a fast and furious ride in the dark, crashing through the waves under the stars. With the spraying salt water stinging my eyes I felt rather important, like James Bond on an aqueous night mission. We tumbled out feeling slightly nauseous and glad to be back on dry land.
Spetses island, a pleasant combination of Greek orthodox chapels, street cafes, cats, church bells, pretty walks in the hills and a huge soft toy bear the size of a child found hanging from a tree branch? Who knows how it got there!
Our journey back to Athens was much easier, one ferry ride back to the main port and then a train back in to the city.
This is the view from just below the Acropolis looking back across the valley over the city.
A good place to take a nap.
Or sit and take in the view and debate politics. We were in the city in the months following Germany's bail out of the failing Greek economy. There was tension on the streets, some small clashes with police and posters of Angela Merkel portrayed as a Satanic figure with a pronged fork and tail.
There is something unusual about Athens. It has its own unique beauty which is something to do with the rocky outcrops that overlook the city. Contrasting with this natural beauty are some quirky little quaint neighbourhoods lying at the foot of the rocks. Further in to the city centre are wider streets that lead to jaded and dirty tower blocks.
I couldn't put my finger on what was so attractive about Athens exactly. Compared to Rome or Paris it really is very grubby. But there were those vibrant fruit tree lined avenues in December. There was the feta cheese, honey, pistachios and pomegranates. The coffee was strong. The cigarette smoke constant. The orange trees cheerful and fragrant.
" Everywhere amongst the pervasive smell of fresh oregano, there is an atmosphere of people doing their own thing, each stepping in tune with their own internal guide. Greece is magnetic, they say. Once you have stepped on Greek ground it's hard to shake yourself free. Myth has it that it's because your feet become stuck in the rich honey coating the country. It's the only place where people have always wished me a good week, month, day, summer, winter, life, work ... and a birthday wish to grow old with white hair. " Tessa Kiros - Falling cloudberries
So here I end with at my favourite spot in Athens close to where the Apostle Paul debated with the locals about the different gods and the temple dedicated to 'the unknown god' which was there just incase they left any deity out! It is the perfect location to throw around some grand ideas inspired by the soaring views.
Acts 17:21 For the Athenians, all of them, and the foreign residents and visitors among them spent all their leisure time in nothing except telling or hearing something newer than the last -
I don't think this spot has changed much. This is where the street dogs hang out basking in the sunshine. This is where teenagers come to drink, chat, talk, philosophise and have a smoke while looking out across the city.
Up above the sacred Acropolis site soars with the Goddess Athena's temple bathed in light. It is an impressive piece of architecture, but I'm glad I don't serve a god that is unknown and contained in a man made temple.
Acts 17: 24, 25 The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it; being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in hand made shrines.
Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all people.
So to finish where I started, as Pico Iyer so aptly put it, after going on a trip there is something to be said for making the time to take stock of our experiences before jumping back into life. To keep revisiting these trips, seeing them in new lights and finding new applications for them in daily life.
" When I'm running around, I'm gathering experiences and emotions, but to make sense of them, I have to be in one place. Travel lays the table for the feast you enjoy sitting still back home."
