March 25th National Holiday.
On March 25, 1821, Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra in Peloponnese, and the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire was officially born. The battle cry “Freedom or Death” was taken up by thousands, and war was waged for 9 years (1821-1829) until a small part of modern Greece was finally liberated and declared an independent nation.
Five Star Greece is back in the office (with a cold..)
Sifnos is an island for the cognoscenti – a Cycladic beauty with 200 kilometres of heavenly footpaths, mostly ending at the white-washed gate of a small, blue-domed church with a name like “Virgin of the Flowing Water”, and commanding an extraordinary view over sparkling blue sea.
The islanders are house-proud, tidy, passionately conservationist, famous for their cooking skills and the quality of their ingredients. Nikos Tselementes, the Greek Gordon Ramsay of the 1890’s , came from here, and his book on Greek cooking is still a household bible. Apart from the slow- tempo foodie atmosphere, a charming hippy dippy vibe with Reiki practitioners and massage and yoga workshops makes this a lovely island to chill out on.
Five Star Greece on the road.
I never made it to Patmos in the end – gale force 9 winds brought all ferries to a halt. Patmos as you know is where St John wrote the Book of the Apocalypse, and I am betting that it was on just such a wet and windy late February weekend when he sat down in front of a blank piece of paper, chewing his quill tip, listening to the wind howl through the narrow village lanes and watching the black clouds explode with thunder and lightening.
I therefore take this opportunity to present our second Guest Blog; “Are Greeks Mad or just Bananas?”
Five Star Greece on the road
I finally made the ferry to Ithaca – how one’s spirits lift on a boat trip – the white spray flies up from the bows, foam spreading like cream across the waves. The weather is an almost balmy 18 degrees, and all the annoyances of travel disappear, such as why a country with a minimal mastery of bureaucracy would want to introduce passport checks for ferry passengers. Two black-swaddled nuns have not brought their passports and wail to the ferry girl, “but no-one told us!” “Never mind, my Golden Ones” she replies, “ I am telling you now, remember next time” and waves them aboard. I suppose it is still easier than getting into the US if you are an alien, and no-one at the US passport control calls you their Golden One and waves you through….. I ring some Greek friends who are at a weekend party on Evvia ( at our villa Evvia 1C which is a great all year entertaining venue!) to share this new absurdity with them, but instead of laughing, they reply, wondering at my stupidity, “But of course, how else do you know who drowns when the ferry sinks? Finally something sensible the government has done”.
It must be because I am only half –Greek…
Five Star Greece – February 18th
I am stuck in Athens waiting for the wind to drop enough for the harbour master to allow the ferry that I need to catch to leave for Kefalonia. This is your gain as having nothing positive to say at the moment, other than Athens is on sale so rush over to do your shopping, especially at Enny di Monaco, my cousin’s brilliant boutique in Kolonaki, I will post here the first of our Guest Blogs…
David Edgerley is an Eastern Mediterranean analyst who gets bullied by his diminutive Andriot wife into going to Andros whenever she deems it necessary – even in mid-winter…
http://levantinemusings.blogspot.com/
Excerpt:
February is here and with it the opening of the carnival season, which only ends on March 7th with “Clean Monday” and the beginning of the Lenten fast. Patras, Greece’s western port is the best place to go to catch the parades. Rethymnion on Crete also has a lovely venetian-style carnival, but we like what … Read more
“Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison” – that ancient Greek prayer is ringing out above an 18th century marble pool where 60,000 white robed Ethiopians have gathered, glimmering like ghosts in the cold pre-dawn, to celebrate the Epiphany in the old citadel of Gondar. I have been researching Greek influence in the Horn of Africa for you – well alright, I was just on holiday actually – but was unexpectedly moved to find Orthodox Christianity so profoundly observed and deeply rooted so far from home. An extraordinary experience – contact my fellow Bespoke Travel Club colleagues at Simoon Travel for information on a quite magical trip that anyone with an interest in the exotic, the bizarre and the beautiful should consider making.
Five Star Greece Yesssss! Our photographer just sent in the photos she took from the new house on Naxos – and she managed to get there on a sunny day as well even though it was December. It looks stunning and Evi & I can’t wait to go and visit it in the spring. Naxos is … Read more
My father, Panos Gratsos, was a respected bibliophile whose collection of antiquarian books on Greece, the Ottoman Empire and the Ionian was sold at Sotheby’s in 1991 with much fanfare, and the books from which were snapped up by other collectors. As children we found his passion for each new book, and excitement when he finally tracked down something missing from his collections embarrassingly eccentric, and a sign of how grown-ups were just strange. Now, to my amusement, I find myself displaying the same traits of an obsessive collector when we find a house on a new island, or are given a property that we have been missing from our collection – I do catch my children looking at me a bit pityingly sometimes.