The Hellanic Report

again, i'm really behind on my posting, but... well, i'm lazy.

so i'm back from greece. i've been back for a week or so and have had time to ruminate and distill my experiences into a neuron-frying post. actually, i just remembered i hadn't written about it. the two things to keep in mind about my trip,

i had a lot of fun and,
northern greece (halikidiki and thessaloniki) look like someone flooded southern california.

that said, i went with two friends to visit a third. we did an all-night train trip from groningen to dortmund so we could catch a cheap easyjet flight to thessaloniki (saloniki to the locals). from there it was a short 2.6 hour flight to hellas (greek for greece; i'm still boggled that we don't use their word for themselves, even though i did some research and have a semi-solid theory about why we don't, silly romans).

we spent three days in thessaloniki at the apartment our friend lives in, seeing the sights/sites and meeting her friends. the power company of saloniki was striking so every day we'd have a 2 hour, or so, period of blackout which meant whole sections of the city were dark, while across the street it would be buzzing and alive. the most potent experiences with this were that we sometimes had to take cold showers (or go without) and that we ate this fantastic meal at this little restaurant in this little alley in the dark. or near dark. we had candles.

on the fourth day we drove 2 hours to ierissos, a small village of 2000, where our friend grew up. it was on this drive that i really started to notice how much southern california looks like greece. albeit there's much more dynamic coastline in greece, but the topography and vegetation is startlingly similar.

we did this drive on sunday, the last day of carnival and our friend thought it would be fun to stop in the capital, polygyros, for their celebration. it was. we saw a parade, dancing and ate some free food.

once we arrived in ierissos we stayed at her parents apartment and got to meet her cousin, grandparents and childhood friends. we spent the next days exploring the area, going swimming in the sea, and visiting a few tourist spots. since it was off-season most places were closed or offered limited services, but this made for a much more authentic experience and limited the surreal displacement i sometimes feel on being caught in the plastic tourist frenzy.

i'm glossing over a lot here, but really, you should go yourself. i took a horde of photos (of course) and they speak better than i do.