A Cruise in the Greek Islands
Friday 11 May
Our one day cruise in the Greek Islands, Poros, Hydra, ???. E70 each. Our transfer bus arrives at 7.45 am. The bus is completely full. I sit in the last seat available, next to a tour guide. He doesn't acknowledge me. He talks almost continuously and loudly to his tour group. He irritates me.
We arrive at the wharf. Our boat is the SAnta Maria - maybe halk the size of the Arahura. We are away by 8.45 am, south past big ships anchored in the harbour, keelboats coming and going from sailing excursions.
Our first stop is Poros. Very pretty as we approach. We have 45 minutes ashore (it takes about 5 minutes to disembark 500 passengers) so walk up the hill (with about 400 others) to a clock tower on a rocky hilltop 100 metres above the waterfront. We return to town via other streets. Some of the buildings here show the white walls and blue trim characteristic of some Greek Islands. We enter a tiny Greek Orthodox church - rather disorganised but intimate and very atmospheric. I light a candle and place it in the sand filled bowl. I vaguely mutter an indistinct prayer. Not all prayers are distinct.
Back on board, our ship continues on down the channel between Poros and the mainland of Peleponese.
An hour later we arrive at Hydra. There are some big yachts here, posh sailing yatchs that would easily cost several million NZ dollars. And would have a permanent crew of 2 or 3. Where do they get that money from?
Hydra has only one vehicle on the whole Island – a rubbish truck. The standard transport for people and goods is donkey or foot. No Cars. We walk around the water front. Donkey owners try to get us to take a ride. I get frustrated at wasting time looking at tacky tourist kitsch. Again. I’ve seen enough. And no one seems to ever sell anything. We turn off the main way through an archway into a church enclave. This is a Greek Orthodox monastery. It is gentle and peaceful and refreshing for me here. I sit for a little. We go upstairs to a museum of religious art – on the first floor above the court yard. The curator seems to ‘demand’ that we enter her museum. Which we do. At E2. But I appreciate the inner atmosphere. There are older icons, crowns and some silver work all of which I dislike. But there are also icons in a softer, more humane style, depicting various scenes from Jesus life that speak well to me.
Back on the water front we walk further and I enjoy photographing some of the working fishing boats. That these are working boats on which men make their livelihood appeals to me greatly. If I had grown up here this is what I might have done. Been a fisherman on one of these small boats. Zita finds an Icon that she really loves and feels confident that it is the genuine article (which is not so easy to tell). That means completely hand painted by an official icon painter. Cost is E130. It is something she has wanted for many years. I personally dislike the art style of the older icons. I also feel tense about how much money we are getting through.
As soon as we re-board our ship to continue the cruise, we go to our lunch sitting (price included).Salad, pork, potatoes and a spongy desert. Our table companions are a similar age to us, from the US, and very soon after we start to chat they tell us what a big problem they feel George Bush is. Most Americans we meet, soon after meeting tell us a similar thing. We have a good chat about travelling in Italy and Greece.
Now sitting outside on deck chairs we are heading for our third Island – Aegina. We pass many small islands and rocky outcrops. There is just a light warm breeze and a cloudless sky. I wonder if it gets rough out here sometimes. (I am sure it does). The wind has changed from off shore to onshore during the day. Most likely a sea breeze.
We are at Aegina for 2 hours. We take the “Scenic Bus Tour’ option. Otherwise there is little else to do. A drive around the northern half of the island. The first capital of Greece was here after the liberation from the Turks in 1830. During that war the motto of the Greek resistance was – “Freedom or Death”. The Greeks mention this great uprising a lot. I can appreciate that. A part of Cyprus is still under Turkish control – much to the frustration of Greece.
We see groves of pistachio nut trees. These trees often only fruit well once every 5 years. They also fruit best when they are configured as one male tree surrounded by seven females. Lucky guy. I can appreciate that.
We see a new Greek Orthodox Church. (of St. Nectorius) – the most recent saint they have had. He died in 1920 and was famous for healing people by laying hands on them. I didn’t like the church myself.
After the bus tour we were led to the fish market. And seated and served a small seafood meal with a drink of Ouzo. We sat with our new friends from Pittsburgh, Gino and Maria from Pittsburgh USA. I was not interested in eating the shrimps, octopus, squid. Pretty fussy I know. Maybe I will get over it one day.
An hour and ½ on the ship returns us to Athens. We start talking with two people from Quebec. They have just been to a conference in Corfu and are going to Turkey to do business with Turkish academics who want to publish a book they have written. Their field is ‘Communications” and they work in a university in Canada.
One project they have been involved in is in South America. There is a big problem with mercury poisoning getting into the food chain around major rivers. This is because the big ranch owners, wanting more and more land, cut down and burn the forests. With rain this releases mercury into the rivers in a form that can be absorbed by fish. The communications project involves finding ways to successfully communicate to locals changed fishing practises to help them avoid the bad affects of the mercury. The idea is to distribute information about safer fishing practises through social networking. They are aware that the real problem lies with the ranch holders. But attempts to modify practices in that area could easily be life threatening to our communications experts. I think about obesity, smoking, excess drinking and wonder if a communications perspective could help positive social change in New Zealand.
It is dusk as we leave the ship and board our bus to the hotel. I wouldn’t mind a sailing holiday here some time. Costly though. Most of the rest of our tour group from the previous week are now on their 7 day ship cruise and on the way to Turkey. We will be heading home tomorrow.
Back on the water front we walk further and I enjoy photographing some of the working fishing boats. That these are working boats on which men make their livelihood appeals to me greatly. If I had grown up here this is what I might have done. Been a fisherman on one of these small boats. Zita finds an Icon that she really loves and feels confident that it is the genuine article (which is not so easy to tell). That means completely hand painted by an official icon painter. Cost is E130. It is something she has wanted for many years. I personally dislike the art style of the older icons. I also feel tense about how much money we are getting through.
As soon as we re-board our ship to continue the cruise, we go to our lunch sitting (price included).Salad, pork, potatoes and a spongy desert. Our table companions are a similar age to us, from the US, and very soon after we start to chat they tell us what a big problem they feel George Bush is. Most Americans we meet, soon after meeting tell us a similar thing. We have a good chat about travelling in Italy and Greece.
Now sitting outside on deck chairs we are heading for our third Island – Aegina. We pass many small islands and rocky outcrops. There is just a light warm breeze and a cloudless sky. I wonder if it gets rough out here sometimes. (I am sure it does). The wind has changed from off shore to onshore during the day. Most likely a sea breeze.
We are at Aegina for 2 hours. We take the “Scenic Bus Tour’ option. Otherwise there is little else to do. A drive around the northern half of the island. The first capital of Greece was here after the liberation from the Turks in 1830. During that war the motto of the Greek resistance was – “Freedom or Death”. The Greeks mention this great uprising a lot. I can appreciate that. A part of Cyprus is still under Turkish control – much to the frustration of Greece.
We see groves of pistachio nut trees. These trees often only fruit well once every 5 years. They also fruit best when they are configured as one male tree surrounded by seven females. Lucky guy. I can appreciate that.
We see a new Greek Orthodox Church. (of St. Nectorius) – the most recent saint they have had. He died in 1920 and was famous for healing people by laying hands on them. I didn’t like the church myself.
After the bus tour we were led to the fish market. And seated and served a small seafood meal with a drink of Ouzo. We sat with our new friends from Pittsburgh, Gino and Maria from Pittsburgh USA. I was not interested in eating the shrimps, octopus, squid. Pretty fussy I know. Maybe I will get over it one day.
An hour and ½ on the ship returns us to Athens. We start talking with two people from Quebec. They have just been to a conference in Corfu and are going to Turkey to do business with Turkish academics who want to publish a book they have written. Their field is ‘Communications” and they work in a university in Canada.
One project they have been involved in is in South America. There is a big problem with mercury poisoning getting into the food chain around major rivers. This is because the big ranch owners, wanting more and more land, cut down and burn the forests. With rain this releases mercury into the rivers in a form that can be absorbed by fish. The communications project involves finding ways to successfully communicate to locals changed fishing practises to help them avoid the bad affects of the mercury. The idea is to distribute information about safer fishing practises through social networking. They are aware that the real problem lies with the ranch holders. But attempts to modify practices in that area could easily be life threatening to our communications experts. I think about obesity, smoking, excess drinking and wonder if a communications perspective could help positive social change in New Zealand.
It is dusk as we leave the ship and board our bus to the hotel. I wouldn’t mind a sailing holiday here some time. Costly though. Most of the rest of our tour group from the previous week are now on their 7 day ship cruise and on the way to Turkey. We will be heading home tomorrow.
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