Frommer’s Athens and the Greek Islands, 2nd Edition

While most Greeks are besotted with all that is new—a common greeting is Ti nea? (What’s new?)—most are also fiercely proud of those longtime attractions that enthrall visitors: Greece’s mind-boggling physical beauty and its glorious past. Certainly, for most of us, to leave Greece without seeing Athens’s Acropolis or Delphi, the most beautiful ancient site in all Greece, would be, as Aeschylus himself might have said, tragic. As for Greece’s physical beauty, a trip into the Peloponnese or to Santorini or just about any other island will have you spouting clichés. Palamas, the poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn, was reduced to saying of his homeland, “Here, sky is everywhere.”

Of course, Palamas was right: The Greek sky, the Greek light, the Greek sea all deserve their fame. This is especially obvious on the islands. Greece has anywhere from 1,200 to about 6,000 islands (the count depends on what you call an island, an islet, or a large rock). In any event, almost all of the approximately 200 inhabited islands are ready and waiting to welcome visitors. On the islands and on the mainland, throughout the countryside, picture-postcard scenes are around every corner. Shepherds still urge flocks of goats and sheep along mountain slopes, and fishermen still mend nets by their caiques.

If this sounds romantic and enticing, it is. But remember that the Greek love of the new includes a startling ability to adjust to the unexpected. Everything—absolutely everything—in Greece is subject to change. It’s not by accident that the most Greek of all remarks is, “Etsi einai e zoe,” which literally means “That’s life,” but might better be translated as “Whatchya gonna do?” With luck, you’ll learn the Greek shrug, and come to accept—even enjoy—the unpredictable as an essential part of life in Greece.

Recently, the unpredictable has become almost the only thing that is predictable in Greece. Massive debts and the government’s unpopular attempts to restructure the economy, involving tax hikes and salary and pension reductions, have led to strikes and demonstrations. Greece is moving forward, but serious questions remain as to how Greece will solve its problems. Many Greeks still suffer gravely, with runaway unemployment and the crushing burden of harsh austerity measures, while an influx of immigrants puts new strains on the economy. You will probably notice that many Greeks voice concern about the future, yet in Athens, at least, the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center and surrounding waterfront development are reshaping the city in bright new ways. Meanwhile, Greeks remain warm and hospitable to visitors—and convinced they will weather current storms as they have weathered so many others since the dawn of history.

Greece has a long history, indeed. Here is a brief introduction to some of the main periods in Greek history—though the nationalistic terms “Greece” and “Greek” are fairly modern concepts. Still, for millennia, the people who lived here regarded themselves as unified by a common language and many shared traditions and beliefs.

The history of Greece and its willful people is longer and more absorbing than a cursory look can convey. The earliest continuously occupied site was discovered at the Franchthi Cave in southeast Argolid, Peloponnese; evidence suggests the cavern was inhabited as early as 20,000 b.c.

The Ancient Greeks settled and traveled throughout the Mediterranean and along the Black Sea coast. Some of the oldest and most important civilizations in Europe are considered to be those of the Cycladic cultures (3200–2000 b.c.) that flourished on Santorini (also known as Thera) and nearby islands, and the Minoan people (3000–1400 b.c.) of Crete. While Cycladic architectural remains are sparse, at the National Archaeological Museum (p. 94) and in other collections you can see elegant Cycladic figurines, fashioned from island marble, that are startlingly modern. Their culture was succeeded by the Minoans, the regional strongmen in seafaring and trade, who traded around the Mediterranean, selling timber, building ships, and possibly even sailing as far as England to obtain metal. Outstanding displays of Minoan culture can be viewed at the palace of Knossos (p. 247) near Iraklion, Crete, and the Iraklion Archaeological Museum (p. 245). Around 1627 b.c, however, a volcano on Thera erupted, perhaps triggering a tsunami that destroyed settlements on Minoan Crete, 63 nautical miles away, and contributed to the civilization’s decline.

The Mycenaeans (1600–1100 b.c.) flourished on the southern mainland, in the present-day Peloponnese. The extensive remains of Mycenae (p. 120), with its defense walls, palace, and enormous beehive tombs, demonstrates the architectural skill and political power of these people, while the National Archaeological Museum in Athens (p. 94) is a showcase for their famous gold. In the Iliad, Homer commemorates the expedition led by Mycenae’s best known king, Agamemnon, to recapture the beautiful Helen. The Iliad ends with the fall of Troy to the Greeks; Mycenae’s own decline seems to have begun not long after, and is sometimes blamed on mysterious invaders known as the Dorians.

After the decline of the Mycenaeans in mainland Greece, it seems that people began to live in fiercely independent city states, often ruled by powerful tyrants. This period saw the spread of trade, the invention of coinage, and the emergence of writing, as the Greek alphabet replaced Linear A, the ancient Minoan script, and Linear B, created by the Mycenaeans. Each city state had its own calendar, system of weights and measures, and important deities, yet later, during the Classical Era (see below), when the Persians from adjacent Asia Minor invaded Greece in 490 and 480 b.c., many of these Greek city-states—led by Athens and Sparta—stood together to turn back the Persians.

Brief and glorious, the Classical era lasted from the 5th century b.c. to the rise of Philip of Macedon, in the mid-4th century b.c. This is when Pericles led Athens and when the Parthenon—and nearly every other ancient Greek monument, statue, and vase most of us are familiar with—was created. These ancient Greeks made advances in the arts, sciences, philosophy, and politics. Five of the seven Ancient Wonders were built during the Classical era: the statue of Zeus in Olympia (destroyed); the Colossus of Rhodes (destroyed); the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, now Bodrum, Turkey (dismantled, some bas reliefs in the U.K.); the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (destroyed); and the onetime tallest building in the world, the Lighthouse in Alexandria (destroyed).

While the Spartans were known for their austere and militaristic form of governance, Athens took a different course with democracy. These city-states fought each other in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 b.c.), but soon thereafter they united against the massive invading force of the Persians. First the Greeks won, at the Battle of Marathon (p. 98) in 490 b.c. Ten years later, at Thermopylae, the Persians won against a small army led by King Leonidas of Sparta. Finally, the Athenians defeated the Persians in 480 b.c. at the Battle of Salamis, led by Themistocles, who fought and won the battle decisively at sea.

Dateline

1627–00 b.c.	Eruption of volcano on Thera (Santorini); Akrotiri destroyed.
1300–	Mycenaean palace built atop
1200 b.c.	Acropolis in Athinai (Athens)—a cultural, administrative, and military center.
800 b.c.	Formation of the Greek alphabet.
776 b.c.	First Olympic Games take place in Olympia.
600 b.c.	Coins first used as currency (Aegina’s silver drachma).
508–07 b.c.	First Athenian democracy established.
480 b.c.	At the Battle of Thermopylae, Greeks led by Sparta’s King Leonidas fall to the Persians. The Battle of Salamis follows, and Athenian forces finally drive out the Persians.
478 b.c.	Athens League forms and rules over Greek cities.
461 b.c.	First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
447–38 b.c.	Parthenon built during Pericles’s “Golden Age of Greece.”
431 b.c.	Second Peloponnesian War.
336 b.c.	Alexander the Great succeeds Philip II and conquers Persia.
58 b.c.	Rome conquers Greece and adopts its gods.
a.d. 50	Apostle Paul preaches in Athens.
324	Emperor Constantine moves the Roman Empire’s capital to the Greek city of Byzantium.
300s–400	Athens is a philosophical and educational mecca;  Hadrian’s Library rebuilt.
1054	The Great Schism divides the east (Orthodox) and west (Roman) churches.
1100s–1400s	Greece conquered by Franks, Catalans, Venetians, and Ottomans.
1453	Constantinople is overrun by Turks.
1600s–1700s	Ottoman rule.
1801–03	Lord Elgin ships Parthenon sculptures to England.
1821	The War of Independence begins, lasting 9 years.
1827	In Battle of Navarino, Western powers crush Ottoman/Egyptian forces.
1829–33	Greece becomes a monarchy under 17-year-old Prince Otto, son of Bavaria’s King Ludwig.
1834	Capital moved from Nafplion to Athens.
1843	Constitution demanded of King Otto in front of his palace on Syntagma (Constitution) Square.
1896	First modern Olympic Games.
1922–23	Greece receives 1.2 million refugees from Asia Minor (Turkey); Athens’s population doubles between 1920 and 1928.
1940–41	Italy and Germany occupy Greece in World War II.
1944	Churchill and Stalin agree on respective spheres of influence over Greece and Romania.
1946–49	Cold War hostilities fuel civil war.
1967	Martial law leads to a brutal 7-year dictatorship.
1981	Greece joins EEC (European Economic Community).
1996	Greece and Turkey come to brink of war over islet of Imia.
1999	Joint rescue efforts after earthquakes in Turkey and Greece thaw relations with Turkey.
2001	John Paul II becomes first pope to visit Greece since 1054.
2002	Greece enters Eurozone.
2004	Greece soccer team wins European Championship; Olympic Games held in Athens.
2009	Triggered by massive debts, Greece is thrown into a financial crisis that rattles world markets.
2009–18	Greece’s debt crisis worsens. Unemployment soars, and strikes, protests, and riots rock Athens and other cities. New loans are issued and bailout packages put in place.
2016	Immigrants, many from Syria, arrive in vast numbers, especially on Greek islands bordering Turkey. Macedonia closes its borders, stranding thousands of immigrants in northern Greece, where camps are opened.
2018	So-called “bailouts” from the EU wind down, signaling a return to economic self-sufficiency.
2019	Tourism continues to increase, accounting for more than 25% of the Gross Domestic Product. The Arts in Greece.

Weakened by these wars, the cities were unable to stop Philip of Macedon when he moved south to conquer Greece. His son, Alexander, who became king of Macedon in 338 b.c. when he was only 23, soon marched from his base camp at Dion all the way to India, conquering everything in his path. Alexander died under mysterious circumstances (poison? too much wine?) on the way home in 334 b.c., leaving behind a vast empire that he had conquered but hadn’t had time to organize and administer. Alexander’s leading generals divided up his empire, declaring themselves not just rulers but, in many cases, divine rulers. Yet Alexander’s conquests, which included much of Asia Minor and Egypt, made the Greek language the administrative and spoken language of much of the world. Within Greece itself, powerful new cities, such as Thessaloniki, were founded. Old cities, such as Athens, were revivified and ornamented with magnificent new civic buildings, such as the 2nd-century-b.c. Stoa of Attalos (p. 88), which contained shops and offices.

From the 2nd century b.c. to the 3rd century a.d., Greece—along with most of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor—was ruled by Rome. The Romans honored the Greeks for their literature and art—a tour of Greece and perhaps a year studying in Athens was common for many well-born Roman youths. The Greeks participated in what has become known as the Pax Romana, the several centuries of general peace and calm in the Roman Empire.

In a.d. 324, emperor Constantine the Great took control of the Roman Empire, moving the capital from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium on the Bosporus. He renamed his capital Constantinople (Constantine’s City) and, in a bold move, reversed the prosecutions of Diocletian, making Christianity the religion of his vast empire. After more than 1,000 years, Constantinople finally fell on May 29, 1453, to the Ottoman Turks.

In the following centuries, Greece was ruled by a bewildering and often overlapping series of foreign powers: Venetians and Franks from the West, and Turks from the East. Many Greeks left for Western Europe and brought ancient Greek texts with them, influencing the Renaissance. Those who remained became a subject people. The phrase “under the Turkish yolk for 400 years” became a common refrain.

Greece’s War of Independence began in 1821, when the bishop at the Monastery of Agia Lavra, on the Peloponnese, raised the flag of revolt, calling for freedom or death. The ideals of Greece captured the imagination of the Romantics in Western Europe; Lord George Gordon Byron and others traveled to Greece to take up the fight. In 1827, combined forces from Britain, France, and Russia crushed the Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces at the Battle of Navarino in the Peloponnese and granted Greece autonomy under an appointed monarchy. Otto, the 17-year-old son of King Ludwig of Bavaria, became united Greece’s first king.

By the end of the 19th century, Greece’s capital was in Athens, but most of today’s country was still held by the Turks and Italians. The great Greek leader from Crete, Eleftherios Venizelos (after whom Athens International Airport is named) led Greece in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. When the wars were done, Greece had increased its territory by two-thirds, incorporating much of Epirus, Macedonia, and Thrace in the north and the large islands of Samos, Chios, and Crete.

At the end of World War I, Greece invaded Turkey in an attempt to reclaim Constantinople and much of its former territory in Aegean Turkey. Initially, the invasion went well, but the Turks, led by their future leader Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), rallied and pushed the Greeks back to the sea. There, in 1922, in Smyrna (Izmir) and other seaside towns, the Greeks were slaughtered in what is still referred to in Greece as “The Catastrophe.”

In the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the boundaries of Greece were fixed more or less as they are today, and Greece and Turkey agreed to an exchange of populations: Some 1.2 million ethnic Greeks who lived in Turkey were relocated to Greece, and about 500,000 Turks were sent from Greece to Turkey. Many spoke little or none of their ancestral language, and most were regarded with intense hostility in their new homelands.

Whatever stability and prosperity Greece gained after the 1920s population exchange was seriously undercut by harsh German and Italian occupations during World War II. The famines of 1941 and 1942 were particularly severe; in Athens, carts went around the city each morning to collect the corpses of those who had died in the night. A bitter civil war (1944–49), between pro- and anti-communist forces, further weakened Greece. Recovery began slowly—assisted by the Marshall Plan—and did not take hold until well into the 1960s. In 1967, a right-wing junta of army officers, nicknamed the Colonels, seized power, ended the monarchy, and were themselves toppled when democracy was restored in 1974.

In 1981, Greece was accepted into the European Economic Community (EEC, also called the Common Market), the precursor of today’s European Union. A period of initial prosperity, jump-started by EEC funding, was followed by steady inflation. The euphoria of 2004, when Greece won the European soccer championship and hosted the wildly successful Athens Olympics, soon fizzled. Greece, along with its EU neighbors, struggled to cope with such problems as illegal immigration, rising prices, an increasingly fragile ecosystem, and the worldwide economic recession that began in 2008.

Greece has since seen its finances crumble in a very public and, to many Greeks, humiliating way, forcing the country to ask for help from the EU and subsequently the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bailout packages required a slashing of government spending and extreme austerity measures. Many Greeks have had to accept these tough measures, which have caused job losses and wage and pension cuts. Unemployment is high, jobs are scarce, wages shockingly low, and the cost of living is high. Meanwhile, the illegal migrant population has swelled, and younger people are seeking employment in other countries, much as older generations had to do after World War II. Many Greeks feel as if their country has been occupied yet again—as it was so many times in its turbulent history—this time by the EU and the IMF. Unable to devalue its currency, Greece has had to give up much of its sovereignty in order to accept bailouts, along with new, even stricter, austerity measures.

Yet there are reasons for optimism. Greece owns the largest maritime fleet in the world, and shipping and tourism account for the two biggest sectors of its economy, with tourism increasing in recent years. Greece has untapped oil reserves in its sea and gold in its land and could become a major player in renewable energy in the near future. Meanwhile, much as they did in antiquity, all roads in Greece lead to Athens. With its enviable location, large port, and state-of-the-art infrastructure, the capital may well be the key to leading the country back into the light.

Many of the buildings we know best—from football stadiums to shopping malls—have Greek origins. The simple Greek megaron gave birth to both the temple and the basilica, the two building forms that many civic and religious shrines still embody. The Greek temple, with its pedimental facade, lives on in government buildings, palaces, and ostentatious private homes throughout the world. Football and soccer are played in oval stadiums, the spectators now sitting on seats more comfortable than the stone slabs or dirt slopes they sat on in ancient Greek stadiums. Most theaters are now indoors, not outdoors, but the layout of stage, wings, and orchestra goes back to Greek theaters. The prototypes of shopping malls, with their side-by-side multiplicity of shops, can be found in almost every ancient Greek city. In fact, the mixture of shops and civic buildings, private homes, and public parks is one that most ancient Greeks knew very well.

In short, Greece was not just the “cradle of democracy,” but the nursery of much of Western art and architecture. The portrait busts and statues of heroes that ornament almost every European city have their origins in ancient Greece. Both the elaborate vaulted funerary monuments and the simple stone grave markers of today can be found throughout ancient Greece.

Ancient Greek art and sculpture have been major influences in the West and the East, shaping what is still considered the ideal. The gods took on perfect human form in marble sculptures created during the classical era, when Hellenic art reached its apex. Artists began carving and painting scenes on pediments and friezes, and sculpture flourished around the Mediterranean.

Athletic performance was exalted then as now, and perfection of the human form in motion was achieved in sculpture with Myron’s Discus Thrower (surviving in copies). The greatest sculptor of classical Greece is said to be Phidias, who designed the Parthenon friezes on the Acropolis (p. 78)—battles, legends, and processions, including serene-faced gods, representing order triumphing over chaos.

Rhodes, Corinth, and Athens each had their own styles of pottery: plants and animals, fantastical creatures, and humans, respectively. Black-figure pottery first appeared in the 7th century b.c. with humans as the subject, and Athens produced most of it. With the 530-b.c. invention of the red-figure technique (black background, red clay), attributed to an Andokides workshop vase painter, artists were able to paint in finer detail. Athens became a center of ceramic exports by the 4th century b.c., but quality suffered with mass production, much as it has today.

Greece’s artistic legacy didn’t wither after the classical era. In medieval times, artists such as Theophanes the Cretan (died 1559) painted icons and frescoes; a number of good ones are in monasteries in Mount Athos and in Meteora (p. 134). El Greco (Kyriakos Theotokopoulos, 1541–1614), a student of Titian, was born in Crete, though he lived and died in Toledo, Spain. (See p. 245 for more on El Greco’s Cretan legacy.)

Herodotus first wrote literary prose, while Thucydides meticulously researched his account of the Peloponnesian War, influencing the scholarship of later historians. In the 4th century b.c., Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (a student at Plato’s Academy) wrote treatises on logic, science, politics, ethics, government, and dramatic interpretation that have been the centerpieces of learning for millennia.

The 20th century brought international fame to two Greek masters. Constantine Cafavy (1863–1933), born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Greek parents, is one of the most important figures in modern poetry. His most famous work is the beautiful “Ithaca”: “When you depart for Ithaca, wish for the road to be long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.” Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) was born in Iraklion, Crete, when the island was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Zorba the Greek and other novels earned Kazantzakis nine Nobel Prize nominations and made him the most celebrated Greek writer of his time; Zorba and his novel Last Temptation of Christ were also made into internationally acclaimed films. Today you can visit Kazantzakis’ grave in Iraklion (p. 249) and the beach at Stavros (p. 268) where Zorba the Greek was filmed.

Anyone heading to Spetses (p. 136), the Sarnoic Gulf island near Athens, might want to plunge into John Fowles’ dark psychological novel The Magus, based partly on the author’s experiences while teaching on the island in the 1950s. Travelers bound for the delightful little island of Patmos (p. 230) will want to read The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoir, by Tom Stone, as much a cautionary tale as it is an evocation of island life.

Greece has a long musical tradition, the word for “song” being related to ancient plays. The progression of Greek music took a different monophonic, rhythmic course than Western music, best represented in Byzantine chant, while folk and popular music has an Eastern character common to the Balkans and the former Ottoman Empire.

Popular music exploded in the cities after 1922, with musicians arriving from Asia Minor following the population exchange. The hard-luck music of the refugees is called rembetika and has been likened to the blues, with a bouzouki player and usually a female vocalist in the ensemble, all seated in a row playing to small audiences.

Greek folk music is played during feasts on instruments such as the bouzouki, oud, baglama, tambouras, and daouli. Dancing is a big part of the event. There’s even a type of rap (mantinada) on the islands of Crete and Amorgos in which performers make up the words as they sing. In towns, you might see and hear roaming street musicians playing popular tunes on the accordion, guitar, violin, and sometimes a clarinet.

For the ancient Greeks, the world was full of divine forces, most of which were thought to be immortal. Death, sleep, love, fate, memory, laughter, panic, rage, day, night, justice, victory—all of the timeless, elusive forces confronted by humans—were named and numbered among the gods and goddesses with whom the Greeks shared their universe. To make these forces more familiar and approachable, the Greeks, especially the ancient poets, imagined their gods to be somehow like themselves. They were male and female, young and old, beautiful and deformed, gracious and withholding, lustful and virginal, sweet and fierce. The most powerful of the gods lived with Zeus on Mount Olympos and were known as the Olympians.

Greeks take what they eat, and how it is prepared, very seriously. Whereas many non-Greeks go to a restaurant in the hopes of getting something different from home cooking, in Greece it is always high praise to say that a restaurant’s food is spitiko (homemade).

Greeks are more concerned with the quality and freshness of their food than they are with the place where it’s served—a restaurant could literally be falling apart and no one would mind, as long as the meal is good. Fruits and vegetables taste strong and fresh (you will likely remember the taste of a tomato long after returning home), and portions are generous. Other hallmarks of good Greek food are the generous use of pungent herbs for both flavoring food and making teas, and the generous use of olive oil.

For breakfast and as a snack, various savory pies are sold at countless holes-in-the-wall. Tiropita (cheese), spanakopita (spinach), and bougasta (cream/semolina) are the most common of these pies. Koulouri (round bread “sticks”), roasted chestnuts, and corn on the cob are sold on the street.

The midday meal is the biggest of the day, eaten at home around 2 or 3pm after being cooked in the morning by Mama or Grandma. Students are dismissed from school around 1pm; shops and businesses close between 1:30 and 3pm. In summer, when the heat of the day is unbearable, the midday meal is followed by a siesta. Then, depending on the day, it’s back to work, out for the evening stroll, and then out for dinner at 10pm. Kids and all. If you want to eat where the locals do, look for restaurants that are full at 10pm—the Greek dinner hour. Dining in Greece is not a staid affair, and it’ll be boisterous.

Note that restaurants that cater to tourists are open all day or at least earlier than the usual 7pm. You’ll find these in tourist centers such as Plaka in Athens, and at beach resorts.

Countless neighborhood tavernas (square tables, paper tablecloths, woven-seat chairs) serve simple Greek food in big portions with barrel wine. There are many other kinds of restaurants as well. Psistaria (grill restaurants) serve up steaks and souvlaki (kebabs), and mageiria, or cookhouses, serve buffet-style stews with rice, pasta, meat sauce, and fish. Generally, the mageiria is the Greek equivalent of the fast-food joint, except the food is slow-cooked and kept warm; it’s ready to serve when you walk in—the kind of place where you can sit down for lunch and eat by yourself. Almost every village has at least one kafeneion (coffeehouse), and usually two. Families, and women on their own, usually sit at tables outside. Indoors, the kafeneion is still an almost exclusively male establishment and often functions as a clubhouse. Men stop by, play a hand of cards or tabli (backgammon), and nurse a coffee or an ouzo for hours. Ouzeries specialize in small plates and appetizers, traditionally washed down with the anise-flavored liqueur ouzo. While an ouzeri is usually similar to a kafeneion (but with the emphasis more on ouzo), the food often a bit heartier, often including grilled sausage or octopus. Greeks almost never drink without eating something, if only some chunks of feta cheese, a few olives, and perhaps some cucumber and tomato slices. This is an especially wise custom, especially when drinking fiery and potent ouzo, which turns a deceptively milky hue when diluted with water.

Menus in tourist-oriented restaurants are usually in Greek and English, but if not, just ask for help from your waiter, who is probably fluent in restaurant English. He may even take you into the kitchen to eye what’s available. Often, the printed menu has little bearing on what is available, and it never hurts to ask what’s special that day. If you want tap water, not bottled, ask for it from the vrisi (tap). If you want the house wine, ask what their own wine is (to diko sas krasi), lest you be guided to much more expensive bottled wine.

Service is included in the bill, but it’s customary to leave your waiter another 5% to 10% at a simple place, more at a fancier establishment with noteworthy service. Some Greeks do and some do not tip in family-owned and -operated places, but the wait staff, counting on seasonal earnings, often expect a tip from foreign tourists. As anywhere, feel no obligation to tip when service is poor or indifferent, but service in Greece is usually so friendly and personal that you’ll want to leave something.

If you go out with Greek friends, prepare to go late and stay late and to put up a losing fight for the bill. Greeks frown on bill splitting; usually, one person is host, and that is that. And, if you are invited to a Greek home for a meal, assume that everything will run hours late and that you will be offered an unimaginable amount of food. This is especially true on holidays—it’s for a good reason that the week after Easter, most newspapers carry supplements on “How to Lose the Weight You Gained at Easter.”

Greeks consume more olive oil than any other nation (some 30 liters, or 8 gallons, per person per year) and they want that oil to be not just Greek, but from specific regions, preferably from specific groves. The olives of the Peloponnese are especially admired, with Kalamata olives prized both for oil and eating. Cheese is the other staple of the Greek diet. Although a slab of feta, usually sprinkled with oregano, tops most Greek salads, there’s a wide variety of cheeses. Most Greek cheeses, like feta, are made from sheep or goat’s milk. Creamy mizithra is more delicate than feta, best when eaten fresh and soft, but useful when cured and grated on pasta. Kefalotyri and graviera are popular favorites, slightly bland, but with enough tang to be interesting.

A standard Greek snack consist of olives, a chunk of bread, and a slab of cheese. Fresh Greek fruit and vegetables in season are top notch and still make up a major part of the Greek diet.

Greeks eat a lot of starters, called mezedes or meze, which include dips and salads, before the main course or on their own. There’s always a bowl of salad, usually Greek horiatiki, or village salad. Of the dips, tzatziki with yogurt, garlic, and cucumber is popular, as is fava, a bean purée. Sample a selection of kroketes (croquettes) if they’re on the menu, made with potato, cheese, zucchini, or tomato, and try seafood mezes such as marinated or grilled ochtapodi (octopus) or melitzanosalata (eggplant salad).

Greeks say “Get to the roast” when they mean “Get to the point.” Meat is popular even in this nation surrounded by the sea, whether it’s a brizola (plain cut steak) or chop, stifado (rabbit stew), or lemonato (lemon-flavored roast).

Kebabs—better known here as souvlaki (small spit) or gyro (meat shaved off a vertical rotisserie)—are usually served with different kinds of pitas and sauces to slather and wrap around the pieces of chicken or pork.

Moschari yiouvetsi is chunks of beef baked with orzo pasta, onion, tomato, and wine in individual clay pots. Another baked dish is arni kleftiko: lamb usually cooked with cheese and herbs in a packet of wax paper. More lamb dishes are arni psito or arni tou fournou, roasted with garlic and herbs. Katsika (goat) is cooked in a similar way. You can also get beef stifado, a stew made with copious amounts of wine, rosemary, tomato, and baby onions. You’ve likely never seen a slab of brizola hirini (pork) like those you’ll get here, which have no resemblance to the small North American chops. Get it as a cheaper but filling and tasty substitute for brizola moscharisia (beef steak). Avgolemono (egg-and-lemon sauce) also goes with pork, lamb, or pastitsio, a lasagna made with ground beef and macaroni. Layered with potatoes, eggplant, and béchamel, it becomes moussaka.

Ground beef is also the main ingredient for keftedes, a meat patty that can stand alone, “beefed up” with egg, grated onion, bread crumbs, and spices, then coated in flour before being fried. Mixed with rice and dropped in water with an avgolemono sauce, it becomes giouvarlakia. Biftekia is a meat patty, not beef steak. You can also find gemista (ground beef mixed with rice and stuffed in large tomatoes or green peppers), kolokithakia gemista (stuffed zucchini/courgettes), and papoutsakia (meaning “little shoes,” stuffed eggplant/aubergines).

As for the bounty of the sea: a psarotaverna is a restaurant that serves mainly fish. The fresh catch will often will displayed on ice, or the waiter will bring around a fish to show it off and display its freshness, then often fillet it at the table. A good restaurant will also explain exactly how your choice will be prepared—most fish are best when grilled and sprinkled with mountain herbs. Fish is usually sold by the kilo, not the serving, so be sure to clarify the cost before ordering.

Many Greek restaurants do not serve dessert, and Greeks often troop off after a meal to a pastry shop (the tongue-twisting zacharopolasteion). In recent years, many tavernas have started to serve a free dessert, ranging from simple apple slices with honey and cinnamon to ice-cream confections topped with sparklers. Yogurt (yiaourti) is delicious, served from a traditional clay container and drizzled with honey (meli). Mustalevra, grape must and flour, is dark, wobbly, and sweet. Baklava is flaky, thin phyllo pastry layered with walnuts and pistachios and soaked in honey syrup; variations include a candied fruit or chocolate center. Dandourma is an ice-cream concoction mixed with milk and cherry syrup, and kaimaki is a uniquely flavored ice cream (literally frozen cream).

Harsh-tasting retsina, the strong pine-resin wine that actually accompanies some Greek foods quite nicely, is a small part of the story of Greek wine, which extends back some 6,500 years. It even has a hero, Dionysus, the god of wine. In antiquity, it’s believed that Greeks didn’t drink wine with their dinner but paired it with fruit, nuts, and desserts.

There’s a huge selection to choose from, from regions and domains all over the country. You’ll find your favorites (Amethystos is consistently good), but don’t shun the local hima—barrel wine sold at the corner store in 1.5-liter water bottles. Some wines can be excellent one year and less good the next, so ask at the neighborhood cava (wine shop/off-license/liquor store) for a recommendation.

In tavernas, barrel wine (krasi) is ordered by the kilo (not liter), and brought to the table in distinctive tin jugs. The better grapes are normally reserved for bottles, but if you can lower your nose, so to speak, this is all part of the taverna experience. Most of the time, it’ll be pretty good. In rural areas and on the islands, wine is produced (and if not bottled, then barreled) on the family plot, alongside cans of olive oil and jars of honey. It may not be great, but families have had the opportunity to perfect their techniques over the years, and some have turned into well-respected wine estates.

Rosés shouldn’t be ignored—produced mainly in the mountainous regions, they go well with a mix of dishes, including meze.

Although many Greeks, especially Athenians, now prefer whiskey, the national distilled drink is still this clear, licorice-flavored liqueur that turns cloudy when you add water, though you can also drink it neat. Ouzo is made from fermented grape skins, mixed with star anise and other herbs, boiled in a still, and stored for a few months before being diluted to 80 proof/40% alcohol. Drink too much and you’ll get a killer headache; one or two glasses is enough. It’s usually consumed with appetizers and seafood (hence ouzeries), on islands and by the seaside. It was traditionally the drink of fishermen and at kafenia (coffee shops), where you still find older men sitting around drinking ouzo as they talk and play cards or backgammon.

Crete’s version, raki (lion’s milk), also Turkey’s national drink, isn’t flavored with anise and is more like Italian grappa. It’s called tsipouro in other regions of the country. You can get smooth rako-melo (raki and honey) on some of the Cyclades islands.

Just about everyone agrees that the best time to visit is Greece is spring and early summer (mid-April to mid-June) or autumn (Sept to mid-Oct). At these times you’ll avoid the summer high season, with its high heat, high prices, and big crowds. These drawbacks loom especially large if you plan on visiting some of the more popular islands, Mykonos and Santorini first and foremost among them. In the spring, you’ll see more wildflowers than you could have imagined—and swim in a sea that’s a bit cool but more pleasant than you’d hoped for. In the autumn, you will enjoy golden days with still-warm waters.

Of course, there are a few considerations to keep in mind outside of high season, especially if you plan to travel to any of the islands. Off-season there are fewer boats and flights to the islands, and several island shops, hotels, and restaurants do not open until June and then close in October. During the off-season life comes to a standstill on many islands, or at least turns its back to tourism, and wintertime rains can dampen any romantic notions of lonely wandering in empty landscapes.

During Easter week, nearly every hotel room outside of Athens is booked well in advance by city Greeks who head to the country to celebrate Greece’s most important holiday. Many sites and museums are closed Good Friday, Easter Saturday, and Easter Sunday, while many shops close on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. (See “Holidays,” below).

Greek weather is getting less predictable every year, but some things everyone agrees on: the winters can be chilly (sometimes with unusual bursts of warm weather, then again, sometimes it even snows in Athens). It can go from warm to downright numbing. Many buildings are not insulated, and the centrally controlled heating is often intermittent, making the cold season seem very long indeed. Summers are just plain hot (and usually dry), sometimes reaching 110°F (43°C). As the saying goes, only mad dogs and Englishmen would venture out in the midday sun, hence the siesta between 3 and 6pm. The seasonal north (Etesian) winds blow mid-July to mid-August, but it can get very windy anytime, stopping ferry transport. Even though our temperature chart for Athens reflects some reliable statistics (note that this is the average daily temperature, not the daytime high), don’t be surprised if you find deviations from it when you visit Greece. Our figures for Crete are based on Iraklion’s temperature/precipitation.

In addition to the following holidays, every day in Greece is sacred to one or more saints. That means that every day, at least one saint (and everyone named for that saint) is being celebrated. Many towns and villages also celebrate the feast days of their patron saints. Tiny chapels that are used only once a year are opened for a church service followed by all-day wining and dining. If you’re lucky, you’ll stumble on one of these celebrations. Officia1 holidays in Greece are New Year’s Day, January 1; Epiphany, January 6; Independence Day, March 25; Orthodox Good Friday; Orthodox Easter Monday; Labor Day, May 1; Orthodox Whit Monday (descent of the Holy Spirit, 50 days after Easter); Assumption, August 15; Ochi Day, October 28 (celebrates Hellenic counterattack again Italian forces in 1940); Christmas Day, December 25; Boxing Day, December 26.

Feast of St. Basil (Ayios Vassilios). St. Basil is the Greek equivalent of Santa Claus. The holiday is marked by the exchange of gifts and a special cake, vassilopita, made with a coin in it; the person who gets the piece with the coin will have good luck. January 1.

Epiphany (Baptism of Christ). Baptismal fonts and water are blessed. A priest may throw a cross into the harbor and young men will try to recover it; the finder wins a special blessing. Children, who have been kept good during Christmas with threats of the kalikantzari (goblins), are allowed to help chase them away. January 6.

Carnival (Karnavali). Be ready for parades, marching bands, costumes, drinking, dancing, and general loosening of inhibitions, depending on the locale. On the island of Skyros, the pagan “goat dance” is performed, reminding us of the primitive Dionysiac nature of the festivities. Crete has its own colorful versions, whereas in Athens, people bop each other on their heads with plastic hammers. Celebrations last for 3 weeks up to the beginning of Lent.

Independence Day & Feast of the Annunciation. These two holidays are celebrated simultaneously with military parades, especially in Athens. The religious celebration is particularly important on the island of Hydra and in churches or monasteries named Evangelismos (Bringer of Good News) or Evangelistria (the feminine form of the name). March 25.

Feast of St. George (Ayios Yioryios). The feast day of the patron saint of shepherds is an important rural celebration with dancing and feasting. Arachova, near Delphi, is famous for its festivities. The island of Skyros also gives its patron saint a big party. April 23, or if the 23rd falls before Easter, the Mon after Easter.

May Day. On this generally urban holiday, still celebrated by Greek communists and socialists, families have picnics in the country and pick wildflowers, which are woven into wreaths and hung from balconies and over doorways. May 1.

Feast of St. Constantine (Ayios Konstandinos). The first Orthodox emperor, Constantine, and his mother, St. Helen (Ayia Eleni), are honored. It’s a big party night for everyone named Costa and Eleni. (Name days, rather than birthdays, are celebrated in Greece.)

Athens and Epidaurus Festival. Featured are superb productions of ancient drama, opera, orchestra performances, ballet, modern dance, and popular entertainers. The festival takes place in the handsome Odeum of Herodes Atticus, on the southwest side of the Acropolis, and at the 4th-century b.c. theater of Epidaurus in the city of the same name. June to early October.

Lycabettus Theater. A variety of performances are presented at the amphitheater on Mount Likavitos (Lycabettus) overlooking Athens. Check local listings for performances. Mid-June to late August.

Miaoulia. This celebration on Hydra honors Hydriot Admiral Miaoulis, who set much of the Turkish fleet on fire by ramming it with explosives-filled fireboats. Late June.

International Classical Musical Festival. Concerts are staged throughout Nafplion, in the Peloponnese. See www.nafplionfestival.gr/en for details. Late June/early July.

Midsummer Eve. Dried wreaths of flowers picked on May Day are burned to drive away witches, in a version of pagan ceremonies now associated with the birth of John the Baptist. June 23 to June 24.

Navy Week. Celebrations takes place throughout Greece. In Volos, the voyage of the Argonauts is reenacted. On Hydra, the exploits of Adm. Andreas Miaoulis, naval hero of the War of Independence, are celebrated. End of June/early July.

Aegean Festival. In the harbor of Skiathos town, the Bourtzi Cultural Center presents ancient drama, modern dance, folk music and folk dance, concerts, and art exhibits. See www.festivaloftheaegean.com for more info. Mid- to late July.

Wine Festival at Rethymnon, Crete. Rethymnon hosts a wine festival as well as a Renaissance Festival. Sample the wines, then enjoy theatrical and musical performances. Mid-July to early September.

Feast of Ayia Marina. The feast of the protector of crops is widely celebrated in rural areas. July 17.

Feast of the Prophet Elijah (Profitis Elias). The prophet’s feast day is celebrated in the hilltop shrines formerly sacred to the sun god Helios. July 20.

Dionysia Wine Festival. This is not a major event, but it’s fun if you happen to find yourself on the island of Naxos. First week in August.

Feast of the Transfiguration (Metamorphosis). This feast day is observed in numerous churches and monasteries of that name, though they aren’t much for parties. August 6.

Aeschylia Festival of Ancient Drama. Classical dramas are staged at the archaeological site of Eleusis, home of the ancient Mysteries and birthplace of Aeschylus, west of Athens. August to mid-September.

Anniversary of the Battle of the Straits of Spetses. The island celebrates with a reenactment in the harbor, fireworks, and an all-night bash. Weekend closest to September 8.

Aegina Fistiki Festival. The island of Aegina celebrates its famous nut, the pistachio, with visual arts tours, contests, and concerts. Go to www.aeginagreece.com for more info. Mid-September.

Ochi Day. General Metaxa’s negative reply (ochi is Greek for no) to Mussolini’s demands in 1940 conveniently extends the feast-day party with patriotic outpourings, including parades, folk music and folk dancing, and general festivity. October 28.

Feast of the Archangels Gabriel and Michael (Gavriel and Mihail). Ceremonies are held in the many churches named for the two archangels. November 8.

Feast of St. Nikolaos (Ayios Nikolaos). This St. Nick is the patron saint of sailors. Numerous processions head down to the sea and to the many chapels dedicated to him. December 6.

Christmas. The day after Christmas honors the Gathering Around the Holy Family (Synaksis tis Panayias). December 25 and 26.

New Year’s Eve. Children sing Christmas carols (kalanda) outdoors while their elders play cards, talk, smoke, eat, and imbibe. December 31.

Orthodox Easter & holy week

The Greek calendar revolves around religious holidays. Orthodox Easter (Pascha)—usually a week later than Western Easter, and the only holiday calculated according to the Julian calendar—is the nation’s biggest. Most of the native population—97% of whom are Greek Orthodox—observe the traditions. Most people who did not fast for the 40 days of Lent begin fasting during Holy Week, which starts on the Monday before Easter. On Holy Tuesday, devotees whitewash their houses and walkways. On Wednesday, they bring holy oil home from church and use it, along with sprigs of basil, to bless the households. On Holy Thursday, they receive Communion, and priests in special dress read biblical accounts of the Last Supper during an all-night vigil. At home, followers boil eggs and dye them red to symbolize the blood of Christ and rebirth. Many also bake Easter bread (tsoureki) and biscuits (koulourakia). Church bells solemnly toll on Good Friday, and at around 8pm, a candlelit procession through the parish accompanies a decorated funeral bier (epitaphios) of Christ. On Saturday, most people go to their neighborhood church just before midnight with candles (lambades); the children carry lavishly decorated ones, often received as traditional gifts from their godparents. The lights of the church are dimmed at midnight, symbolizing Christ’s death. The priest then brings out the holy flame, brought from Jerusalem for the occasion, and passes it to church members, who light one another’s candles while saying “Christos anesti” (“Christ is risen”). Youths light fireworks, and congregants return home with their lit candles and bless their homes by “drawing” a cross on the doorframe with the candle’s smoke. On Easter Sunday, they break the Lenten fast by cracking the eggs and eating mageritsa soup, made with dill, rice, avgolemono (egg-lemon) sauce, and the innards of the lamb roasting for dinner. Easter Sunday brings much feasting, drinking, and dancing, as the smell of lamb permeates the air from roof-terrace spit-roasts. At church, passages on the Resurrection are read in many languages, symbolizing world unity. Easter Monday is a national holiday.

Principal Olympian Gods & Goddesses
Greek Name	Latin Name	Description
Zeus	Jupiter	Son of Kronos and Rhea, high god, ruler of Olympus. Thunderous sky god, wielding bolts of lightning. Patron-enforcer of the rites of hospitality.
Hera	Juno	Daughter of Kronos and Rhea, queen of the sky. Sister and wife of Zeus. Patroness of marriage.
Demeter	Ceres	Daughter of Kronos and Rhea, sister of Hera and Zeus. Giver of grain and fecundity. Goddess of the mysteries of Eleusis.
Poseidon	Neptune	Son of Kronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Hera. Ruler of the seas. Earth-shaking god of earthquakes.
Hestia	Vesta	Daughter of Kronos and Rhea, sister of Hera and Zeus. Guardian of the hearth fire and of the home.
Hephaestos	Vulcan	Son of Hera, lord of volcanoes and fire. Himself a smith, the patron of crafts employing fire (metalworking and pottery).
Ares	Mars	Son of Zeus and Hera. The most hated of the gods. God of war and strife.
Hermes	Mercury	Son of Zeus and an Arcadian mountain nymph. Messenger-god, patron of commerce and eloquence. Companion-guide of souls en route to the underworld.
Apollo	Phoebus	Son of Zeus and Leto. Patron-god of the light of day, and of the creative genius of poetry and music. The god of prophecy.
Artemis	Diana	Daughter of Zeus and Leto. Mistress of animals and of the hunt. Chaste guardian of young girls.
Athena	Minerva	Daughter of Zeus and Metis, born from the head of Zeus. Patroness of wisdom and of war. Patron-goddess of Athens.
Dionysos	Dionysus	Son of Zeus and Semele, born from the thigh of his father. God of revel, revelation, wine, and drama.
Aphrodite	Venus	Daughter of Zeus. Born from the bright sea foam off the coast of Cyprus. Patroness of love.

Average Monthly Temperatures & Precipitation
		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
Athens	Temp °F	50	50	54	59	67	75	81	81	75	67	59	53
	Temp °C	10	10	12	15	19	23	27	27	23	19	15	11
	Precip. (in.)	1.9	1.6	1.6	.9	.7	.3	.2	.3	.4	2.1	2.2	2.4
Crete	Temp °F	54	55	57	61	68	73	79	77	73	68	63	57
	Temp °C	12	13	14	16	20	23	26	25	23	20	17	14
	Precip. (in.)	3.5	2.7	2.3	1.1	.6	.1	.1	0	.7	2.6	2.3	3.1