Greece is beautiful in any season, but one of the most special times to visit is during the Greek Easter. Greece follows the Julian calendar, so Easter is calculated differently than “Western Easter”, which is calculated on the Gregorian calendar. And if you go, one of the best places to celebrate is on the island of …
Only a few nautical miles separate them, but the islands of Tinos, Mykonos and Delos in the Greek Cyclades group are as diverse as the Elysian Fields and the Underworld: The Divine and the Decadent. Tinos is ascetic: a holy island, famed for one of the most important shrines of the Orthodox Church. Mikonos …
If you’re sightseeing in the middle of Athens before Lent and you’re suddenly descended upon by a roving gang of young men wielding plastic bats, don’t be alarmed. They hit people over the head, but the head-bonking is part of the playful merriment that is Apokreas – Carnival. Since ancient times, the Greeks have …
I am aboard a boat cruising along the Greek coastline toward the delta of the Acheron River on the Ionian Coast of Greece. A brisk wind has blown up and the captain navigates through the choppy water sailing precariously close to the rocky shoreline. All along the coast great jagged rocks loom out of the …
When Hippocrates sat under the plane tree in Kos’s town square, expounding his theories of healing, I wonder if he knew that many millennia later he would be known as ‘the father of modern medicine’ and people would still flock to Kos to stand under that old tree where the fabled physician once sat to teach. …
My introduction to Greek wines was during my first visit to Santorini, Greece some thirty years ago. I fell in love with Lava wine, from the Koutsoyannopoulos’ Volcan Wineries, on the island. Perhaps I was attracted first by the appealing label: a copy of a Minoan fresco with a fisherman holding bundles of his catch. …
It was an interest in pirates and seafarers that took me on a circuitous route through the Peloponnese (a large peninsula in southern Greece) to visit two of the Venetian fortresses that once guarded the seaways of the Mediterranean: Koroni and her sister city, Methoni. When pirates were pillaging Greece’s coastal settlements and during …
I hadn’t expected to visit the Canal of Corinth, Agamemnon’s tomb and Epidaurus on this trip, but Athens was a nightmare. I had arrived in the middle of violent demonstrations against the government’s austerity measures. Roads were closed off which made getting from A to B extremely difficult, even on foot, unless you wanted to risk life and …
My October trip to Greece coincided perfectly with the Kalamata harvest season. Olive trees were ripe with fruit, and over several weeks, we observed great quantities of olives being handpicked and brought to the mill to produce some of the world’s best olive oil. This lovely time of year was ideal for a getaway focused on …
I’ve been camping solo in Greece for more than ten years and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. It’s the cheapest and most delightful way to see the country. It’s affordable, comfortable and best of all, it’s safe! One of my most favourite places to camp is on the island of Naxos. I’ve camped there a …