December 2024 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 296 other subscribers
Category: Greece
Salonica, 2023
I’ve settled during my current sojourn in Greece into a comfortable pattern. I stay for three weeks somewhere familiar, where I settle down, get reacquainted with the surrounds, work, experience things, and don’t blog much at all. Halfway through, I do a side-trip to avoid feeling too settled. When the three weeks are up, I […]
Lindos, 2023
Lindos itself is a Greek village from central casting, complete with whitewash everywhere, claustrophobic alleys (to confound raiding pirates), and flowers spilling out of pots. Still very much a tourist trap, and around every corner there is another shop to cater to the passing souvenir collector, but punctuated with lots of nice villas. To cater […]
Music high school concert, Hospitaller Palace, 2023
When I was touring the Hospitaller Palace, high school children were rehearsing for a musical performance. (You could tell they were high school children from the especial exuberance of their “Hey, Malaka!” to each other, once they were outside the palace.) So I went back at 8:30 pm for the free concert, which turned out […]
Archaeological Museum, Old Rhodes, 2023
I got confused between the downstairs exhibit of the palace, which was off limits for the evening, and the actual archaeological museum (the Hospitaller hospital, which still looked a lot like the castle, but was on the other side of the Old Town.) My visit was rushed, but the archaeological museum has plenty of atmosphere […]
Hospitaller Palace, Old Rhodes, 2023
Went back to apartment, fell asleep for 4.5 hours, realised that I did not come to Old Rhodes Theme Park to sleep, and quickly frog marched myself through the Hospitaller Palace and the Archaeological Museum (originally the Hospitaller hospital). The Lonely Planet was right that upstairs was not much to write home about, although they […]
Outside Old Rhodes, 2023
The way out of the Old Town is verdant where it isn’t monumental. Delightful walk up to and through D’Amboise gate. Glancing back at D’Amboise Gate, the moat, and the twin towers of the Suleimaniye Mosque and the Clock Tower. (The latter is branded as Mediaeval and Venetian, but its current incarnation dates from 1852.) […]
Old Rhodes at night, 2023
Old Rhodes, 11:40 pm. Mostly quiet, and the odd car is allowed back in, just a few stragglers at restaurants that are otherwise closed. But the off street clubs are still pumping music, and the one open souvlaki joint is waiting for the 1 am rush. The piazza that riotously greeted me with tourists and […]
Old Rhodes, 2023
I don’t think I can do any better than to replicate my account of walking into the Old Town from my Facebook feed. So I’ve been in the Old Town of Rhodes for a couple of hours now. … OMG HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS PLACE BEFORE?! It is a medieval theme park, […]
Olympos, Karpathos, 2023
In lieu of a separate post on Olympos: I’d already written it on Quora. https://www.quora.com/Is-Olympos-Karpathos-in-Greece-an-authentic-village-or-is-it-rather-about-business/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5 Well, four years after proud Olymp-ian Rigopoula gave her answer, https://www.quora.com/Is-Olympos-Karpathos-in-Greece-an-authentic-village-or-is-it-rather-about-business/answer/Rig%C3%B3poula-Tsambounieris-Talarantas I’ve just paid Olympos a visit myself. Olympos is a village cut off from the rest of the island of Karpathos, which itself is somewhat cut off from the […]
Kasos, 2023
Kasos is a sleepy, small place, with fishermen, old timers drinking beer, women running general stores, a couple of elderly Dutch tourists, and a few soldiers. Linguistically very heterogeneous: I did hear one local with a strong accent, as I walked past, drop a delta (ξα(δ)έρφια)—a local feature which make the local name of dolmadhes […]