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views of turquoise blue seas and olive groves, or golden beaches with
sailing boats and snorkeling facilities, cities bustling with people or
villages far off the beaten track, with donkeys for transport and women
dressed in traditional clothes, the choices are endless.
You could go
for combinations of all of them by travelling just a few miles on an island,
or you may discover one spot by accident that you simply cannot bear to
leave once you find it.
The choices
are yours. You can live the high life in the night clubs of the resorts,
or chill out at the monastery at the top of the olive covered mountain.You
can sit in an ancient temple that has been standing here since two thousand
years BC, or visit the latest sports facilities at the Olympic games village.
You can enjoy Greece by spending a fortune, but you can enjoy it even more
by spending what a local would spend here on entertainment.
You have a
multitude of choices of things to do. Most of them cost very little, or
even nothing at all. Most museums, art galleries and archaeological sites
are free admittance if you go on Sunday. Check out directions for them,
and collect free brochures at the local information centre, or go online
and download maps and background information. Festivals of drama, dance
and music are held in public parks and historical buildings throughout
the summer in the resorts, and throughout the year in Athens.
Villages
throughout Greece, and in the Islands, have local festivals called Panageries.
These are celebrations for each village to honour their patron saint. Live
music is played throughout the night, with traditional greek dancing performed
by the local villagers, not professional dance teams. Locally produced
wine and spit roasted baby lamb is available, as are Greek salads and home
baked bread.
There is no
entrance fee to the local festivals, you pay only for the local wine or
the lamb and salad. Wine is usually excellent quality, produced in a traditional
way. It is fruity and rich, and very alcoholic, but rarely gives a hangover,
as it is free from preservatives and chemicals. It often costs as little
as three dollars for a two pint bottle. The bottle will often be a plastic
water bottle, as it is not commercially bottled for the festival. It
may be sold to you in an earthenware jug. The price of the lamb varies
according to the market value of the meat, but it will be the sweetest,
most succulent lamb you have ever tasted. You order the amount you want,
and the whole lamb is taken off the spit and the amount you want is chopped
off with a cleaver.
Finding the
best places to eat is easy. Ask a friendly local where they go to eat,
and they will point you in the right direction to find excellent food.
Greeks are frugal with their money most of the time (except when you become
a friend and they offer you hospitality!), so the place they choose as
having the best food will probably be inexpensive as well. They may
not have a menu in English, but do not worry, if they speak the language
they will explain what the choices are, and if they don't speak the language
they will take you into the kitchen and let you choose from the cooking
dishes and saucepans. If you prefer fish, you may be asked to choose which
one you want from the fridge. Don't worry, this is normal behaviour in
Greece!
There are different
types of eateries in Greece, with different ranges of prices. If you want
just a salad, or a pitta (flat bread with grilled lamb pieces, salad, dip,
and a few chips rolled up) or a chop and chips, then go to a spit grill.
They specialise in the above foods, do take aways, and are very cheap and
cheerful. A kafenion is like a small drinks bar, with snacks, that
the local men use.
They serve
coffee, ouzo, soft drinks, pies and little plates of snacks. The prices
are usually dirt cheap. Fast food places do exist, but the fast part of
the description is open to negotiation. The greeks like to cook everything
fresh, so food is never fast in the usual sense of the word, even at Mcdonalds!
Restaurants are usually for evening meals, have a wider menu, and are more
expensive. Greeks usually eat very late, in the summer they often don't
meet for dinner until after eleven in the evening, when it is cooler! They
spend the whole evening eating slowly, talking, laughing, and sometimes
singing and dancing as well.
Shopping is
a national pastime in Greece, for both the locals and the visitors. Look
out for top quality silver items made by craftsmen, and leather items too.
Most prices can be haggled if you are paying cash. Walking around markets
and old shops can be great fun, and you can find some really unusual things.
Olive oil soap is a good buy, it is wonderful for dry skin, and very nourishing.
It makes a great gift to take home, inexpensive, easy to carry, and much
appreciated once people have tried it. Try some of the locally produced
honey and sweet cakes, and some of the local licquers. Gifts made from
olive wood are another good buy to take home.
The best advice
I can give everyone who comes to Greece is this: Be friendly and get
to know the locals. They will soon become your friends, and if you
ever come back to see them again, you will become a member of their extended
family. I came here to Corfu island, Greece, eleven years ago, and never
left. I came as a tourist, became a friend, and I am now a member of the
huge family that extends across the whole of Greece.
The following
are Janet's previous articles for the magazine:
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