Greece

Greece is a beloved country, displayed everywhere in the window of travel agencies. However, Greece is woth a visit off the beaten tracks, it is full of surprises!

It’s hard not to repeat everything that’s already been said about Greece: from feta cheese to Sirtaki and the Parthenon, it’s internationally famous. A child would recognize it by its colours so close to its flag, blue and white. Blue like the sea, white like its matt limestone and marble lustrous with the millennia. Yet there is so much to discover here that it is really unfair to confine it to ancient ruins and Instagram beaches.

I pity with all my heart those who run across it, jumping from buses to museums, from boats to hotels and from ruins to beaches. Greece will offer them nothing but pictures to bring back. Take the time to really discover it, you will bring back memories and deep emotions.

Yassas Helànna ! Το όνομά μου είναι Christine, είμαι Γαλλίδα, ωραίο να σας γνωρίσω! 

 

Greece is a star, it’s really too easy to fall in love with it! 

 
The gastronomy is tasty, rich and generous. Its strong taste, subtle herbs, delicate and powerful olive oil are irresistible. Here everything is tasty. The souvlaki is so delicious that you can’t resist ordering a second one. The wine is full-bodied and joyful, the pastry is full of temptation.
The city is lively, sunny. The majesty of the white columns flirts with the heavy stones and uneven cobblestones. Terraces everywhere, ouzo in the glasses, oranges in the trees until December. If Athens had no more ruins to visit, it would still be magnificent. 
 

Greece tells stories of conquering emperors, elegant gods and mad generals 

 
Greece seduce all the travellers: it is also a land of adventure.
Greece has many facets. Beaches, fishing harbours full of boats, round mountains as pious as giants’ shoulders on which dark monasteries throne, filled with deep, grave songs and haunted by black silhouettes.
In Greece there are forests of eucalyptus trees, villages crushed by the sun on the sea. The hypnotic blue of the water on the blinding white of the chapels. Ruins overgrown with wild grasses that still keep their mysteries where it is good to sit, to take time to understand.
Greece is also fields of olive trees as far as the eye can see, their silvery green-grey hair waving in the azure sky. Workers at harvest time who offer you a drink, smiling men and women who seem to have eternity ahead of them.

 

Greece is not one but a hundred postcards in technicolor. And to take your eyes by surprise, no need to follow the typical circuit point by point, Greece is beautiful everywhere, precisely where there is no tourism 

 
To love Greece, you have to get out of the tourist circuit.
Beauty and generosity are to be found in village taverns, on abandoned paths and hills. You just have to get lost there, in the countryside and take time to honour History, the great one.
 

For if Ancient Greece is a long way from contemporary Greece, its roots are deep and solid

 
My Greek portrait is subjective. From Greece I do not know the islands planted with luxurious hotels. I only know the very small ones. Those that are still inhabited by the ancients. Islands without cars. The sound of donkeys’ hooves on the stone stairs, the roar of the wind, the salty breath of the sea. The frightening octopuses drying in the sun on shopfronts…
The tiny streets in a dizzying maze, white and dusty at dawn, dry and silent at the zenith, fresh and restful at nightfall.
 

What one ends up loving above all in this country are its people

 
Because the Greeks, when you get a little close to them, make you want to stay here for a long time!
I’m not talking about those who are living from tourism, but about all the people you meet in the villages, along the roads.
The welcome reserved for foreigners comes from an ancestral tradition, philoxenia, which is essentially found off the beaten track. During my travels in this country, I have discovered a great kindness, a very touching ease of contact.
Of course, one should not be afraid to stop on the roadside to visit the olive pickers or fishermen on their way back to port. A few words are enough, but even without saying any, if you show yourself friendly and respectful, they will invite you  before you even ask for anything. 
 

The Greeks are Greek in name of Zeus!

 

Greeks have a sixth sense for detecting sincerity. They don’t like, it’s true, the very “standard” tourists who come here just to take pictures. They will be distant, even contemptuous. But frankly speaking, who likes this kind of visit? If, by any chance, they detect a real curiosity in you, if they feel you are open and available, if you move forward without fear and smile before greeting them with a calimera, they will show a deep kindness. They won’t let you go! 

In Greece, there is everything a human can wish for

 

A pleasant climate, beautiful light, delectable gastronomy, a lot of history and a strong culture. If you search a little, you will find here a travel experience that is worth every tour and cruise in the world. 

Antio, efcharisto! αντίο, ευχαριστώ!

 

Next travel: Have you ever heard of Albania?

There are a lot of problems in Albania that make the flow of tourists decline: Albania is not at all cooked. But soon it will be reborn from its difficult years!

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