The place where democracy was born, as were Hippocrates, Euripedes, Alexander the Great, Pythagoras, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes,
Epicuris and so many more; apparently the Greeks now feel they've contributed enough and they can sit back while their economy tanks.
The Greeks haven't woken up from their complacency but their buggered economy is no reason to avoid the country; we'd been to
places in worse shape.
Samos - a small, pretty island off the Turkish coast, 7 kms and less than an hour's ferry ride from Kusadasi but less than 2km from the Turkish coast as the crow flies.
Rhodes - the old port at Rhodes, crammed with tugs, ferries, fishing boats and flash yachts and cruisers was a positive introduction to Greece.
A well known name, but not recognised by we antipodians as a hip tourist mecca for northern hemispherian would-be copulators of the night club scene, the gay set and the buffed and tanned self-obsessed trendsters. Preknowledge of such status would have turned us off the visit and that would have been a shame.
Beautiful, beautiful Santorini. Vertiginous, splendorous, perpendicular, breathtaking visually and physically. A croissant-shaped volcanic caldera, with the main town of Fira stretched along the edge overlooking the 12km wide lagoon and providing panoramic views from the cliff-top walkways and warrens of hotels, shops, homes, churches and bars that spill over the edge.
The apparent epicentre of Greek resentment that their sense of entitlement is being questioned, we were prepared for Athens to be just our departure point for home, with visits to the Acropolis and Parthenon and a quick exploration to justify the cost of passing through.
An inter-generational mix of 9 Ruins, 2 Gen-Yers, and 11 year old easygoing twins Chuck and Harry Pye. In a bus for 2 weeks through Turkey with locals Abdullah and Vegdan in the cockpit until the more acquatic travel between Greek destinations by ferry.
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