To the edge of the region, a Greek vacation

Piecing together a post about my adventures on my almost-one-year-in-the-Peace Corps-trip is proving difficult. A retelling of events hardly seems worth it, it seems intimidatingly exhausting. Rather, I'd like to use this post to explore a theme of congruency. Greece stands as a border to this region, in many ways due to it's predominately Eastern Orthodox culture that shares immediate borders with the Roman Catholic culture of Italy. The straightforward similarities I discovered between the Greek and Moldovan cultures probably grew tiresome for my traveling companions (Mom and Dad), as every other sentence I spoke stated a "In Moldova" versus "In Greece" observation. Maybe this blog is a more appropriate venue for such pondering.

When I arrived in the center of Athens with hours to spare until my next bus to the Ionian Islands, I sought out an old comfort: coffee. After reading so much about Greek coffee, prepared with the grounds in the cup, I was a little surprised to find that actually, people tend to stick with instant coffee in Greece. Just like Moldova. Oh well, I still enjoyed a "fresh" cup before walking toward the edge of the city, and my next bus. On the way, I happened across the makeshift memorial in front of the previous week's bombing site. Three bank employees died here, and just like in Moldova, these red candles were lit and flowers (including noticeably yellow ones) honored the fallen.

Quite to my pleasure, I actually found myself riding the overnight bus and ferry to the island of Corfu with a Moldoveanca. For roughly ten hours we compared and contrasted Greek and Moldovan lives. As I am a transplant in Moldova, and she in Greece (she has worked there for two years), we swapped experiences and observations in Romanian all night long. Particularly, I was curious about Easter celebrations in the Greek region of Eastern Orthodoxy. She said in Greece there is an advantage, everyone holds a huge feast before going to Church all night...no wary worshipers longing for food and water. No shocker here, but I actually learned some new Romanian words from her too, not like I ever needed the word "island" in Moldova!

On Corfu I stayed in a large, but rather empty backpackers hostel on the beach. It opened in 1977, the first on Pelakas beach, and the price of a bed included home-cooked breakfasts and dinners by the woman of the house. The ingredients all come from their organic farm, where currently five Americans are volunteering for room and board with the WOOF program. On Confu, so many things reminded me of Moldova--house wine, green growth of spring, home made cheese every day (Moldova: Brinza as Greece: Feta), old women tending to their fields as they have done every year of their lives, special crucifixes on the side of the road where danger is considered particularly present, and big families. This is a photo of some grapes I passed on a hike one morning from the beach, through the forest to this farm-valley, to a mountain-side Venetian village, the rocky cliffs of the coast, and back down. One of the most refreshing experiences of my whole trip.

This photo is from that Venetian village, it illustrates the importance placed on potted plants and flowers that I found on the island. I had to laugh, because I recently had a conversation with a volunteer who needed to vent about how important the potted flowers in Moldova seem to be sometimes. I say Venetian village because this island was ruled by the city-state for a large period of its more recent history. You can also count the Corinthians, Sparta, Napoleon, Rome, Russia, and England in the list of former rulers. Now, the joke is said to be, the rulers are many, western European tourists.

I can't deny two of the reasons I wanted to go to Corfu were natural occurrences: the mountains and the coast. So riding the ferry back to the mainland, I naturally was eager to sit outside for the crossing...watching the sun set, taking in the salty scent, etc. Here is a short clip that shows all the people who were as enthusiastic about the matter as me.

I'm purposely not posting photos on this blog that people have likely seen in postcards and movies. This isn't the best picture of the Acropolis, by any means, but it was taken from a rock where the Apostle Paul is believed to have spoke. In Greece, the official number of Eastern Orthodox believers is believed to be 97 percent of the population. In Moldova, its 99 percent. I can't speak about Moldovan law, but Greek law still states that cremation is illegal for an Eastern Orthodox Christian. The law was recently amended to allow cremation for other faiths. Particularly, Muslim Greeks, who were sending their dead abroad for this important death ritual.

When it comes to the Santorini portion of the trip, I can't help but show you postcard worthy images. The whole island is a postcard, particularly the famous blue-domed churches, of which there are more than 250. Also, wine grapes are becoming a sort of cash-crop. While touring a small family-owned winery, the owner also pointed out the distiller used for "raki." My parents didn't know what that meant at first, but I had to laugh. I've heard of volunteer water distillers being used to make the same concoction in Moldova, known in the states as "moonshine."

As for the rest of the trip, all you need to know is that I swam in the sea, got a tan, and ate really good food.