Interesting Facts About Greece

Friday, February 20

Hi, just a reminder that we are not receiving text messages while on our trip.  The following will work:  email, Facebook messenger, and WhatsApp.

Tonight we flew out of Toronto at 6 pm, another red-eye flight.  We are trying KLM because they gave us FREE seat choice.  

It was a 7 hour flight.  We landed in Amsterdam at 7 am (1 am our time).  We had a 5 hour layover here which is quite long, but we were not brave enough to leave the airport to see anything.  Besides, we've been to Amsterdam twice before.  We walked around for a bit (the Amsterdam airport is HUGE!), then we found some cushioned seats and crashed.

We had to go through passport control for our next flight.  When the worker saw that we were Canadian, he was super friendly and chatty with us.  Welcome to Amsterdam!  We noticed he didn't say a thing to the Americans.

In the waiting area, we sat next to a couple who are from Ottawa and are taking the exact cruise and pre-tour that we are taking.

The flight from Amsterdam to Athens, Greece, was 4 hours long.  This is the first flight ever that we slept THROUGH THE TAKEOFF!  We don't remember much of that flight at all.  Finally the flight landed in Athens, Greece, at 4:30 pm local time.  

imagecredit https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/cartoon-hand-holding-greek-flag-isolated-vector-drawing-gm1421847213-467347033

We are doing a 10 night Greek Islands cruise with Viking.  More about that later.  But the cruise does not start until the 25th.  We decided to take the Viking pre-cruise so we could see some of the interior of Greece.  That meant that we got picked up at the airport and transferred to our hotel, yay!  It was only a 25 minute drive to the NJV Athens Plaza.  Too bad there was an American in our shuttle bus who made a comment to us about Canada being the 51st state.  We quickly shut him down as did an American lady in the shuttle.

imagecredit https://ik.imgkit.net/3vlqs5axxjf/external/https://media.iceportal.com/123269/photos/65087281_XL.jpg?tr=w-1200%2Cfo-auto

The hotel is super nice.  We ventured out and found a place to eat. 

 

We had no idea what we paid for.  The 3rd item turns out to be bread and olives.

We also discovered that this is NOT olive oil for the bread..... The waiter finally told us that it is hand sanitizer.  Oops!

The streets are paved with marble slabs and stones.  Slippery when wet!

Before we get our energy back and start our group tour tomorrow, here are a few interesting facts about Greece:

    - Greece was the birthplace of democracy.

    -Western philosophy began here with Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates.

imagecredit https://bestedlessons.org/2023/01/14/50-most-influential-and-famous-ancient-greek-philosophers-scientists-and-writers/

    -Greece has over 6000 islands.  Only 227 are inhabited.  We will be visiting 6 of them.

imagecredit https://www.tripsavvy.com/maps-of-greece-1526137

    -The Olympics began here in 776 BC

imagecredit https://elxis.com/what-were-the-olympics-in-ancient-greece-like/

    -Ancient Greeks invented the yoyo AND cheesecake.

    -Population of Greece is 10.5 million people.  Compare that to 41 million in Canada.

    -It is EXTREMELY rude here to hold up your hand like a stop sign and show people your palm.  Don't do it!  It goes back to Byzantine times when people taunted criminals by smearing dung in their faces.  Ewwww!

    -Athens has buildings surviving from 1200 BC.

    -Greece has one of the longest coastlines in Europe.  Greece is in purple at the bottom.  We're not counting Russia.

imagecredit https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/w8fv9o/the_length_of_the_coastline_of_european_countries/

    -Mountains cover 80% of the country.

    -Greece is the English name.  The natives call their country Hellas, and they are known as Hellenes.

    -The word "barbarian" was invented to describe people who do not speak Greek.

    -Famous Greek actors include Telly Savalas, John Aniston, and John Stamos.

imagecredit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stamos

Greek Mythology

Today almost 90% of the Greek population is Greek Orthodox.  But they have a rich history of mythical deities that are still known around the world.

Greek mythology is thousands of years old, going back possibly as far as 3000 BC. It developed as oral stories which were eventually written down by Homer and Hesiod about 800 BC.  Greek mythology is at least a thousand years older than Roman mythology, and the Romans "borrowed" and adapted Greek figures to fit their own history and society.

Below is a VERY brief summary of just a few stories from Greek mythology.  

How many Greek gods were there? So so many!!!  There are basically three "sets" of gods.  First there were the Primordial Greek gods, the ones who created the world.  A few examples you may have heard of are Erabus, the god of darkness, and Tartarus, the god of the underworld.  Basically, any natural phenomena was given a god.

imagecredit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qOWFIbnBxE

After the Primordial Greek gods came the Titans. A few examples are Cronos, the leader of the Titans, and Rhea the goddess of fertility.

imagecredit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML8v5wNQDOE

imagecredit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMP0F94vqzc

What happened to the Titans?  In order to gain power, Cronus had overthrown his father Uranus.  Now Uranus prophesized that Cronus would be overthrown by his own children.  Cronus' solution?  Every time his wife Rhea gave birth, Cronus ate the child.  He did this to five children.  The only child to survive was the youngest, Zeus, because Rhea hid Zeus on the island of Crete and tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock instead. Zeus grew stronger and managed to free his swallowed siblings.  The Titans lost an epic battle, which led to the rise of the Olympians.

imagecredit https://englishpluspodcast.com/clash-of-the-titans-and-gods-unraveling-the-epic-titanomachy/

They are called the Olympian gods because they lived at the top of Mt Olympus (except for Hades, the god of the underworld).  The Olympians looked like humans except perhaps stronger.  They also had the same inclinations and flaws as humans, including jealousy, spite, arrogance, pettiness, lust, anger, and selfishness.  That is very different from the Christian God who declares:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," Isaiah 55:8.

Thanks to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Olympians for this list:

Greek	Roman	Image	Functions and attributes
Zeus	Jupiter		King of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus; god of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order and justice. He had many affairs with goddesses and mortals.
Hera	Juno		Queen of the gods and the goddess of marriage, women, childbirth and family. Being the goddess of marriage, she frequently tried to get revenge on Zeus' lovers and their children.
Poseidon	Neptune		God of the seas, water, storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and horses.
Demeter	Ceres		Goddess of the harvest, fertility, agriculture, nature and the seasons. She presided over grains and the fertility of the earth.
Apollo	Apollo		God of Sun, light, prophecy, philosophy, archery, truth, inspiration, poetry, music, arts, manly beauty, medicine, healing, and plague.
Artemis	Diana		Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, virginity, the Moon, archery, childbirth, protection and plague.
Ares	Mars		God of war, violence, bloodshed and manly virtues. The son of Zeus and Hera, all the other gods despised him except Aphrodite. His Latin name, Mars, gave us the word "martial".
Athena	Minerva		Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare.[28] The daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Metis, she rose from her father's head fully grown and in full battle armor.
Hephaestus	Vulcan		Master blacksmith and craftsman of the gods; god of the forge, craftsmanship, invention, fire and volcanoes. His Latin name, Vulcan, gave us the word "volcano".
Aphrodite	Venus		Goddess of love, pleasure, passion, procreation, fertility, beauty and desire.
Hermes	Mercury		Messenger of the gods; god of travel, commerce, communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves, and games. He was also the guide of dead souls.
Most lists of the "twelve Olympians" consist of the above eleven plus either Hestia or Dionysus
Hestia	Vesta		Goddess of the hearth, fire and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family.
Dionysus	Liber		God of wine, the grapevine, fertility, festivity, ecstasy, madness and resurrection. Patron god of the art of theatre.

And how do Anton and Frankie feel about all these gods?  While being entertaining stories, Isaiah 45:5 gives us a clear message from the One True God: "I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god." 

History of Greece

We are sitting at the airport waiting for our next adventure to begin.  We're going to Greece!  Frankie always wanted to go there for her honeymoon, that was awhile ago.  Better late than never!  Before the real fun begins, here's some background to set the stage for what's coming. 

Ancient Greece is one of the oldest civilizations still in existence.  It began on the island of Crete and was known as the Minoan Civilization. 

imagecredit https://www.britannica.com/topic/Minoan-civilization

Another civilization named the Mycenaeans sprang up on the mainland in the 1500s BC. The Mycenaeans conquered the Minoan capital somewhere between 1500 to 1400 BC.  They also fought a war against the city of Troy, a city in northwestern Turkey.  The war was probably linked to important trade routes, but Homer in The Iliad tells us that the Trojan War was all for the love of a woman.  Enter 2 men:  Paris, the son of  King Priam of Troy, and King Menelaus of Sparta.  Helen was the wife of King Menelaus, but Paris fell in love with her and convinced her to flee to Troy with him.  

imagecredit https://tba-online.com/heroes-of-troy/story/

Alas, poor Menelaus wanted his wife back!  Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, launched a war against Troy.  The war went on for 10 years until the Greek hero Odysseus came up with the idea of building a huge hollow wooden horse to trick the people of Troy.  The Greeks pretended to flee the fighting and abandon their horse.  The men of Troy took the horse into their city and lo and behold, out popped a bunch of soldiers (probably 30-50).  It was enough so that the Greeks won the war, and Helen went back and lived happily ever after with her husband Menelaus.

imagecredit https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/portfolio_page/trojan-horse/

A few hundred years later, the Mycenaean Civilization came to an end around 1100 when the Dorians from the northwest invaded.  The Dorians settled in the west and the Ionians in the east.  This was the beginning of classical Greece, and the people called themselves Hellenes.  No, not after Helen of Troy, but after Hellen the son of Deucalion (the Greek version of Noah who survived a flood sent by Zeus).  Confused yet?

imagecredit https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Hellen/hellen.html

Around this time came the rise of independent city-states such as Athens and Sparta. The city of Athens has recorded history that goes back 3200 years.  It was first named Aktaio after its first king.  Then named Kekropia after its second king.  This could have gone on forever except for the war between two gods, Athena and Poseidon.

imagecredit https://longlivepercyjackson.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/rivalry-between-athena-and-poseiden/

They each wanted patronage of the city, ensuring that temples and sacrifices would be made to them.  Since both gods wanted the same city, the king of Kekropia was to serve as judge in the war.  The winner was to be whichever god offered the best gift to the city.  Poseidon gave a mighty blow to the ground and created a lake.  However, it was sea water and not drinkable.  Athena planted a seed on a rock and an olive tree sprang forth, much more useful.  The legend is that Athena's tree still stands on the Acropolis.

imagecredit https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/world/sacred-olives-athenas-tree-acropolis/46895

The city of Sparta was built in 1539 BC by the ruler Lacedaemon, who named the city after his wife.  Sparta still exists as a small town, built near the original city in 1834.  If you've seen the movie 300, it roughly chronicles the war that took place at Thermopylae when Leonidas took 300 highly trained men to defend the city against 100,000 invading Persians.  We've never watched the movie because of its rating.

imagecredit https://www.realmofhistory.com/2022/06/08/10-facts-battle-of-thermopylae/

The city of Athens and the city of Sparta differed greatly.  Athens became the center of philosophy and arts and Sparta became a great warrior city.  In 621 BC, Draco from Athens drew up a written code of laws.  His laws were extremely harsh, thus the meaning of the word "Draconian" today.  He even looks harsh, doesn't he?

imagecredit https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Hellen/hellen.html

However, Draco's laws had a large influence on the creation of democracy because they made all citizens equal despite position or wealth.

Persia (modern Iran) attacked the Greek mainland in the 500s BC, leading to the Persian Wars which ended in victory for the Greeks in 479 BC.  Athens had grown too powerful for the Spartans, so Sparta began the Peloponnesian War (between Athens and Sparta) in 431 BC. The Athenians held their own until 430 BC when a plague wiped out a huge portion of the population, including their leader Pericles.  

imagecredit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericles

The Spartans won the war in 404 BC.  However, in 371 BC the city of Thebes defeated the Spartans.

In the 300s BC, the northern kingdom of Macedonia was gaining power. By 338 BC King Phillip II gained control of the Greek city states.  His son Alexander came to power in 336 BC.  He became known as Alexander the Great.  Alexander was only in power for 10 years before he died, but during this time he conquered much of the world.  The period after his death is known as the Hellenistic (Greek-like) Age.

imagecredit https://contextisking.com/2021/05/06/ambition-drive-the-confessions-of-alexander-the-great/

The Romans had control of Greece from 30 BC until 395 AD, when the Roman Empire split and Greece became part of the Byzantine Empire until 1453. In 1453 Greece became ruled by the Ottomans (Turks) for 400 years.  The Greek War of Independence occurred between 1821 and 1829.  The first king of the independent Kingdom of Greece was Otto of Bavaria.

imagecredit https://monarchies-of-the-world.fandom.com/wiki/Otto,_King_of_Bavaria

During the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, Greece gained major territory including Macedonia, Crete, and the Aegean Islands.  Germany brutally conquered Greece in 1941 which led to cruel occupation and famine.  Greece has been slowly rebuilding itself into a modern nation since then.

imagecredit https://www.countryreports.org/country/Greece/map.htm

Glenorchy

 Monday, March 3

Today was the craziest weather day, we didn't know what to expect!  It started off cloudy with a 90% chance of rain.  We actually only got a sprinkle the entire day, and the sun came out in the afternoon.  We've been really lucky this whole trip.

For our last day here, we didn't really have anything planned for the day.  We ALMOST took a Lord of the Rings tour to see some of the filming locations.  It would have been interesting to see how some of the locations were used, like this field that they turned into Isengard:

Imagecredit: https://www.getyourguide.com/queenstown-l498/glenorchy-half-day-4wd-lord-of-the-rings-tour-t171390/?ranking_uuid=12a9083c-919e-4d2c-91db-547e2fe08c94

But instead of spending $500 for the tour (a bit pricey for a half day tour!), we decided to drive ourselves to Glenorchy.  Frankie only had to tell Anton once that he was driving on the wrong side of the road.  That's the first time all trip, so he did really well!

Glenorchy is a small town (population 410, which we thought was VERY precise LOL), and it took 45 minutes to drive 47 kms, which tells you how hilly and bendy the road was.  But there is really great scenery along the way.  It is apparently one of the most scenic drives in New Zealand.

We started by trying to find the Isengard Lookout ourselves, just past Glenorchy.  But it doesn't quite match the picture above 😕

We explored a bit of the town, including the famous Glenorchy Red Shed at the Glenorchy Wharf.  It's just a boat shed:

They like hedges here in New Zealand:

Mrs. Woolly's General Store was very interesting.  We finally found the Secret Garden that the sign kept teasing:

We found a great website https://newzealandwanderer.com/glenorchy-to-queenstown/#:~:text=How%20long%20should%20I%20spend,create%20a%20memorable%20day%20trip.  that listed stops or viewpoints or hikes between Glenorchy to Queenstown, so we picked some of those.  Of course, we could only do a few of them.  The road is literally called the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road.

We tried to find Little Paradise Wharf.  But instead we found a place that called itself Wild Dream Garden that wanted to charge us $20 each to walk around their personal garden.

Bennett's Bluff Lookout was a pretty major tourist spot:

We did a half hour loop hike at Bob's Cove Track:

A quick stop at Wilson Bay for a picture:

To get to Moke Lake, it required leaving the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road.  Now we were out in the middle of nowhere.  It was about a 7.5 km drive which started off  narrow and paved, and then became gravel with cattle grates (private land).

There is a 2 hour loop that goes around the lake which we thought we might do, but here is where it started to rain and the trail seemed a bit iffy.  So we only did a few sections of it.  Enough to get some spectacular scenery shots.  This is so iconic New Zealand!

We were done with the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road, so we took a side trip north to the historic goldmine town of Arrowtown, population 2930.  What a cute little town!  In 1862, Maori Jack found gold in the Arrow River, and thousands of people flocked here for the goldrush.  We were told it was the second largest in the world after the Klondike.  The government invited Chinese workers here in 1865, and some of their homes are still standing.

Frankie browsed the small public library and noticed she had read quite a few of the books.  But no Freida McFadden, so she recommended the author to the librarian.

We found a nice restaurant and shared a pizza on an outdoor patio:

We were quite impressed with the public toilets.  A voice told us exactly what to do:  Push button to enter.  Push button to close door and lock.  Your maximum use time is 10 minutes.  Toilet will flush when you wash your hands.  Soap, wash, hand dryer.  Push button to unlock door and exit.

Yeah, okay, we are easily amused...

Back to the hotel to shower and pack.  We figure roughly 30 hours door to door????