My Greece
I have travelled all over Greece, from top to bottom and side to side. I can’t say I can single out one place. I love them all with the same passion: the bald boulders of Crete, the fir trees of Pertouli, the vast plains of Thessaly, the beaches on the islands. It’s something like what the poet Seferis said: “Wherever I go, Greece wounds me,” in the sense of the sweetest memory.
I’ll never forget
I have experienced many pleasant happenings during my journeys: musicians playing in the middle of nowhere on Mt Pindos, construction workers getting me to help them rebuild a bridge and kitchens where we’d get to chatting and forget the food that was getting singed in the oven.
When I close my eyes
So many images come to mind… I like the black fir trees; I like the village fountains where the babbling water gushes; I like the dolphins that dance around our boat; I like Fiskardo in Kefalonia and Agia Galini in Rethymno, Crete. I like Greece.
Favourite food
I’m obsessed with stuffed tomatoes. At times I’m pleased and others disappointed. I like them with good quality olive oil, lots of onion, mint and parsley, black seeded raisins and pine nuts.
I like the dolphins that dance around our boat; I like Fiskardo in Kefalonia and Agia Galini in Crete. I like Greece!
My souvenir
Every time I leave a place I promise to come back and buy a house there. If I had, I would have 200 houses. So since I can’t buy a house, I get a souvenir – a hat that the locals wear or a walking stick, sometimes both. I have a big collection of hats and walking sticks.
Next destination
There is no place in Greece that I would like to visit and haven’t. Wherever I go, I return. This time I would like to go to the Prespes Lakes and see the bean plantations in bloom, to take a boat tour of the sketes and early Christian churches, to marvel at the overpowering view at Agios Achilleios, to run over the footbridge and catch my breath at Agios Germanos.