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Christina Chang journeys through Greece, the cradle
of the ancient world which has an archaeological legacy
bearing testament to its varied past.
She begins her travels in the Athens,
one of the most ancient cities in the world and the
modern capital of Greece. The city is overlooked by
the awe-inspiring Acropolis, a religious
site since neolithic times, although the Parthenon
temple which stands there today was built in the time
of Pericles around 480 BC. After exploring the picturesque
streets in the shadow of the Acropolis, Christina spends
her evening in Exaria, the centre of
student life in Athens, and goes to a bar to check out
'rembetik', the equivalent to the Greek blues.
No visit to Greece would be complete a trip to one of
the country's fourteen hundred islands, so Christina
detours off her route to see the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea. It's a long voyage but once she's
arrived Christina visits the Nea Momi monastery.
Now home to one solitary nun, the monastery was the
site of the slaughter of five thousand men, women and
children by the Ottomans in 1822. Chios was one if the
most wealthy islands in the Aegean and its prosperity
was founded on just one much coveted commodity: mastic,
the essential ingredient in chewing gum.
Christina returns to the mainland and travels by bus
to the romantic town of Nafplio, dominated
by the fortress of Palamide. From here she journeys
on towards Areopoli, via the stunning Langada pass between Sparta and Kalamata. The
Spartans were ancient warrior people and Areopoli is
named after Aries, the god of war. Christina spends
a few days exploring the Mani region by mountain bike.. The further south she rides the more
arid and sparse the vegetation becomes, until at last
she reaches the point which is as far south as you can
go in mainland Greece, thought by the ancient Greeks
to be the entrance to Hades.
From the Mani region Christina heads back north to Zagorohoria,
a group of villages in a mountainous region near the
Albanian border. From the village of Mikro Papingo she plans to trek through the mountains, but first her
guide suggests a visit to the local evil eye woman to
experience an intense ritual to restore her energy.
The destination of her trek through the stunning mountain
scenery is the Dragon Lake. It takes
seven hours to reach the top but Christina and her guide
plan to spend the night at a refuge hut. When they reach
Dragon Lake at six o'clock the next morning there's
no sign of the dragon that reputedly lurks in the depths
but breathtaking views are well worth the exertion and
early rise!
Nearing the end of her journey Christina travels across
northern Greece to Seres near the Bulgarian
border, where she witnesses an ancient fire-walking
festival called Anastenaria,  performed
every year in May. The festival commemorates a church
fire in 1250 when the holy icons were heard groaning
in the flames. Local legend claims they were rescued
by devoted villagers who emerged unscathed from the
burning building. The participants work themselves into
a frenzy to the music of lyres and drums. When the fires
are lit the red-hot coals are raked out and the villagers
run back and forth over the coals without burning their
feet.
To conclude her trip Christina visits the incredible
monasteries of Meteora, perched high
on inaccessible pinnacles of rock and deriving their
names from the Greek meteora, 'rocks in the air'. No-one
knows for sure how the monasteries were built, but as
Christina attempts to climb one of the rock formations
she realises it must have been quite a feat. |
