Greece Wrap-up

All you wanted to do was sleep, but we decided to spend our last day in Greece exploring. One night I made a run for souvlaki and gyros at a recommended takeout near our hotel; Carolyn and I looked-up, silently agreeing: It's Greek to Me in Tacoma wins hands down.

Greece has a Hawaii-like status in Europe; most people skip Athens (I'm sympathetic) to head for remote islands which feature more of the striking architecture that we didn't see: white, box-like blocks, rising from deep blue waters, stacking into hillsides.

We did find a great little toystore with handcrafted boats and slingshots.
The owner painted Michael and Jack's names on their little boats.
They're simple; the labor goes into the painted cloth sails.
Here is his son, Alexander.
Greece's ancient legacy divides the national offerings starkly: monuments and rubble versus fun-in-the-sun. This past had a behemoth quality to it, reminding me of China. The wealth of the past didn't inform the present, unlike the way the Italian Renaissance - albeit more recent - seems to flood every nook and cranny of Florentine cuisine, design, fashion, car, gelato, etc with a sense of cultural style. In this way, very much like Hawaii, the tourism seemed locked-in; not generating industries that flow into or benefit the culture at large. Felt poor somehow. Happy, but poor.

The people we talked to - the greatest taxi driver in the world, our toyman - felt eclipsed by the present state of affairs, and were angry over the euro having inflated the cost of living; also contributing to our sense of things being stuck.

We had a yummy lunch at this restaurant overlook of the city, accessible by cogwheel train.
Public behavior seemed really uptight, as though people had been severely shaped by rules-based discipline: guards at museums were unusually strict with slight deviation of movement; one taxi driver was hysterical about stopping to let us out for fear of blocking traffic (it wouldn't have). Forgive my stereotyping, but it seemed more Germanic or Swiss than Mediterranean? What's the story? Legacy of dictatarship? Our bad luck?

I'm more familiar with Greek symbolism in the 20th century, as the competing fountainhead for European civilization, versus the Roman church. Heidegger thought Germany was more authentic than France, because Luther based his translation of the New Testament on the Greek not Latin. The Overcoming Modernity conference participants in 1942 Kyoto thought Japan was a closer embodiment of Greek art than any culture in Europe.

The Hellenistic Cosmos - a virtual reality theater - which we attended on our last day, had intriguing commentary: Athens had invented humanity and the Agora had become the theater of the world.

Besides the metanarrative, I want to report that Jack fell out of his bed and cut his head, only to fall out another night, bruising his chin.

He was fine on the Acropolis. It was the hotel room.