GREECE IS GREEN

Pay no attention to polls that show strong support for the radical leftist parties in Greece. That is just a protest against the chaos in the PASOK (socialist) party. Greece is not RED its GREEN, and I don't mean PASOK!

I just returned from a breathtaking trip to Thessaoloniki. For those of you who only know Greece south of Athens, including the islands, it is a revelation. Plains filled with fruit trees as far as the eye can see. Less olive trees than down south, lots of productive farmlands and mountains and hills filled with pine trees and other kinds.

I highly recommend the train ride. 6 hours from Athens to Thessaloniki, inexpensive (2nd class ticket 15 euros) with modern, clean trains. There is green to the left of you, green to the right and history is all over and right below you. The battle of Pydna, of Pharsalus, many places where history turned at the cost of thousands of lives and you hope that some of it was for the better of humanity. We won't argue here about the function of empires in the evolution of human society--its a big question but whatever the answer, there are still those vast plains that conver the bones of many, many thousands. The civilizations they create are valuable-- the archaeological sites of Greece are not as well preserved as those of Italy and other parts of Europe, but they give hints of grandeur and the Greeks are getting much better at the museum business. Be sure to visit the new Byzantine Museum in Thesaloniki and the one at Vergina at the site of the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the great.

Thessaloniki is a mixture of joy and disappointment. The sad part is the drab nature of most of its residential neighborhoods --much like the central part of Athens. But there is hope: they are building a metro, planting trees and planning parks in a number of places. That is to say, its a lot like Athens before the Olympics. And most of the locals' frustration stems from poor employments prospects for young adults--does anybody know how to attract more investment in Greece? But the good parts are very good: the cafes and restaurants along the coast, by the port. The nightlife --and it continues ALL through the night, past dawn, is amazing. I hearde some of the best covers of James Brown at one place, but the small Rembetiko band at club "Principessa" (you must go!) was sensations. The singer (darn I didn't get her name), kanon player (who also played violin) the Oud player (who also played other interesting stringed instuments) and the guiarist/male lead singer were extraordinary. The shopping in the blocks right off the coast looked very nice from the outside and the remains of Roman (not much Greek and Hellenistic stuff remains) Byzantine buildings are fantastic.

My most moving moments were attending services in the early Christian (some call 4-7 century things Byzantine, but I dont. The construction is clearly Roman (late antique) and only after the 7th or 8th century do cities in Italy, Greece and Turkey begin to look dramatically different. To participate in the Divine Liturgy in the church of ST. Dimitrios which has been in continuous use as a house of worship for 1600 years is a humbling and moving experience (yes, all the big churches in the city were turned by the Turks into mosques --but not right away. They waited 50-100 years. Obviously they were not immediately secure in their Balkan conquests and did not want to piss off the local population.

More on this city in later post, with lots and lots of pictures, when I return from Greece on May 3. Tommorow I am off to my parents' island of Sifnos for Pascha!!!