1980s Greece
I am planning my fall trip and have decided on a return to Greece this year. In preparation for the trip I’ve been asking others about their previous experiences travelling to Greece. My friend Heather shared her adventure as a young woman in Greece in the early 1980s. Following is the transcription of the descriptive and amusing discussion we had while sitting at a restaurant in Calgary, eating breakfast.
Debb - Tell me about your adventure to Greece.
Heather - It was a long time ago… I met up with some people in Italy, and we were all going to Greece, so we decided to just all travel together. We were island hopping, doing the ferries and stuff. I remember going to Rhodes, and the guide said ‘make sure you go - I thought he said clockwise - but it was apparently anti-clockwise’, so we spent the whole day walking around the outside of the fortress of the ancient city and by the time we got back to the quay, our ferry was ready to leave. So we had to come back the next day to see the site.
We stayed in little pensiones. We would rent a house for a couple of days right on the beach and there were like 6 of us.
Debb - When were you there?
Heather - That would have been ‘84. We just travelled around, drank way too much ouzo. I can’t even stand the smell of black licorice now. Like, if someone across the room is eating black licorice I will gag.
Debb - (laughing) I love ouzo and black licorice…
Heather - We just island hopped, and we eventually made our way back to Athens. We stayed just off of the Plaka (old, historical neighbourhood of Athens). And every day we would pick a different district in Athens and just hang out there. Hit a coffee shop or restaurant, pretend that we understood Greek. We would make up conversations of the people at tables around us as we sat there. We saw some really, really interesting things that I did not appreciate as a 20 year old. I think I was 21 when I was there. And we just wandered around these ancient places trying to envision how they lived there. Trying to justify how we live, and how they must have lived…like living around an open fire, and public toilets, and how everyone would hang out at the toilet in the morning to get their news. It was such a foreign concept to us. Oh god…good memories.
What else did we do there? Apparently we drank a lot. So we would go see a site, then spend a day on the beach. And I just remember the nights being so warm.
We were told not to go down to the beach at night, but we always did. Had bonfires on the beach. It was very laidback.
Debb - It was a very different time then.
Heather - On every beach there was always a taverna where you could hang out from breakfast until party time at night…everyone was out to have fun!
Debb - Do you remember any of the small islands? Do any of them stick out to you other than Rhodes?
Heather - Mykonos was very, very commercialized.
Debb - Still is.
Heather - I don’t remember the names of the islands, because we would just go down to the dock and wherever the ferry was going that’s where we’d go. Like, we didn’t even know the names of half the islands we were on. I remember one little island, there were no cars, and super hilly. Of course, the higher you climbed the cheaper the accommodation you got. So we thought oh, oh my god, look at this place, it’s almost like they are paying us to stay there. It took 2 hours to walk up these steps to it. So we would walk down in the morning and you took everything with you you needed for the day because it took you so long to walk back up all these stairs. And of course they are all carved into the side of the mountain, right, and so if you went up at night it was like a death trap because of course there were no lights, and none of the steps were the same (height). You’re going, trying to find a step and you get up on that one, and then you are trying to find the next step.
I wish I could remember the name of that one.
We’d just go to the market and buy a bunch of fruit that was ready to go off, and you’d throw that in a bottle of cheap wine, and tossed it in the surf, and we had sangria every day. We lived on that fruit. It was the only fruit we ate…it was soaked in alcohol. (chuckles)
Debb - Did you meet any locals?
Heather - This one place, there was a wedding going on. They were parading down the street, and it is good luck for everyone to be at your wedding. So they just grabbed us and dragged us through the streets, and we had no idea what was going on, we didn’t know it was a wedding or anything. We ended up at their reception, and they are feeding us, and we finally found someone who spoke pretty good English and he was telling us how good luck we were. And I was like ‘wow, you don’t know us very well’. (ha ha)
But it was lovely. And we sat on these long, long tables under these olive trees and vines…and as soon as you took a drink it was immediately filled back up. The people were just so lovely, and giving, and inclusive, and wanted to share their culture. They were always trying to teach us how to dance. I have two left feet so I was helpless. (ha ha)
But they were such lovely people. Never got in a hurry. Even in Athens in the traffic, oh the traffic was crazy in Athens, and they have different rules there… So when we had to cross a street, we’d go stand next to an old person. We figured they’d been crossing the streets long enough and hadn’t been run over so it was safe. So, whenever they went we went. (laughing)
We also went to Ephesus, that’s in Turkey right? Yeah, that was amazing.
Debb - So you went from Italy to Greece to Turkey?
Heather - Yeah, ‘cause I was gonna go around the Mediterranean and back up through Morocco. And I got as far as Turkey…it was the mid-80s and there was civil-war in Lebanon, and like no thank you…
It was a time in my life that you just can’t reproduce, ‘cause we were all dirt poor, and we were from all over the world. There was a girl from South Africa, a girl from Sweden, me, and two guys from Australia, and a girl from New Zealand. So we all came at Greece with different expectations, and different preconceived notions I guess, but we were all just blown away - well, it was really cheap back then - how cheap it was, there wasn’t a big difference in the poor people and the rich people. Of course there were the ultra rich people that lived on their own islands, but most everybody was in the same boat. So you never felt, like when you walked into a restaurant, that you were under-dressed or anything like that, because everyone was the same. And I think that’s what I liked about it. There was no real big class differential. Yeah, the people were wonderful.
Debb - What do you remember about being in Athens?
Heather - I just remember ancient historical sites, just anywhere, columns, and falling down rocks, and right next door was a house. It was like they just lived their history. It wasn’t in a museum, it was right there. You know, also wandering around the Acropolis, and the view…
We also went to the very first site of the very first ancient Olympics. That was really cool.
Debb - Did you go to Olympia?
Heather - No…in Athens. I never made it to Olympia. We stayed more on the beaches on the east side, more towards Turkey.
Debb - That’s too bad you don’t remember which islands you went to.
Heather - I supposed if I got out a map I could probably figure some of them out. That didn’t seem like a big priority back then.
Debb - Did you spend most of your time on beaches, and not really seeing the sites?
Heather - Well, we would sightsee one day, and then lay on a beach for a couple of days. We were really there just to party…mostly. But I can’t remember the names of all those islands. I just remember the big ones ‘cause I’ve seen movies that they are in.
I remember the rugged rockiness of it. They could just grow an olive tree out of a rock. Like, being a farm kid that surprised me. There is absolutely no dirt around that tree, none, those roots were just woven into the rock face.
Great seafood. Great cooks. And everyone knows how to cook there.
Debb - Food is a huge part of the culture.
Heather - Even men, that surprised me. I did find it quite chauvinistic. The men are quite macho.
Debb - Do you remember any of the food - other than the sangria you made in the surf?
Heather - They had this flaming cheese; that was delicious. Calamari everywhere, and it was always cooked differently, but it was always fabulous. Everything wrapped in a grape leaf - how can you go wrong? Their lamb was actually really good, the slow roasted lamb, and oh the lemon potatoes.
Debb - (laughing) Yeah, who doesn’t love Greek lemon potatoes.
Heather - Never met a potato I didn’t like.
It was just such a different time. Like, we were just there to party, and it was cheap.
Debb - And how did you meet these people that you travelled around with?
Heather - Yes, I met them in Brindisi, we were all waiting for a ferry. It was an overnight ferry, but you had to pay more for a bed, so we all just stayed awake and that’s where we really got to know each other.
Tony was one of the Australian’s - of Greek descent. He organized a lot of the stuff, ‘cause he spoke Greek. Which was very handy. But on the other hand I had no idea where we were half the time. He would say it with his Greek accent, and I can’t say that…my tongue doesn’t do that. (laughing)
Because I had a flight booked out of Athens that I had to be on, and I couldn’t change it, it was one of those really cheap fairs. And so we had planned to meet up again.
I’d really like to go back to Greece with an adult perspective.
Debb - So you went from there to Turkey? Were you alone in Turkey?
Heather - Yeah, alone. I went to a couple of islands, went to Ephesus. I also went to the place where all the chimney houses are (Cappadocia). I spent some time in that area. And then I was supposed to be going on down south, but there was so much conflict I didn’t go.
Debb - Did you make it to Istanbul?
Heather - Oh, Istanbul, that was…(laughing)…my poor little cowboy life…shocked me! The Grand Bazaar - I got stuck in there and couldn’t find my way out. And then I’d come out and nothing looked familiar, so I’d go back in and wander around and come back out another exit.
And there was a couple sites there that I went to. Like at one time apparently, thousands and thousands of years ago, you could walk across there. And so I took a boat over to the other side (to the Asian side), and they were just starting to excavate that area. They realized its importance and how big it was…and that was just beginning when I was there. I thought that was really cool you could walk between the continents.
So I guess they’ve actually found where the walkway was, and everything now.
Debb - Yeah, Istanbul is one of my favourite cities. I was there before for three weeks.
Heather - I was only there a couple of days, and it was kind of overwhelming for me. I didn’t realize it was that big. I think that had probably been the biggest city I’d been in, up ‘til then. I thought Athens was big…well I thought London was big. I had flown into London, then I caught a ferry and worked my way through Europe. Through Paris, down to Madrid, then to the coast and Barcelona, along the French Riviera to Rome, and then to Brindisi to catch the ferry to Greece. Then I hooked up with these guys and tooled around Greece, then I went to Turkey and I was gonna come around the southern Mediterranean but decided not to. My friends had already moved on by the time I was done in Turkey but I managed to meet up with the girl from South Africa in Venice, and she and I went to northern Italy into Austria and Switzerland. Then we met up with the Australians in Amsterdam. I then I had to fly back home to Saskatchewan.
So, yeah I would like to go back (to Greece) to see it through an adult’s eyes. Like I guess I wasn’t an adult then (laughs). But to see it though a grown-ups eyes.
Debb - So what did you think of the coffee in Greece? I assume back then it was still the traditional coffee houses.
Heather - I didn’t like coffee back then. I do remember lots of hookah bars though.
Debb - Did you keep in touch with the people you travelled with back then?
Heather - Yes, the girl from South Africa and the girl from New Zealand actually got married, and I was at their wedding in New Zealand. And I lived with Tony in Australia for about 6 months. It didn’t work out, but he was a good guy.
It was just a totally different time in my life.
Debb - Fond memories, but probably not the same kind of experience that I would have sought out. Actually, my first three times in Greece were when I was serving in the Navy (but that’s another story).
Thanks Heather for sharing your adventure with all of us.
If any of my readers want to share a story about their own excursions in Greece, please let me know in the comments.
