Well, it's been a good couple of weeks since I last wrote. Lisa and I have fallen very easily into the routine of small village life: eating, swimming, eating, reading, eating, sleeping... Work on the project fits in there too, but in a less definitive sort of way. If I've learned anything about Greece it's that you'd better just go with the flow if you want anything to potentially ever get done. So, I'm going with it. Everyday brings some sort of new character or discovery as long as I don't try too hard to make it happen. The key I've found is to make plans to do one thing and then something else is bound to happen instead. For example, a few days ago I set out to explore the small primary school in the village and see if I could get in/photograph it. As I walked around the corner from the house though, a little old lady sitting on a patio saw me with my camera and started yelling. I couldn't understand what she wanted at first, but then two more elderly ladies came out of the house and began yelling at me too. (Not out of anger, mind you, it's just the normal tone of voice Greeks tend to use in regular conversation). After explaining who I was (this is how every conversation starts here: i.e. I'm a Tsocanos, Andonis' granddaughter, Mark's daughter, from New York, etc.) I then realized they wanted me to take their picture! So I willingly did and they invited me to sit and have a coffee with them. (Coffee and most food, I'll just add, is something that you MUST go with the flow about. It doesn't matter if you want it or not, the decision has been made up already: you will drink/eat it. Even if you do by some miracle successfully decline what you're offered it's somewhat insulting to the host…hence, my increasing waistline). Anyhow, as I chatted with these ladies in my pigeon Greek, I found out that they had all been in a coffee club with my great-grandmother when she was alive. I think this just means that they would get together everyday for coffee (why that's different from anything else people do here anyway, I don't know), but it was a very sweet story. I chatted with them for about and hour then set out again to the school. I didn't make it more than two houses though before I spotted/was spotted by a cousin of my grandfather and his brother-in-law. I sat with them and ate peaches while they told me their abbreviated version of the history of Karitsa. I think I was only there maybe 45 minutes but they sure covered a lot. World War II, the Civil War, going to America, people coming back and dancing on church holidays, how the Albanians are the only ones that work here now, "Greeks so lazy," beautiful here, best beaches in all of Greece! By the time this was over there was no time to go to the school as I had to meet Lisa and my Aunt Efthamia for a beach date, so I went back to the house to get ready and postponed my school adventure to a later date. The day didn't turn out as expected, but was fruitful none-the-less! The school trip still hasn't happened yet, but I figure if I really want to go I'll just plan a trip somewhere else and I'll probably end up there.
So, slowly but surely things are moving along here. We've taken a few trips to break up the routine a bit. We went to Thessaloniki (Greece's second biggest city) for a day last week. We visited the State Museum of Contemporary Art, went to an internet café, drank Starbucks coffee with soymilk—had ourselves a big city adventure. Then Friday we drove out to Meteora to see the hanging monasteries—so incredible, but so crowded. And tomorrow we're going to Larissa (the closest city to us and according to our guide books the 5th largest one in Greece) to do some errands. Carrefour, here we come! (Carrefour is basically the European version of Costco incase you were wondering).
All in all, all is well here! I hope everyone is keeping relatively cool wherever you are.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Odyssey 11: Book 2
Yasas everybody!
Welcome to Round 2 of Alex's Odyssey in Greece! I've actually been here for a while now, but was so busy helping to organize the Temenos film screening in June that I had no time to write. After that was finished I went immediately on the shortest vacation ever to Tel-Aviv (2 days only, but so worth it) then met up with my friend Lisa in Athens and we chaoticly-but-surely made our way up to the village of Karitsa where I will be for the next 5 weeks.
Before I go further though, I've uploaded my photos from this spring onto my Flickr account, so you can see them by clicking here http://www.flickr.com/photos/alextsocanos/collections then on the "Greece" collection. Then choose from the various albums to see the photos.
For now, I'll try to sum up things:
June:
Athens—I stayed with my cousin's friend in his beautifully located apartment in Kolonaki. It's the very chi-chi neighborhood and is so quiet and clean and has so many trees that you don't think you're in Athens at all. That combined with everyone in the city seeming much more relaxed (I think because the Greeks know they will escape to an island or elsewhere on the weekends, they're more pleasant people during summer weeks) and having an actual job made this Athens experience much more enjoyable than the first. (One thing I must say though, to all those Arcadia people out there: our Pangrati hill was NOTHING compared to staying on the Kolonaki tree line of Lykavettos. That is some leg burning if I've ever felt some.)
Temenos- For the last 3 months I helped to organize the accommodations and transportation for the roughly 200 people that attended the event. It's a film screening of Gregory Markopoulos' experimental ENAIAOS series that was made in the 70s. The films are only shown now every 4 years in this particular spot in the Peleponnese. It's in this gorgeous field outside of this tiny village surrounded by towering mountains 5 hours away from Athens. The setting, very intentionally, influences how one experiences the work and is meant to be a kind of pilgrimage. It was an incredibly unique and special thing to be a part of. If you're interested in more information you can visit the website www.the-temenos.org
July:
Tel-Aviv- A total side note, this trip. I decided about a week and a half before I went to visit some of my parent's friends who live there. I had such a good time. The energy of the city is so vibrant and relaxed all at the same time. One of the nights I was there the city hosted a White Night, so there were concerts everywhere and galleries and bars and restaurants were open all night. Everyone in the entire city must have been out because the streets were packed with people. Except for the 4 massive jellyfish (or Meduzas) that washed up on the beach whithin the hour that I went (the water's really warm there, so they swim near by and get washed up onto shore by waves, or so I'm told. Also, for anyone who doesn't know, I've had my fair share of stings and am already not keen on anything touching me in the water, so this put a damper on things…) I completely fell head-over-heels for the city.
Back to Athens- Because of a slight car-rental crisis we were delayed in our departure which, in the end we turned it to our advantage by going to visit the sea turtles at the turtle rescue center (Erica, I thought of you!), the beach and had a really nice dinner at my favorite souvlaki spot, Kalamaki Koloniaki.
Then, we were on our way North!
We took a little detour through Delphi to pay homage to the gods and ask for divine guidance from the Oracle. It all went quiet well, although as Lisa can attest, the oracle did not exactly reveal herself to me—I got really confused as I played tour-guide—strange, seeing as how that was my 4th time there…hmm.
And now…Karitsa!
This is the village where my dad's family is from and where I'll be based as I work on my photo documentary project. I'm so glad to finally be here. My crazy relatives are endlessly entertaining and I'm excited to get started on things. When we arrived, we were greeted by my very vocal aunt, brought our bags to the house and went to the platia (square) to eat local sausage and Greek salad and greet a few more relatives down there. This morning we went with my aunt to get fresh bread and halva. Then we spent the afternoon scrubbing 4 years worth of dirt and dust off of the kitchen and it was so wonderfully satisfying. Tomorrow we'll head to the beach and begin checking out the new road (a large subject of my project). All I'll say about things right now is that it's some bizarre combination of Eat, Pray, Love and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
I hope you are all doing extremely well and having great summers thus far!
Welcome to Round 2 of Alex's Odyssey in Greece! I've actually been here for a while now, but was so busy helping to organize the Temenos film screening in June that I had no time to write. After that was finished I went immediately on the shortest vacation ever to Tel-Aviv (2 days only, but so worth it) then met up with my friend Lisa in Athens and we chaoticly-but-surely made our way up to the village of Karitsa where I will be for the next 5 weeks.
Before I go further though, I've uploaded my photos from this spring onto my Flickr account, so you can see them by clicking here http://www.flickr.com/photos/alextsocanos/collections then on the "Greece" collection. Then choose from the various albums to see the photos.
For now, I'll try to sum up things:
June:
Athens—I stayed with my cousin's friend in his beautifully located apartment in Kolonaki. It's the very chi-chi neighborhood and is so quiet and clean and has so many trees that you don't think you're in Athens at all. That combined with everyone in the city seeming much more relaxed (I think because the Greeks know they will escape to an island or elsewhere on the weekends, they're more pleasant people during summer weeks) and having an actual job made this Athens experience much more enjoyable than the first. (One thing I must say though, to all those Arcadia people out there: our Pangrati hill was NOTHING compared to staying on the Kolonaki tree line of Lykavettos. That is some leg burning if I've ever felt some.)
Temenos- For the last 3 months I helped to organize the accommodations and transportation for the roughly 200 people that attended the event. It's a film screening of Gregory Markopoulos' experimental ENAIAOS series that was made in the 70s. The films are only shown now every 4 years in this particular spot in the Peleponnese. It's in this gorgeous field outside of this tiny village surrounded by towering mountains 5 hours away from Athens. The setting, very intentionally, influences how one experiences the work and is meant to be a kind of pilgrimage. It was an incredibly unique and special thing to be a part of. If you're interested in more information you can visit the website www.the-temenos.org
July:
Tel-Aviv- A total side note, this trip. I decided about a week and a half before I went to visit some of my parent's friends who live there. I had such a good time. The energy of the city is so vibrant and relaxed all at the same time. One of the nights I was there the city hosted a White Night, so there were concerts everywhere and galleries and bars and restaurants were open all night. Everyone in the entire city must have been out because the streets were packed with people. Except for the 4 massive jellyfish (or Meduzas) that washed up on the beach whithin the hour that I went (the water's really warm there, so they swim near by and get washed up onto shore by waves, or so I'm told. Also, for anyone who doesn't know, I've had my fair share of stings and am already not keen on anything touching me in the water, so this put a damper on things…) I completely fell head-over-heels for the city.
Back to Athens- Because of a slight car-rental crisis we were delayed in our departure which, in the end we turned it to our advantage by going to visit the sea turtles at the turtle rescue center (Erica, I thought of you!), the beach and had a really nice dinner at my favorite souvlaki spot, Kalamaki Koloniaki.
Then, we were on our way North!
We took a little detour through Delphi to pay homage to the gods and ask for divine guidance from the Oracle. It all went quiet well, although as Lisa can attest, the oracle did not exactly reveal herself to me—I got really confused as I played tour-guide—strange, seeing as how that was my 4th time there…hmm.
And now…Karitsa!
This is the village where my dad's family is from and where I'll be based as I work on my photo documentary project. I'm so glad to finally be here. My crazy relatives are endlessly entertaining and I'm excited to get started on things. When we arrived, we were greeted by my very vocal aunt, brought our bags to the house and went to the platia (square) to eat local sausage and Greek salad and greet a few more relatives down there. This morning we went with my aunt to get fresh bread and halva. Then we spent the afternoon scrubbing 4 years worth of dirt and dust off of the kitchen and it was so wonderfully satisfying. Tomorrow we'll head to the beach and begin checking out the new road (a large subject of my project). All I'll say about things right now is that it's some bizarre combination of Eat, Pray, Love and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
I hope you are all doing extremely well and having great summers thus far!
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