καλά, καλά (Kala, kala), as they say! It's going well.
My first venture to Greece was with my younger son to Athens and Santorini in 2011 after attending an EdMedia conference in Portugal. We travelled across the Mediterranean by train for a week with stops in major countries until we got to Greece. I was enamoured by the food, the hospitality, the culture and language, and colours.
Then I returned to Greece to attend ICICTE conferences (Educational Technologies) in 2013, 14, 15, 16, 17. I had planned to attend in 2020 in Crete, but you know how that year turned out.
Once I retired I was drawn back three more times in 2023, 24, and this year, 2026 for my ninth trip! Opa! I'm still drawn to this country.
I'm in Voula/Glyfada this trip at an AirBnB just an hour south of Athens. I've also been to the islands of Antiparos, Rhodes, and Kos, and other mainland locations like Volos/Afissos and Thessaloniki. All locations are so lovely... and warm!
Food
This year I am enjoying gathering my food from local grocery stores, a farmer's market, bakeries and some restaurants.
The food feels fresh and cultural. There's no amazing deals, but the fish and produce is definitely local, the cheese and milk products are affordable, and regular, in-aisle products are to be expected like crackers, sauces, oils, vinegars, and olives.
Each shopper has their produce weighed in the produce department, and cashiers ring the rest through. Cash is much less common except at a farmer's market and everything can be "tapped" for with credit or bank cards. Greece is evolving like everywhere else.
With technology I can search for "cheap eats" or "homemade-style restaurants" near me.
I expected to get to know the locals in a tavern, but Voula/Glyfada is in the Greek Riviera, and seems to be of a higher-class culture.
Many people seem to be visitors or seasonal people as the streets are empty at night and the local staff can easily switch into English. So my efforts of language study immersion are solely on my part, unlike other places I've visited in Greece over the past 12 years.
Technology also allows me to download local maps guiding me to my destinations and helping me feel confident as I take the local buses which run frequently in this town, and walk to local establishments like the library, swimming pool, and attractions.
I found a thermal lake, the local free beach, and look forward to hiking the local mountain, Mt. Hymettus on an upcoming weekend.
I have to watch where I walk as many of the neighbourhoods are under construction or renovations. The sidewalks are built at varying heights and widths with uneven surfaces.
My first day, my AirBnB host, Maria, gave me a shopping cart, so I really had to navigate the sidewalks and not break my eggs!
I can't imagine anyone in a wheel chair navigating through the streets and sidewalks with the shrubbery and trees often breaking up and edging into the walkways. Locals seem to walk right down the centre of the street. And parking cars!? It's a free-for-all.
People use any space encrouching into intersections, past stop signs, and using any direction that suits them. Anything goes!
Culture and Language
Maybe it's the laid-back Greek way. I love the friendliness of anyone I meet. In this town they pick me out quite quickly at how I'm dressed, I guess, or that I carry a backpack, screaming out that I'm a traveller.
With my Google Translate app, I can prepare a greeting before I meet someone, and they will often spew out a stream of Greek, to which I reply,
Μιλάω λίγο ελληνικά. Miláo lígo elliniká. I only speak Greek a little!
And after so many trips, I am especially working on reading phonetically, as the Greek alphabet still trips me up! But I love the challenge, and I love being immersed in another language. Here's a sign to the library "bibliotheki" where I walk to each day and do some writing.
Maria, pretty much only speaks to me in Greek. She welcomed me with cookies, sweets, fruits, coffee, and classic sesame pretzel sticks in my kitchen. She feeds up to 12 cats a day, two of which are allowed right into her ground floor apartment right across from my little bachelor suite.
We use Google Translate for stickier topics that need to be conveyed, but I love listening to her cadence and tone -- such a comforting sound since I first came here and connected with Greeks from the conferences I've attended and am friends with to this day.
Colours
As I stroll through the streets and along the beaches,
I feel very safe in this off-season time. I enjoy the bursts of flowers like bougainvillea that I have seen over the years in many hot countries and Greek islands.
In the islands, the blue accents on shutters, domes, and chairs predominated, but the city colours here are neutral with a lot of concrete used in construction. (And no apparent work-safe standards throughout the country!)
Fancy fonts are used over store fronts, and the beautiful pops of flower sprays adorn doorways like in other parts of the world. The aquamarine palette of serene colours of the sea with rising cliffs of brown and the warm hues of the setting sun fill me with comfort.
And the warmth of the heat warms my bones. This week has been rainy and excessively windy, but the forecast for next week should stabilize and go back to the Greek I've grown so fond of.
I look forward to the next three weeks of writing, reading, walking, and my cultural immersion here.
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