Going to Greece



One of the reasons I took a position working here in Montenegro was the country's close proximity to Greece. Since studying the classics at St. John's for my BA, I have longed to set foot in the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora and follow the paths twined centuries ago by such great thinkers as Homer, Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. I yearned to touch the earth and smell the sea and, thereby, perhaps glean from the natural surroundings the germs of inspiration for the fantastic creatures of Greek myth. Being in Greece, I hoped, would give me insight into the aesthetics and culture that had given rise to one of the most inspired civilizations of all time. Hence, when the opportunity came this past summer to take a long vacation, I was anxious to visit Greece.

Well, as typically happens when one sets his sights so high, I was bound to be disappointed. Walking on the Acropolis, one feels too inundated by the insane number of crowded tourists glutting every vantage point to begin to imagine how the place may have looked during times of antiquity. On the other hand, Greece is a thoroughly modern country and Athens boasts a variety of shops, restaurants, and nightlife. Just so, while skipping by ferry from island to island to take in the tourist sights or carouse the nights away at some of the best nightclubs in Europe may not recall the epic voyages of Odysseus or Achilles, the opportunity to be hedonistic, materialistic, and tanned is not altogether a bad thing. Ultimately, Greece was not what I had hoped it would have been, and perhaps deciding to live in the Balkans just for the opportunity to enjoy the overpriced and overtouristed sights of modern Greece may have been a foolish decision in retrospect. Still, it was a summertime adventure, and at least the photos turned out well. Look forward to several future posts chronicling my tour of Greece.

In this post, I show you Montenegro by plane and Athens by night: the first day of my adventure.