I have been coming to Greece since 1977 and have never stayed on the mainland before, once staying on Spetses and otherwise island hopping on chartered yachts.
“Chartered yachts” doesn’t that sound grand? They were usually floating rust buckets with faulty engines, blocked heads (if you don’t know, don’t ask) and not much hot water. This is the only island I saw this time. It seems to be uninhabited and we did not set foot on it. Its interest lies in being the island swum round by Patrick Leigh Fermor daily – he was a fit man into old age but nevertheless it must have taken him an hour or so.
Britain has lost an empire but gained a Commonwealth, although that’s not quite the same. The British Empire, all those pink bits on an old map of the world, lasted for less than five hundred years. The Greek hegemony in the Mediterranean and east as far as the Oxus lasted for millennia. Is it any wonder that Greeks are sclerotic as they try to adapt to a new world order.
Another chapter in the history of Greece is being written today as they vote for a new government. Although the democratic ideals of the ancient Athenians are in the ascendant and the cruel tyranny of the Spartans has been rejected it is a polarised country. My Greek history lessons over the past week started with Nestor’s palace in 1300 BC and ending with the Greek War of Independence in the 1830s. Of course there are a lot of gaps and this is the book I’m reading to fill in the gaps.
