Greece is a country of around 10 million people in
the south-eastern corner of Europe.(1) You can
see how it stands financially in the world by examining
my table of economic indices and
population data.
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Haven’t you been asked, several times, “What
kind of music do you like?” Many people have asked
me, the author of this page,
this same question. I’m afraid I disappoint my friends
with my answer every time, because when people ask you
this question they expect to hear you describing the same
kind of music that they like. People’s
preferences, however, are rarely identical, and,
apparently, they’re personal. So I disappoint
my friends by telling them that, besides classic music, I
also like the sound of Greek bouzouki (image on the left).
See, I grew up with the sounds of bouzouki playing in my
head. If you grew up with the sounds of piano and violin,
congratulations — we’re different. Now, when I say
“the sound of Greek bouzouki” I don’t mean what you
probably have in mind from movies and such. The poor
instrument, from an “instrument of the poor”, was
turned to a tourist attraction and a kitsch symbol of
Greek culture in the second half of the 20th
century. If you’ve heard the barbaric sounds of
Hollywood productions and of ersatz “recreators” of
Greek music, forget it; that’s not bouzouki. This
is bouzouki:
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I apologize for not being able to provide the entire songs, above, to avoid copyright violation issues (contact me).
Note 1: My Turkish friends find that the word “bouzouki”
sounds funny, because in Turkish “bozuk” means “broken”.
And that’s right: the name of the instrument comes from “broken
saz”, an old Turkish argot word for a variation of saz,
a major Turkish string instrument. Greek refugees from Asia Minor
(modern day Turkey) brought the instrument to mainland Greece
after the events of 1921-23.
Note 2: Many thanks go to my cousin Iosif Iosifidis
(Ιωσήφ Ιωσηφίδης) for resurrecting the first piece
from an old LP. Ξάδελφε, χίλια ευχαριστώ!
A satellite reconstruction of Greece, as it appears in Google Earth. Let your cursor hover over places to see their names.
The characteristic piece of land in the south of the mainland that looks like a four-fingered “Mickey Mouse hand” is called Peloponnesos (Πελοπόννησος). On the left, the two large islands are Kefalonia or Cephalonia (Κεφαλονιά) on top, and Zakynthos (Ζάκυνθος) at bottom. Just to the upper-right of Kefalonia, and nearly joined to it, you can see the vertically elongated figure of tiny Ithaca (Ιθάκη), home of the famous legendary hero Odysseus (Οδυσσεύς, and in Latin: Ulysses), the main character in “The Odyssey”, by ancient poet Homer (Όμηρος). The island of Leukada or Leukas (Λευκάδα) is to the north-east of Kefalonia, nearly joined to the mainland (it is actually connected by a short bridge, so one can travel to Leukada by car). Further to the north of Kefalonia, at the northwestern extremity of Greece (very close to Albania) is Kerkyra, or Corfu (Κέρκυρα) a major center of touristic attraction.
The large island at the south is beautiful Crete (in the image it appears larger than it actually is because of the perspective). All Greek islands are beautiful, but Crete is exceptionally so. The little island to the south-west of Crete is called Gavdos (Γαύδος), and is the southernmost land of Europe (but if we include Cyprus, then its southernmost lands take this title). Almost all the islands you see in this image, even those that seem to be touching Turkey, are Greek. The large one at the rightmost part of the image is Rodos, or Rhodes (Ρόδος), another touristic attraction. Those that appear to be sprinkled in the middle of the Aegean Sea (the sea between Greece and Turkey) are called Cyclades (Κυκλάδες). Try to find (by hovering over with your cursor) tiny Myconos (Μύκονος) among them, the Mecca of all tourists. The southernmost of the Cyclades (the one that looks like a mirror-image C) is Santorini, or Thera (Σαντορίνη, Θήρα), a prehistoric volcano which, when blasted off (around 3650 years ago), wiped out the Minoan civilization in Crete, and is probably the source of the myth of Atlantis. Santorini is what is left of the crater.
Further to the north of the Aegean Sea is Lesbos (Λέσβος, the largest northern island, very close to Turkey), home of the ancient homosexual poetess Sappho (Σαπφώ, hence the term “lesbian”), and to the south of Lesbos is Chios (Χίος). Below Chios is Ikaria, and to the east of Ikaria is Samos (Σάμος, looks as if it is joined with Turkey), birthplace of ancient mathematician Pythagoras (Πυθαγόρας). At the northwestern part of the Aegean Sea, as part of the mainland, you see the other “little hand” of Greece, this time with three fingers only, called Chalcidice (Χαλκιδική). That’s where the famous philosopher Aristotle was born (Αριστοτέλης). Chalcidice itself is part of Macedonia (Μακεδονία) (the Greek one, not the so-called country). The third (easternmost) “finger” of Chalcidice is Mt. Athos (Άθως), also called “Holy Mountain” by Greeks (Άγιον Όρος) because it is a place full of monasteries (for men only! shame!) and is an administratively “autonomous” region of Greece (theoretically, at least). The round island to the east of Mt. Athos is Thasos (Θάσος), the only place in Greece where some minute amount of oil has been discovered (I mean, oil as in petroleum, because Greece is soaked in the other kind of oil, of olive fame).
Islands, islands, islands... Isn’t there anything interesting on the mainland? Lots! But they’re hard to see on this image. Try to find Mount Olympus, residence of the ancient 12 Olympian gods (it’s the tiny white spot, the whitest one close to the sea, west of Chalcidice). Did you see Zeus (Ζευς, in Latin: Jupiter) frowning? No? Darn! I can see him, he is clearly visible. Athens (Αθήνα), the capital, is... well, hard to describe, but you can see its location on the map, at the top of this page.
If you think Google Earth is passé, here is a picture that is probably more original. While flying over Greece one summer day, I took the following picture from the airplane window (please do not copy and redistribute without written permission):
Patra, and the bridge of Rio - Antirrio
At the top is the city of Patras (Πάτρα), the fourth largest city of Greece (after Athens, Thessalonika, and Piraeus). At the bottom you see the bridge of Rio-Antirrio (Ρίο-Αντίρριο) that connects Peloponnesus with the mainland at the point of closest proximity, joining the two little towns of Rio and Antirrio. This bridge was envisioned as a possible project in the 1920’s, but was finally constructed and given to the public in 2004. (That’s how long it takes to complete a public work of utmost importance in Greece.)
General
info about Greece.
Information specific to tourism in Greece: click here.
Latest
news from Greece and the Balkan region.
And a Greek newspaper (Ελευθεροτυπία),
in case you can read in Greek.
1. For Americans only: Europe is not a country but a continent, and, contrary to popular belief, it does not belong to “the World”. It is larger than Texas, and you can’t drive to it because it is separated from “the World” by the Atlantic ocean. It is a strange land in which people do not play baseball or football (yes, it’s true), but another, little-known sport called “soccer”. Most Europeans do not go to church every Sunday, but on rare occasions, if ever (yes, how sad). They don’t call their money “dollars”, but use various other names (how primitive!). You can find some signs of civilization in Europe, such as McDonald’s, and even Wendy’s, and Pizza Hut, but the aboriginal Europeans insist that pizza — clearly an American invention — was originally invented in a place called Italy (how dare they!), which is a country (not a State) of Europe. Evidently, most Europeans are starving to death, because you can rarely find an individual heavier than 200 lbs there. How they manage to live longer than Americans, is a great mystery.
The rest is sung by Sotiría Béllou (not included).
(mp3, 568 Kb, 36 sec.)