I lurked on this site for months and gained much useful info although I only posted once or twice. I just wanted to thank everybody for the exchange of ideas, especially brotherlee love, oldpro, and dianab.
I found that my limited knowledge of Greek did much to ameliorate the current opinion most folks have of America (and I don't blame them for that opinion, I share it mostly!). My nonGreek husband actually was more fluent than I, and people just opened up and were very kind, when they heard Greek coming out of this big blonde guy (he was mistaken for Dutch several times!). Learn as much language as you can, it does wonders for your experience.
Driving in Greece was an experience, but once you got used to the way people treated the road markings, it actually was making sense to us by the end of the trip (I wonder if we are becoming a little Greek ourselves?).
Sure we ran into a couple of jerks, and one attempted small scale rip off, but I run into that almost daily in my home town in America.
The land was so beautiful, and the people just the best. We plan to continue our Greek studies (not hard here in Florida, near Tarpon Springs, which is an old Greek community where there once was a flourishing sponge diving industry) and go back in a few years.
Finally, a couple of practical notes. Taverna O Stefanou in Volos (mentioned in the LP guidebook) is closed. Don't look for it.
In Athens, across the street from John's Place (a budget hotel mentioned in the LP guidebook) there is a small mezedopoleo called Aspro Alogo. The owner, Yiannis, and his wife are pretty much the entire staff. The treats were good, and he is a friendly, hard working guy who speaks a little English and was very patient with helping us with some Greek. When we picked up our car the next day down the street from his place, he came to the end of the street to wave goodbye and blow kisses. Good food, and a good guy. Spend some euros on him. His address is Patrou 4 (cross street is Apollonos) and phone is 210 3220551.
Best wishes to all.
Maimou
Thanks so much for your feedback, and so good of you to show support for a small family business, as is the Aspro Alogo [white horse],
I agree it's an investment for one to learn even a few words of the language prior to a planned visit - the Greeks are so receptive to the effort, it makes it all worth it [the incentive which helped me become fluent within the first year]
cheers,
Wow Diana! I am in my second year here (in Greece) and I enjoy speaking Greek, but find many of the friends I have made speak such good English - I am embarrassed and end up speaking pigin one-word sentences - I guess I should practise more. I'd rather talk to the shepherds :-). I agree Greece is a most friendly place, we have made so many friends in our short time here.
The Greece LP forum is also very friendly and most useful, so I thank you all too!
Hello EpicEm,
I agree that the Greeks are very warm and welcoming, especially when you try to speak their language. I learnt in the first year out of pure necessity. The next year I got into tourism and spoke English all day and Greek at night for 15 yrs. What I have noticed is that some of my English friends never got around to it because they had such a large circle of English speaking friends - but.. you begin to learn the other side of this complicated Greek nature and way of life when you speak "her" language--as such, if you don't speak the language, you really miss out on that side.. good luck, and put the embarassment aside, you'll be amazed with the results! [if I can speak it, anyone can..]
trusted partner
