A Trip to Thera
In 1995 I treated myself to a trip through Southern Europe as a reward for finishing my PhD. One of the places I most wanted to visit was the little Greek island if Thera (also called Santorini), a Cycladic Island in the Aegean Sea. My interest was historical. Thera was one of the centers of Minoan culture in the Bronze Age and the Minoan culture has always fascinated me. Maybe it was the statues of bare-breasted priestesses, but there was always something attractive about the culture. Their colorful wall paintings are quite spectacular (I use the dolphin mural for the link to my History Page and the bull-jumping mural is on my History Page and I show others, from Akrotiri on Thera, below). The famous octopus vase--a round vase with a stylized, but very convincing octopus wrapping all around it--has always been a favorite of mine. But Thera is interesting for other reasons as well. It was once a large circular island, but is now a small, crescent-shaped one. What happened to it?
The volcanic eruption that practically destroyed Thera is probably the origin of the Atlantis Myth. It was this that drew me to the place.
Thera looks the part. On one side of the crescent it slopes gently up from the beach to the town on the peak. From that peak, though, it drops off sharply as a sheer, black cliff into a frequently rough sea. The sunsets in the arc of those black cliffs that make up the volcanic crater are dramatic as well as beautiful with bright orange light striking the black clouds that echo the black cliffs. The volcano is still active and you can see a new island forming in the arms of the crescent of the old island.
I went a little off season, around late March/early April. I highly recommend this if you go to Europe. Not only is everything cheaper, but the people are not yet sick of tourists and are more friendly (the one exception being Athens, where everyone is horrible year round!). But the hotel I stayed in had gotten the date wrong--they were expecting me the following week and they were still painting and cleaning the rooms. So I had to wander around the town of Fira while they got a room ready for me. But this was no hardship! The day was very windy, and the dramatic waves far below and the dramatic clouds above had me in awe as I walked along the narrow streets that clung precipitously to the cliff. I spent that afternoon in a small museum displaying artifacts from the local archaeological sites at Akrotiri and at the later, Greek settlement.
By the time I had gotten back, a rather cold and Spartan, but pleasant room had been made ready at the hotel. The woman who ran the place, a local woman married to a German, felt sorry that they hadn't had the room ready, so as the sun set, we all shared a bottle of local wine on one of the hotel's balconies overlooking the volcano. An advantage of being the only guest at a hotel just off season is you just might get special treatment. After hours of wine and talk, I went to bed. I slept well despite a storm that blew in that night.
By morning the storm had gone, to be replaced by the same mix of sharp, bright sun and dark, dramatic clouds of the previous day. The special treatment, however, continued as the British students who were fixing up the hotel for the tourist season made me a large breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. This was far better than the usual free breakfast at European hotels--stale croissants and lukewarm coffee.
This was my day for checking out the archaeological sites. I took a bus to the Bronze Age site of Akrotiri first. Those who are interested in the Minoan culture have all heard of the Palace of Knossos on Crete, and this is definitely a remarkable site. However, there are two reasons why I liked Akrotiri better. First, Knossos is a rich person's palace, while Akrotiri is just a regular old town where regular old Joe-blow Minoan people lived and worked. Second, Knossos is heavily reconstructed and at times it is unclear to me whether what you see is more representative of the imagination of those who reconstructed it, or of what really had once been there. Akrotiri is more archaeological site than tourist trap. You have to dodge eager excavators and you walk on planks above the muddy ground. But the buildings are extrordinarily well preserved by the volcanic ash and you really feel like people had LIVED there--right down to a flowerpot still sitting in a window.
I next hopped on a bus to go to the other archaeological site--a later, less well preserved Greek town. But as the bus wound along the island, I saw a path through the mountains that looked like it would take me right to where I wanted to go. So I got off and just started walking. It was quite a trek, but the scenery was lovely and the hike well worth it, despite the steep climb. Somewhat to my surprise, the path that looked like it would take me to the Greek Site actually did. The site was right over the mountain.
The Greek site was interesting, but in many ways was like any other Greek ruins. Since it had largely been destroyed, what you are walking through is mostly just the foundations, a sort of floor plan of the town. But once again, you could get a feel for the people who had lived there and the things they had done. One could easily imagine the inhabitants watching from their heights as ships approached the island either to raid or to trade.
The food in Greece is not spectacular, but is tasty and satisfying. Thera was no exception. What I remember most was some simple but good meat pies bought at a local shop which I took home with me to eat while I sampled a bottle of local wine I bought and, once again, marveled at the sunset. My legs were tired from all the walking, my mind was full of images of a long dead culture, and the wine and simple food put a nice final touch on the day.
The next day I was up early, greeted by another breakfast prepared by the British students, so I could catch a plane to Crete. Being a naive American tourist, I made a great effort to be at the airport on time. The only others waiting there were other naive American tourists. As is usual for Greek airlines, the flight was several hours late and no Greeks even began showing up for the plane until two hours after it was supposed to leave. Finally we were in the air, and what had been an early flight, got me to Crete well after dark.
Back to Travel Page
Back to Mole's Homepage
Email: michad03@mcrcr.med.nyu.edu
