Our trip home was uneventful, but very long–26 hours from hotel door to bed. It’s very disorienting to fly for me; I used to love it, but I don’t really enjoy it anymore, even though the view of the Alps was awesome. This is not due to any fears about terrorism, but is more about how inhuman it is to travel such great distances so quickly, not to mention doing that 7 miles about the earth! I even think car travel is weird.
I found myself in the Atlanta airport speaking Greek in reply to English questions. And long before this time, Sandra’s and my syntax in English was screwed up; we’d be saying things like, “The flashlight I will bring.” So, I end the trip speaking Greek like a 4-year old, and speaking English like Yoda…
It was a great, very relaxing trip. We met many wonderful people from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and of course, Greece. I don’t think the problems I have with some aspects of the country, its culture, and its people are greater as a whole than those I have with, for example the US, and I know for a fact we do far more damage with far greater effect to the planet than Greece as a country will ever do. I also have hopes that those Greeks who, like Sandra & I, are out of the mainstream, and whose values about people, the environment, public health, children, and politics we share (and we met many of these people), will continue be part of a movement to help steer the country away from the environmental and social calamities awaiting it toward a more sustainable, truly humanly interactive, and healthy society. Our job is to do that here at home, and also create models of what’s possible, and learn from Greece and other places alternatives to our own culture’s damaging and alienating qualities.
Greece is a wonderful country, and we’re privileged to have been able to spend so much time there and be treated so well. We hope to going back next year…
August 9, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Dear Haydar:
I’m not sure if you are checking this blog anymore, but if so I wanted to thank you for writing about your time in Greece. I’ve been dreaming of visiting this fascinating country for some time now and now have the opportunity to actually go. I am in the midst of planning a two month trip, and thanks in part to your thoughts will spend the month of September at the Ikarian Center learning Greek. Your photos on Flickr (I will post a note there too) are beautiful and inspiring. Many thanks from a fellow Grecophile here in the states (San Francisco). I hope you were able to make it back this year.
Cheers, Lauren