Impressions of Greece (June 2012)

Έυκολο (Easy). People keep asking me how I like Thessaloniki «Πως φαίνετε η πόλη;» (not sure if my Greek spelling is correct). I keep telling them that it’s nice, and really easy! I’ve lived in Boston (granted, not downtown) for almost two years. As of right now (June 14, 5:02 pm) I’ve lived here for six days. I understand Thessaloniki better than I understand Boston.

When I was at my aunt’s apartment, I opened my computer and got on their WiFi. My cousin (their nephew) was showing me the city on Google Maps – St. Demetrios, Panagia Dexia, thia’s apartment, his apartment, my yiayia’s apartment, Three Hierarchs, St. Photios, etc. He then went on the public transit website, gave the the rundown on prices here, and told me which buses I could take from close to my yiayia’s house to go to the center of town. I felt that I had a pretty good sense of the city, at least a basic idea of it. Now after almost one week I feel that I know the city very well, especially after having gone into the κέντρο each day and seeing things. If I get lost on a back street somewhere I pull out my trusty little tourist’s map that my friend helped me get at a little stand here.

As far as Boston goes, I understand the T (public transit) very well. I can take the T anywhere I need to go, if I know exactly where I’m going. As for the city itself, I guess since I live outside of it and don’t go in it very much, I don’t have a good sense of anything. It doesn’t help that all the roads around school curve this way and that, and that you seemingly can’t get anywhere unless you have a GPS or you’ve been there 100 times (like Holy Resurrection).

Boston (to me, at least) is a difficult city. Thessaloniki is extremely easy.

Albanian?! I was in my yiayia’s apartment, sitting down (I may have been blogging). It was a day when they have the λαϊκή αγορά, which is when vendors line a street and sell all kinds of things. The λαϊκή αγορά had finished and there were people outside cleaning up. I randomly heard someone say pretty loudly, “Mirupafshim! Falemenderit! Falemenderit!” That is Albanian for “Goodbye! Thank you! Thank you!”

Another time I was walking into a bank. They have these doors here (Idk if it’s for security or what). You press a button, open a door, let it close behind you, and then press a button to open a second door and enter the bank. I was waiting in a short line to open the first door. The woman in front of me was on her cell phone. I don’t remember what she said but I think it sounded like Albanian.

I know that Albania and Greece are neighbors, and that the Albanians and the Greeks are cousins, as much as they don’t want to admit it. Yet somehow, in public you expect to hear Greek, a little English, and the occasional other language. I don’t know how many other languages there are but it’s a pretty low probability that you’ll hear Albanian when you weigh it with all the other possible languages! It’s funny, having just come from there and knowing 20 words of the language, to hear it in another country – I don’t expect it! J

A monastery or a parish? How about neither? The second day I was here my cousin took me to his church, St. Haralambos. It is a metochion of the Athonite Monastery of Simonopetra. Its main purpose, from what I can tell, is so that when fathers from the monastery visit Thessaloniki they have some cells around the church that they can stay in – it’s sort of like a half-monastery that is a haven for them.

At St. Haralambos they commemorate the Patriarch of Constantinople, as on Mount Athos, not the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki. They also pray for the abbot (Hieromonk Elissaeus), and for “this monastery,” rather than “this church.” St. Haralambos is serviced by Fr. Athanasios, a married priest. There is a core group of people that go there regularly, yet it is not a parish. It’s not a monastery either. It’s kind of in the middle.

At St. Haralambos they do Vespers every day except Sunday, as well as Divine Liturgy four times a week (Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday), much like the Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery near Pittsburgh. On Tuesday evening they do a Paraklesis to St. Haralambos following Vespers, and on Wednesday evening they append Thursday morning’s Orthros – a total length of 90 minutes for both services. Thursday morning they begin at 6am with the Hours and the Divine Liturgy. It’s more “monastic” to do Liturgy earlier, and from what I understand they also do that for people who work early and want to go to Liturgy before work.

Culture clash. There exists the traditional Greek culture of Orthodoxy. When I walk from my dorm room to St. Haralambos for Liturgy or for daily Vespers, I pass five other churches, at least three of which are doing a service around the same time. There are little προσκηνιτάρια (little church-looking things with icons and candles) outside every church, which are open 24/7. People stop inside, light a candle, do their cross as they pass the church, and move on. Whoever actually goes to church, goes to Confession, and receives Communion is another story. But the culture is such that it’s natural to see a robed, long-bearded priest crossing the street with an imposing Byzantine-style church on one side and a “Sex Shop” (they exist, unfortunately) on the other. It’s also natural for people on the bus to cross themselves as they pass a church. Do they ever go inside? I don't know.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand I like how the Church is there as an expected presence in the modern culture. On the other hand what that modern culture is, and how it clashes with the Church, I’m not the biggest fan of. It’s interesting.

Three Hierarchs. Would there be somewhere in Greece (besides Starbucks) that reminds you of America? Probably not, especially when you’re in the Church. Usually it’s the other way around. A particular parish in America reminds you of Greece, not Greece of America. However, I experienced a parish that reminded me of a parish in America that reminds me of Greece. Confused? Let me explain.

When I got here and my cousin was showing me the city on Google maps, he told me where to get off to go to my yiayia’s apartment. It is the stop right next to the Three Hierarchs church, which is a five minute walk from the apartment. Since I got here on Friday and didn’t get to go to Liturgy Friday night in the crypt of St. Demetrios, I wanted to go on Saturday morning. Nearly every parish here does Liturgy on Saturday so I had an infinite number of options. I wanted to go somewhere closeby where I would know where to go and not get lost. I decided to do the five minute walk to Three Hierarchs because it seemed to be the closest.

It is a beautiful, absolutely stunning church – huge, with magnificent architecture and iconography. I will post pictures when I get a chance! After Liturgy I met two of the priests (they have four), both of whom know my yiayia who goes there sometimes even though that isn’t her parish. They had a pretty good turnout for a “normal” Saturday Liturgy! I asked for a schedule of services and noticed that they were doing a vigil on Sunday night for ‘Όσιος Βαρνάβας. I know that the Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas celebrated on Monday but ‘Όσιος is not usually used for apostles. I decided to go and check it out.

Sunday night I ate with my yiayia and then headed out on foot for the Three Hierarchs. I got there at Φως ‘Ήλαρων. One priest was serving – neither of the two that I had met on Saturday. His face was a bit like that of Fr. Ignatios, a retired priestmonk who used to live in Pittsburgh. The vigil went rather quickly – it didn’t drag on with lots of things, but it was basically a typical Vespers, a typical Orthros, and a typical Liturgy put together. Nothing extra.

I was soooo glad I went! The entire service was amazing! (The chanting was average). The lights were dim. The priest said the silent prayers of the Liturgy out loud, which you rarely hear done in Greek. For some reason (I don’t know how) the vigil reminded me of vigils at St. John’s church in Boston (http://www.saintjohnthebaptist.org/) where Fr. Dragas serves and Menios (our Byzantine music professor) chants for vigils (used to be his parish before he became our full-time professor). St. John’s is one of those churches that reminds you of Greece. However, since I knew St. John’s before I knew Three Hierarchs, Three Hierarchs reminds me of St. Johns! J It had something to do with the big church, the Greek, the relatively small amount of people (still a good number, but not packed!)… Idk. The chanting wasn’t as good, it wasn’t Fr. Dragas, and they didn’t do all the things they would have done at St. John’s. But somehow it reminded me of being there. I felt at home. I was very glad I went and hope to go back, although now living in the center Three Hierarchs is far. Oh well, I’ll find a time to go back J I also want to meet the priest. I got his blessing after Liturgy (they also had a relic of ‘Όσιος Βαρνάβας, an ascetic from Cyprus) but didn’t introduce myself. He seems very awesome J

Meals. No wonder people here aren’t as fat! They eat one or two big meals a day – not three! We have to have a nice, big breakfast to “get us started” and “get the blood pumping.” Then we need to “keep ourselves going” with a nice big meat-filled lunch. Then we end the day with a really big dinner. Here they drink water and coffee in the morning, and they might have a κουλούρι and/or a piece of fruit to hold them over until the big meal which is usually around 1-2pm. For dinner they’ll eat a medium-sized, healthy meal that will satisfy the built-up appetite but that won’t weigh them down. Many people also sleep after lunch, because that is the hottest part of the day. That way they are able to do more later at night and earlier in the morning when it is cooler, because they are sleeping less at night and napping during the hottest part of the day.

What I just described is very over-stereotypical. There exist fat people here, and some people I’m sure eat three big meals, many don’t nap, and many do something different from any of the above. In general, though, there are one to two big meals and people are healthier. I’ve also noticed that if you eat a small amount in the morning, you only get hungry around midday when it’s time for lunch. You’re not hungry the whole morning like you would think. It works. Very interesting! J

Garbage. I noticed a lot more of this in Albania (creeks filled with plastic bags and the like) but even here in Greece there are a lot of dumpsters on side streets that are overflowing, and a lot of little pieces of garbage floating around the streets. In Albania they didn’t recycle. Here they recycle in name, but how many actually do is a different story. I don’t know. Nathan told me in Albania “they don’t even put them [bottles] in the trash! Why would they put them in recycling?!”

Greek or English? I noticed what I thought were English letters on a license plate. When I looked closer I noticed that it was something like AKP, which could be either Greek or English. That made me wonder if the license plates here are in Greek or in English, since Greece is in the European Union. I started looking, and noticed the ingenious fact that all the license plate letters could be letters in either language, depending on how you look at them. Letters such as C, F, G, J, L, Q, R, S, U, V, W, Γ, Δ, Θ, Λ, Ξ, Π, Σ, Φ, Ψ, Ω are not used. Only A, B, E, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, T, X, Y, Z which exist in both alphabets. That way they can be registered with the European Union in Latin letters, but non-English-speaking Greeks can have Greek license plates. This is my personal conjecture/observation but it makes sense and is a wonderful idea!