Travel Notes on Greece | On various "difficulties to understand"

November 11

Double Eleven, you can also feel the joy and confusion in Athens

On the tenth day of walking in Greece, I saw some fragments of Greece, which caused some "incomprehensible" confusion:

Difficult to understand: Greek diet

Some people say that Greek food will surprise people.

However, there is no such thing as "big food", but there is incomprehensible monotony.

A Greek meal usually looks like this: a salad of tomatoes, green peppers, onions, feta cheese, and olive oil, a barbecue or grilled seafood with fried potato chips, a small plate of olives, and a basket of bread. , and a glass of wine. This "big meal" may be enough for two girls who don't have big appetites to eat until they burst.

Usually they will eat something simpler: a piece of naan rolled with cheese, barbecue, stuffed with some messy soft semi-cooked vegetables and goat cheese (referred to as "roasted meat"); or just eat a salad and a glass of wine ( Light snack? ); or a sweet pie, sweet roll, donut, and a cup of coffee.

From fast food restaurants at bus stops to various elegant restaurants in the old alleys of the ancient city, the menus are almost all just these, with at most Turkish-style chickpeas, meat-stuffed eggplant, meat-stuffed green peppers, and a wide range of drinks. one.

It seems that one of their sages said: "Don't eat too much, don't eat too rich. Eating too much and too rich will affect your thinking." So this country is rich in debaters and philosophers.

After ten days of enjoying the spiritual food of ancient Greece, we finally arrived in Athens from the Peloponnese. The first thing we did was find a Chinese restaurant near Syntagma Square and eat Maoxuewang. That feeling, full of blood and resurrection.

Then, we pushed our suitcases through the rattling stone roads in Plaka District to the hotel at the foot of the Acropolis. We passed one Greek open-air restaurant after another. As night fell, those restaurants had already laid out tablecloths. , the shiny knives, forks and spoons were laid out, candlelight was lit, it was so refined and elegant, the waiters were attentive and courteous, and the menu displayed on the roadside was still salads, barbecue, bread slices...

In the past ten days, we have stayed in three apartments. Although it is a short-term rental apartment with RMB 5600 per night, each kitchen is fully equipped. There are seven or eight pots of different models, several rows of plates and bowls of different models, and several rows of different cups. The grids in the drawers are neatly classified with different types of knives, forks, and spoons... I once watched a BBC documentary, and there was a detail in it. If you want to compare the level of affluence in different regions, you can look at the kitchens of average ordinary homes in them. How to store the knives, forks, spoons and chopsticks inside.

The kitchen is so well-equipped and the cutlery, forks and spoons are so neatly stored, and the food that can be brought out is still salad, barbecue, and bread.

Difficult to understand 2: Is Greece a European country?

When Chania, the "most beautiful town", was posted on the Internet, JF asked me: "Are we coming to Europe?"

"Hmm...kind of like the Middle East."

Of course, it is not like the Islamic ancient city in the Middle East, but the living area outside the ancient city. It is also like the living areas in some cities in China, such as Guangzhou.

In short, is not like the ancient cities with a "Renaissance" temperament or the fairy tale-like towns in Europe .

Its monuments are as old as the ruins of more than 3,000 years of vicissitudes. Its ancient city is composed of pink, bright yellow, milky white, lake blue, apple green walls and balconies, as well as bougainvillea. The scale of the ancient city is very small. Even the "ancient city" of Athens has only a few streets and lanes, and there are various graffitied and chaotic buildings and blocks on the periphery or in between.

It's quite similar to China, when people cross traffic lights and look like they can pass without a car.

In Athens, when passing by the Plaza de la Concorde neighborhood, the roads were very crowded and chaotic, with rubbish and graffiti everywhere. There were groups of young people doing nothing on the roadside with wandering eyes. There were also a group of young people riding motorcycles passing by... At a Chinese restaurant in Syntagma Square While eating, I heard the Fujian girl at the front desk say that Chinatown in Athens was quite unsafe. Those refugees from the Middle East knew that the Chinese had cash, so they surrounded the place where the Chinese lived, waiting for them to go to work during the day. Knocking on doors and windows to break into the house. It was useless to call the police. The police came over and took notes, but nothing happened. So the Chinese people who live there always carry valuable things with them when they go out during the day.

Finally, the Fujian girl also told us to carry our bags in front of us and never leave our luggage in our hands. If someone accidentally rubs foundation on your bag and wants to wipe it for you, don't do it.

…

All these, looking at and listening to them, made us feel that we were not in Europe. However, after all, Greece still enters through the Schengen visa, and it is a relatively "uneasy" Greek Schengen visa.

Difficult to understand three: Station

Nafplio is the first capital of Greece after getting rid of Ottoman rule, and it is also one of the most popular tourist resorts in Greece. However, its bus station is on a roadside. There are two or three cafes on the road and an office selling tickets. There is a small sign at the door of the office that is completely unimpressive. The bus does not always stop on the side of the road, but depending on the time, which bus should leave, that bus will come from nowhere.

The famous Olympia doesn’t even have a ticket room. We followed what the locals said and went to a roadside where there were two stools, one of which was broken. There is also an iron sign. After careful identification, it does say Bus stop in English and Greek, but the background color of the words on the sign has faded and is unclear , and there are also small advertising stickers on it. If you want to go from Olympia to Pyrgos, you have to ask the locals about the shuttle bus time, and the locals can't tell you clearly. Only the hotel owner can tell you clearly. Get on the bus and buy a ticket, and the driver can give you change.

However, their buses are usually pretty good. Although they are not as luxurious as Turkish buses, with Wi-Fi and drivers wearing suits and ties and handing out snacks, the buses are clean and smell-free, usually on time, and will help passengers carry their luggage.

Difficult to understand four: Attitude towards ruins

JF is a monument restorer and has worked in Italy. He said that although the Italian government is very poor, it has invested a lot in the restoration of historic monuments. And Greece...seems to be so unorganized that the ruins still look so useless. Even the explanatory signs are relatively simple. Visitors can walk there and see a pile of rubble without knowing what it is. What.

Could it be that, without the "Greek nose" of modern Greeks, the past is the past and the present is the present?

Or, The Greeks are accustomed to the "tragic" aesthetic, and like these ruins and remaining cultural relics to continue to exist with a "tragic" sense of déjà vu?

However, their attitude towards building a museum is completely opposite. They have changed from the casual attitude of ruins to the attitude of serious scholars, as well as collection maniacs and perfectionists.

There are also some incomprehensible things...

For example, the Greeks seem to have a high level of trust between people. Whether it is a five-star hotel or a B&B, they don’t check your passport, don’t even register, or even ask your name when you check in. They just make arrangements when you come. If the booking website doesn’t have There is no guarantee for directly deducting the room fee, and they will not give you the bill until the end when you are carrying your luggage and leaving.

However, we booked an Apartment in Athens with a rating of over 9 points on booking.com, but there was a strange and hidden rule that required 30% payment in advance, and because it could not be swiped by credit card, we needed to transfer money to their bank in Greece. Bank account. They sent me an email, and this explanation was wrapped in a long explanation letter. I didn't read it clearly, but on the day I wanted to check in, I received an email saying that the room was cancelled.

A few extra words, regarding this canceled reservation, we found out before we checked in. There was only a voice message on the phone, and no one answered Booking’s domestic and international hotlines. The platform’s Shanghai and Beijing phone numbers said they had been deactivated, and emails were sent. There are only robot-like answers. It is difficult to understand that this once powerful booking platform has fallen to this point. I immediately made a reservation at airbnb, which is highly praised by everyone. It is very simple and timely. Whether communicating with the host or customer service, I can do it in a timely manner through the dialog box on the platform. This is very impressive. Nowadays, whoever does good customer service can accumulate customers and expand the influence of word-of-mouth.

Maybe the Greeks are so incomprehensible. They are a body of contradictions, from the inside out. They have both the carnival and unreliability of Dionysus, the god of wine, and the cautiousness and ingenuity of Hephaestus, the god of industry; they both advocate peace by releasing white doves and crowning olive branches, and they fight endlessly in disputes when they disagree. They have nothing to do; they are doing nothing to bask in the sun on the balcony, but they are also working hard in the shipyard until they are too busy; they have been trained since ancient times to talk less and behave elegantly, and they also visit relatives and friends to talk and talk... Every nation has complex and diverse characteristics, but from ancient times, No nation or country can make me feel so many contradictions just by visiting here.

as well as……

JF and I also talked about some difficult-to-understand things, things that are difficult for foreigners to understand when they come to China. For example, she once took several German experts to inspect the Three Gorges. Those Germans were shocked to see thousands of people dancing in the square in our small county town!

She once received a Slovenian visitor and took him to the dentist. The man entered the dentist's room and was shocked to see treatment chairs lined up inside! In their country, there is only one chair in the dentist’s office...

Today is the annual "Double 11", and I also placed an order in Greece to support this Chinese festival. In fact, it’s hard for me to understand why I did this, and it’s not much cheaper than usual.