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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: Queequeg on August 30, 2015, 08:28:15 AM

Title: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on August 30, 2015, 08:28:15 AM
So I'm in Greece.

It's beautiful.

I'm in Crete for a bit, and the lack of Byzantine stuff is a bit depressing, but I plan on getting up to the Mani and the North-East pretty soon.  Thessalonika is very high on my to-do list.

Anyone have any tips?  What are good wines?  I don't know wine very well, so start w basics please.


Also.  The girls are incredibly, wonderfully pretty, but judging by my lack of tinder matches that's largely a one-way affection.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Eddie Teach on August 30, 2015, 08:37:58 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on August 30, 2015, 08:28:15 AM
Also.  The girls are incredibly, wonderfully pretty, but judging by my lack of tinder matches that's largely a one-way affection.

:console:

Though it could also be they're less likely to use the app than girls back home.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Maladict on August 30, 2015, 09:49:52 AM
Will you be going overland from the Mani to Macedonia?
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on August 30, 2015, 10:07:46 AM
That seems like a long trip, considering that for what I'm interested in Attica, Boeotia, and Thessalonia  don't seem the best places. 
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Richard Hakluyt on August 30, 2015, 10:49:35 AM
I would think that Monemvasia is a must for you.

You could cross over to Lakonia from the Mani, maybe visit Mistra and then go to Monemvasia.

You should drink some retsina if you haven't tried it yet, nasty stuff but very cheap. Last time I was in Greece I drank a lot of Nemean wine, still pretty cheap but tasty.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Maladict on August 30, 2015, 11:21:29 AM
Yes, Mistra and Monemvasia for sure.

Quote from: Queequeg on August 30, 2015, 10:07:46 AM
That seems like a long trip, considering that for what I'm interested in Attica, Boeotia, and Thessalonia  don't seem the best places. 

Really? Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Meteora would not make the cut?


Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Admiral Yi on August 30, 2015, 12:24:51 PM
Retsina is the only Deadbeat wine I know. 
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Capetan Mihali on August 31, 2015, 02:30:04 AM
Chania is beautifully Venetian, if a bit overrun with Northern Europeans doing their thing.  The innkeeper where I stayed a decade ago was an old man who pulled out his British medals for running out into the fields as a 14 year old and taking out German paratroopers with a pitchfork while they were tangled up in their chutes. 

Do you have a car?  Head for Sfakia, it's the most hardcore traditional Cretan mountain village out there.  There are some really great secluded beaches on the Libyan Sea.  And don't bother with retsina, just hit the tsikoudia.  It's like a rougher grappa, if that makes it sound appealing.  We had water bottles filled up with the stuff by a defrocked monk, who was also selling delicious honey near a monastery swarming with Russian tourist-pilgrims.

And don't forget the Kazantzakis Museum. :)  Find an English copy of Freedom And Death (titled, incidentally, Capetan Mihali, more or less, in the Greek :whistle:).
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on August 31, 2015, 07:26:29 AM
I read Freedom and Death in Turkey, appropriately on the Aegean.  It's wonderful.

Where is the Kazantzakis museum?

I'll try to make it to Sfakia. 

I actually really like Chania.  I tend to prefer Ottoman-Byzantine residential architecture (http://www.yedekcioglukonak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/safranbolu-bg1.jpg) but the city has really grown on me.  There's a ton of Greek tourists.

Which inn?  I want to meet this man.

Ευχαριστώ , Μιχάλη.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Caliga on August 31, 2015, 07:56:29 AM
Spellus, you just there on vacation or what?
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on August 31, 2015, 08:16:49 AM
I'm going to be teaching English in either Turkey or Georgia for a year before I do PhD crap. I'm getting my certificate here beforehand. 
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Caliga on August 31, 2015, 08:28:32 AM
Cool. :cool:
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Grinning_Colossus on August 31, 2015, 04:49:40 PM
Quote from: Queequeg on August 31, 2015, 08:16:49 AM
I'm going to be teaching English in either Turkey or Georgia for a year before I do PhD crap. I'm getting my certificate here beforehand. 

Dude, I taught English in Georgia for 2 years, and I know some really cool people who are doing the same in Istanbul. I'd be happy to answer any questions/put you in touch with them.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on September 03, 2015, 02:09:44 AM
Retsina was 3 Euros a bottle at a place called Well of the Turk and I got three bottles and my head regrets this decision.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Richard Hakluyt on September 03, 2015, 02:40:56 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on September 03, 2015, 02:09:44 AM
Retsina was 3 Euros a bottle at a place called Well of the Turk and I got three bottles and my head regrets this decision.

You'll never have to drink it again though  :D
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Norgy on September 03, 2015, 03:26:39 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on August 31, 2015, 08:16:49 AM
I'm going to be teaching English in either Turkey or Georgia for a year before I do PhD crap. I'm getting my certificate here beforehand.

Good job. :)
I've travelled a fair bit in Greece. You'd probably like Rhodos, but I wouldn't go there now (the migrant disaster is very much in full play on those islands).
My tip of the week is to do what the Greeks do; eat well, imbibe carefully, smoke cigarettes and just enjoy life.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on September 03, 2015, 03:28:21 AM
Oh I actually really enjoyed retsina. 
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Norgy on September 03, 2015, 03:32:39 AM
A bit too much fir taste for my liking, I seem to recall. Like gnawing on an episode of "Twin Peaks".

Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: mongers on September 03, 2015, 07:35:45 AM
Next time don't borrow so much on the credit cards.
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Queequeg on September 03, 2015, 07:38:07 AM
What?
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: crazy canuck on September 03, 2015, 10:24:06 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on September 03, 2015, 03:28:21 AM
Oh I actually really enjoyed retsina.

The good news is that you will never have to spend much money on wine.  :D
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Archy on September 03, 2015, 10:40:40 AM
Does Greece tip generous? Or is it a bad tipper?

;)
Title: Re: Greece Tips
Post by: Razgovory on September 03, 2015, 11:20:27 AM
The tips of Greece are called, "peninsulas".