Hemant Soreng's Blog

Creation of the world for the ancient Greeks is actually quite simple.

In the beginning – there was Chaos (first of the gods).

And that’s what I plunged into, literally, when my friend said, ‘Surprise! We are going to Greece.’

In normal circumstances, any unsuspecting non-acrobatic person would immediately go into a frenzy of cartwheels, somersaults, pumping fists in the air and the usual euphoric ritual.

But this person (me), a bit acrobatic (me?) just stood there with his big strolley and two big bags, a classical case of excess baggage. (However, I had slyly managed to get past through the inefficient Air India check in counter without paying extra, after a harrowing flight involving big blunders on ticketing and reservation on the part of the airline – but that’s another story).

I had landed in Paris in August with the usual eclectic ensemble of what I called “clothing”, properly picked and packed for the usually cold Paris weather from my conservative tropical wardrobe.

‘I hope you are carrying your swimwear, slippers, Tees, shorts and all that. Its going to be hot out there. We will hit the pool and the beach as soon as we land there.’ He continued non-stop.

In that unending blabber, my mind wandered off thinking about the jackets, fleece gloves, and even thermals (sporty and stylish nevertheless), I was carrying, remnants of my Himalayan expeditions earlier in the year. I, of course, never revealed to her about these warm (and heavy) contents of my excess baggage.

So this is Chaos.

And as the Greek mythology goes – from Chaos were born the Erebus and Nyx, the black Night.

It was very evident as my mind and vision plunged into darkness, still trying to figure out what to do.

However, Erebus and Nyx conjugated and gave birth to Day and Aether, the light of the heaven.

And this light dawned on me as I scrambled and ran around in Paris hunting for “appropriate clothing” for Greece. I was partially successful and I decided to try my luck in Athens.

As we landed in Athens I was impressed with the grand airport and the connection to bus, metro, taxi etc. Wasn’t this country bankrupt or heading towards that? I thought.

I closely looked at the various signboards juxtaposed with the familiar logo of the Summer Olympics 2004. All this was built before the games. Clearly, the country had been in a spending spree ever since.

We were looking at the signboards searching for directions to the Metro station. Yes, it was in English along with the the familiar looking Greek script. My mind raced back to the haunting visions of thin bamboo cane hitting my bum non-stop accompanied with more visions of formulaes floating around my head with the Sigmas, Alphas, Lambdas and other Greek alphabets…as my Physics schoolteacher with huge moustache (he didn’t have in real life) laughed away mockingly at me.

I shook my head rapidly trying to shake off these best-to-be-forgotten memories, completely perplexed. And equally perplexed were the other passengers waiting for the train, as they looked at me.

It took us 40 minutes from the Athens Airport to the Syntagma metro station, which was 50 m away from our hotel, Amalias. It was a nice luxurious four star hotel but bereft of any swimming pool and gym. And here I was carrying my running shoes and running gear hoping to hit the treadmill in anticipation of the marathon season next month onwards.

Anyways, soon we made our way to the Plaka, a tourist hotspot clustered around the slopes of the Acropolis. This quaint neighbourhood is built around the Ancient Agora of Athens (Agora – market or meeting place), and is characterized by the beautiful souvenir shops, restaurants, boutiques and of course the plenty of historical sights, the most prominent being the Parthenon, temple dedicated to the city’s patron goddess Athena.

Our first stop at Plaka was at a restaurant for lunch. And trust me it was quite a meal. I still cannot forget the Aubergine salad puree and meatballs in the starters. Oh! you can’t go wrong with any variations of these in the Greek menu. Of course I had to have the heavy, yet tasty moussaka. Mythos beer, the local brew perfectly complemented the meal and yes the hot sunny weather. After this hearty lunch, it was quite a walk (in terms of effort and not distance) to reach the Acropolis Museum. It was the a beautiful structure. Very modern. We walked on the transparent fibre glass over an excavated archaeological sites to enter the museum. Oh !! It felt good coming into the air conditioned ambience away from the sweltering heat outside .

‘Most of the Greece is in the British Museum’  – we had been told that the Greek authorities have been waging a war to get back tonnes of Greek artifacts  back. However, the museum has an amazing collection (some 4250+ objects, it is estimated).

It was quite a walk again and so after a while coffee was in order, and where better than at the restaurant perched out on the second floor with an amazing view of the city and the Parthenon. Greek coffee is coarse as I discovered, gulping it as soon as it came along with the suspended powder in the liquid. Well, patience is the key as one has to let it settle down before having it.

Chaotic coffee, I’d say.

Oh! By the way, after Chaos, there was Ge (Earth – goddess) and Eros (primordial god of sexual love and beauty). The former two had many descendants, who again lay with one another and some nymphs (who came to the Mountains. How convenient?) and had many more offsprings. All this happened with the help of Eros’ sexual powers and prowess, who incidentally was just a catalyst and didn’t have any offsprings. Naughty Eros, I tell you !!

As we sat, the history and mythology at the museum and from the books we bought took over.

So, the Titans were born out the union of Ge (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven), who hated them and imprisoned them in the depths of the earth. Ge, unhappy with her husband’s actions encouraged her son Cronus to cut Uranus’ genitalia (yeah !! thats what it says as per the myth) and threw them away into the sea (from where Aphrodite, the goddess of love sprang up – boy! oh! boy!). So, this was actually the first ever case of “Bobbitization” and “divorce” of a couple as they parted ways. Cronus went on to rule the world and kept on swallowing his offsprings as he had been told that he would lose his powers to one of his children.

And that’s exactly what happened. Rhea, his wife tricked him and was able to save her son Zeus, who grew up away from them. Zeus eventually defeated Cronus (in wrestling as it has been interpreted) and saved his siblings, and with two of them, Pluto and Poseidon, ruled the world. These three and their yet again, many children are called the Giants.

Boy, some legacy!! But thats not all as these gods are constantly, fighting and bickering with each other when they find time away from their frequent conjugal trips.

One such quarrel was about being appointed the patron God or Goddess of Athens. Athena, daughter of Zeus, goddess of wisdom and war among other things was chosen by the people of Athens. The losing party here was her very own uncle Poseidon, god of the sea. Since then he has been sulking like a child and fighting with her.

So we trudged over to the Acropolis – also known as the high city in Greek. And high it was as we trekked up laboriously, while Helios (the sun god) was unflinchingly showing off even at this hour of the evening (it was 6:30 p.m.) and not giving an inch to Nyx (goddess of the night). We, poor folks from the Indian subcontinent, were unknowingly trapped between these games gods were playing.

With a 20 Euro ticket, suddenly the burden of climbing up increased as my stingy mind (or the subcontinent mentality I like to call it conveniently) tried to convert to INR.  I wondered if is it worth the climb to see some old frikkin’ ruins.

Oh yes, it was!! We saw the Parthenon, or whatever survived after being destroyed many times over through the centuries by the Romans (5th century AD) and Venetians (1687 AD). We could’ve imagined how grand it would’ve been when it was built in 438 BC after the Persians had destroyed the original one in 480 BC.

We looked around and saw that the sun was finally setting and presented a beautiful panoramic view of Athens city from that height.

After unleashing my SLR trying to capture whatever I could get of the beautiful cityscape, we walked back through the ever bustling Plaka to our hotel to re-emerge at 10 p.m. for dinner.

We headed towards Platanos, highly recommended restaurant. After half an hour wandering in Plaka we were completely lost. A local Athenian offered to help as he walked along with us to show where the restaurant was. It was 10:30 p.m. It was dark. Our suspecting tourist minds on one hand was scared and on the other was suspicious thinking that this man would ask for money. We were completely wrong. We could only thank him and silently apologize for our minds to think the unthinkable. This was the first lesson on warmth and helpful nature of the people of Athens and Greece as we would find out throughout the rest of our trip.

Well, Platanos at 11 p.m. was a let down as they seemed to be in a rush to serve the starters and the main course together.

The next day was equally hot and I felt it more since I was wearing my sneakers while everybody were in their comfortable slippers and floaters. I had to buy one of those by the end of the day I took a silent vow as we walked towards the Monastiraki Flea Market, which is adjacent to Plaka.

While doing that we discovered all other ancient ruins, entrance to which was covered in yesterday’s 20 Euro ticket. Just imagine my stingy mind’s delight. True value for money it shouted as it was relieved of the burden and there was a sudden flight in my steps as I enthusiastically explored all of these like an intrepid archaeologist a la Indiana Jones.

These included Roman Agora, Ancient Agora, Archaeological site and Museum of Kerameikos, Hadrian’s Library, Temple of Zeus.

These were eye openers as I bombarded my small brain with all the information. And it made me hungrier. No, not for the intangible information, but the usual tangible tasty Greek food. After yesterday’s disaster dinner, I, a hardcore non-vegetarian decided to settle on a safe vegetarian dish – stuffed tomato and capsicum, special of the day. Well, it was worth it.

By this time I think we had figured out the food. Someone with subcontinent taste buds/palate should go for the specials. Mutton is highly recommended – any preparation including Souvlaki (kebabs). Meatballs, yes. Vegetarians will have a tough time but might get lucky especially in the starters as the Greek salad, aubergine based dishes, Tzatziki – yogurt based dips (raita) are great. House wines are cheaper and in fact better than the bottled ones.

After lunch, we went on a shopping binge as expected, but picking the elusive chappals (slippers) which I wore immediately.

I could sense Athena smiling as the tourists including us went berserk shopping. There was good business happening and frankly I didn’t sense that this country was going through economic difficulties. She sensed increased revenues.

The day ended with a beautiful dinner at a Taverna in Plaka, with great juicy Souvlakis (kebabs) and live folk music.

As I slept contently after today’s excursion, I thought I overheard a mischievous conversation emerge out of nowhere.

‘Hah! whoever comes to Athens is not disappointed. However, I wish that they had stayed longer to see other places especially the National Archaeological Museum which houses the Antikythera Device.’

‘Huh?’ A seemingly confused yet trying-to-be-disinterested male voice replied.

‘Oye! Uncle, it is a 2000 year old computer found in a shipwreck off the island in Antikithera.’ A heavy tinge of pride was added to the tone. ‘Well, to be fair to you, they should have also visited The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, dedicated to you.’

‘So you finally admit Athena, my importance to this city of yours, huh?’ Poseidon’s tone now had that heavy tinge of pride.

‘I didn’t say that.’ 

Athena was smiling as Poseidon squirmed.

The next morning, actually very early morning we headed towards the port to take the ship to Mykonos. We had booked online and had to collect the tickets at the shipping company’s office as per the instructions. After one hour of waiting, the office was still closed. With half an hour left for the ship to leave, we ran panic stricken, towards the ship to find that the ticket collection counter was elsewhere. We along with some of the other passengers just made it in time to board the ship.

Phew!!

‘You are still on to your old tricks eh, Athena? Still creating your inefficient bureucratic obstacles for these poor hapless passengers who want to explore the Aegean Sea, my abode. Give it a rest, girl.’

‘S@#* you.’ Pat came the (censored) reply.

Poseidon was now smiling as Athena squirmed.