Traveling to Greece

[Jersey Girl]

Kish did you fly across the ocean or around it?

[msnobody]

You are so not alone thinking about what could happen. It is quite amazing that we can fly in aircraft. My next thought when flying is how insignificant I am as compared to the universe.

Please do share pictures, etc.

[honorentheos]

This evening we went into downtown Desfina and ate at a little gyro restaurant with reasonable prices. Non-tourist Greece is very reasonable. The gyros were so much better than the ones you get in the US, even the pita bread is so much better. I drank a couple of Fix beers (Fix is a Greek brand with 5% alcohol). The beers were 1.5 Euros a piece! And pretty tasty. We ran into the Greek physicist who is our partner in the excavation having a coffee in the town square. There was a monument close by to Isaias, bishop of Salona, who very nearby raised the flag of Greek independence from the Turks. I plan to visit the Isaias museum in town while I am here. The sunset was lovely, the air cool and dry. Being in Greece feels wonderful.

I've never had a Greek Gyro in Greece, but will add that a Turkish doner kebab is another level above any Gyro I've had as well. Sounds amazing. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.

[canpakes]

Kish did you fly across the ocean or around it?

Technically, if he flew around it, he’d still be somewhere on North or South America. : )

[Jersey Girl]

Kish did you fly across the ocean or around it?

Technically, if he flew around it, he’d still be somewhere on North or South America. : )

I think he'll know what I mean based on my first post to him in the thread and that made by Screech.

[canpakes]

Technically, if he flew around it, he’d still be somewhere on North or South America. : )

I think he'll know what I mean based on my first post to him in the thread and that made by Screech.

Sorry, Jersey Girl. I couldn’t resist. : )

[Gunnar]

This evening we went into downtown Desfina and ate at a little gyro restaurant with reasonable prices. Non-tourist Greece is very reasonable. The gyros were so much better than the ones you get in the US, even the pita bread is so much better. I drank a couple of Fix beers (Fix is a Greek brand with 5% alcohol). The beers were 1.5 Euros a piece! And pretty tasty. We ran into the Greek physicist who is our partner in the excavation having a coffee in the town square. There was a monument close by to Isaias, bishop of Salona, who very nearby raised the flag of Greek independence from the Turks. I plan to visit the Isaias museum in town while I am here. The sunset was lovely, the air cool and dry. Being in Greece feels wonderful.

I imagine that with your classic academic educational background, you must be pretty well versed in classical Greek as well as Latin. Is there enough similarity between ancient Greek and modern Greek so that you can converse fluently with the locals, without the need of translator? Or have you made it a point to learn contemporary Greek as well as Classical Greek? How greatly do they differ from each other?

[Physics Guy]

If the heat wave reaches Greece, you can subsist on frappés. The fact that blended instant coffee powder and ice makes a surprisingly good frothy beverage seems to be a modern Greek discovery.

[Moksha]

The fact that blended instant coffee powder and ice makes a surprisingly good frothy beverage seems to be a modern Greek discovery.

Wait, are you saying this was not a secret passed from the Freemasons to McDonalds?

[Chap]

I imagine that with your classic academic educational background, you must be pretty well versed in classical Greek as well as Latin. Is there enough similarity between ancient Greek and modern Greek so that you can converse fluently with the locals, without the need of translator? Or have you made it a point to learn contemporary Greek as well as Classical Greek? How greatly do they differ from each other?

Pending a reply from someone better informed - modern Greek as written is certainly closer to ancient Greek than Italian is to Latin. But:

(a) Basic vocabulary has changed significantly: for instance, the words for 'bread', 'water' and 'wine' are quite different from those used in antiquity.

(b) The sounds attributed to letters have also changed greatly. Thus in antiquity, the noise made by sheep was written βῆ βῆ to represent our 'Beeh, beeh', almost rhyming with 'air'. The same letters today would make the sound 'Vee, vee', rhyming with 'see'.

(c) Grammar has been much simplified. The particles which gave a lot of the dynamic to Greek sentences have vanished. The future tense is managed quite differently to how it used to be done. And so on.

There is a story that during the Greek war of independence (1821-29), an English politician visited some Greek troops and made a rousing speech in the classical Greek he had learned at school. Nobody understood a word; but the soldiers said they had not realised that English was really quite like Greek ...

But ... modern Greek is still Greek! Try the Rosetta Stone course if you want an easy start. It's easy to start speaking, and all the Greeks you meet will be delighted by your efforts.