Berat--the Ottoman city of 1000 windows

Ottoman houses in Berat

We left Gjirokastra yesterday morning to drive to Berat, another town with whitewashed Ottoman houses built on steep mountainsides on either side of the River Osum.  On one side of the river, where we stayed, the city is renovating the cobblestone alleyways and putting water pipes underground.  The hope is that the water tanks on everyone’s roof and the coils of electrical wires strung between houses will go underground also and clear out the messiness of this area of beautiful, old buildings.  No vehicles can get up the alleyways, so donkeys haul materials up the mountainside for the restoration work and haul down the debris left over from all the digging. 

Ottoman construction with wood layers

We took a back road to get to Berat.  The main roads are mostly very good, though often a little narrow, but the back road was in bad condition.  Still not a problem to drive.  We had to watch for potholes which could swallow a car and lots of bumps, but all that was very worth it because the drive was so beautiful.  We drove over mountains and across valleys with vineyards and olive orchards.  One large area obviously produced oil many years ago.  I saw only one oil well still pumping, but the landscape is littered with rusted drilling towers from the early part of the 20^th century.  We saw a large pool of oil that badly needs to be cleaned up.  We could smell it and the gas leaking from uncapped wells throughout our drive through the area.   A rusted oil refinery sits useless in one valley, also smelling of gas and decay. 

church at castle with Ottoman cloisenne design

Like Gjirokastra, the old sections of Berat have running water only a couple of hours a day.  Hence the water tanks on every roof in the historic part of the town.  We climbed the very steep cobblestone alleys to the large castle on top of the mountain.  The Greeks built the first castle, followed by the Byzantines and, later, the Ottomans.  There are 3 huge cisterns inside the 3 walls of the fortress, enough to supply the garrison and townspeople during a siege.  Today, 400 people still live inside the castle walls, but most of the former residents have moved to more comfortable homes in the town.

The old Ottoman houses were built of stone and plastered inside and out.  About every 18 inches, they put a layer of wood for earthquake protection.  Since they had nothing like cement, they mixed dirt and straw, like adobe, to use as mortar.  That seemed to work well once there was plaster coating the outside of the building. 

mountains above Berat

Berat is about 50% Muslim and 50% Christian, though our guide told us no one goes to churches or mosques a lot.  During the Communist era, religion was banished, mosques and churches were turned into hospitals, museums and other public buildings, and anyone espousing religious beliefs was punished severely.  One of the old mosques right on the river still has the beautiful frescoes from the Ottoman era.  Despite the Muslim prohibition on painting images, the Ottomans often painted scenes, animals and flowers on their mosques and public buildings.

fresco on mosque

 

Gjirokastra, an old Ottoman city in the south of Albania

Gjirokastra's castle at night

Mountains and sea define the borders of Albania.  It’s a small, beautiful country about the size of Sicily, with a contorted history that includes Greeks, Romans and Turks.  Consequently, it has a substantial Muslim population among its 2 ½ million people.  Young people are leaving in large numbers because of the poverty and lack of good jobs, seeking their fortunes in the rest of Europe. 

Gjirokastra in the rain

The Communist era is a dominant part of the recent history of Albania, and a terrible one.  Albania was the North Korea of Europe until 1992, with an unbearably repressive regime that preferred complete isolation from the rest of the world.  One person told us that, as a child, she and her siblings would stand in the long food lines with her parents, each taking a line for a different commodity, such as oil, sugar, milk or bread.  When she reached the front of a line, she would quickly change places with one of her parents so that the parent could buy the food.  She said her father would often get in the milk line at 2 a.m., only to find that by the time he reached the front of the line many hours later, all the milk was gone.  Parts of the city do not have running water 24 hours a day, so most homes have cisterns or water tanks on their roofs.  In Romania, we drove through villages where no one had any running water at all and women lined up at the town fountain with 5 gallon jugs to get their water for the day.

One of our guides told us the Communist regime took everything from his parents and grandparents—home, gold, household goods, clothes—because they were too well-educated and elite.  Shades of what China did under Mao.  He said they could never accumulate any assets now because their family has had nothing since 1946 and jobs are too scarce and wages too low.  His father was forced to leave school in the 4^th grade because the “elites” were denied an education, so became a truck driver.  But, he said, his father is very wise and politically astute and understands how politics work locally, nationally and globally.  

rooftops with mountains in back

Yesterday, we drove from Tirana, the capital, to Gjirokastra, a city in the south of Albania.  One Turkish pasha controlled the area for decades and built a fortress on top of one of the surrounding hills.  He killed one of his fathers-in-law, who had previously saved his life and given him his daughter in marriage, but met a similar fate at the age of 81 when a newer rogue beheaded him.

Ottoman house needing repair

The area below the castle has old Turkish houses, built of stone with slate roofs.  Most are falling down, but some have been renovated into hotels like ours.  If tourism continues to grow, this area of very steep cobblestone streets and dilapidated buildings will become the chic place to be in Gjiroskastra.  The city is even building a parking garage on one of the slopes because the tiny streets and difficult terrain don’t permit parking.  We are driving a Jeep which is way too large for these alleys, but have managed to navigate the sharp turns and steep slopes.  

our hotel, an Ottoman house after restoratioin

We visited one of the former Turkish palaces, which has two large living rooms where the extended family would gather and where important ceremonies, such as marriages, were held.  When the Communists took power in 1946, all the wealthy families were removed from their homes.  Sometimes, they were given a room in their house for their entire family and other families were given other rooms, all sharing the common spaces.  Often, the entire family was murdered instead.

family living room before 1946

Some families have renovated these old homes, turning them into small hotels like the one we stayed in.  But, most of them need someone to buy and restore them.  It’s very expensive, obviously, to do that, particularly in a country with very limited resources.  On Friday nights, the old Ottoman area restaurants thump with music, which made my head thump as well, long into the night.  It has become an enticing area for younger people who have stayed in Gjirokastra.  The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yes, Athens' Acropolis is wonderful

 

The Acropolis

We just flew our 6^th flight with Aegean Airlines—and we’re impressed.  Every flight until today has been smooth and on time.  Today, the incoming plane had mechanical problems and had to be taken out of service.  Most airlines would have canceled the flight, which was from Rhodes to Athens, but Aegean brought in another plane from Athens, loaded us aboard, and delivered us to Athens only an hour late.  Throughout the delay, I received texts from Aegean telling me what was going on.  I’ve never had such a rapid and informative response from any other airline. 

The Parthenon

I keep reading that Athens’ Acropolis isn’t really all that great, that too many of the artifacts have been removed to other locations.  Well, we went to the Acropolis late in the afternoon and thought it was exceptional.  It is a magnificent site, high above Athens, which had clean air that day, so the views were beautiful.  Everything on the Acropolis is under constant renovation and reconstruction, in part because earlier restorations were done so badly that the structures and stones need to be stabilized.  So the Parthenon has scaffolding covering the front and heavy equipment inside, which I think it also had all those years ago when I first visited.  I still loved it. 

women of ancient Athens

The next morning, before our flight to Tirana, Albania, we went to see the Ancient Agora, the site where Athens’ democracy began and flourished.  There is one temple there today, but lots of eroding statues, stones and columns and one beautiful Corinthian capital.  It is all in a garden, so it’s easy to stroll around imagining what it was like when the men of Athens debated the great issues of the day right in this place.

The Tholos, a round platform that was the foundation of an unusual, round meeting hall, is particularly interesting.  The leaders of Athens would meet there to make decisions.  Some of the men would spend the night in the Tholos in case an important decision needed to be made in the middle of the night.  Each group of leaders would use the Tholos for 35 or 36 days, after which another of the 10 tribes of Athens would send their leaders for 35 or 36 days.  That way, each of the 10 tribes had an equal amount of time to rule Athens. 

the Tholos with schoolchildren

Our hotel is in a very upscale neighborhood, with lots of high end shops, but also a lot of crumbling buildings.  Everywhere you can see empty stores and partially constructed buildings that look like they’ve been partial for a long time.   At the same time, the restaurants are busy.  Our hotel is on one of a series of pedestrian streets, which are filled with people.

Temple of Hephaestus and cat

But, it’s clear the economy is not thriving.  One business owner we talked to said she was a resident of the UAE, even though she’s Greek and owns a business in Greece, because she doesn’t want to pay Greek taxes.  Her attitude, which is common, is one of the reasons Greece has such big economic problems—people don’t pay taxes, so the government doesn’t have enough money to provide basic services and resorts to borrowing.  Only now it can’t borrow like it used to.  There are a lot of people living in poverty and looking for jobs.  And a lot of young people leaving Greece for other EU countries where their opportunities are better. 

Athens on a clear day

Out and about on Rhodes--driving to Lindos and around the island

 

Aegean and temple, Lindos

Rhodes is the largest island among the 12 eastern Greek Islands (the Dodecanese), but you can drive around it in a day.  We drove to Lindos to visit its ancient Acropolis and temples this morning and continued across the mountains to a small town high up in the mountains that is home to several wineries.  It’s not a very exciting town unless you want to go wine tasting, but has a pretty location overlooking the mountains and valleys of central Rhodes. 

yachts in the bay below Lindos

The drive to Lindos began in too much unkempt development and traffic and ended at the brilliant turquoise and blue bay beneath what remains of Lindos.  Finding parking in Lindos in the midst of dozens of tour buses, hundreds of cars, thousands of tourists and tiny streets was a bit daunting, but we succeeded. 

Tenple of Athena

You have to climb to the Acropolis, up a long series of steps to the top of the cliff, or take a donkey ride to the ticket kiosk near the top.  Don declined both options, so I joined the bevy of tourists on the steps.  While the site itself has been poorly restored, and not even a lot of that, the views are spectacular up and down the Aegean.  The water is clear and brilliant blue, shading to turquoise in the shallower bays filled with yachts.

Lindos has carved reliefs from the 3^rd century BC and gates from the 4^th century AD in addition to its temples to Athena and 14^th century castle built by the Knights of St. John.  The swarm of tourists detracts from the charm of the site, but nothing can spoil the location and views. 

view of the Aegean Coast from atop Lindos

Fortunately, by the time we left about 2:00 pm, the crowds had returned to their buses and cruise ship, so we could actually get our little purple car out of the parking lot and up a narrow street to the main road.  The drive into the mountains was peaceful, with no traffic, lots of hairpin turns, a good road and pretty scenery.  It looks like the islanders have replanted trees because the trees tend to be similar in size.  But, there is some variety of species, including lots light green pine trees that I have not seen before.

Olive orchards are everywhere and, higher up, there are bushy vineyards.  No vines strung along wires to form tidy rows.  The soil is so rocky that it can’t always sustain the vines.  We saw a lot of abandoned vineyards.  But, the olive trees seem to thrive.  As do the orange trees that produce delicious juice on every corner and in dozens of shops. 

ancient Greek boat carved into cliff

As we drove back to Rhodes (the city) along the Aegean Coast, we saw many abandoned and rotting greenhouses plus a few new ones.  Agriculture is difficult in this rocky, windy, salty environment.  Tourism is the big industry, but is a 7 month business.   The owner of our hotel told me that by November 1, when hotels and restaurants close, there will be no traffic and few people wandering the streets.  That makes for a precarious existence during times of recession and war. 

Rhodes is just 8 miles from the mainland of Turkey.  The day we flew into Rhodes, it felt like you could reach out and touch the clear coastal mountains of Turkey.  Since then, though, it’s been too hazy to see much.  Relations between Turkey and Greece are good enough right now that you can take boats between Rhodes and the coastal cities of Turkey.

temple at Lindos

Tomorrow, we fly to Athens for a day before continuing on to Tirana, Albania.

 

A day wandering in Rhodes Old City

mosaic from Cos now inside the Palace

The city of Rhodes is one of the top tourist destinations for European vacationers and Mediterranean cruises, for good reason.  The weather is beautiful, the history, absorbing, and the Old City, fascinating to stroll.  The commercial section is like the old bazaars that can be found all over the Muslim world, with tiny shops lining narrow cobblestoned alleyways.  Lots of people live in the Old City as well, so it is a busy place.  The island’s history is a yo-yo, bouncing between Christian and Muslim, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman (for 400 years), Italian and, now Greek. 

The Palace

My ancient history books pictured the Colossus of Rhodes, built by Charles of Lindos in 280 BC, but gone this last 1700 years.  The Colossus reportedly dominated the harbor, at a height of 108’, but no one seems to be sure exactly how big or where it was.  Still standing because it was rebuilt and restored by the Italian conquerors in the 1930’s is the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.  Our favorite site in the city, the Palace today houses magnificent mosaics pilfered by the Italians from Roman ruins on Cos after a massive earthquake destroyed much of that island and its beautiful Roman structures.  The Italians meticulously reconstructed the mosaics to grace their renovated palace, before archaeological standards dictated that relics remain in place at their original sites.  I’m grateful we could see these. 

drawings of mosaics

There is an amazing exhibition at the Palace of an Italian artist’s detailed paintings of the mosaics.  He drew and colored each tiny stone so that the preservationists could reconstruct the mosaics exactly as they were found on Cos.

The Knights of Rhodes built the Palace when the Ottomans kicked them out of Palestine in the early 14^th century.  They also built massive walls to protect themselves against sieges, mostly launched by the Ottomans.  The walls lasted until the Turks finally won in 1522.  Most of the churches were converted to mosques.  Today, Rhodes has minarets and Orthodox domes poking skyward amidst the buildings below. 

clock tower, dome of mosque and minaret

We walked the medieval walls of the Old City.  There are 3 walls, with 2 moats in between.  They are massive, built to withstand sieges, which they had to do often.  Ultimately, however, the Turks built huge assault weapons and towers that enabled them to breach the walls and take over Rhodes.

the cats of the Old City

Cats are here in abundance, looking quite well fed, probably from the leftovers outside the many restaurants.  I’ve only seen a couple of dogs, on leashes, so not roaming the streets.  Otherwise, there’s not much wildlife, not even the hordes of seagulls you usually see around ports.  There are, however, enormous yachts filling the slips in the port.

The Aegean is a gorgeous sapphire blue.  Unlike Santorini, which has only a few tiny beaches, Rhodes is surrounded by beaches, generally very rocky and completely full of lounge chairs and umbrellas.  This is the end of the tourist season, so not so many bodies on the beaches, but cruise ships sailed in and out of the ports several times a day. 

cruise ship in Rhodes' port

 

Thirasia and Oia from our terrace

After breakfast on our terrace overlooking Thirasia, the island that forms the outer rim of Santorini’s caldera, we walked to Oia, another brilliant white and blue town on the far northwest tip of Santorini.  The hike is only about 4 miles along a well-traveled path, but has a couple of good climbs and 2 charming Greek Orthodox churches along the way. 

Greek Orthodox church along path to Oia

Oia is a very busy tourist town, full of shops where you can buy everything from flowing dresses to bling and souvenirs you’ll wonder why you bought once you get them home.   Most of the restaurants serve basically the same menu, Greek appetizers, generally fried, pasta and fresh fish.  We chose one with a shaded terrace and a gorgeous view of Oia as we looked back towards the curve of Santorini.

Later, we drove to the farthest southwest end of the island.  Roads are in poor condition, with lots of traffic, so, though Santorini is very small, it can take quite a while to move from place to place.  We’d planned to stop at the hilltop town of Pyrgos, but traffic deterred us since its streets are old and narrow.  Even our little car takes up more room than the smaller alleyways provide.

small shrine on path to Oia

The area around Pyrgos is full of vineyards, very different from what we’re used to.  Instead of having vines trained along wires in rows, these vines are low and more like bushes, perhaps to protect them from the powerful winds and salt air.  The vineyards are very small, only an acre or two, so the grapes are picked by hand.  There are some wineries here that produce good wine.

Greece’s economic shambles have not passed Santorini by.  There are many buildings that have been started and abandoned or completed and closed.  The area on the north end of Santorini seems much more prosperous than the southern half, with lots of high end hotels overlooking the caldera.  Tourist shops and restaurants are also more posh and expensive.  The farther south you drive, the less luxurious the homes and accommodations become.  It looks like the “spending” tourists stay north in Imerovigli and Oia because the towns and shops farther south are more careworn, as if Greece’s economic collapse of the past 15 years continues to plague them.  We saw a few new hotels under construction in the south, but some clearly are awaiting more investment. 

view of Oia 

We’ve talked to some of the people who work here about the economy.  It’s still very bad.  Santorini has its tourists back, but this is an 8 month economy, so all the hospitality workers have to find other jobs during the off season.  That drives many of them out of the country for 4 to 6 months a year because jobs are scarce in Greece.

Almost all of the tourists we’ve encountered on our walks are Americans.  Since Greece is a euro-zone country, and the dollar is so strong right now, it’s a good time for Americans to travel here.  I wonder if that will continue into next year as the US economy weakens.  If not, Santorini and countries like Greece will be suffering.

Santorini--a jewel among the Greek Islands

 

                                                                    view of Imerovigli

It’s been many decades since I first visited the gorgeous Greek islands, so I’m happy to start this visit to Greece with the stunning island of Santorini, a major tourist destination, despite its tiny size, because of its extraordinary beauty.  We're on the first stop of a driving trip to the Greek islands of Santorini and Rhodes and around Albania, ending with a couple of days in Istanbul. 

Greek Orthodox church on mountaintop

Our hotel, along with dozens of others, clings to the rocky spine of Santorini, high above the caldera that demonstrates the origins of these islands.  We’re staying at the Anastasias Apartments, charming, brilliantly white suites, overlooking the deep blue water that fills the volcanic crater forming the west side of Santorini.  Tonight, tired out from our long trip yesterday, we enjoyed wine on the terrace as the sun set over the islands and an excellent dinner of fresh fish and grilled vegetables.                                                                                              

Yesterday, we flew non-stop from Denver to London, connecting to Athens for a late evening arrival.  The Sofitel at the Athens airport is right across the street from the terminal, so a perfect place to stay when you arrive late and leave early the next morning, as we did for Santorini.

islands in Santorini's caldera

The villages on the island are picture book white with bright blue domes on the churches and blue trim on some of the buildings.  You land at the island’s airport, built on a shelf of land on the east side of the island.  Jutting above the plain is a rugged ridge of mountains, low by Colorado standards, but steep, rocky and jagged.  Tomorrow, we’ll hike from our village, Imerovigli, to Oia at the northwest tip of Santorini.  Because the island is so small, we’ll be able to see all the rest of the island in a driving trip tomorrow afternoon. 

Santorini has a couple of fishing villages on its rocky coast and hosts numerous cruise ships during its tourism season.  But, it doesn’t have broad beaches or a big port.  Vineyards and wineries fill out the economy though tourism is clearly the big economic driver here.  We rented a car at the airport, which was jammed with tourists despite being late in the season.  It took over an hour waiting in line to get our car, particularly since the agent and his clients were having an annoyingly chatty day.  

view of sunset from Santorini

Santorini is known for its sunsets, though tonight’s was muted because of low clouds.  We’ll be here 2 days before moving on to the much larger island of Rhodes, with its old city of Rodos and its Greek ruins at Lindos.  

nice ending to the day