A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in... ~ Greek Proverb
Well. Here we are. We honestly cant believe we are actually writing this prologue, and are about to leave on an overseas trip! To Greece (via a short stopover in Dubai)! So much happiness. π
The last time we travelled overseas was in January 2020 β when we managed to return from Laos just on the cusp of everything in the world going majorly pear shaped. I dont think we can even begin to quantify just how much the world has changed since then, not to mention how much travelling has changed!
We are lucky to have only missed one (calendar) year of overseas travel, and we are also very grateful that we out the other side of this pandemic madness relatively unscathed. However, like many people who love travel, we have been seriously busting at the seams to get going again.
This trip is a big birthday trip for Ren, and Greece has been on her βtop five birthday destinations shortlist for a few years now. Before the pandemic, all five shortlisted destinations more or less had equal weighting but since the pandemic hit, its a different world for
The two main factors when considering this trip were a countrys current COVID situation as well as their border situations (especially their border relationship with Australia). Obviously, we want to feel safe when travelling, but we also didnt wish to put anyone else at risk or be a burden on another countrys health systems. It was only after these two considerations were grappled with that we contemplated the issues wed normally ponder before we chose a travel destination the weather at this time of year, vaccinations required, airfares, internal stability, safety in general etc. Greece won out on all of the factors we considered.
Even though we had been talking about this Greece trip for a long time now, the actual booking of flights and was only finalised a few weeks ago! We had to navigate work and before we could be sure the trip could go ahead and thanks in very large part to Andrews persistence and determination that Ren should have the birthday trip she has been quietly (or not so quietly!) lusting after β
Heres a quick snapshot of Greece: Its a parliamentary republic with a President as the Head of State. The population is just over 11 million, the capital is Athens and the currency is the Euro (EUR). The official language is Greek (which obviously uses the Greek alphabet script). The official religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and is practiced in varying degrees by about 92% of the population. The rest of the population is made up of Greek Catholics, Muslims (Greeks of Turkish heritage) and Atheists.
Greece is in the Balkan region in Europe. Its a country with a mainland, a couple of peninsulas and thousands of islands that are spread over the Mediterranean, Ionian, Aegean and Cretan Seas. It shares borders with Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey.
The mainland and peninsula terrain are varied, but being predominantly mountainous, the landscape is shaped by steep peaks, deep gorges and towering karsts. Most of the islands seem to have hilly terrains too, with their dramatic cliff faces dominating most tourism photos.
Given this physical geography and its latitude/longitude, there is considerable climatic variation across
the country β ranging from mild Mediterranean to to cold climate mountain forests. We are going in late summer / early autumn, so hopefully the southern mainland and islands would have lost their hot stinging sun, while the mountainous destinations shouldnt be too cold.
When planning any trip, we try to identify what we feel are the main aspects of that country and culture. The aim is to experience as much as we can; and we like to leave with some semblance of understanding how the country works, as well as have an appreciation of things that are essential to the local people.
