Trip to Greece video - Santorini trilogy Part 3 Santorini Pastoral

Part 3 of my Trip to Santorini in my 2003 journey to Greece. I took a morning walk trying to get to a certain beach, kind of getting lost in some tranquil country roads.

Most of the video is accompanied with the song Summer Rain by the Primitives. The song fits my video very well. It was summer, I walked alone on the road, and for a while there was drizzle. I tried hard to make DV, clumsily holding an umbrella against the wind and rain.

I wanted to take a walk towards a beach from nearby the guesthouse. No one was on the road except me and a few passing vehicles. So I was overjoyed to see a lovely little dog, which seemed to be a godsend from heaven (but was perhaps the dog from a store of the town). I imagined that I was Tin Tin and called it my Milou. And so it had escorted me on the road for a while. Thanks to my little angel, at the crossroads I followed it when in doubt about which road to take. And Milou was right. It guided me to the right direction.

Yet, no road was really wrong there. It's always fine to get lost in any roads among the fields. In fact, in the beginning I meant to go to beach A, but earlier on I had already taken the road to beach B by mistake. It's a happy mistake though. Much farther away, it's just impossible to reach beach A.

And like a heavenly creature, Milou had mysteriously disappeared while I was wondering about the road to take.

(Milou's story: I was enjoying my usual walk every day to find some good snacks. Strangely this morning there's a fool on MY road walking slowly alone. How dare you! That's rare. Usually clever people would speed through the roads with some gigantic and sturdy monsters. This uncivilized trespasser could not speak Greek. Now and then it mumbled something to me in some barbarian tongue that I could not understand. Yet it seemed to call me by the name of "Milooh" repeatedly. At first I was cautious, as it pointed at me with two weapons in its hands. Fortunately it's harmless, perhaps due to its imbecility. Ah, then I smelled a great snack in the field. Ooh, yummy! Soon I got rid of it, thank God! And I remained the KING of the road.)

Ironically, while I was not fond of beaches I was often attracted to beaches. They seemed like good excuses for a little exploration. Finally when I got to see the beach on the cliff, the waves roared, the wind howled, no one was there, the beach looked gloomy -- it's not for swimming, or sunbathing, not even walking.

For a city dweller like me, it's particularly pleasant to walk on these quiet country roads. Though the scenery was not spectacular, it was delightfully tranquil and scenic. There for the first time I saw scarecrows which really looked like scarecrows (of my childhood impressions).

Though this quasi-MV is so far one of the most unpopular video of my hopelessly unpopular (but lovely) channel, I am very fond of this video. It includes some favourite elements of mine -- walking alone, getting lost, pastoral scenery, lovely stranger (the dog), summer rain, as well as my favourite Primitives song "Summer Rain". I could enjoy watching it over and over, narcissistically.

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Trip to Greece video - Santorini trilogy Part 2 Road to Oia

Part 2 of my trip to Santorini in my 2003 journey to Greece. From Fira, through the cliff-top villages of Firostefani and Imerovigli, I walked all the way to Oia for its famous sunset.

It's a much longer walk than I thought. The island was small and Oia, at the tip of the island, didn't seem that far away. But as I walked on and on, the tip in sight was always STILL somewhere far away.

A DV camera in my right hand and a snapshot camera in my left hand, it did not make me an action-hero, but rather I made a fool of myself. I was too busy making DV and then taking pictures and then making DV and then... With this 3-in-1 role to play, I had hardly a third of the time to really see with my eyes. As in elsewhere, at times I asked myself, "What the hell am I doing here?" -- I wondered if I had looked at things with my own eyes at all. Rather, I just greedily recorded the scenes with gadgets. And then I had to get to Oia before sunset, so I couldn't take my time to walk leisurely as I usually did, though it's hardly a hurried walk compared to that of package tours.

For my inexperience, the camera movement of my videos was often too fast. As well as the sunset deadline, with the limited number of DV tapes available then, I tried to take it all in with as little time as possible. Unfortunately I had mistaken it for a powerful scanner. The truth is, you just get less -- and nowhere-fast -- if you move too fast with your camera, perhaps not unlike the truth about the pace of travel.

In fact, like most other journeys, I regret I didn't have enough time to see the country. I wish to travel around at a more leisurely pace, even though my pace was already snail-slow compared to others.

It took longer time than I thought to get to Oia, partly because of my self-imposed multiple duties, partly because of the illusory nearness of the tip of the island in sight, and partly because of my stupid curiosity. On the road I saw restaurants flaunting their cactus dishes and I was curious. Spotting some cactuses with their red flowers on the mountain roads, I was stupid enough to touch one such innocent-looking flower. Instead of being greeted by a spirit who would grant me three wishes, soon I felt my fingers burning -- stung by the finest possible stings of the flower, which could only be seen when the fingers had been stung all over with! So I'd spent quite some time trying to pick out the tiny tiny stings, worrying that I might die of their secret poison within 24 hours. In the end it's impossible to pick them all out, and the group of German walkers, whom I took as my temporary guardian angels, accompanying me on the lonely mountain roads, had gone out of sight, and I was left alone in the whole wide mountain area. As for the leftover stings, they miraculously disappeared the next morning. And I survived.

The path was harder to walk than I thought. After the easy walk through the cliff-top villages of Firostefani and Imerovigli, a few parts of the path at first sight seemed almost impossible to walk. They were very slanted and slippery footpaths. What I thought at the beginning as no more difficult than strolling around town turned out to be a hiking trip at the countryside. I was not prepared for it. At first I didn't even expect walking all the way from Fira to Oia. It's just that as I walked on and on through the villages, Oia seemed not so far away and I thought why not walking on to get there. With my cheap pair of sandals not made for hiking, I simply ended up with bleeding toes.

While I was in Santorini, often it was quite cloudy and at times there were drizzles. So it was hopeless for me to take photos of the white white houses against the blue blue sea in charming contrast and to boast them to friends afterwards. Worst, there was no famous sunset of Oia to see, and after all the efforts of the long march, the ending was not glorified. Welcome, the good old consolation of "the process is more important than the outcome".

The walk was nevertheless fruitful. At least I had learnt about two edible plants. The bad guy was the cactus (and its malicious flower). The good guy was the fig fruit, which could be seen on many roads in Greece. The best thing was that you could easily pick them and eat them. Isn't that sweet?

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Trip to Greece video - Santorini trilogy Part 1

Overwhelmed by the dramatic beauty of Santorini, I had made too much DV of the Greek island. My own private cut was more than 50 minutes long, and I easily fell asleep midway watching it. It's hard to condense it to less then 10 minutes to put it on YouTube, so I've cut it into 3 parts.

Part 1 begins with the boat trip from Iraklio to Santorini, and ends neatly with the boat leaving Santorini. If you are patient enough to watch till the end, or impatient enough to jump to the end (as I often do when watching videos of others), you will be rewarded with a nice song by Whistler. Strangely, for me, sometimes the most moving moment is to see the ending credits accompanied by songs that I like – the end, unimportant as it may seem, could be the true end of the whole video.

My cynicism about the pictorial beauty of Santorini evaporated soon as I got to the island. Those banal pictures and postcards of the beauty of the island were not lying. The real Santorini was only more captivating, not just with its cliff-top villages but also its endless pastoral scenery.

When the boat arrived at Santorini, I was slightly bewildered by the hubbub at the pier. Never had I seen a port as noisy as this (Yes, I haven't yet been to Tangier), let alone imagining seeing it at Santorini, which is often associated with the rather tranquil and heavenly images of white houses against blue sea. Yet, like other hubbub scenes, I was more enchanted by the drama then repelled by the chaos.

That was the usual tout scene at the port. I guess I was picked up by one of the touts. But it's not that bad, after all I had failed to make a reservation of accommodation, and had been worrying about where to stay. Though the guesthouse was 20 minutes' walk away from Fira and had no swimming pool, the room was lovely and comfortable, and I got free rides from the owner to and from the port. Most importantly, it's cheap. (Although I was envious when hearing fellow travellers staying in characteristic cave-like rooms at hotels at the cliff, without spending much more than I did.)

And what's more, there's a lovely bakery nearby, which is my favorite bit of the video. The mainstay of the bakery was a simple loaf of bread that was fresh and tasty. Outside the shop there were two lovely bakery frescoes, and inside it's decorated with some charming pictures. Many villagers went there to get their daily bread. I followed everyone to buy bread there. It made me feel like I was one of the villagers and I liked that.

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Trip to Greece video - Lakki, Crete

Unable to get to the Samaria Gorge, I consoled myself with a bus ride to Lakki, a mountain village in the middle of the road from Hania to the Samaria Gorge, which the guidebook said was a spectacular route on Crete.

It was an enjoyable little excursion. I started out to take the bus very early in the morning. First getting there, I had a coffee (accompanied with a glass of tap water) at the modest village coffee house. It's interesting to see them make the simple coffee with traditional bronze-colored wares. The village was pretty quiet and I seemed to be the only tourist to visit there that morning. The few village women came across me on the road greeted me kalimera (good morning). I was overjoyed, 'cos so far in my trip it was the first time I was greeted kalimera by Greeks or Cretans outside guesthouses.

On village roads villagers were rare but sheep galore. As I walked on, I inadvertently frightened flocks after flocks of sheep. They just suddenly all stop chewing grass and gazed at a monster intently, as if in a freeze-frame. As I mostly counted sheep and rarely saw sheep, I was curious and enjoyed watching them close to me.

Most of the time I was alone on the village roads. Actually, as I went on with my journey, I often found myself alone on the road, with no one else in sight for quite some time. It could be pretty scary if I had thought too much. But then, I believed superstitiously that gods were everywhere to protect the curious (and lovely) travellers in Greece, and I would be safe, or at least be saved, at the end of the day.

I am always curious about countryside villages and love to walk into them and explore a little, if only there were no hypersensitive dogs, which lack the faculty to differentiate the good from the bad. Yes, I hate dogs…most of the time. They were often in my way and hence my enemies, not to mention their bad shitting habits, or their human counterparts.

I vaguely remember I just stayed there for an hour or so, for I had to catch the very infrequent bus back to Hania. At the bus stop a few old men were sitting and enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of seemingly alcoholic drink. They told me it would take quite a few hours before the bus would come. It worried me that the bus waiting game of Cape Sounion would repeat. Fortunately, the bus did stop by at a reasonable time. Even better, it was amazing, as I was the only passenger on the bus throughout the bus trip back to Hania, which made me feel like a sudden VIP, and the extremely cheap fare for the private bus simply thrilled me with hardly-guilty pleasure.

Back to the guesthouse, it was still before checkout time. It was Sunday; while the others were still sleeping, I had already been there enjoying a morning excursion and back from it. I was blessed with two Sundays in one day.

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Trip to Greece video - Hania, Crete

After the capital Iraklio, I got to Hania, Crete's second city and former capital, in my 2003 journey to Greece.

With great expectation of a charming Venetian town, when first entering the town, the usual nondescript concrete houses at the outer part of towns seemed disappointing. It's not until I got to the Venetian old town that it proved the guidebook right. It's a joy to wander in the labyrinth of alleys and cobblestoned streets. There were plenty of colourful old houses, charming small hotels and restaurants, delightful shops selling interesting gifts, as well as the usual boring tourist souvenirs.

But like any other labyrinths, as soon as I had conquered it, the second time when I went there and walked about, the enchantment already vanished.

My pleasure was somewhat spoilt by the endless honeymoon couples. Single travellers were few, and how could I alone fight against the tides of package-toured honeymooners? So far in my trip Greece had been a great place for honeymooners, and it was most obviously so at Hania. At times It made me wonder if I had chosen the wrong destination for my trip.

A bizarre bread incident happened to me, the parochial fool. Reading it in my good old travelogue always made me laugh:
午餐時把吃剩的魚打包起來，這種粗劣的魚宜用來做三文治。到三文治店買芝士三文治，店員似乎覺得我的簡單要求太古怪。等了幾分鐘，奇怪為什麼要弄那麼久，怕麵包給烤燶了。待店員把"三文治"遞給我時，驚覺豐盈的一個好好麵包被烤成纖巧型多士，像餅乾多些，我的香魚芝士三文治晚餐夢幻滅了，而且承惠1.4€； 希臘人(或是克特島人)又一次示範他們的不可理喻、出人意表。回旅館去，邊拿着塊異形"三文治"邊喃喃地駡 — 明明說要三文治，怎麼變了超級多士﹖想像力太豐富，但想像力卻不飽肚。To make a sandwich with the leftover fish of my lunch, I asked for a cheese sandwich at a sandwich shop. Watching the shop assistant nonchalantly toasting the bread for a few minutes, I was worried that it would be badly burnt. I was horrified when finally I was handed the finished product of the "sandwich". The lovely fatty bread had been turned into an unhealthily slim and dry biscuit. Imagine the difference between a handsome living being and a mummy. Immediately my sweet dream of a tasty dinner with fish and cheese sandwich was brutally broken.

Later I found in the guidebook that it was the local specialty food of the Everbest brand. Back home when I talked with friends about my trip, one mentioned a few things of her own Greece trip and this was one of the few she could easily remembered, and she called it interesting.

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Trip to Greece video - Knossos, Crete

Trip to Greece - Knossos

My 2003 trip to Greece continued with a visit to the ruins of Knossos, the capital of Minoan Crete.

Without much descriptions of the ruins at the site, I could hardly comprehend much looking around. I was only sure that I enjoyed a great deal looking at a myriad of beautiful trees, as well as the free show of the imperial peacocks struting around.

Before I went there, I vaguely imagined with joy that I would see beautiful frescoes on some ancient walls, like those enigmatic images I'd seen in a certain film (of Pasolini or Fellini?). But it turned out to be slightly disappointing, the reconstructions gave an artificial air to the site, as in many historical sites in other parts of the world. It felt somewhat like going to a theme park. There were not as many frescoes available to see as I wished. Beautiful as they were, some had to be neatly cased behind glass frames, and thereby vanished the ancient aura.

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Trip to Greece extra - The Loneliness of the Restaurant Waiter

While saving the video clips to files and listening to Maria Callas, I found that her music could elegantly bring out a tragic-comic sadness in the slowed reality of the originally kinda harmlessly funny clips I made of a restaurant waiter who relentlessly tried to persuade in vain the passing tourists to eat in his restaurant.

Every time I watched it I laughed so violently that my mum was horrified by my insanity. It was made tragic by the music and so it was ten times more comical then it was in reality.

I was a bit doubtful whether I should put it on YouTube (where most of my neighbouring videos embarrassed me) though. It made me wonder if I was not doing the same thing as that notorious Bus Uxxxx video - infringing others' privacy, and it felt like betrayal because I took advantages of others for my own selfish purpose. Yet, highly amateurish I might be, the image quality of my video was much better than that of the cheapie peeping Bus Uxxxx video, which showed an unattractive stupid guy ranting without shame. It's not new, for such weirdos are not uncommon in HK, especially when those emotionally unstable freaks stationed at offices are counted. Oh no! I shouldn't mention that Bus Uxxxx, 'cos I am elegant and I don't want to have anything to do with it.

But I liked my video so much, partly because it made me enjoy and admire the singing of Callas like never before. I consoled myself that, after all, I had already exposed a great deal of strangers' images in my other videos before. And since my victim didn't stop me nor stare at me when I filmed him then, I brashly took it as a non-disaproval from him (though he might not be aware of the serious consequence it would entail at that time).

The commentator: Well, few people would watch your videos, so why bother, you fool?

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Trip to Greece video - Iraklio, Crete

Continuing my old and old trip to Greece in 2003, here I got to Crete's capital Iraklio. I'm afraid the video is a bit too long. I thought it would be 6:59 but it ended up 7:00! Just because of the extra 1 second, I feared that the audience, if there's any at all, would be turned away from it, just like that the smart housewives would only care to buy something with a price that ends with 99 cents.

The old harbour area was dramatically windy. At times I could hardly stand still and hence there are the super-shaky scenes with unbearable noises.

My favourite bits: the open-air string quartet concert at the atmospheric site nearby Kazantzaki's tomb; the opening of a small supermarket where anyone could get into and had a good deal of free munchies. I was glad to sample local confectionery without having to count my notes carefully. What an accidental blessing for a poor and hungry ghost like me, just when I was wondering what snacks to buy for the bus trip to Hania the next day! Finally I could love Iraklio!

Do I talk too much? Yes, but if everyone can talk too much nonsense in good conscience, so can I.

Nikos Kazantzakis: "I hope for nothing, I fear nothing, I am free."

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Trip to Greece video - Boat to Crete

This was my first boat trip in Greece, a night boat to Iraklio from the Piraeus Port in Athens. That night happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon was round, and perhaps rounder than that one in HK, which I didn't really miss at all.

Earlier that day I took a day trip to Cape Sounion, as shown in my last video. And the bus back to Athens that I intended to take had mysteriously made a no-show. Worried to death, I had waited for an hour or two for the next bus back to Athens, for I would have little time left for packing my baggages and getting to Port Piraeus in time to board on the boat to Iraklio, not to mention having a decent dinner. Fortunately, it turned out that the departure time of the boat was later than what's shown in the LP guidebook, which had so often misinformed me that I had discarded it soon after the trip.

Lesson learnt: Do not take a day trip on the day when you have to depart for another city.

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Trip to Greece video - Cape Sounion

The second video of my Trip to Greece series is now showing on my YouTube channel. It's an excursion from Athens to Cape Sounion, where I looked for the traces of Byron at the Temple of Poiseidon in vain. The video was too quiet, so I'd added some beautiful Greek music to it.

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My first video on YouTube - Athens

Check out my first video on my new YouTube channel! It's cool!

Trip to Greece - Athens