![]() Service by sea, too, is much improved: both the Greek Line and American Export Lines offer fast comfortable voyages through the Mediterranean (from New York to Piraeus in about ten days), with stops at Spanish, French, and Italian ports, and sometimes a call at Cyprus or the Azores. ![]() Now there is frequent jet service that goes from New York to Athens in about ten hours and for the roundtrip fare of about $700, allows any number of stopover possibilities on the way back, either in Italy, North Africa, Spain, or Portugal on the southern route, or in such northern cities as Venice, Zurich, Brussels, Paris, or London. Greece was until fairly recently an awkward place to reach. These are but samplings from a bewildering assortment of islands, whose landscapes range from the bare rock hills of the Cyclades and the volcanic fantasy of Santorin to the olive-soft slopes of Lesbos, and whose architecture includes everything from the tall handsome mansions of Hydra to the gothic streets and the mosques of Rhodes and the purely spontaneous folk creations of Mykonos, Siphnos, Folegandros. Into the sheer pastoral beauty of Samos and Thasos and Samothrace, the delights of beaches and statues and ruins and wines and seafood are quietly blended. Delos, core of the ancient island complex, is all ruins, as complete and as moving as any archaeological site on earth. It has snow on its mountains till May and a mild winter on its hundreds of miles of coast. Crete, for example, the fourth largest island of the Mediterranean, is a world in itself, with its Minoan treasures, its imaginatively reconstructed palace of Knossos, and its vigorous, fiercely traditional mountain people. These are strong reasons for choosing the Greek islands.Īnother reason: the islands are no mere fringe of Greek travel they are as solid and substantial a part of Greece as the mainland. And given the new ease of access, both by air and by water, two weeks can be enough. All is intensity two weeks in these islands will almost always seem like two months. A good deal of English is spoken (as well as French and German), and in no time at all the islander will be asking personal questions, letting himself into the visitor‘s life as he lets the visitor into his. Still prevalent is the old-Greek sense of hospitality, of the honors due to the stranger and guest, for whom the Greeks have but one word, xenos. There are, with the possible exception of Mykonos, no tourist traps and no heavy machinery of tourism. Except for July and August - and then only in a handful of islands - there is no tourist crowd. The approach, too, is simple and direct: a short voyage from Piraeus, and the rest of the world is left far behind. And everywhere is that unsurpassed clear air, the scent of thyme and juniper, the deep blue of the fabled sea. Refreshed, at ease with the islanders, not burdened by the chic or the fashionable, I found myself relishing these simple pleasures, as I did the sailing, the swimming, the walks past shepherds and monasteries and olive groves to lost temples, the voyages from port to port, island to island. There are trees and vine trellises shading the little harborside cafés there are untouched beaches and fishing villages and hamlets hung on steep hillsides there is music and the good Turkish coffee served with a sweet conserve and a glass of cold spring water. There is no ugliness here, no clamor, no traffic to speak of, no television, no advertising. But after one has come to know the Greeks‘ past, one begins to like them for their present, for their friendliness and good manners, their eagerness and their insatiable curiosity, and nowhere are these qualities stronger and clearer than in the islands. Crete, Rhodes, Delos, Patmos - the very names of the islands speak of that ancient splendor. The awesome relics of the past are as numerous and as fine here as on the mainland. Stretching from Italianate Corfu all the way to the coast of Turkey, and halfway to Africa, the Greek islands are Europe‘s last major preserve of totally unspoiled natural beauty, of life naively and simply enjoyed. ![]() And there are so many of them, nearly 1500 (166 are inhabited): great strings and clusters of islands, each within an hour or two of the next, no two alike, each a strong presence set deep into history and myth. In a world as turbulent as ours, it is hard to imagine so pure and serene a world of islands as the Aegean contains.
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