ROLL 1, ATHENS ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM SYNTAGMA GR 1983_03
When Frank and I were married on June 19th,1983, we began our life as newlyweds on a honeymoon in Greece. Our first stop was Aunt Dorothy's apartment in Athens. It was a new experience for Frank who had never left the United States, but for me it would be my third trip to Greece. Our first sightseeing tour was of the National Archaeological Museum with antiquities that include Zeus or could it be Poseidon? The other remarkable bronze sculpture is of the Jockey on the horse. When I visited the museum with my parents in 1972, the jockey had been discovered underwater and when they mounted it on to the horse we were invited for a special private viewing. Next we are on the streets of Athens and and Syntagma Square where the Evzones were changing the guard and the Agia Dynami (Holy Power) church surrounded by a building. No visit to Athens is complete without a tour of the Parthenon and Acropolis. You can see how quiet it was on the day that we visited. Today is a whole another story, with tour buses lining up and the crowds suffocating in the heat. Next are photos of us on the ferry boat to Ikaria which is one of our most favorite places on planet Earth. Ikaria is considered a Blue zone because people live into their 100s. We stayed at Aunt Dorothy’s second husband’s house of George Kountoupes in the village called Magganiti. She was newly widowed and wore black during on our trip. In 1983 there were no roads to and from Magganiti or electricity and the only way in and out of the village was by caique back to the port town of Agio Kyrikos when you needed provisions or you grew your own fruit and vegetables. It's a 2 and 1/2 hour boat ride to get to the main Port Town but if that's where you got to go that's where you go. You can see the busy streets packed with merchants, cafes, beasts of burden and fisherman fixing their nets. Frank is posing with the sculpture of Icarus in the background on the docks, and on the way back is a photo of road being blown up for the tunnel which is how you can go back and forth in a 40 minute car ride versus 2 and 1/2 hour boat ride. Here we are cleaning up the backyard, washing clothes by hand, Frank is watering the apricot trees and finally sitting down for an afternoon of Scrabble. The little boy at the sink who today is in his mid-40s is Apostolas Karnavas and I’m friends with his mother Marcy and Aunt Dina Kotsores. The walk to the beach was through a dirt path carved out by many years of feet trudging up and down the mountain. The beach is called Firodi and and throughout the day the beach is filled with all ages. Magganiti fills up in the summer months with Greeks who have immigrated to the US and love the solitude and quietude. Frank and I visited this past summer in 2025 and everyone in these photos has either passed on or is much older. Roll six is where the real fun begins. Frank and I were down at the beach and we heard gunshots signaling that the groom had arrived to pick up his bride to start the wedding festivities. The whole town convened on the road to the Yalo which is where the boats pull up in the harbor and the dancing began. You see the groom leading the dance with Maria Sirigus next to him. We all boarded the three caiques toward the main port of Agios Kyrikos to get transported to the wedding on the other side of the Ikaria. When we arrived in Agios, guests boarded school buses to take us to the wedding but there was no room for around 20 people. So we had to get on this giant freighter boat filled with logs steered by Avgeri Kochilas at the ships wheel that was owned by the bride’s father. Frank stayed back to help Aunt Dorothy close down the house and we met the following day in Agio because I was invited to join the wedding so I could take more photos. You can see me in Roll 7 #6 with the water in the background chugging away and the young man #7 who took my photo. Here we are on the school bus heading up toward the wedding, next are the priests and the young couple and the festivities with Greek dancing. Take a look at Roll 8 #2 where people were getting down on the floor that went on till 6:00 AM which is very typical for the people of Ikaria. Next is the town of Evdilo with Aunt Dorothy where it was very windy and no swimming was to be had. Now it is time to say goodbye to Aunt Dorothy and Ikaria and we traveled to Crete where we visited the famous ruins of Knossos. You can see Frank posing with the feathered headdress mural which is a very common photo that the tourists take. Next are the beaches of Matala where I had gone with Margo in 1977 that can be seen on this website. We also visited the ruins of Phaistos and the man and the Cretan garb greeted us and we each had a turn taking a photo with him. Next is Iraklion where you see the café and butcher shop with dead animals little knowing that I'd be working for the Field Museum 2 weeks later. You can see the minaret of a mosque between the narrow streets, the ironwork balcony, the view from the Ibrahim Han Mosque in Rethymno, the Morosini Fountain on Venizelou Square, Heraklion Archaeological Museum where I photographed Artemis probably a Roman copy with her bow and arrow. Next most interestingly is a man with a camera who did the photo processing in a little tray under his camera. Pretty astoundingly he gave us the photo and paper negative. Next, we visited the grave site of Nikos Kazantzakis author of Zorba the Greek that was covered with dried flowers and wreaths. We visited an exhibit where I purchased the photo of the little yaya next to her roses, the ferry boat back to Athens, more Evzones and lastly a visit to our family in Lagonisi with Thea Chrysoula, my dad’s sister, cousins Olga and Nitsa and the young girls who are cousin Demo’s girls, Rena and Tasia Skoularena. We connected with Rena on this last trip to Geraki in 2025 and had a fantastic time touring the olive groves of 5k trees. The final shot is from the park in Athens looking toward the Parthenon. One month of pure bliss in Greece in 1983.
