Crete / Greece on film

A long-winded post with no artistic merits but I thought it is Greece-related, some might find it interesting. I usually don't take a camera with me when I visit Greece so these pictures are snapshots taken with my phone.

I had this idea to take the kids to the places I grew up – I am not sure they are at the age to appreciate it so it really felt like a chore for them. I took them to see my junior high school – I had my best school times here by far, I still have some of the friends I made during that period. The playground area used to feel so massive back then, now it feels tiny.

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A few minutes walk from there is this park where they used to take us for school trips – didn't cost them much and didn't have to walk far either. Of course back in the 80s/90s this looked quite different – it was just a massive field with some old train wagons abandoned there. We used to climb them and play amongst broken glasses - health and safety was not a priority back then but we somehow made it in one piece.

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I also had the idea to take the kids for a trip to the city centre – I wanted them to see where I used to hang around in the 90's. Took them to my favourite photography shops – you would find me penniless looking at the shop windows here as a teenager.

This is the place I bought my Praktica BMS – closed down a long time ago. Looks like they ended up selling mobile phones at some point to survive. I could still see the empty shelves on the wall. It was such a tiny shop.

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I still have the receipt from that buy - Christmas 1993.

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This is another photography shop that actually has survived the crisis and is doing rather well. It was a bit more of a uptown ranking shop with expensive Nikons back in the 90's - way out of my badget but it was the place to see those cameras from close for the first time. He also developed some of my slides and did a couple of Cibachrome prints.

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My daughter wanted to see “something ancient” she said so we visited the metro station in Syndagma Square where there is this ancient tomb. Of course we walked around the Acropolis too.

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I also took her to the place where me and my friends used to spend our Saturday mornings drinking coffees in Plaka area – maybe @DownUnder will recognise some of these places. This is our table behind my daughter – I tried to arrange to meet them again but nowadays people have families and making spontaneous decisions like this is out of the question.

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Grafting is becoming so popular in the street where I used to live. Now, most of the trees produce two different fruits, like this tree producing oranges and lemons at the same time.

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Talking about lemons, this is in my garden, we end up having so many that we give away to the neighbourhood.

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That's it folks – I am leaving you with my favourite fast food – souvlaki.

I hope you enjoyed it.

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p.giannakis said:
A long-winded post with no artistic merits but I thought it is Greece-related, some might find it interesting. I usually don't take a camera with me when I visit Greece so these pictures are snapshots taken with my phone.

I had this idea to take the kids to the places I grew up – I am not sure they are at the age to appreciate it so it really felt like a chore for them. I took them to see my junior high school – I had my best school times here by far, I still have some of the friends I made during that period. The playground area used to feel so massive back then, now it feels tiny.

View attachment 4833330

A few minutes walk from there is this park where they used to take us for school trips – didn't cost them much and didn't have to walk far either. Of course back in the 80s/90s this looked quite different – it was just a massive field with some old train wagons abandoned there. We used to climb them and play amongst broken glasses - health and safety was not a priority back then but we somehow made it in one piece.

View attachment 4833331

I also had the idea to take the kids for a trip to the city centre – I wanted them to see where I used to hang around in the 90's. Took them to my favourite photography shops – you would find me penniless looking at the shop windows here as a teenager.

This is the place I bought my Praktica BMS – closed down a long time ago. Looks like they ended up selling mobile phones at some point to survive. I could still see the empty shelves on the wall. It was such a tiny shop.

View attachment 4833332

I still have the receipt from that buy - Christmas 1993.

View attachment 4833341

This is another photography shop that actually has survived the crisis and is doing rather well. It was a bit more of a uptown ranking shop with expensive Nikons back in the 90's - way out of my badget but it was the place to see those cameras from close for the first time. He also developed some of my slides and did a couple of Cibachrome prints.

View attachment 4833336

My daughter wanted to see “something ancient” she said so we visited the metro station in Syndagma Square where there is this ancient tomb. Of course we walked around the Acropolis too.

View attachment 4833333

View attachment 4833334

View attachment 4833335

I also took her to the place where me and my friends used to spend our Saturday mornings drinking coffees in Plaka area – maybe @DownUnder will recognise some of these places. This is our table behind my daughter – I tried to arrange to meet them again but nowadays people have families and making spontaneous decisions like this is out of the question.

View attachment 4833337

Grafting is becoming so popular in the street where I used to live. Now, most of the trees produce two different fruits, like this tree producing oranges and lemons at the same time.

View attachment 4833338

Talking about lemons, this is in my garden, we end up having so many that we give away to the neighbourhood.

View attachment 4833339

That's it folks – I am leaving you with my favourite fast food – souvlaki.

I hope you enjoyed it.

View attachment 4833340
Click to expand...
I love souvlaki so much that I started to make it as soon as we got back to the States. It turns out pretty good on my small, portable gas stove. Once we reach the warmer season outside, I will try it over charcoal as well. Next I should learn to make tzatziki, though a pita with souvlaki is quite good with just some Greek yogurt in the place of tzatziki.
 
agentlossing said:
I love souvlaki so much that I started to make it as soon as we got back to the States. It turns out pretty good on my small, portable gas stove. Once we reach the warmer season outside, I will try it over charcoal as well. Next I should learn to make tzatziki, though a pita with souvlaki is quite good with just some Greek yogurt in the place of tzatziki.
Click to expand...
Yogurt instead of tzatziki is the norm in Crete.
 
Sadly for me, most of my memories of Athens are now past the sepia-tinted stage and have faded to mid grey. After all I was there for one week in 1971, 53 years ago. One forgets a lot of a half century. Usually all the things one found most pleasant. The bad and bitter memories always seem to endure...

As I've written before, I never made it to the Acropolis, something for which I still (figuratively) kick myself. Some day, maybe. As unlikely as this seems. A lot of experience has taught me to not return to a place with the expectation of reliving memories past. In your case, being Greek-born, you would have a different viewpoint, Greece is your homeland,where you lived your childhood and teenage years. So yes, different memories entirely.

Some tourists I knew rate Greek food as limited and even boring, which always make me wonder what it is they ate when they were in that country. Like my two neighbors who went to Paris last year but ate almost exclusively at McDonald's...

For me, boring, no. Souvalkis now and then, when I happen to be somewhere that makes them, but not often. Falafels yes, but they aren't Greek, are they? I've always been less of a meat-eater and more a pescatarian - in my time in Greece I must have made a significant dent in the fish stocks of the Mediterranean, along with yummy Greek salads, the superb cheeses made from sheep's milk, and all the veggie-based delights I tucked into at least two times a day. I did have the best moussaka ever in Athens, even compared to Toronto in the 1970s and now in Melbourne where the Greek communities make such memorable food.

You do get exceptional images with whatever you have to hand, whether a Praktika, a digiwhatever or a phone. The eye is as important as the camera or lens, and you also have the added advantage of familiarity with many of the places you recently revisited. Good that you took your daughter with you, her impressions and viewpoints when you took her to your 'old haunts' must have been interesting.

I see others have also contributed their own images to this thread, which makes it all the more interesting. And valuable. For me these threads have given RFF an entirely new 'plus' to go on reading and enjoying fewer gear-centric posts and more personal viewpoints about not only photography but the writers' personal experiences as well. Long may it go on.

Please go on posting. Now if we can only get Lynnb to return to the fold and sharing more of his 1979 USA tour...
 
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