I highly recommend protecting your wallet very carefully. Mine was stolen 45 minutes after I arrived in Athens yesterday.

Oh no!! How did you manage that??

reese5213, there’s not that much to see/do in Patras (apart from the nightlife), but it’s difficult to make recommendations without any idea of what you’re looking for. Have you tried doing a search?

Honestly, I don’t know that much about Greece. I have done some searches on the internet, but don’t really know what is best for me. I’ve heard Corfu Island is fun, young but not that "greek" Also, I don’t really want to go to Athens because it’s so big and touristy, I think? I would love to make it to the Santorine island or Mykonos Island but it seems so hard…and time consuming to get there.

Can you get from Patras to Olympia in a resonably amount of time? I would like to see some of the old Olympic sites.

I’m 26 and the person I’m traveling with is 27. We have a friend that is Greek (who I will be asking his oponion too), and we really think the Greek Culture is cool and fun. We are going to Europe for a month and want to stay in Greece the longest (5 nights).

I’m all over the board in this response…sorry. I think it will be a good thing for me to purchase a Lonely Planet guide book about Greece or one of the other guidebooks out there for Greece so I can educate myself more on what is there and then decide what I want to see.

I’m not traveling until May, but I’m glad that I’m starting now to plan my trip. The more you know the better time I think I’ll have in Europe!

Lonely Planet (or at least a map of Greece) would be a good start.

5 days isn’t quite long enough for Mykonos or Santorini. You can do it, but you’ll spend longer travelling than being there, and May’s a little to early for these islands anyway.

If I were you, I’d stay on the mainland or consider the Ionian islands. Zante (Zakynthos) is not far from Patras, and you can combine it with Olympia. The Peloponnese has a lot to offer too.

Why don’t you do a search on the forum? Greece is discussed often enough and you’ll pick up lots of useful info.

BTW Corfu is as Greek as it gets, but not if you stay at the Pink Palace.

I was in Greece in early May which made Athens "OK." It wasn’t hot and it wasn’t absolutely swarming with tourists. It’s worth a day — spend it visiting the 4 or 5 places that are free with your accropolis
ticket and ride the subway once, then get out of town.

Mykonos was gorgeous but &quoticture postcard" touristy. I liked Rhodes best — big enough for lots of variety, but not swarming with tourists. Early May was warm enough to enjoy the beaches which were almost empty. I don’t know what you mean by "Greek Culture" but if it means looking at ancient ruins and byzantine architecture, go to Turkey. IMHO, the Turks do a much better job of preserving and displaying this part of "Greek Culture" than the Greeks.

You could try the train down from Patras towards Kipirassia. The tracks pass some wonderful and mostly untouristed beaches in the Kalo Nero and Tholo (Campground) areas.

Continue on this line to Kalamata and connections by ferry to Crete,
and/or Ancient Olympia (Youth Hostel) only a hop away from Pirgos station by branch line.

Greece is mostly safe, the Greeks are not given to theft, but do beware of other travellers. There are also horror stories concerning some groups of economic migrants to Greece, however, these often turn out to be exaggerated

Do: see some of the greek islands; bring enough money to have fun

Don’t: spend more than 2 days in Athens

as for nice places to see in greece, i recommend the island of evvoia, which is a 2 hour train ride from athens (chalkida is a great city, right on the water)and in central greece, amfilochia is a pretty town as well. i don’t know what you’re looking for…i’ve never had anything bad happen to me, as all my relatives are in greece and i have places to stay/people looking out for me. as holly said, watch out for your wallet. m.a.lakka also makes a good point, fears of migrants (particularly albanians) are exaggerated.

If you want to party there is now place like the Pink Palace. Just for an example, there is a club built into the hostel (hostel by price, hotel by quality). You probably know the Greek tradition of breaking plates on the floor, well here, every night at midnight they have everyone form the "oozo circle" on the dance floor, and walk around the cirlce giving each person a shot a breaking a plate over his or her head. Like someone said, the Pink Palace is nothing Greek, Corfu is though. If you want to party the Pink Palace is it, but we ended up staying there for the whole part of our trip in Greece and missed out on real Greece because of it.

quote:

I highly recommend protecting your wallet very carefully. Mine was stolen 45 minutes after I arrived in Athens yesterday.

I highly recommend doing this anywhere in the world. This is not a problem specific to Athens, it has never happened to me in my countless visits to the city nor during my time living there, and the city is one of Europe’s safest capitals.

quote: I’ve heard Corfu Island is fun…but not that "greek"

That doesn’t make any sense.

quote:Greece is mostly safe, the Greeks are not given to theft, but do beware of other travellers. There are also horror stories concerning some groups of economic migrants to Greece, however, these often turn out to be exaggerated

Immigrant issue aside, one major issue is crime by tourists, often times against other tourists. As Malakka says, don’t be too trusting of fellow tourists.

quote:Don’t: spend more than 2 days in Athens

Take this advice with a grain of salt….it’s often given by people who barely know the city.

quote:If you want to party there is now place like the Pink Palace. Just for an example, there is a club built into the hostel (hostel by price, hotel by quality). You probably know the Greek tradition of breaking plates on the floor…

Yes, definitely go to the Pink Palace if you want to see plate smashing. You won’t see it anywhere else in the entire country, and nor do I suggest trying it.

I stayed in Corfu for three days and LOVED it, I stayed in Athens for two, and it was my least favorite city I travelled to.

The people who live in Corfu are very welcomming, I sat down and chatted with the locals half the time I was there. I was in Athens at the start of July and the traffic was horrible, and everything was covered with scaffolding. (granted they were getting ready for the Olympics).

quote:

quote: I’ve heard Corfu Island is fun…but not that "greek"

That doesn’t make any sense.

Corfu is very "Greek". The Pink Palace, however, is not. The Pink Palace is a place where you can go to party nonstop and get sold all kinds of merchandise. Some people love it and never leave. If you love it, hey, go have fun. But please don’t confuse it with the "real" Corfu (which is very "Greek&quot.

Of course, the other thing that some people get confused about is that there are a lot of island groups, each with their own unique characteristics. Some people think the Cyclades, with their picturesque whitewashed housing with blue doors and windmills, are the "real Greece". Corfu is in the Ionian islands so it is different historically, culturally, and visually from islands such as, say, Mykonos or Santorini. But it’s still "Greek".

In fact, Cycladic architecture (white cubic houses, blue windows etc.) is VERY unusual compared to Greece in general. If you think you’ve seen little white houses and that means you’ve seen Greece, you’re extremely misguided.

Ditto plate smashing. I lived in Greece for nearly 25 years and not once have I witnessed plate smashing. That’s how common it is…

quote:
I was in Athens at the start of July and the traffic was horrible, and everything was covered with scaffolding. (granted they were getting ready for the Olympics).

Yes, and that no longer is the case. There still are very few buildings in scaffolding, including the Cathedral, but most of the scaffolding is gone, and all of the road works/pedestrian works in the city center are now complete. Athens in August 2004 was a very different city from Athens of August 2003. I do recommend visiting. I don’t see why the traffic should bother a visitor, unless you plan on driving…the old scenic quarters, the archaelogical sites, and the National and Zappeion Gardens are all linked by pedestrianized streets, with big-street crossing kept to a minimum. And the rest of the city is well served by the metro, tram, and suburban railway. Take advantage of this new, state-of-the art public transport system which was not only built for the Olympics (which it served succesfully)…this new system was needed anyways, and is still under expansion.

quote:Of course, the other thing that some people get confused about is that there are a lot of island groups, each with their own unique characteristics. Some people think the Cyclades, with their picturesque whitewashed housing with blue doors and windmills, are the "real Greece". Corfu is in the Ionian islands so it is different historically, culturally, and visually from islands such as, say, Mykonos or Santorini. But it’s still "Greek".

Exactly…segacs took it right out of my own mouth. Some visitors have this preconceived notion of what Greece should look like. In reality, different regions and different island groups look different. They all make up the real Greece.

quote:In fact, Cycladic architecture (white cubic houses, blue windows etc.) is VERY unusual compared to Greece in general. If you think you’ve seen little white houses and that means you’ve seen Greece, you’re extremely misguided.

This style of architecture is characteristic of the Cycladic islands, and certain Dodecanese islands. You may also find such a village in an area that was probably settled by migrants from the Cyclades centuries ago. I think there is such a town in Crete, don’t remember its name. In other parts of Greece, you will see different styles of architecture.

The Ionian islands, and particularly Corfu do have a different character to the rest of Greece. This is partly because, (with a few exceptions), they never underwent the 400 yrs or so of Turkish occupation which afflicted most of the rest of the country.

The culture of Greece is however, multi-faceted. This can be appreciated by reference to any good guide book. For example, side by side with long held traditions, Athens is well on its way to becoming a ‘world city’ and the same is true of Thessaloniki, always an outward looking city anyway.

Equally, there are still impossibly jumbled streetes, and cuboid houses to be found in the Cyclades, just as there are Italianate bell towers and Venitian style arcades in the Ionians.

Having made that point, the depredations of mass tourism and the all pervading ‘Coca-Cola Culture’, do mean that the essential ‘Greekness’ portrayed in movies and travel posters is subject to dilution. Nevertheless the essential Greek warmth, humour in the face of adversity and sheer guts remains, as strong as ever.

quote:
The Ionian islands, and particularly Corfu do have a different character to the rest of Greece. This is partly because, (with a few exceptions), they never underwent the 400 yrs or so of Turkish occupation which afflicted most of the rest of the country.

That’s how it’s usually broken down, although there’s more to it.

Regardless of Ottoman occupation, there are huge regional differences between areas that were occupied by the Ottoman Empire as well. These areas were not all part of the Ottoman Empire during the same time spans. A well-known fact that’s too often overlooked.

The Ionians and Crete were pretty much the center of Greek culture during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and this is reflected in a lot of the architecture for these two regions. In fact, most of Greece’s thinkers from this time period (ca 1400-1800) came from these regions. While the rest of the country was under Ottoman occupation, many Greeks from the occupied areas fled to Crete or the Ionians, and many local Greeks studied art and architecture abroad in Venice before returning home to create the heavy Venetian Baroque influence we see in these regions today.

Similarly, the classical revival style in architecture (neoclassical) which prevailed in Greece ca. 1800-1920, is to be seen in mostly southern Greece (Pelponnese, Athens, Rumely) and some of the southern islands (Syros, Simi), due to the south’s dominance politically and culturally in the 19th century, and also due to the fact that the southern parts of the country (except Crete) were among the first regions to gain indepedence. Therefore, you’ll see lots of neoclassical in the Peloponnese…in some towns it’s abundant (Nafplio), and in some you have to look for it (like Patras which was changed a lot during the 20th century, unfortunately)…but it’s a style characteristic to the south. Athens has a very heavy neoclassical past. The neoclassical architecture movement was a celebration of the country’s independence and heritage…you will see neoclassical architecture in cities that were prominent at the time: Nafplio, Athens (old quarters and city center), Ermoúpoli, Pylos, Gytheio, etc.

The northern regions, particularly Makedonía region, sport a unique style of architecure that you won’t find anywhere in the south or west coast. The traditional style in many northern towns is that of a local style influenced by the local climate and topography, as well as a Byzantine past, Ottoman influence, and occasionally neoclassical influence from the south. Thessaloniki’s Plateía Aristotelous is a good example of all these fused into one. The towns of Kastoria and Kozani are excellent examples of the Byzantine-Ottoman fusion (minus the neoclassical).

The cubic style of architecture, which prevails on the Cyclades and some Dodecanese is a style that developed out of these particular islands’ unique climate and special needs (less space, less rain, strong sunlight, highly vulnerable to pirates, etc). Some Cycladic islands, particularly those that had a wealthy past, have fused neoclassical influences with their local cubic architecure. Example: Santoríni. Others have a more pure cubist style. (Mýkonos)

The entire country underwent a period of unimaginative boring functional architecture from the 1960s until the early 1980s as the country rapidly industrialized and urbanized. Primary evidence of this are Athens’ outlying residential neighborhoods. But an architectural revolution (and recent building boom) that started in the late 1980s has adorned the country with new beautiful homes influenced by the country’s architectural traditions, as well as wonderfully renovated older buildings, and bold post-modern architecture (exmaple: Athens suburb of Maroussi which is where a lot of modern office buildings are located). The Olympic Games brought a healthy dose of newer buildings, from the fantastic sports venues, to modern metro stations, to the attractive athletes’ village and journalists’ villlages which will now be sold as inexpensive housing to working families.

Very interesting post, luv the beach. Thanks.

Absolutely agree. Bravo LTB!

Thanks Traveler and Malakka. Welcome back Malakka!