welcome to
runninGreece
This website is about discovering the nature and culture of Greece. But... don't go to Greece. It's hot, there's no water, the paths are very difficult and full of stones. Sit on the couch, read some essays on my website (not many - they are long and difficult) and go for a run in the stadium or your favorite park.
welcome to
runninGreece
This website is about discovering the nature and culture of Greece. But... don't go to Greece. It's hot, there's no water, the paths are very difficult and full of stones. Sit on the couch, read some essays on my website (not many - they are long and difficult) and go for a run in the stadium or your favorite park.
welcome to
runninGreece
This website is about discovering the nature and culture of Greece. But... don't go to Greece. It's hot, there's no water, the paths are very difficult and full of stones. Sit on the couch, read some essays on my website (not many - they are long and difficult) and go for a run in the stadium or your favorite park.
Most Viewed
Looking for information on a specific region of Greece? On the map you will find places described in essays on my website.
See the essays on the map of Greece
Giorgio de Chirico
A few days ago, in the middle of the Pelion Peninsula, in an olive grove on the steep slope of the Centaur Mountains, I found the tracks of a forgotten narrow-gauge railway. In any case, it seemed to be forgotten. The grasses grew between the rails, the trees and bushes bent over the line of the absent carriages, and the surface on which the wheels usually roll did not shine in the sun – deep red rust is always a sign of oblivion.
Giorgio de Chirico
A few days ago, in the middle of the Pelion Peninsula, in an olive grove on the steep slope of the Centaur Mountains, I found the tracks of a forgotten narrow-gauge railway. In any case, it seemed to be forgotten. The grasses grew between the rails, the trees and bushes bent over the line of the absent carriages, and the surface on which the wheels usually roll did not shine in the sun – deep red rust is always a sign of oblivion.
Places
Phaistos Disk
The most interesting thing in the whole story, however, is not whether the disc is authentic or not, what is written on it, and whether it is actually an inscription or some other kind of symbols. The most interesting thing is what makes it evoke so many emotions? Why are letters from various enthusiasts coming to the museum’s address almost every day, trying to read the “inscription” on the disk and sending ever different versions of the hymn to Mother Earth or other possible gods and goddesses?
Stories
Eternal life of cars on Corfu
An integral part of the Corfu landscape are abandoned cars. Although “abandoned” is actually not the best word. It suggests that someone carelessly left the car in a random place – and this is certainly not the point. On Corfu, old cars are ubiquitous, but they do not stand at random places. Of course, I’m thinking about vehicles that will never go anywhere. The owners left them on the side of the road, in an olive grove, in an old garage or at the top of the mountain letting them fall apart and return to where they belong, i.e. to mother nature.
Blade Runner on Peloponnese
That day I wanted to cross the mountains. Not high. Separating the central part of the Peloponnese from the eastern coast. It was in the second week of my journey around the great, mulberry-leaf shaped, Greek peninsula. I had over 1000 km in my legs. Countless bays and sea views under my eyelids, the memory of a few Venetian forts and many old towns, located on such steep slopes that some houses grow on the roofs of others. I was constantly reliving the endless serpentine roads and all the shades of sunrises and sunsets that I saw every day. I thought that little could surprise me anymore.
Seal of Pylos
It is May 2015. The archaeological site of Nestor’s Palace in the southwestern Peloponnese, 15 km from the modern town of Pylos on the shores of the Gulf of Navarino. The rocky island of Sfakteria and several smaller ones, the site of naval battles one from the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC and a second from the time of the Greek Revolutionary War in the early nineteenth century, great Italian influence in the area. Nestor’s Palace a bit inland, discovered in 1939, thanks to the guidelines taken from Homer’s Iliad, because Nestor is a literary character (but it is possible that also real).
Zvara
In dancing there is always an awareness of a broader and deeper background than that provided by everyday events. Through dance, life becomes something special: it awakens in the human soul a cheerful sense of freedom and a blissful awareness of some overwhelming energy that seems to float us in the air.
Ithaka
By C. P. Cavafy
Translated by Edmund Keeley
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.