Santorini Experience

Jonny Allegra — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 19:47:13 +0000

During my preparation to a trip to a new place, I think inevitably of the many pictures I saw before in the web and from other photographers. I try to avoid this consciously, in order to be able to take the new impressions uncolored once I am at the place. This is difficult with Santorini. Every Greek postcard cliché, with bright blue churches on the rocky edge of the sea, is served here. If you search for Santorini on the web, you will be filled up, by glossy picture panoramas that promise a magical world in the middle of the Mediterranean…but reality could be so different.

The blooming cruise ship industry has made a lot of effort, to open up shining Mediterranean icons like Santorini to the mainstream media as well as the mass tourism. The impact of this type of traveling is unthinkable and the once quiet streets of Fira and Oia have become the hustle and bustle of a fairground that entertains tens of thousands of tourists every day. In peak times, 18,000! visitors per day were counted, with over 600 ships coming each year (see below…The Guardian).

In the course of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the unique opportunity arose to spend an extensive week in Santorini and to experience the charm, silence and tranquility of the old island idyll.

I was not disappointed…

IMPRESSION

>>> THE GUARDIAN

>>> Visit Greece

>>> Cultural Portal of the Aegean Archipelago

>>> Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism

Greece – Orthodox monasteries of Athos

Jonny Allegra — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 20:32:36 +0000

I started my preparations for the trip months before and contacted the pilgrims’ office in Thessaloniki to clarify the entry requirements. After I made the written request, I waited expectantly for the confirmation and the issuance of the “Diamonitirio”. The entry for foreigners was limited to ten visitors per day. If one had finally received a permit, it was advisable to contact especially the small monasteries and to assure their hospitable accommodation for one night.
From Ournoupolis I started at 5 o’clock at night. First to the local ferry office to get a ticket for the transit and then by ferry to Daphni, the only port of entry on Athos. Here Orthodox pilgrims from all over Europe arrived together, waiting, full of hope for the fulfillment of their pilgrimage intentions. First relationships were made, first thoughts were exchanged, and these were taken along the silent, lonely tours from monastery to monastery.

The autonomous monastic republic of Athos is located on the eastern finger of the Halkidikí peninsula and it’s part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage with its orthodox grand monasteries. More than 2000 Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian and Greek monks live in independent ascetic communities, and its first beginnings can be found as early as the 9th century in Byzantine times. The pursuit of complete inner harmony is practiced in a long tradition of constant prayer and eremitical contemplation. Moreover, the painting works of the Athos monasteries are famous, with a great tradition of icon painting dating back to the High Middle Ages.

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IMPRESSION

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>>> WIKIPEDIA AUTONOME MÖNCHSREPUBLIK ATHOS

Greece – PHOTOS OF HUMAN PERSPECTIVES

Santorini Experience

Greece – Orthodox monasteries of Athos