Tag Archives: Tinos

The Wind, Dear Lord, the Wind…

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Tinos-Island-Greece, Meltemi

Greeks call it Meltemi: a refreshing wind from the north that blows for ten days in August.

Translation for non-Greeks:  it’s too chilly to swim and it blows for most of the month.

Too chilly to swim in Greece in August?  I couldn’t believe it either.

When I picked up my rental vehicle, the woman at the agency told me to be careful opening my car door when it was windy (which it always is now) because they’ve had vehicles returned with the doors blown off.  That’s a hurricane force gale, my friends.

It doesn’t feel like a hurricane only because it isn’t raining — the sun shines brightly and the  temp is in the mid 80′s.  The Meltemi doesn’t always blow quite so violently and there are days when it actually is refreshing, but c’mon…this is Greece.

I have a beautiful house in Tinos to live in, courtesy of a friend.  It’s built into a cliffside with a terrace that looks out over the the Aegean Sea.  At night, I can see the lights of Mykonos twinkling in the distance, and I can see the sun rise over my balcony every morning. (Thank you, friend in Tinos!)  It’s all so good, but I need the sea; I’m going in search of warmer waters.

I want to be really, really hot; so hot that I can’t stand another moment if it’s not underwater.

I want to be like this dog, enjoying the air conditioning in a Zara store in Piraeus:

I want to be like this kid, jumping into a fountain during a scorcher in Patra:

Patra-Greece-Greek-Islands-Fountain-Boy-Jumping

I want the next person who touches me to get their fingerprints scorched off. ( If you’re running from the law, meet me in Mykonos.)

At least the figs are ripe and dropping like flies:

Fig-Greece-Greek-Islands

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Text and images copyright protected.

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Roma Children

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These Roma children, photographed in Tinos during the Feast of the Assumption, were so great — happy and smiling despite their circumstances.  I’m posting a lot of photographs just in case they should have access to the internet someday.

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© 2009 – 2012, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Text and images copyright protected.

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Feast of the Assumption

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If you’re ever in Tinos on 15 August, during the Feast of the Assumption, this is how it works:

First you buy a big towering candle to take up to the church with you. Buy one of the 5ft. candles for €3 to make sure God sees you.

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Buy a big one because we all know size matters.

Then you crawl on your hands and knees on a rubberized pad about a half mile uphill to the church:

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Guy with cell phone needs to go away.

If you’ve done something super bad, or you really want God to know you’re serious, pick up some passengers along the way:

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If your knees are too bloody to go on, crawl along backwards.  This is exactly how I would do it:

greek-island-tinos-feast-of-assumption-woman-crawling

If you’re as serious as a heart attack, you could always drag yourself along on your stomach, half a mile up a stone street, like the woman below is doing:

greek-island-tinos-feast-of-assumption-woman-crawling-on-stomach

The icon in the church is said to have healing powers, but if this is true shouldn’t we all be there  –  crawling, bleeding, praying?

As an alternative to crawling, you could put on your finery and walk up to the church with as much dignity as you’re able to muster.

Accept your fate or do what you can to change it:

greek-island-tinos-feast-of-assumption-roma-couple

When the service is over, the Greek navy, police, and guys in suits and sunglasses escort the icon down the very same street everyone just busted their arses crawling up.

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All hell breaks loose and guys in suits are overwhelmed trying to control the crowd:

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Only go if you’re three blocks away, and someone is holding you like this:

greek-island-tinos-feast-of-assumption-roma-girl

Or this:

greek-island-tinos-feast-of-assumption-roma-baby

© 2009 – 2012, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Text and images copyright protected.

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Time of the Gypsies

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Roma,-Gypsy-Tinos,-Greece,-Greek-Islands-old-woman

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The Feast of the Assumption on 15 August is  a huge holiday in Greece and Italy, but I had no idea that it was a huge Roma ( Gypsy*) holiday as well. The Roma people from 3 surrounding countries turned up on the island of Tinos to celebrate the holiday.  A friend I met on my last trip to Tinos offered me her house to chill out in while she was away for the month, so I was lucky enough to be in Tinos at the same time as the Roma.

Lucky, I say, because the Roma added life, color, and a heartbeat to this staidly theological island. They kept stopping me and wouldn’t let me go until I had just the right shot — or what they considered to be just the right shot. I’ve never had as much fun, or an easier time, photographing people in Greece. The Roma love to pose and have their photo taken.

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* I’m using both Gypsy and Roma in this post because they refer to themselves by both terms.

© 2009 – 2012, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved. Text and images copyright protected.

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Island Hopping: Tinos

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tinos-greece-greek-islands-port-cyclades-boats

Tinos has been the Lourdes of Greece ever since a prophecy was fulfilled and an icon was found on the island.  This was considered a minor miracle so a palatial church was built especially to house the icon.

Most tourists who come to Tinos are Greek, and many of them come to crawl on their hands and knees, half a mile up a steep hill, from the port to the church as a plea to God. Admittedly, I’m a skeptic when it comes to such things.

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I felt panicked for the crawlers when they had to cross the traffic circle right in front of the church.  They’re were so low on the ground, I was afraid the cars wouldn’t see them so I hung around for a while to make sure no one was run over. Some of the crawlers had a person walking alongside them to make sure they weren’t run over, but this kind of just makes the walker look really lazy.

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I crawled up the Sacred Steps in Rome  once, but only because I was too ashamed to sashay up while everyone else was crawling.  It was peer pressure, mostly from the sixty year-old sufferers.  I did it as a sign of solidarity and because I didn’t want to be the only ugly American traipsing up in really cute kitten heels, but it hurt like hell.  Really, I almost passed out it hurt so bad. Blame it on my exceptionally bony, knobby, skeletal knees. It was also excruciatingly slow because the sixty year-olds only moved up a step every five minutes or so. I don’t know how they did it.

Separate post coming on the Feast of the Assumption and how the whole process works.

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