Pontos

In the Plaka bazaar in Athens last year, I saw this interesting poster about Pontos, the Black-Sea coast of Anatolia.

Here are the Pontic towns and cities that used to have significant Greek populations: Pafri, Amisos, Oinoi, Kotiori, Kerazonta, Tripoli, Trapezonta, Rizaion. Today, they are known as Bafra, Samsun, Ünye, Ordu, Giresun, Tirebolu, Trabzon and Rize.

Besides the names of the cities, the Greeks also left many important landmarks in the region. Perhaps the most important of all of these is the Sumela Monastery, perched high above the mountains near Trabzon. Once a Mount Athos-like citadel for priests, it is one of the region's greatest tourist attractions today.

Even though almost no Greeks live there now, a regional language, closely related to Greek, is still spoken by a few Turkish inhabitants of the region. Like many places in Anatolia where Muslims and Christians lived together, the lines between who is Greek and who is Turkish is blurry; some of these people have converted from Christianity only in the last century-and-a-half. Despite their differences, both the Greeks and Turks of Pontos still share a common heritage of weapons, macho attitudes and music played with the regional kemenche instrument.

But not all memories of Pontos are nice ones, especially not after the horrendous population exchange of Turkish Christians and Greek Moslems in 1923.

A few years earlier in Salonika, I had visited a commemorative event in the name of the so-called Pontic Genocide that took place in 1919, which was supposedly as nasty as the Armenian one. Although I have different views on the plight of the Armenians, I think what happened in Pontos was more like what happened in Lebanon in the 1970s than what happened in Rwanda in the 1990s.

Despite the strong sentiments people on each side have for Pontiac culture and history, I don't think anyone except a minority of die-hard nationalists on each side still has dreams, or nightmares about Pontic Greece establishing itself as an independent country.

A Cicada

A friendly European Cicada (Cicada cretensis) that blundered into my hair this summer in Athens. Just look at the intricate, circuit-etching-like pattern on its wings. Wow!

A Dead Bird

I found this little dead bird in Greece. I couldn't identify the poor thing, can you?

A Reminder Before the Elections in Greece

Elections in Greece are closing up, so here's an important reminder: Don't vote for these malakas.

For non-Greek readers, LA.O.S. is a party that boldly proclaims: "...that the divisions of left and right don't make sense after the end of the Cold War." Whatever the new dividing line is, these guys are on the wrong side. Their leader, Georgios Karatzaferis, is a holocaust denier who spoke about "...the Auschwitz and Dachau myth..." Their ranks also include maniacs such as Anestis Keramidas, who really seems to believe that the Greeks are a master race from Sirius.

Athenian Nightlife

Drinking in the streets is an universal phenomenon, especially when the weather is suffocatingly hot. These examples are from Athens.

An Athenian Shrine

A cute little chapel in Ampelokipos, Athens. It now stands next to a gigantic supermarket.

Protests in Athens

When I was in Athens, I saw these huge protests against the ineptitude of the local government, who watched some of the city's last forests burn for six days without taking action. I can say these were the most peaceful and tear-gas-free demonstrations I've seen in the Greek capital for a long time.

Hotels Named After Countries

Would you rather stay at Hotel Sudan, in Athens?...

...or at the glorious Hotel Libya, in Istanbul? These two fine establishments once again prove that hotels named after messed-up countries... always charge by the hour.

KAMON BLUMBOMEN!

Blumbomen! Blumbomen! Blumbomen! After more than a month of non-stop work, the copies of my first album are ready for distribution! Click here to hear some of the songs!

Happy customers. Who are they? Meet Nektarios and Constantinos of the Vinyl Microstore in Athens!

We made these Blumbomen plushies to market my album. If you go to the store, Green Blumbomen can show you an exciting secret thing he hides in his pants!

Remember, Vinyl Microstore is at number 34 Didotou street, near Exarcheia, Athens! Grab your copy of the fabulous "Kamon Blumbomen" before they run out! The CD's have two songs and a special-edition poster you won't see on myspace!

The Balls of Athens

For some reason, the streets of the Greek capital are strewn with concrete balls of every size. Local artists enjoy painting them in a variety of colors and patterns.

Athenian Recycling Craze

People in Greece are crazy about environmental awareness these days, so the Athens Municipality has installed these colorful recycling centers all over the city. I can just sit there and throw bottles into it all day long. You get to push the shiny buttons and it even gives you a few cents per bottle recycled!

An Athenian Cinema

A Greek classic; one of the many beautiful open-air cinemas that open up in Athens during summer. Such cinemas also used to exist in Smyrna, on the other side of the Aegean. My father grew up in a house next to one, each evening him and his family would watch movies from their rooftop balcony, cool in the evening breeze.

With the advent of TV and video, Turkish viewers got bored of the open air cinemas, and the beautiful garden theaters were razed to make room for parking lots, apartment blocks, roads and markets. None remain in Smyrna now.

Police Brutality Extra

Turkish police...
...or Greek police? Who's more badass? Who's more oppressive? Who? WHO?

Kiosk Overload

One of the ubiquitous kiosks in Athens that sell anything and everything. In this photo alone you can see soft and hard drinks, worry beads, condoms, lighters, a heartbeat monitor and... handcuffs?

A Toad from Athens

We found this female Bufo viridis toad on the side of Mesogeion road in Athens. Instead of hopping, she was walking slowly among the grass, no doubt looking for a bug to eat.

Oops, she doesn't like being picked up! I could tell that she was a she because she made no sounds when handled.

At Kiffisia

Sparkling shops and beautiful buildings are everywhere in Kiffisia, one of Athens' better-off neighborhoods.

Beth Shalom

Possibly the best architecture I've ever seen in a Synagogue, this is the Beth Shalom in Athens. On Friday, 23rd of March, 1944, German troops surrounded the Synagogue and assembled all Athenian Jews they could find, between 700 or 1000 people. Some of them came to the Synagogue on their own accord, so that they wouldn't be separated from their families. Within fifteen days, they were bound for Auschwitz. Today, the Synagogue is only open on weekends, attended by a few old people who still live there.

A Hip Bar in Athens

Here is a view from Booze, a bar I knew as "that artsy-fartsy place in Athens" for more than four months before realizing that it had a name. Perhaps you can see why.

All night long, DJs play very nice songs...

...while the drinking goes on outside as well as inside.

Athenian Street Art

Here is a selection of urban art from the dusty streets of Athens. No more explanations now, just look and enjoy!

Sculptures from the Depth of Time

It might appear that this statue is a Giacometti or a Moore, but it is actually five thousand years old. Built by the mysterious Cycladic civilization in the early bronze age, thousands of such idols litter archaeological deposits in the western Aegean and Cyprus. They are thought to be ceremonial in purpose, perhaps for burials, but nothing is certain.

Most Cycladic sculptures are uniform, having similar humanoid shapes and proportions. But this one, with a frikkin' snake's head is an exception; a puzzle in an already puzzling realm. What did it represent? A snake-god? A demon? A one-off flight of fancy? We can never know. Both are from the excellent Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.