Greece Photos and Presentation by Miss Boulmetis Summer 2008

My family is from an island called Andros, which is located in the Cyclades island group.

This is Stenies (pronounced stin-YES), the village my family comes from. The name “Stenies” comes from the word meaning “narrow” in Greek. It was given this name because its roads were purposefully built so that no carts or vehicles could get into the village. This prevented ancient pirates from being able to loot the village.

When you come to the village, you need to park your car in the “stathmos” (prounced stahth-MOHS). You then walk into the village.

Since no cars can enter the village, garbage pick- up service looks quite different in Stenies.

The village “garbage truck”.

This is the “vrisi” (pronounced VREE- SEE). It is built around a fresh water spring. People in the village choose to drink this water instead of tap water because it is thought to have healing powers.

We also filled up our water bottles at the vrisi…. might as well use that healing power!

Older Greek women gather at the vrisi to wash their clothes in the basin and gossip about goings-on in the village.

Most families use their homes in the village strictly as summer homes. They live most of the year on the mainland. This is the one-room school house in the village. The children of the families that stay year-round use this school, which focuses on students in grades K-8. There is one teacher for all of these students. Once students reach high school age, they must go to schools on the main land. Many stay with friends and relatives during the week and come home to the island for the weekend.

While the older women gossip while washing clothes at the vrisi, the older men gossip while relaxing at the “platia” (pronounced plah- TEE-ah). This is considered the “main square” in the village.

Here you will see the stairs leading to our home. Since the village is built into the side of a mountain, there are hundreds of stairs throughout the village.

This is the front of our home. Most homes are white- washed (to limit how much the sun heats the house). Many people choose to paint their trim bright blue (since the colors of the Greek flag are blue and white).

Almost every day, people visit the beach for a “banyo” (pronounced BAHN- yo). Banyo literally means “bath”. Some of the older residents who don’t have showers in their homes use this time as their daily bath.

There are 2 main beaches in our village. The back-beach, or the “piso yalia” (pronounced pee-sool- YAL-yah) is the best beach to go to. It has the smallest waves and is very secluded. The only problem is that you need to climb over a mountain (142 stairs) to get to it.

The front beach, or the “yalia” (pronounced YAL- ya) is also an option. This beach is right on the main road, so it is not secluded, but you don’t have to climb any stairs to get to it!

This is the “hora” (pronounced HOR-a). It is the main shopping place on the island. It is located in Andros village, the island’s capital city.

This is the hora at night.

In the village, there are irrigation ditches that run along the side of the walkway. When it is your assigned day to water your crops, you remove your barrier in the ditch and the water flows into your crop field. When it is not your day, you keep your barrier in place.

This is an ancient castle which the leader of the village lived in hundreds of years ago.

The Greek people are very religious. Every village has at least 2-3 churches which the villagers visit several times a week.

These are the ruins of a lighthouse which was built in the capital city. In the 1920’s, a hurricane swept across the island, destroying the lighthouse and killing the lighthouse keeper and his family. The ruins remain as a tribute to those who died in that storm.

When we visited Athens, we made sure to travel to the Acropolis. We needed to climb this mountain to visit the ruins on top of the Acropolis.

This is the ancient Agora (marketplace) at the base of the Acropolis.

Here is a view of the ancient Agora from half-way up the mountain. You can see that Athens has been built around these ruins.

We are half-way up the mountain. You can see the corner of the Parthenon at the top.

This is the working amphitheater on the Acropolis. It is still used for concerts and plays.

Behind my father and niece, you can see the Propylaeum. It is the entry-way onto the top of the Acropolis. It is under renovation.

The Parthenon was an ancient temple which was built to honor the goddess Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. In 1983, the Greek government began a project to restore the buildings on the Acropolis to their original conditions. You can see the project is still underway.

The Erechtheum is another building on the Acropolis. It is believed to have been a temple honoring Athena and Poseidon.

The Erechtheum is known for its famous “Porch of the Maidens”. As you can see, the columns holding up the roof of the porch are carved to look like women. This special type of column is called a “caryatid”.

During the Acropolis restoration project, specially trained builders are salvaging ruins on the grounds of the Acropolis and slowly piecing them back together. They then return the pieces to their original locations in the buildings.

Here are some ruins that have yet to be placed back into the buildings.

This photo gives you some perspective on just how big the Parthenon is. Here you can see the back side and the left side of the Parthenon compared to the size of the visitors.

This is the left side of the Parthenon. Here you can see marble blocks which have been organized and are waiting to be placed back into the Parthenon.

This is the ancient amphitheater on the side of the Acropolis. This amphitheatre is no longer used.

The incredible thing about the Parthenon is how much detail was put into its marble carvings.

In the next two pictures, you can see the second row of columns at the entrance of the Parthenon. Notice the carvings to the top of the columns. They are telling the story of a battle that was fought between Athena and Poseidon.

Here you can see more of the carvings.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this presentation! Yassas! (an informal greeting/ good bye in the Greek language)