THE NATIONAL HERALD • a b www.thenationalherald.com May 19, 2007 2 TOURISM & REAL ESTATE THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 19, 2007 The National Herald Discover Cyprus’ mountain villages A weekly publication of the NATIONAL HERALD, INC. (ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ), reporting the news and addressing By Jessica Stillman the issues of paramount interest Travelbite to the Greek American community of the United States of America. Publisher-Editor yprus is known for its Antonis H. Diamataris beaches - the ener- Assistant to Publisher, Advertising getic club scene in Veta H. Diamataris Papadopoulos Agia Napa, or the sleepier feel of Pa- Special Section Managing Editor phos, with its rows of holiday villas Mark Frangos C perfect for pensioners eager to re- Production Manager tire in the sun. Chrysoula Karametros Go just fifty kilometers inland, however, to the villages of the Troo- 37-10 30th Street, dos mountains, and you will find LIC, NY 11101-2614 another Cyprus entirely, one better Tel: (718)784-5255, suited to travelers who have out- Fax: (718)472-0510, grown the party in Agia Napa but e-mail: are not quite ready for the staid [email protected] www.thenationalherald.com pace of Paphos. Democritou 1 and Academias Sts, BY FAR THE MOST practical Athens, 10671, Greece way to explore the mountains is by Tel: 011.30.210.3614.598, renting a car, though the narrow Fax: 011.30.210.3643.776, hair pins on the winding roads e-mail: [email protected] mean this is not for the timid. How- Subscriptions by mail: 1 year $59.85, ever, in return for your bravery you 6 months $29.95, 3 months $19.95, get a breath-taking hour-long dri- 1 month $9.95. ve, weaving through terraced vil- Home delivery NY, NJ, CT: 1 year $80.00, lages set amid pines and magnifi- 6 months $43.99, 3 months $29.99, 1 month $12.95. cent views, the air getting cooler as Home delivery New England States, you climb. Pennsylvania & Washington DC: There are hundreds of villages 1 year $99.00, 6 months $51.75, to explore, each with its own par- 3 months $37.45, 1 month $15.95 ticular local specialty, but for a base On line subscription: Non subscribers: 1 year $29.95, 1 month $3.95; of operations you can do no better Subscribers: 1 year $19.95, 1 month $1.95 than Kakopetria, about half way to the summit of the highest peak, Mount Olympus. Clinging to the mountain and cut through by the river Klaios, Kakopetria, offers a beautiful (and central) setting and some of the nicest accommodation in the area. Two of the best options are the Mill Hotel or Linos Inn. AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, the date the hotel's 13 rooms, balconies the rooms offer Jacuzzis, and there perfect for romance or resetting a IF YOU HAVE RENTED a 4X4 Mill Hotel was rebuilt from a grain and full restaurant offering the lo- is a sauna available. frazzled city brain. and found the adrenaline rush of mill that operated on the bank of cal specialty, rainbow trout. Not to be missed is the Inn's All this relaxation may be fan- the mountain roads pleasurable, the river from the 17th century un- Mesostrato Tavern with its crack- tastic, but there is also plenty to do there are also nail-biting, off-road til it was abandoned in the 1950s. THE HOMELY and relaxing ling fireplace and traditional meze to keep busy. The surrounding tracks available, the nicest of which The new structure, built around the Linos Inn, housed in a restored dinner - small dishes brought in countryside is crossed with walking leads to the Cedar Valley, where still turning wheel, is in keeping group of stone village buildings, is one after another so you can expe- trails, and guided mountain bike you can see rare lacy Cedar pines, with the local architecture, though furnished traditionally, though rience the full variety of Cypriot tours are also available from Bike which grow only in Cyprus. it is slightly scaled up to accommo- with modern amenities. Many of cooking. It is a slow paced meal, Trek Cyprus. For the more culturally minded, the area boasts nine churches that have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites for their frescoes, icons and architecture. There is al- so the village of Fikardou, the whole of which has been classed as a national monument for its tradi- tional Byzantine architecture. For further information on visiting Cyprus see www.visitcyprus.org.cy Travelbite UK published the above on May 8. THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 19, 2007 TOURISM & REAL ESTATE 3 By Chris Welsch Athens' Glorious ages Star-Tribune The Greek capital embraces a modern renaissance while cherishing every layer of its past ATHENS – In Athens, you can't es- time." Acropolis. Minutes later, we stood cape time's arrow. Not even in a THE CITY IN FLUX at the base of the vertiginous, rocky shiny new subway station in the That, I could see for myself. I hill. We walked up Dionysus Av- heart of the city. have been to Athens twice. In 1988, enue, past the ancient theater of "Do you know how many Athens Athens was a poor, European back- my 24-year-old heartbreak. we are standing on right now?" water. Few people spoke English. We paused to admire the Acrop- asked Despina Savvidou as we Traffic jammed the narrow streets. olis, still looming above us. "This is Awalked down the stairs into the Yellow-gray haze obscured the a symbol of the Greek nation," Syntagma Square subway station. city's famous hills. Just the same, I Savvidou said. "This is our holy "At least 6 cities. When they dug up fell in love with the city - with its rock." the subway system, they brought opinionated citizens, its smoky tav- The landmark that endures into light every old Athens." ernas, and the way Athens' herky- Talk of the past evaporated Savvidou is a native Athenian jerky present awkwardly flowed when we came around the corner who proudly waves the banner for around the ruins of its illustrious and confronted the facade of the all things Greek. She was leading history. Public buses belched diesel Parthenon, the temple to Athena me and three others on a walking fumes not 100 feet from the teeter- that crowns the Acropolis. It may tour of the city. Our starting point ing columns of the Temple of be 2,500 years old, and partly in ru- was the subway station. The end- Olympian Zeus. ins, but it retains the power to point would be the Acropolis, For a drachma-pinching back- strike awe into its viewers. which, to use the Greek alphabet, is packer, Athens was ideal. My hotel the alpha and omega of Athens. near the Acropolis was $17 a night. IT’S A VERY SIMPLE structure For dollars a day, I ate moussaka on first glance: eight white marble THE NEW SUBWAY seemed an and stuffed grape leaves and sipped columns support a triangular pedi- odd place to start an examination ouzo and murky Greek coffee. I had ment and 17 columns flank the of one of the world's oldest cities. to learn some Greek to order food sides. It's the model for thousands The station's sleek surfaces - marble and get around. of banks, museums and govern- floors, metal railings, a giant metal- It was my first trip to Europe as ment buildings the world over. But lic clock sculpture - sparkle under an adult, and it was an odyssey in it's not simple at all. large overhead lights. On one side the best sense of the word. In the "The architect took many steps of the station, however, a glass wall span of a few days, I fell in love, I to play with our attention," Savvi- reveals layers of the past, directly lost love, and I bemoaned cruel dou said. "The columns are not par- where they lie. Signs point out a fate. In tears, I sat on the stone ris- allel. If you lengthen them long thousands-year-old roadbed, a ers in the moonlight at the Theater enough, they form a pyramid. The grave from 400 B.C., wine vessels of Dionysus, the open amphithe- columns are also wider at the top and clay drain pipes for the city's ater on the southern flank of the and bottom, but you can't see it. It's ancient sewage system, among oth- Acropolis. The venue for Euripides' an optical illusion that creates a flu- er things. The layers speak of pre- greatest plays was the perfect place idity of movement. You can't take history, the glorious Greece of Peri- to rue my personal drama. Even your eyes off it." cles, the days of Rome, the Christ- small tragedies deserve a great Savvidou explained that the ian empire and the 400 years of stage. Parthenon is built on a foundation Turkish occupation. of gravel, sand and straw - "the first The subway, completed in 2000, THIS TIME AROUND, Athens anti-seismic building in the world." became Athens' most ambitious ar- was an excellent reminder that The Parthenon survived many chaeology project, Savvidou said. when you travel, you travel in time earthquakes as a result. It's been As crews built three major metro as well as in space. In other words, man, not nature, who posed the lines and dozens of stations, ar- the parochial Athens of 1988 was biggest threats to the building. chaeologists excavated more than 2 not the cosmopolitan Athens of "Until 1687, the Parthenon was million artifacts.