Greek

Greek is at the base of much of the vocabulary of other European languages.
At first it seems that all the words are new. It seems that it will be difficult to learn this language, since there are not as many cognates, or words in common with languages we know, not as many as we find in German or French or Spanish.

But very soon we discover that many of the components of words we use in English, or other languages, come from Greek. Discovering them is fun and gives us a better understanding of our own language or of other European languages. Prefixes like poly, micro, macro, chrono, photo, or suffixes like -ology just touch the surface. Learning Greek is like a journey of discovery of our own language roots. Today, for example, I realized that Acropolis means high city, “acro” as in “acrobat” and “polis”as in “megalopolis”.

Greece was the earliest European civilization.
I am not even talking about the Acropolis and ancient Greece, which gave us democracy, the foundations of Western thought and philosophy, as well as much of the basis of our science and mathematics. I mean the oldest civilization in Europe, that of the Minoans in Crete, where I spent 10 days. We visited two ancient palaces, Knossos near Heraklion and Phaistos near the south coast of the island. Here is a staircase from the palace at Knossos that is over 3,500 years old.

Greek food is delicious.
Here in Crete we have been enjoying seafood, and the natural products of the Cretan cuisine. The food is delicious and inexpensive. Last night it was Ippokampos, right at the water’s edge. The food in Chania was just as good, and we stayed with seafood and fish. You never have to order desert because the restaurant always offers you free desert and raki, sort of like Greek grappa, at the end of your meal. Our favourite, where we went twice was To Maridaki. The fish soup was awesome.

Greece is beautiful.
We were too late in the season to take a boat to the nearby island of Santorini. But what we have seen of Crete is beautiful. We visited Agios Nikolaos in the west, then drove across the island to the south coast. Olive trees, mountains, vineyards and magnificent vistas everywhere. But the most beautiful place of all was Chania, a surprise and a delight, was Chania. We could have stayed there for another 5 days. Now we are in Athens and had a wonderful day crawling over the Acropolis.

The Greeks are wonderful, hospitable and friendly.
This is especially so if you speak the language. I have spent 6 months learning Greek at LingQ, going through the Mini-Stories, native content, and the free grammar guide. I am far from fluent, but the people are so appreciative, so encouraging, and so patient in speaking Greek to me, I intend to continue to learn Greek after my trip is over. Above all they are talkative, and if I weren’t traveling with my wife and friends, I am sure I would have had hours of effusive conversation in Greek by now.