In July 1992, I took a trip through Northwestern Greece for approximately
four weeks. While I did not keep a diary on it, I posted some impressions
from that trip on soc.culture.greek in the springs of 1993 and 1994; both
my stay and my mobility were limited, but reactions from a few readers
make it worth including those memories in my page, I think. The visitor
to the respective four pages should be warned in advance of the region's
complicated history, which does certainly surface in my narrative. These
pages are dedicated to the memory of my Aristotle University classmate and
Harvard Biostatistics professor Myrto Lefkopoulou, whose life ended with
the summer of 1992: she was the first one to read about my trip, thanks to
a letter sent to her during her final days.
Psarades (Nivitsi) The "fascist" The Vikos Gorge Samarina, village without cats
"A rest!" shouted the becktchee, flinging himself loose and mopping his face
with the kerchief. The line broke. Stoyanka threw her arm suddenly around
my waist, and with the lingering motion of the dance swung me back in among
the vines, where we subsided to a reclining position on the soil, her elbow
resting on my shoulder. Sandy's partner had executed a similar move.
[Spring 1906, between Florina and Bitola -- from Albert Sonnichsen's
"Confessions of a Macedonian Bandit "
(Duffield & Co, New York, 1909)]
