Andrew “The Greek” - See Me Act Greek in Symi

For our first day in Rhodes, a bunch of us took a ferry 41 kilometers north to the small island of Symi. Being as it wasn’t tourist season, and that it wasn’t quite warm enough for us to shed our highlighter-colored rain jackets, I was assuming that we’d stick out like a sore thumb; and we probably did. However, as opposed to the hesitant looks and silence we received from many Greeks in the past couple weeks, our experience in Symi was much different (and as I’m told, “more Greek”).

One of the first shops we entered was a supermarket, and after many of us had purchased our items, the shop owner commented on how “Athens is not Greek”. It is my understanding that our experience in Symi was truer to the kind of Greek hospitality that we expected, and thus made the trip (and 32 Euro fee) undoubtedly worthwhile. Here are two situations that helped initiate me into this new kind of travel experience:

Simple Hellos and Goodbyes - Dr. Finitsis had equipped us with language needed while walking around Greece, warning us that we would be bombarded with “Kalimera" (meaning “Good Morning”) or “Ya Sas” (meaning “Hello”) whenever we walked around. In Athens, I very rarely experienced these greetings, or even eye contact from people who passed by; in Symi, I encountered the opposite. I probably said more “hellos” to people in Symi than in my whole stay in Athens, with the skeptical glares being replaced with gentle smiles and eye contact. Although we can always assume that a place that relies so heavily on tourism is both used to foreigners and equates them with money, I believe that these occurrences were genuine.

Moving Beyond the Waterside - Figuratively so, and possibly because of its size, I felt like two weeks wasn’t really enough time to dive any deeper than the surface level of Athens; in Symi, however, we were able to penetrate past the alluring seaside shops and cafes in order to experience a truer center of life in Symi. This was made possible by countless labyrinths of stairways that extended from the water to the tops of the hills on which the city is built, and in turn, we learned that traversing on these (check out the picture below) was a more authentic experience, complete with spectacular views.

In short, being labelled “The Greek” is still inappropriate at this point in my travels, but I hope to keep embracing the culture, and reciprocally offering what I can to it, in order to further my integration into this society.