March was not kind to Greece, with long periods of cool, even at times chilly weather, and skies the color of pewter instead of the warmth of the sun that makes people want to live here and tourists flocking in search of an escape.
The arrivals are building nonetheless and the tourist areas of Athens, especially the Plaka, Thissio, and Psirri are seeing cafes filling and crowds milling, the sounds of different languages hovering in the air.
What brings them? Where to begin? The food. After you’ve eaten a tomato in Greece, freshly picked from a farm, you’ll use those American green-gassed versions as door stops or to practice throwing a baseball.
The saffron – along with Iran’s (if there will be any left now) – is the world’s best, but overlooked as one of the best spices, known for its antioxidant properties and commonly used to boost mood and even treat depression.
Known as krokos, it should be in your return home luggage but be prepared as it’s costly, about $7-$9 per gram, which works out to up to $3,000 per kilo, 2.2 pounds. But it’s used sparingly so you don’t need much and it will change your dishes.
Outside our kitchen window, a lemon tree has encroached into the small balcony in the rear of the apartment, so close you can pluck the fruit. The signs of hope are emerging there too, with a bird hopping from branch to branch, bees pollinating the flowers, a butterfly fluttering between them.
It’s a moment of serenity you can capture in Greece, especially in the chaos of our times, the worry that war will spread, that Artificial Intelligence will take not just your job but those of your children and grandchildren.
Greece in the spring evokes memories of a time when people weren’t addicted to cell phones, texting a friend or partner or spouse a few feet away instead of turning to talk to them, because this country can be a glorious retreat from freneticism.
Spring in Greece is a time for paeans, not lamentations because even in our time – World War II killed 75 million people but the world’s population of 8.3 billion people now seems at risk from the growing high anxiety and dread building – you can get away from the fear in a mountain village or a less visited island where there are coves free of luxury resorts and businesses taking over public beaches.
When I first came in 1988 with my father, we headed to his father’s home town of Kalambaka in central Thessaly – his father migrated to the United States and settled in Lowell, MA and opened a kafeneio called the Armonia.
Kalambaka is home to the cliffside monasteries of the Meteora and was a joy to see because it represented another home in the heart and we came in May, the best month to visit Greece because it’s warm and without the masses of summer.
It was such a sensory treasure that while we were in a taxi heading to a restaurant a bit outside the town we passed a field full of red poppies – that’s the color of spring in Greece – and I told the driver to stop so I could run in the field, feeling a need like the Bob Dylan lyric “to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.”
I got deep into the field and felt the release of tension and the too frequent pain of life, soaking in the sun of a May Day and the unique light of Greece, seeing the county’s symbol – olive trees – nearby only to hear the driver frantically calling me.
My father was laughing too hard next to him but caught his breath enough to answer when I asked what the driver was saying. “The field is full of snakes.” It was the first time a human being ran out on a field balanced on the tops of poppies.
We enjoyed a dinner with relatives in their backyard in Kalambaka, eating outside under a tree with fresh food, not the processed carcinogens spoon fed in America for profiteering no matter how many early deaths it causes.
So while tourists are coming now most will herd themselves into the busy tourist areas of Athens – and now more increasingly in Thessaloniki and its waterfront promenade – and head to islands.
They should also make time for going to where people aren’t – that’s a real vacation – and Greeks will embrace them like their families in smaller towns or villages out of the way where you can enjoy an original Greek experience in familial dining.
Greece is a top bucket list country, especially in the burgeoning spring, with a lush countryside blooming with flowers – you can even see them poking up between seams in cement sidewalks in the cities.
Spring also brings the most sacred holiday of Easter, the Greek Thanksgiving for family gatherings, often in their villages or islands, and a resurrection of the human spirit as well. It’s a time to make you feel glad you are here.
I enjoyed that with my father, now gone, and saw his father’s home, my grandfather for whom I am named. It was unforgettable and something you can find here too if you just know where to look and take the time to smell the flowers before they are gone too.