March 25: Independence Day in Greece!

We awoke at 7am to the sounds of church bells loudly heralding in the arrival of Greek Independence Day. Shops and city sites were closed and families spent the day enjoying parades and meals together. We spent the day in a park near the National Gardens and enjoyed a few more ruins and lots more people watching. In one open market square there was a Native American/ South American style group playing calm, almost trancelike panpipe and cedar flute music leaving those within earshot looking glazed and almost comatose in the warm afternoon sun. We giggled to one another and mused that perhaps this group was hired by the city planners to keep the masses calm in the midst of financial turmoil. Later, our host Maria’s teenage son tells us that they are not actually South or Native American, but rather gypsies posing with feather head dresses and traditional garb. Oh those gypsies, they turn up everywhere!