Aliyah

A customer admired my Am Yisrael Chai papercut and asked me to make a card with the same message on it for her daughter who was making aliyah. The Hebrew word aliyah literally means ascent or rise, but for generations it has been used to mean "moving to Israel". My customer wanted a nice card for her daughter to find when she arrived at her new home here.

Jewish tradition views travelling to the Land of Israel as an ascent, both geographically and metaphysically. The opposite action - emigration by Jews from Israel - is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida (descent). The Law of Return that was passed by the Knesset (the legislative branch of the government of Israel) in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity. 

I created a card with the blue and white flag of Israel on it. The flag consists of a white background with a blue Star of David in the centre and two horizontal blue stripes at the top and bottom. The Star of David is a widely acknowledged symbol of the Jewish people and of Judaism. The stripes recall the design of the tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl. A white dove with an olive branch in its beak, a symbol of peace from the biblical story of Noah's ark, is hovering in front of the flag. Noah released the dove to find dry land after The Flood, and the dove returned carrying an olive branch, signaling that the flood had receded. I added a bright red pomegranate, one of Israel's Seven Species. In Jewish tradition, pomegranates are, among other things, a symbol of love. Finally, I cut out the Hebrew letters spelling out the words Am Yisrael Chai, "The people of Israel live". The slogan is used as a patriotic phrase, an equivalent of "Long Live Israel." The word "Chai" - meaning life, living, or alive - itself has a very special meaning and long history as a Jewish symbol, all explained in my Chai blog post.

My customer's daughter was delighted with her card. "Thank you for this gorgeous card!" she wrote to her mum. "I don’t know how you managed to get it posted here successfully!" she said. And that, dear readers, is a whole 'nother story...

* This post has been shared on Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop

Agistri

The island of Agistri was the third stop on our Greece trip. It is located just 35 km from the port of Piraeus in Athens, and a stone's throw from Aegina. Like Aegina, Agistri is in the Saronic Gulf, part of the Saronic Islands.
Agistri is a small island (14 sq km), with only four villages of any size. The rest of the island is covered in pine forest. Only two kilometres apart, Skala and Megalochori (also called Milos) are the two villages that cater most to tourists on the island. Megalochori, which means "big village", is the capital village of the island. It has traditional whitewashed stone-built houses - some of the oldest on the island, tiny, winding streets, a sandy beach and a small port where fishing boats moor. We stayed in Skala, the main port of Agistri. Skala is just a twenty-minute walk from Megalochori along the coastal road.

For those who love hiking, Agistri is ideal for walking. Many old footpaths crisscross the island and lead to tiny chapels, small settlements, beaches, and hilltops with breathtaking views to the sea. But hiking is best in autumn and spring when the weather is not so hot. In summer it would have been uncomfortable. There are a few interesting churches on the island, but it was the sandy beaches with blue-green waters that were the main draw for us. The beach closest to our hotel was the beach of Agioi Anargyroi, located at the beginning of Skala, next to the harbour and in front of the all-white Church of Agioi Anargyroi. The church, the newest in Agistri, was the first thing we spotted when we arrived on the island. It is an imposing all-white church, which stands out from afar with its blue dome.

We spent three days on Agistri. On our last day we took a boat trip around the island. We admired the bays, swam in secluded coves and discovered the small islands that are around Agistri. Our skipper told us about the island and pointed out locations of particular interest. We learnt that the population of the island is approximately 1,100 inhabitants, but in the summer months it approaches 5,000. Until 1960, transportation was done by boats coming from Aegina but in 1960 the island was connected directly with Piraeus. In 1973 another important service was made available on the island - electricity.

The boat ride was stunning and a wonderful way to end our Greek holiday. We had just one more night in Athens before our flight home. Hopefully we will be able to return to the area again one day, to discover more of the different islands that Greece has to offer.

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.

Aegina

After four very busy days in Athens we were ready to take things a bit easier. We took the ferry from the mainland over to Aegina, one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 27 km from Athens. Aegina was a major power in the classical Greek times and for a period Athens' main competitor. It was designated as the first capital of the newly formed Greek State, from January 1828 until December 1829, after the period of the Greek Revolution of 1821.

The island is essentially an extinct volcano. Two-thirds of it is rugged and mountainous, while the rest, in the north and west, consists of fertile plains. The island is renowned for its pistachios, and the Temple of Aphea, one of the most important in the country. The main town on the island of Aegina is also called Aegina. This is the capital and principal port and therefore pretty busy with tourists, hotels, restaurants and things to do. On the eastern side of the island is the village of Agia Marina, where we stayed. The village is named after the church of the same name that sits above it. 

We took a day off by the hotel pool before picking up our rental car, ready to explore the island. Our first stop was the Temple of Aphaia, located on a hilltop close to Agia Marina. Besides having a spectacular view, the temple is a very well preserved example of the Doric style and is the most important archaeological site in the Saronic islands and one of the most important in Greece. It was built in 480 BCE (on the site of an even older temple) when Aegina was at the height of its power.

There have been significant bronze, pottery and pediment sculptures found at the temple, including a marble sculpture of a fallen Hero and Heracles (Hercules) defending him with a bow and arrow. A large number of parts of the Temple of Aphaia were discovered in 1811 by English and German archaeologists, sold to Louis of Bavaria and finally ended up at Munich in 1828, where they have been exhibited ever since. In a special hall of the Glyptothek of Munich, named "Aiginetes", there are parts of the temple, a part of the relief sculptures, 17 statues, including a statue of Athena, and more.

Another place of interest on the island are the ruins of Paleochora, above, east of Aegina town. This was the capital of the island from the 9th till the 18th century, when villages were located inland to be safe from pirates. Aegina was one of the unlucky towns because it was destroyed once by the Ottoman pirate Barbarossa in 1537 and all the inhabitants were taken away as slaves. All that remains are a number of small churches in various states of decline, but it is a fascinating place to explore and one that I was very pleased to have visited. 

After our hike we stopped briefly at the nearby Monastery of Agiou Nektarou, apparently the most important religious monument of Aegina. The enormous new church holds the remains of Anastasios Kefalas, a hermit monk who died in 1920 and was the first orthodox saint of the 20th Century, canonized in 1961.

The following day we drove to the main town of Aegina. The place was buzzing with people enjoying the day in the cafes and tavernas. We walked along the busy waterfront, with its traditional fishing boats and guys mending their nets. The port of Aegina is a busy one with ferries, Flying Dolphins (hydrofoil passenger ferries), cruise ships, catamarans and fishing boats sailing in and out, depositing people, cars and fish. The pistachios produced in Aegina are famous all over Greece and are sold in small shops and booths in the town. We bought a couple of bags at a stand located close to the harbour. They were delicious!

Aegina town is a lovely little town with beautiful neoclassical buildings, thin narrow, winding streets, nice squares and brightly coloured buildings. North of the port of the town, on the top of a low hill, stands the remaining column of an ancient temple dedicated to Apollo. This site is called Kolona (column) and excavations have revealed various ruins, as well as a 5,000 year old settlement and layers of city life. A little museum displays the various interesting findings. Other sites worth seeing in the town include the Tower of Markellos, a watchtower erected in the late 17th century by Venetians as part of the greater fortifications that guarded the port, the Eynardeio Central School, a neoclassical building that stands next to the Cathedral of Aegina, and the fish market, situated in a road parallel to the waterfront.

Numerous cafes with views of the sea and the harbour operate along the waterfront. After a few hours exploring the town, we sat down for delicious pistachio gelato. It was the perfect way to end our day there.

We saved the best for last for our final day on Aegina. We drove south on the coastal road to the village of Perdika, above, a pretty village surrounded by gleaming blue seas. Spilling down from a hill and surrounded by a small bay, in the summer season Perdika is busy with visitors enjoying meals on the terraces of traditional tavernas. Moni islet is an islet close to Perdika and there are regular boat connections from the village throughout the summer months. The small boats disembark at a sandy beach on the north coast of the islet. After meandering along Perdika's waterfront, we hopped onto a boat which took us to Moni islet. Within 10 minutes we had reached paradise!

Moni islet is not inhabited, as there is no drinkable water. The only inhabitants are some deer, peacocks, Cretan Ibex and squirrels. The deer and the peacocks have grown especially accustomed to human presence and they greeted us as we disembarked. They clearly hoped we had something for them to eat!

Moni is the property of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Chrysoleontissa of Aegina - hence its name, "Moni", which in Greek translates into "monastery".  The islet was under the jurisdiction of the Greek Travel Club for 30 years, from 1960 to 1990. In 1962 it was decided that it should be a shelter for wild animals and access was restricted to only a few months per year through the small boats from Aegina, without the possibility for an overnight stay.

On the top of the islet's triangular peak, a crumbling structure reachable only by a strenuous hike is said to be the remains of a German lookout post. It has been standing there since World War II, when the Germans used Moni islet to defend the port of Piraeus from the Allies. We didn't hike to the lookout post but rather spent our time on the islet walking along the coast and swimming in the beautiful turquoise waters close to where we had disembarked. Moni islet has several small beaches suitable for swimming, especially on the north coast. These beaches are surrounded by gorgeous pine forests.

And then it was time to move on again, this time to the island of Agistri, just 14 km away.

* This post has been shared on Sundays on Silverado, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Nature Notes, My Corner of the World, Wild Bird Wednesday and Saturday's Critters.