Greece Travel: Traveler's Reviews
A History of Greece
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Dear Matt, This is a great job Matt, Like I said before I think you are a very talented man, and I love your way of writing. You can talk for boring things and make them sound interesting and entertaining. By this, I don’t mean that Greek history is a boring thing but the way they are teaching it in the schools makes our children to hate it. I think I will print your pages so my daughter can practice in both English and Greek History. I don’t think there is something like that on the Internet, and I’m sure people will find it very helpful. History is not my strong subject, so I cannot tell you much about mistakes etc. but as I was reading it and from what I can remember from my readings as a student and later, the information provided is very accurate. And of course I read things that I didn’t even know. The only thing I have to say as a con is that is a pitty that this wasn’t ready last year with the Olympics and all. I have to go now. I hope I see you this summer again. Best regards Dear Matt: Hi Matt, Have been every now and then punching up your new site on the History of Greece. Opening one of the windows and reading thru your documentation. My first impresion is that you have done a huge project here, and am wondering how you found the time - what with your travel site and all. The photos you have selected are very very nice and crisp and rich and the layout is interesting and inviting. the whole site is very user friendly and i expect you have received by now many good "reviews" I have saved your site and know it will take me some time to get through to see all of it. but, as with your Greek travel site, i can refer to it and recommend it to others as the occasion arises. since i am not a scholar or educator, i cannot comment on the content of the history - except to say i really like the photos and images you have included there. not the typical out of focus flat shots that most Greek history books provide. by for now. congratulations on your positive efforts for the Greek community. Maggie. Matt, I am traveling to Athens in March 2006. I just wanted you to know that I am really enjoying your website. Thanks for all the information Maryann Wow, It's nice to hear from you. It's been awhile. Great job. This must have been quite a project and how timely. I was just reading my Cadogen guide to Greece last night and reviewing the history. I love your thorough approach and clearly stated history, period by period. The images are great. Where did you get access to all of those? I guess I can throw away the rest of my history outlines now. Reid and our daughter
Maia are meeting
in Athens after my tours this summer and spending a couple of weeks researching for a tour Reid is doing next year. I'm not officially allowed to do a tour other than a Rick Steves' tour so I am just "going along" on this tour. I also thought it would be good to review the Peleponese so that I could do the existing Rick Steves' Athens and the Peleponese tour. I'm getting there slowly. Are you still in the States? We recommend your websites all the time. Your
work on them in general is the best out there. Take care and thanks for sharing your latest project with me. Hi Matt, What a great site ! Never before did I see such an interesting and at the same time relatively concise presentation of Greek history. To tell you the truth my comments are based on only a brief look (I am overwhelmed with work – Mark has been out of the office for a little over a week now for personal reasons, Giorgos was sick for a few days at the same time, so Barbara, Dimitris, Katerina and I are running around trying to be on top of things – by Monday we should be back to normal). Anyway you always manage to surprise me with your ingenuity and skill – and these are not empty words – I mean it Even though I would like to help, please don’t expect me to add anything or point to corrections in regards to your new site, because for this to happen I would really need to devote serious quality time, which I honestly don’t have. At his stage I can only sincerely congratulate you. Bravo ! Apostolos Matt, I have finally finished reading your masterful history of Greece. It is concise, complete, insightful and surprisingly objective-in short economical. I can see that you have truly fulfilled the legacy of your surname. And now I really know why you changed it. You are more Greek than most Greeks. Who wouldn’t want to conscript your passion for their cause, legitimate or insane? I was especially enlightened by the post-Ottoman material. It brought home for me the inspiration and desperation that caused my grandfather to flee his native land for the shores of an uncertain and brutal future. This work is a must-read for anyone of Greek decent finding their way to their roots. It is a powerful resource for anyone with an incipient interest in learning about or traveling to Greece. Bravo sou. Hi Matt, kali spera, i want to thank you for the great pain you went to and effort in compiling this website. i was born in athens, my grand mother, pure greek, my father greek-albanian and my heart greek, now living - maybe forever - in austria. i found your site tonight and immediately i registered it under "favorites", listening - as so often - to georgios dalaras singing rembetika and the likes. i wish you all the best! Georgios NOUSIS My wife and i have just visited the excellent exhibition from the Benaki museum collection, now nearing the end of a popular season in the Immigration Museum, Melbourne, Australia. We were particularly impressed with the introductory panels that give the visitor a quick survey of Greek history from neolithic times until the early 20th century.
Sadly, the otherwise excellent catalogue did not include this. We neded refreshing, as we are now in our late seventies but trasure memories of living in Athens with our four then young children for nine months in 1964-5 while i was working with CA Doxiadis' Centre of Ekistics. So i googled the exact phrase "A short history of Greece" and immediately found your excellent site. Just what we needed.
My eldest granddaughter, now 10, visited the Melbourne Benaki exhibition with her primary school Greek language class the other day. Her reaction to my wife: "Grandma, it was AWESOME! I saw a golden cup three thousand years old!
It won't be long before she comes looking around, as her mother did with us forty year ago.
Thanks again. Evcharisto parapolli (excuse my spelling, Cyrillic is hard in my email program!)
John ayly Dear Mr. Mathew: Dear Matt, I have just finished reading extracts from your website on greece's history. I realise that certain topics are sensitive to discuss but I believe you embraced the main issues in an objective manner. I particularly liked your closing remarks in which you say that should all Greeks unite and stop bickering a better society will be formed and I totally agree with you. Although Thucedides said that "history will, to a greater or lessen extent, be repeated in the future" unfortunately humans have not taken the opportunity to learn from their past mistakes; nor I believe should the above statement imply an obsession with the past but rather people in general, and Greeks in particular, must leave the past behind and move on. The world is dissolving in front of our eyes and the last thing we need right now is internal conflict and narrow-mindness; the new generation should move away from ideas inflicted by governments, one-sided history books and nationalist and truly embrace the meaning of democracy. As a Greek -Cypriot myself I feel that my little island has been betrayed, used and manipulated by external forces with its people - both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot - paying the price yet this unfortunate situation exists in many countries and is based on the law of the sea (the big fish eats the small to survive). Unfortunately, extremists exist everywhere but fortunately open-minded people willing to give it a shot exist too. Let's hope that this time we will do a better job. Sincerely Anna Patatou |
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