Matt's Greece Photo Album: Comments

Jesus Christ, Matt . What a brilliant site. Of the Sifnos ones I like the Cafe in Kamares the best. Also glad to see you've got Kelly/Tony/et family in the jeep. I will get through them all eventually, but maybe take longer than it took you to prepare the site. I bought a digital camera (or rather my Visa Card did) recently and I'm still trying to get to grips with it. But I can't believe how short a time the batteries last. I'll bring it along next month. Trouble is I won't need the wide angle setting to get all my group in.

Gerry Murray
Photographer
www.greektravel.com/sifnos/imagesofsifnos

I just felt absolutely compelled to write you and thank you for your wonderful old photos of Greece. I went as a child to stay for three months in the summer of 1972, visiting family throughout the Peloponnesos (our home base was Nafplion). Of course we spent much of our time in Athens as well. I've never forgotten that trip. It had a gigantic impact on my life. After subsequent trips with my family, and later my wife (honeymoon), I finally was able to take my son there in 2009. He speaks of it constantly. We hope to go back next year.

Of course so many things have changed there, and much of the charm I recall as a child is gone. Of course that's through the eyes of a man in his late 40's now. Still, seeing these pictures just filled me with emotion and the irresistible desire to find a chair under an olive tree somewhere, gazing out over the Argolian Plain, and slowly nurse a portokolada while enjoying the sunshine and breeze.

I had to mail you to let you know how much my husband and I enjoyed viewing the photos taken by your father of the Peloponnesos.We live in Great Britian and have been travelling for hoildays to Greece for the last ten years.We have enjoyed hoildays in the Mani but are our favourate place to stay is Astros in Arcadia. We were thrilled to see the pictures of Astros they brought back lovely memorys as so much still looked familair. We are going to Astros for 3 weeks in September and can not wait. Your webb pages on Athens have been great to read as we will taking a break there on this holiday.

Thanks for drawing my atention to these. I am now 77, and have just bought a scanner that can convert to jpg files my bottom drawer of 35mm slides from greece 1964-5 . Many of them are very similar to yours. They include one of my son, then 3, in the Evzone costume which his son, now 7, is just growing out of. You have reinforced our nostalgia. There we were in Greece with tessera paedia just after all the music from Zorba the Greek had crashed the charts world-wide, and my little blue-eyed boy attracted affectionate attention from everyone he met and many strangers all anxious to protect him from the Evil Eye. Like the little lad in your pic, he's middle-aged now.

I was on board the SS Smiramis in July '65 as an observer with Doxiadis' 3rd Delos Symposion when all the locals crowded around a radio. I asked Petros Pappas, an economist on the staff of the Centre of Ekistics, what had been announced. His reply -- "The king has done an outrageous thing!". We had a costume party one night on board; I dressed in a sheet and wore as a cap a model windmill I had bought on Mykonos. This was received as bit of political satire, but i had done it not knowing that George Papandreou was know as Kirios Anemomilos! On our return to Athens a week later, I was caught at the edge of a cloud of tear-gas as police cleared a demo in Syntagma Square. Back up the hill in Kolonaki Square, I sat over many coffees and a little ouzo with a Canadian professor discussing the probability of warfare as toops in reserve lined the streets around the corner. They were exciting days. I remember Petros saying that if it came to general fighting again he and his dear friend Panaghis Psomopoulos would be on opposite sides : they danced superbly together.

Hi Matt,
Loved the photos, especially Barbounia, Hitler Cats, and Village Drunk. However some were obviously taken during winter. Too many grey skies and people bundled up against the cold. Angelopoulos the great Greek film maker would love those. I'm sending them on to my philhellene friends.

Joyce
www.opatours.com

Matt:

Great info and photos. Gives me a good feel for what it is like now in
Greece.
I must say I was lucky to have lived there 1960-63. No tourists to speak
of, no cars to get in my way much, and cheap, cheap. We had a live in maid
for $40 a month. Beer cost .35, retsina cheaper. Even allowing for the
difference in salaries and costs then and now, I think it was better then.
I remember going with friends to Porto Rafti for picnics and a day swimming
and maybe ten other people there, a couple houses on a hill. That was it.
Also it was one of the 5 spots the Brits used to evacuate to Crete in April
1941.

Going to greek fest now as they have it every year at this time in Novato,
CA.

In Kifissia at the intersection with the town and the road from Athens to
Ekali, was a Policeman in a round waist high shield directing traffic. He
had a silver Sparten type helmet on. We called him the "Cop in a can".
Nana Mouskouri? came to the American Club in Kefalaria Park in Kiffisia one
night and my wife and another woman told her in the ladies room after her
singing that she should go to the States. She said she was not good enough.
Ha!

Charles Christian
Santa Rosa, CA

I have used to live in Greece for one year in 1989 1990, as a defector from a communist country, on my way to America.

It’s a wonderful place, with wonderful people, and your pictures are capturing the essence of life over there.

Watching your pictures it helped me go back in time and space, therefore I thank you, and I wish you good luck on your next projects.

Wow! Impressive, dude. It's going to take me a while to look through it all, but the pictures I've looked at (on my 56K modem connection) are great. I'll try again tomorrow using a faster connection and look at more.
Poli orea, vre!
Hope all is well. You're still welcome to come see me in Trieste or Venice in June . . .

JR

Matt

This is HEAVEN!!! They are absolutely beautiful -- takes me right back to Greece. I am about half way through the first section, and I am DROOLING! Your Mavica really takes great photos. I can't wait to finish looking at all of them. Needless to say, I bookmarked it already and have sent the link to a few people already.

You did good, sweetie!!
-Coleen

Very nice well organized and of course my keyboard is starting to malfunction from all the tear drops)*&*(^*&%^$$^%@#%^^(^
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Leigh G. Sioris
The CORCORAN GROUP

Hello Matt
I checked your Album, some photos at least, and I would like to congratulate you for this new work!
I see you never stop working and developing the services of ''Matt's sites''!
I wish I will be like you in your age!

Have a good summer
Andreas

As usual you've outdone yourself once again. The site is inexhaustable to
say the least. It would take you a week to go through it. No need to sat
that each picture could be a postcard, better than the postcards you buy at
a kiosk because they're "real" just like the rest of your sites. I could
only go through about 20 of them as time was limited but I liked
"lunchbreak" alot. Before shuting down I decided to spice up my day and see
a few beautiful women so I clicked "Greek American Girls"
Thanks! I shut my computer off immediately and went for a beer to see some
real women in this beautiful spring day.

Great work.

always
Dorian

Matt,
Usually I don't have difficulty describing something that I like very much, this time, though, it's an exception. I was truly amazed w/the superb selection of photos and the listing. You said once that you're not the most organized person. Well, I think those who consider themselves well-organized should take a lesson from you...And only two weeks...The only thing I can critisize is that it spoiled my schedule by not letting me work...I spent on your site a long time, but it was worth it.
Needless to say, wherever Amarandi appears the picture is brighter...Keep up the excellent work!!
Matina

Matt...your photos are beautiful. Makes me "homesick"!
Barney spending 20 days in Greece this summer.....I'm
staying home. Jo Howard

Hey Matt,
really good stuff! i felt there's somethin interesting in your site from the moment i
saw a frappe coffee at the first page (actually i went and made one for myself!..).
You've probably sensed that i'm sceptical and tired of western approaches which
measure everything with their norms or even worst imply that they (we) can see things
without glasses, stepping out the light of owr own culture(s) Yet i think you capture
much of the greek sentiment and millieu, from Plakas streets and Hitler cats to Haris
alexiou poster and plate of 'patsas' in 'monasteri' restaurant .. i mean the
schizophrenic but also warm feeling of living there. it can seduce you and hurt you,
sometimes at the same time.
thanks again for awaking some great memories.
best regards
christos

Matt,

WOW! You really have a comprehensive archive of photography of Greece.
I have only had time to sample some but I'm impressed with what I've
seen and I'm a professional photographer. You collection has depth
and a personal touch that reflects a real personal indentification with
your subject. I really like your people pictures. Seems like you
really got to know these folks, if only long enough to make them
comfortable with you. Good stories too. I am wondering how many of
these images are yours? Do you sell your pictures for publication in
magazines and books? You really have some great stuff.

I have been agonizing over my own web site upgrade for the last few
weeks and hope to have it uploaded some time next week. I'll let you
know.

Scott Teven Photography
2100 Tannehill #1034
Houston, TX 77008
713-862-9410 (phone & fax)

Hi there Matt,
I just found your website by chance and I'm so glad I
did. I lived in Greece until 2002, for 2 years, and I
missed it so much. I just wanted to say thank you for
bringing back old memories, just by looking at your
photos I could almost smell the place! I hope to go
back one day to live, there's not a place like it.
Thanks
Emma

Dear Matt:
I have long dreamed of seeing Greece and the Greek Islands, but since I don't have the money to actually go there (at least for now), finding your site is like stumbling onto a goldmine. I have been searching the Internet for quite awhile now, trying to find information on Mykonos, and although I didn't see a great deal about it, I found so much more! Your site is very good! The scenery is simply spectacular and it makes me want to go all the more to see ALL of Greece.
This is just my long-winded way of saying "Thanks" for all the work you've done on your site and keep up the good work.
One day, I will be coming to Greece. Maybe to stay. ;-)
Regards,
Melinda Calvert

Hello Matt Barrett !!!
Yia sou, to you and your family.

Thanks for telling us about your new photos. I've told some friends
already (in Greece, South Africa, and here in LA).
We talk about you and it's fantastic to see all your photos in Greece -
and even though I've only seen about a quarter of them till now, I'm
already in tears. They're so evocative, and I still cannot bear being in
LA, or being so far from Greece. Our move back to Athens keeps getting
postponed, mainly because we're waiting for the stockmarket to improve
(...my investments....). I've never suffered so much, emotionally, in my
life. But anyway, don't wanna bore you - your photos are great.
So many of them show exactly where I used to walk, shop,
whatever.....Like at the river in Faliro, near where I used to live for
some time. And the views of Lekavitos, where my sister lives.

Nice to see that you played at the AN Club, too. Matt knows that club !
How did that go ?

Ta leme.....Kalo Kalokeri,
Miranda and Matt

Hi,

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your photo album of Greece.

I lived in Athens between 1994-98 and loved every moment of it. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford a camera of my own at the time, but I've managed to keep a few (dull photos of myself) which were taken by other people around the city!

Your site brought back many amazing memories for me. It was good to see the place still looking so vibrant - even though I'm now back in England with the rain, the wind, the fog... :)

Thanks again for a great site, keep up the good work!

Best,

Brad

I've just discovered your site and saved it as a favourite. It has
really brightened up my day.

We have been to several of the Greek islands. My favourites are
Sifnos, Simi, and Tilos, though the latter is being developed and may
come off the list soon! Thank you for sharing your photos with us.
Sheila

YOU ARE THE BEST!!!
GREAT JOB, GREAT PICTURES OF MY COUNTRY!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
NATASSA PETRA

Hello,
I dropped in your homepage of Greece by chance and was somewhat shocked!
Very very great pictures! I do appreciate your unique view to this country and people
living there. I always like to watch how local people "being" their familiar place. Such
detailed or fragmental moments usually touch me much more than just picture-like
sceneries, cause they tell how life goes lively.....

I'm doing a design project, the site of which is Athens. That's why I found your homepage
by website searching. Thanks for so many precious information and pictures.

Best wishes to you to have more wonderful trips this year.

Yingyu Zheng

Matt,

I'm mind-boggled from your photos and I'm no where done looking at them! How did you ever get the opportunity to spend so much time overseas?

Great site!!! Keep up the wonderful work (photos)! :-)

Michelle

Michelle M. Dorsey, DMD

Hello, I stumbled onto your site quite by accident and wandered thru all the pictures and what an amazing journey it was.......thank you so much for letting me see Greece thru your eyes.....Sharon

Outstanding! Thank you Matt for your precious pictures and for bringing beautiful Greece to us. I have not found before so many interesting pictures about this magnificent land. As an student in my younger years I was always fascinated with Greek mythology and ancient history, unfortunately I have not had the chance to visit or travel to this Europe's Jewel but make for sure that after seeing these excellent pictures of yours I will definitely make plans to go sometime in the near future. There is so much I'd like to say about my interest in Greece but it will probably take pages and hours to do it. So

hey matt,
   mark denton here from savannah, georgia. i went pretty near to bonkersburg when i found your ultra-splendifferous pix of athens. i was trying to figure out what temple i had photographed there in september when randomness tossed me onto your site. it was the temple of thission i   discovered. i loved seeing all the interesting and unexpected angles you have of athens. do you live there or wuz that just a beautiful holiday?
   i went on a cruz around italy and the greek isle, but athens wuzn't part of the itinerary. so, when that boat anchored for about maybe half a day at nafplio, this one girl and i raced thru it's awesome streets to catch a bus to athens. i wuzn't bringing my pretty face that close to one of the greatest cities on this planet and not see it. from the bus, i saw lots of countryside and industrial areas ( which i loved for their own strange beauty ), and i even clicked a photo of the corinth canal as we zoomed over it. in athens, we got on a city bus and got lost deep in that thrillingly dirty city and somehow ended up on the shiny-new subway and on to the acropolis. we raced around with our heads cut off snapping pictures and stopping only to pose as if we were just strolling along and happened upon all that breathtaking history. on my next trip, i ain't dragging a cruzship around with me. it wuz well well worth it, though.
   this is why i am so very much happy i got to see your pix. i sure missed out on so much there in athens, i did get this one really attractive shot of the caryatide with these wild flowers in the foreground . if i wuz more into the workings of this computer stuff, i'd send it to you, but you get the picture.
   hey matt, wake up!!! this is the end of my e-mail.

                                    be swell, mark denton

Congratulations, your photos are wonderfull.Very good job you done. If you have more, please let me know. I will appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

yours faithfully,

Nicholas Stathis

Hello Matt,

I've been to Kea last year and your site was useful for me before I went
there and it is most useful for me now I am back here at work. Every now
and then I take a look in your photoalbum to see this fine island and its
inhabitants.

Derko

The pictures are great. Feel like I've been to greece and back.
You have the best site I've seen on Greece.

Today I had a great photo tour around Greece thanks to your page.

You have compilated quite a beautiful bunch of pictures and information.
Thank you for letting me travel this way!

Best regards.
adriana.benedetti

Hello, i have just been on your website for the past hour, looking at your beautiful pictures. I just got back from living/traveling around Greece. I lived in Kolonaki, Athens, for two months, then on the island of Skiathos for two months, then on Crete for 5 months. Your pictures of Santorini are stunning, especially since that is my most favorite place in the world. I went there in March 2002, for only a few days, but I absolutely adore the island. Do you have any pictures of Crete?? Your website is the best I have ever found!!! I found it through Windows Media Player, while I was looking for Greek Music. Thanks again for your wonderful website!!

Dear Mr. Barrett,
I am putting together a university second year class on the archaeology of
Greek and Roman religion and I would like to use some of your photographs
in the slide presentations I show to the class. The page the pictures came
from is: http://www.mattbarrett.net/photos/. The pictures are of high
quality and illustrate some things I would like the students to see in
color. I will only use the pictures in class and make them available to
students in my class to study from for their exams. I do not expect to use
them again after this Fall 2003 term. Please let me know if this is possible.
Regards,
Rachel Levine

Hi Matt,

Sorry it's me again! Have just discovered your photo pages and simply had to respond. They are WONDERFUL! This site is really THE most comprehensive, informative, entertaining and inspiring guide you could wish for. My admiration just grows and grows. I am telling everyone I know to have a look, even if they have never considered going to Greece and am pleased to report that I've made two new converts at work who have booked for next year and not even to Kalymnos!

Best wishes,

Gill.

I was checking out your website with all the pictures of Greece. gotta tell they were beautiful. Brings back many happy memories for me. I used to spend my summers in Pireaus as a kid, and I miss it alot. Especially loved the ones of Marina Zea, my family lives very close by. Can't wait to see it again soon..God willing that'll be next year. Again I say ...they were beautiful, keep up with that , you got talent my friend. Two thumbs up from me !!!!!!

                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                    Nikolaos Fassilis

Enjoyed your photo album. It is fantastic, showing Greece in everyday life. I wish I could forward certain pictures to family and friends. They bring back lots of memories of seeing them in person. Our family came from the village of Ermioni. Thanks.

Nick Metrokas

yia sou matt,

just saying thanks for the wonderful site. ive sat with my kids as well as myself and looked at photos many times. one day i will get my family to greece, but until then your extensive photo collection will do. a special thanks for the bit about the pelopenessos photos.

my papou came from argos.....not an easy place to find any photos of on the net, let alone travel guides.

all the best,

doug mahnke

Dear Matt,
My parents took us on a family trip to greece in 1963. I was 12 and
my sisters were 10 and 14 and it was my parents first trip back since
they left for the U.S. in 1952.We spent a few days in Athens, but
almost 2 months in Tripolis at my parents villages (doriza and Garea,
Tegea) and Calamata where my folks moved after they were married. It
was an enchanting trip with oil lamps and outhouses which made it
difficult for mom to keep up with laundry etc. but for my sisters and
me it was priceless. it was priceless. Your photos really brought
back some memories. My parents still travel to Astros every year as
they have a small condo there.You inspired me to dig up my dad's old
photos and when I do I'll try to share them as you did.
Efharisto,

Costas

Awesome web site! I have been to Greece several times and am happy to see pictures of everyday things that I never thought to photograph that capture a real experience in the land of the gods. Thank you...epharisto!

--DP

Dear Mr. Matt Barrett!

Your homepage with all the fantastic fotos and the links and the description of landscape and history and..... is now my favorite place in the Web !!!!

We live in Vienna/Austria ( which is a very nice place to live! ). Many holidays we have spent in Kreta, in Zypern and also in Turkey. This year we will celebrate my 50. birthday in Athen and we are looking forward this holiday in May/June. Unfortunately we have only 10 days - but that is better than nothing!

Now I am planning our "Greek-Days" with "Your" helpful Guide!! Thank you very much !!!!

Friendly regards from Vienna

Helga Reiter

Bravooooooooooo very very nice collection
I was born in Greece island of Andros
Now leaving phoenix Arizona

I would like to thank you...I found your pictures verry helpfull in my art history class. I am taking My second semester ant yavapi Comm. College. Thnx. Ray Saltsman

Hi Matt,
I just wanted to thank you for your awesome pictures you took, my Mom and I were in Europe last may on a 14 day cruise. I am so homesick for Europe!! Somehow on our journeys back we lost all of our pictures we gathered along the way. I am trying to make a scrapbook of our trip for my Mother and the internet has helped, but your pictures are so good it was some of the exact places we went. THANK YOU!!!
Sue Henderson

This is awesome for visual people like me. Thanks again for all your hard work for us travelers !!

Great Pictures Matt,

Feeling home sick at the moment and thought I would check out the net for pictures.I loved all the pictures for Santorini. I lived in Santorini on and off for 10 years. So thank you, I feel better now but want to return even more.

Carol Karayannis

Matt,

I stumbled across your web site and have to say, excellent.

I am always looking online to find good pictures of greece, and so far i think yours is the best. So many clear shots.

Keep it up!

George

Loved it. I am an American in Los Angeles, who married a Greek woman that lived in Thessaloniki until she was 13, then moved to the US. I’ve traveled to Greece several times to visit her family and homeland. You’ve beautifully captured the special features of Greece. A comprehensive photo journalism collection very worthy of praise.

Thanks. I really enjoyed it.

My husband and I have enjoyed your website and are still going through it little by little. I e-mailed you earlier in the year to compliment you on the photos your Dad took of Kypariss in the 60's . My husband was in one as a child doing gymnastics in the school yard. We were in Kyparissi this year with our daughters and as I told my good friend, Electra, about your website she told me that she knew you quite well.

Keep up the good work on the website - we really are enjoying it a lot. I feel as if I'm discovering different parts of Greece all the time. As a matter of fact, this time I really wasn't ready to leave and I've been on your website quite often because I'm "homesick" for Greece! It's not the same thing, but it helps.

Hi Matt. I’ve written you before asking you various questions. You’ve always been very responsive. Thank you!!!

I just wanted to write and say another “thank you” for sharing your pictures from the 60s. They are amazing! I am correct in saying that your brother is David and sister is Cindy? I didn’t realize it was your family’s pictures on that page until I finished looking at them. You are so lucky to have them. Little did you father know (perhaps) that the pictures today are such a valuable and cherished gift to you, your family, and all of us!!!! Amazing…

I’m heading to Greece for one month next month to stay with my family (they live in Palaio Faliro). As I look at your pictures, it makes me want to be there now!!!

Thanks again for all your hard work and sharing it with all of us out here in Cyberspace.

Congratulations for the idea of publishing the photos in a popular medium (web) therefore everyone can enjoy them.

I am sure you do not know that someone discovered them and recently they are e-mailed between friends/colleagues/relatives all over Greece, apparently abroad as well.

I also received them in my mail few weeks ago and further forwarded to some friends, but only yesterday I discovered your full site, during a research on old photos of Paleo Faliro.

Have you ever thought of the possibility to create a physical photographic album with your father’s photos?

Greece Travel: Traveler's Reviews Matt's Greece Photo Album

Greece Travel: Traveler's Reviews
Matt's Greece Photo Album