It’s all Greek to me

I went to the Greece for the weekend with the Sofia Hash House Harriers. That’s one of the great things about living here; Greece, Turkey, etc. are just a “road trip” away—in fact, I didn’t know I was going until Wednesday! Anyhow, I was great: clear skies, clear water, incredible scenery, and charming villages. At some points, however, it all runs together: Turkey 2 weeks ago, Australia last year, Bahamas the year before…I am spoiled. Which is why I am so glad I invited my Bulgarian friend, Mirena, to come along. She had never been to Greece, and greeted everything with wide-eyed amazement and appreciation.

For a more detailed account of our trip, see Ryan's blog.

As far as the title goes, I don’t know a word of Greek, and the babble between locals sounded almost like Italian to me. However, thanks to learning the Cyrillic alphabet (which is loosely based on the Greek), I now can figure out a lot of Greek signs and sound out words that had been previously undecipherable. A lot of letters are the same (or at least similar): the Cyrillic 'F' Ф is nearly indistinguishable from the Greek Phi Φ in any font, and it is easy to see that the Cyrillic 'D'Д comes from the Greek delta Δ. Others I've picked up over the years from math and such: Θθ (theta), Σσ (sigma) for example; so Thassos is spelled θασος. Most poignant was a sign on the way back, pointing home: ΣοΦία.