My first trip to Greece in 1996 caused a power cut:  A truck driver friend had invited me to join him on his trip from Tehran to Munich. Upon arrival in Greece we were ahead of schedule so I was incautious enough to ask my friend for a  little detour to visit the beautiful Oracle of Delphi. Unfortunately the truck proved to be too high for the narrow country road and we accidentally cut a power line. Apart from this  little accident and a spiritual hiking week in the masculine Monks’ Republic on the Athos peninsula in 2010 Greece never managed to play a major role in my travel plannings. A pity since no other people but the Greeks have gifted the world so lavishly. Greeks invented demogracy, theatre and Olympia. Their gods resided on the Olymp but were, like us ordinary mortals, also prone to moral hazard –  what would you expect from Aphrodite as goddess of sensuous desire? Later the first philosophers entered the scene. Their concept was new, but disarmingly simple: They wanted to comprehend the world by reflecting about it.

“I just know that I so far know nothing” Socrates was once foreboding. After a. 2023 island hopping trip through the cyclades, my wife and  I know at least one thing:

Folegandros is one of the most appealing islands we have ever been to: it has century-old stony shepherd pathways where we passed whitewashed chapels and wild donkeys to reach deserted crystal-clear beaches, it has great taverna food (homemade Matsata pasta, delicious Octopus and meatballs, barbecued lamb and the Greek salad which is good as everywhere), a Chora on the top of a 200m verdant cliff with several white cosy squares to get drunk, a sleepy port with just one cute restaurant, and for me, as a hopeless romantic: sweeping sunset view from cliffside Panagia church over Chora towards half of the Cyclades, home to Apollo.