We had March 25 off for “Annunciation Day.” We had long-planned to make it a four day weekend and go to Israel, but a recent spate of random stabbings put the kibosh on that plan. It is still the low season in Cyprus, so regular direct flights are very hard to come by, with flights leaving at odd hours or only going/coming one or two days a week (which never seem to be leaving Friday and returning Monday, unfortunately). The exception is Athens, which has several flights per day. Shortly after booking our flights and hotel, we learned that while it was “Annunciation Day,” a minor religious holiday celebrated by basically no one, the true purpose of the holiday was Greek Independence Day, which is still celebrated in Cyprus in spite of Cyprus having its own independence day and it not being part of Greece. (Apparently, the Embassy chose to celebrate Annunciation Day instead of “EOKA” day the following week. EOKA was a guerrilla organization that fought against the British, killing an American embassy officer in the process. And EOKA-B later fought for union with Greece and assassinated our Ambassador in 1974. So we don’t celebrate EOKA day.)
All of that is a long way of saying, it’s generally not ideal to book a holiday over a holiday when everything. is. closed. In Nicosia, truly EVERYTHING would have been closed, but Athens was 25% open which was just enough. We planned our March 25 activities strategically, having researched what was open and could be done that day and made sure to find reservations for dinner.
I pride myself in avoiding large gatherings. I was in Washington for the record-setting 2008 inauguration (and the 2012 inauguration, for that matter) and did not attend. Parades, large concerts, sports games, you name it I have no desire to be within a six-mile radius of it. However, our hotel was right on Syntagma Square, catty corner from the Greek Parliament, and right near the starting point of the Greek Independence Parade. Severin had been in Athens this time last year, and while he had missed the parade he had seen/heard tanks queueing up. Tanks. TANKS!
So we made an exception. Not knowing when exactly the party was supposed to get started, we laid claim to a small piece of sidewalk and waited. And waited. An hour later, some activity seemed to be slowing gearing up in front of the VIP stand. We were getting pressed against a shin-high retaining wall from people all around us. And still the damn thing would not start. This was our view for the wait:
Then some regular parade folks appeared: nurses, motorcycle police, car police, firemen, the works. Several rounds and no tanks.
And then there were tanks.
And more tanks:
This one made an incredible sound when it rolled through– it literally shook the windows around us. Severin tells me the crazy stuff on front is for clearing mines.
This is a shot behind/above where we were standing. It is actually our hotel, but we obviously couldn’t afford a super swanky room with a balcony.
Various other (not worth photographing) military vehicles passed through after the tanks, including these chem/bio people:
Unlike the United States, Greece has compulsory service in the military. One of the most heartwarming and humanizing aspects of the parade was that occasionally you would hear whooping and hollering from the crowd for which there could be no other explanation but that a loved one was marching by. It gave me the tingles! The marching was of a very different sort then what you’d see in the States. They kind of lead with the right foot and kick it a little higher then the left foot every few steps, and then really pump their fists, all the way up to eye-height. I can only imagine how exhausting it would be to do that for several kilometers. If they are carrying something that prevents them from really swinging their arm, they just do the one free arm, like so:
I turned to Severin and said, wow, it’s really all hands on deck for this parade, huh? Everybody is in on this thing! Here are a few of my all-time faves:
I’m guessing these guys are supposed to be special forces– they all had their faces painted and everyone in the second row was wearing their night vision goggles:
REAL LIFE SNOW TROOPS. I thought they only existed in James Bond movies. (Also– scuba troops in the row before!)
I really got a kick out of the guys marching in wet suits, so when another group came around I snapped away:
I might have squealed a little when the evzones started marching toward us. They are the honor guard of the Greek military and they have amazing outfits, including the most awesome shoes ever. These things are tap shoes on steroids, for maximum impact while marching. The evzones stepped forward with their left leg, and the metal of their shoes went click, then they took a big high step with their right leg and SMACK, left leg click, right leg SMACK. Repeat. All in unison. And they have poof balls on them. What more could you ask for? I could have watched those guys march all day long, it was totally mesmerizing. Everything about these guys is awesome.
Well-played, Athens. Well-played.