Trip Info
A complete immersion into traditional and contemporary Greek culture.
Patras is where the experience will take place.
Chryssanthi Stellatou is your hostess for the cultural immersion whole experience.
Chryssanthi is a multi-talented lady, with an extremely broad array of interests and expertise. She has high level education on English and Spanish language studies, extensive studies in European and Byzantine music, history and rendition of ecclesiastical poetry and development and promotion of archeological areas and museums. She has also attended courses in authoring, marketing and personal development and has had a long career as a translator, interpreter and foreign language teacher, both in Greece and abroad. She is also an accomplished literature writer.
- Place of origin: Kefalonia
- Lives in: Patras
- Speaks: English, French, Spanish
- Loves: playing music, dancing, writing, travelling, swimming, cooking, reading and byzantine iconography
- Has travelled to: Greece all over the mainland and the islands, Belgium, France, England, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden, Italy
- Personal traits: very hospitable, good communicator, humorous and with a pleasant attitude
Here’s how we’ll spend the day and what we’ll do together.
1. Dive into Greek history and culture
After we meet at the Intercity Bus Station at 10:30 a.m., we will go to the Mycenaean Park of Voudeni, a place of astounding beauty where a Mycenaean cemetery with 75 tholos tombs has been excavated. We will then come to my place, where we will have an apero, lunch and coffee and discuss about Greek history and traditional music and arts.
2. Traditional Greek arts
You will learn about and listen to Byzantine music and to various traditional musical instruments. If you are interested in Byzantine Icon painting, I can also tell you about its technique and show you samples of this marvelous art.
3. The enchanting Byzantine chanting
After resting at home for a couple of hours, we will continue our guidance to some more monuments worth seeing. We will pass outside the Castle of Patras and the Roman Odeum and then we will head towards the beautiful Byzantine Monastery of Gerokomio. Vespers start at 17:00, so you will have the chance to listen to Byzantine chanting, be transported to a different era and experience the Orthodox religious devoutness.
Group size is five persons maximum.
