Greece

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From July, 13 until July, 26, 2009 the folk dancing group of Stainz, Styria went on a return visit to the folk dancing group
Thiamis in Stimanga, Greece.

Our journey there led us from Stainz via Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia to Greece. A highlight on the journey to Stimanga was our visit of the famous monasteries of Meteora. They belong to the UNESCO-world heritage and are built on very high rocks.

Our destination Stimanga is a village with about 1,000 inhabitants next to Corinth nestling between olive groves and vineyards at about 500 m above sea level. The region is the largest producing area of Thomson seedless grapes in Greece. We visited the grape production plant “DIMI” and could assure ourselves of the outstanding quality of the produce.

View from Stimanga over the gulf of Corinth

The landscape is very similar to the surroundings of Stainz which strengthens the connection between people and countries. The narrow streets and the winding roads remembered us of the drive to the viewpoint tower near Stainz. It was quite tricky for the bus driver to drive along the road with 30 passengers in his bus.

The Greek folk dancing group organised a perfect programme for us which made us perfectly happy!

Stimanga lies in between many historic archaeological excavation sites. Therefore we visited some of them as for example Macanae with the famous lion’s gate or the theatre of Epidaurus with its magnificent acoustics. Other highlights of the cultural programme were the cruise through the canal of Corinth and the visit of the Acropolis in Athens.

We introduced the Greek audiences to our Austrian culture as we had several performances with the “Volksharmoniker” (six folk musicians playing with Styrian accordions) and the folk dancing group Stainz. We showed traditional folk dances and also “Schuhplatteln“ (slapping one's shoes and thighs). The people liked our performances very much as they were a good contrast to the sometimes very martial Greek dances.

Naturally we did not miss out the Greek sun, beach and sea!

The endless hospitality of our Greek friends led to a very tearful farewell and also to an increase of weight with some members of the folk dancing group of Stainz. Actually we could not find out whether this was because of the numerous presents or the delicious traditional cuisine.

The journey to Greece will remain unforgettable for all of us.

In total we covered a distance of 3,360 km.

Group photo at the official reception at the mayor