Popular Australian TV morning host Samantha Armytage has fallen madly and deeply in love with Greece and who can blame her!
After taking a holiday to Greece last year to celebrate a friend's wedding in Mykonos and spending time in Athens, Sam says she experienced the best food, hospitality, beaches and also tells the world, "Greeks know how to live."
Read Sam Armytage's write up on her love affair with Greece, which was shared in the Daily Telegraph today.
"I TOOK a holiday in Greece last year, lobbing in with some locals (long-time family friends) for a big, fat, fun-fabulous three-day wedding. Which, along with the toga and souvlaki, those brilliant Greeks invented — and still execute beautifully.
The trip was fuelled by the best food I’ve ever eaten, filled with the most outrageous, hospitable, gregarious people I’ve ever met (plus a few European royals!) and punctuated by days lazing on blue boats in even bluer seas, lots of carefree laughs, and even more delicious tucker.
The Greeks know how to live. If I could have bottled this ability and brought it home on the Qantas flight, I would. But alas, I got as far as Dubai, and the memories of the octopus and those tomatoes stuffed with rice were fading as quickly as my tan.
While my Greek friends are fun (and did I mention their food?), what I adore about them most is their pride in their culture. They are great storytellers — the way to any journo’s heart — and even the youngsters at the dinner table tell ancient tales that could rival the guides at the magnificent Acropolis Museum.
Hearing stories about gods and goddesses by candlelight on a warm Greek summer night will beat anything TV can offer. Yes, even Sunrise... although we too create order out of the chaos of the universe every morning. (Confession: I was so inspired to return to Australia, I named my four chooks Harmonia, Persephone, Calliope and Eos.)
Yes, my name is Samantha Armytage, and I love Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. I like to think of those major philosophers as the first A-list celebrities. Rock stars, if you like. They were well-known, wealthy and powerful, the masses hung on them every word, and they had to endure rumours about their sexual preferences. And they have longevity that Paris Hilton can only dream of. Now, this might sound flippant, but one century’s Pericles is another century’s (Brad) Pitt. No-one embraced celebrity culture more than ancient Athens. Through the ages, humans have looked for role models in society, and for good or bad, these mere mortals become heroes. Their thinkers were superstars.
Similarly to us, their best musicians and boxers and soldiers were the ones they most admired. Deep down, we like to think our best-known people — the ones whose homes and hairstyles and relationships we admire and pore over in the tabloid magazines — also have the best morals and values and manners."
*This story first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph Stellar Magazine.
