Yianni’s Ionian Village Summer Camp Experience in Greece

Our youngest son just returned from a 3 week co-ed camp in Greece. He is not typically effusive unless he’s really impressed by things. When he returned, he was enthusiastic and articulate in his details and impressions to us. For the sake of brevity in the interview, he kept his answers direct and to the point. He took all the photos except for the ones he’s in. Although he had been to Greece many times before as a child with his family, this was his first time to go with peers and not with us.

What was your favorite thing about the trip?

Seeing all the churches and holy sites. Also, meeting so many campers from all over.

Why?

It was fascinating to see all the incorruptible bodies of the saints and relics of the church, icons and architecture.

How was it different from the previous time that you’ve been to some of those churches in Greece? Also, you’ve seen incorruptible saints bodies in many churches, duomos , cathedrals and basilicas..?

It had been many years since I’d seen them and now I’m older.

What was your impression when you arrived after a long day of traveling?

Loud. A lot of people,…. the camp was really clean. I was surprised at how WHITE everything was…it reminded me of Santorini. It was night when we arrived so I didn’t really see everything.

What were your favorite impressions of the facilities because those facilities are gorgeous. Were you expecting that?

It was way better than I expected. A really big kitchen and eating area, 12 cabins, private beach, volleyball and basketball court, baseball pit, an amphitheater, soccer field, Olympic sized pool.

There is a petting zoo I saw in your photos.

Yes. Goats, sheep, chickens, peacock, quail, pheasant, bunnies, donkey, a show horse. You couldn’t pet the birds though.

What was the structure of the day?

7:15 wake up, Orthros (church service), breakfast. Then, flextivities, stretch and wake up. 1st and 2nd activities, Orthodox Life session or organized arts and crafts, lunch, siesta, 1.5 hour nap. Wake up, free swim at pool or beach depending on the day, 3rd activities, cabin prep time for 1.5 hours, shower and dress for evening activities or theme, shower, vespers, dinner, evening activity, nightly devotional as a cabin where we answered a prompt.

Did people actually take a siesta? Did you nap?

Oh yeah, everybody did.

Tell us about the theme parties. Those were fun for you to pack for, I noticed.

Black Out party, White Out party, Olympics Night….

Which was your favorite?

White Out.

Was it because everyone looked so Grecian and chic?

Yes, everyone looked nice plus I had a lot of white shirts.

Tell us about your excursions away from camp? How did that work? Did you go every other day?

Normally, they were two days back to back and that started after 3-4 days of camp. We went to Zakynthos, Bartholomeio, Kefalonia, Olympia (islands and other sites) etc. We’d leave early in the morning and take a bus or ferry boat. (the excursions also included: Patras (the church of Saint Andrew and his skull), Kastro Chlemoutsi, Kalavrita, Osios Loukas, Athens, Syntagma Square, Monasteraki and Plaka and Aegina (the church of St. Nectarios)

Name the islands you went to:

Zakynthos, Aegina, Kefalonia,

You said you liked seeing all of the little yiayias (grandmothers) everywhere….

We’d drive through villages on the bus or walk through the towns and they’d all wave to us or they’d be sitting on their porches drinking frappe or looking out their windows.

What was Ancient Olympia like as a camper (you’ve been there before as a child). That looked fun on the video….everyone racing.

There were dogs everywhere and they’d play with us or be sleeping. We had a tour guide.

Did you win a race?

Yeah. It was kind of like a tie.

Describe the food.

The food was really good….all really fresh. At camp, the eggs came from the farm and the feta from the goats, probably.

Where was the 5 course meal?

By the suspension bridge–Rio Antirio. (the world’s longest cable suspension bridge)

Tell us about the Corinth Canal restaurant.

They had really good souvlaki, psomi, and feta. They had a little gift shop and it was the first place where we didn’t see any toilet seats. (We continued to see many places without toilet seats.)

What souvenirs did you buy?

Komboskinis, Holy Water, Holy Oil (which was gifted by the nuns, ), Papadopoulos cookies and Ion chocolate for you. (Komboskinis are prayer bracelets on a string of small knots. You say a prayer as you touch each knot).

What were your impressions of the kids since they were from all over the U.S. Were they different from the Greek Orthodox kids you grew up with?

They weren’t all too different . They were pretty similar in that they were all Greek and they all grew up with the same people.

Tell me about those Greek dances I saw in the video. Were they from Crete? They looked Kritika. Where were those boys from? Denver and Utah?

Those kids were Salt Lake kids.

How did you cope with not being able to have your phone on you?

Honestly, I loved it. I only missed it for the music or talking to my parents. When I got my phone back at the end of camp in Athens, I didn’t even want to use it. I can understand why Dad doesn’t have or want one.

Those are amazing dances. I’ve heard you can only do them if you’ve grown up around people who dance them….and that you can’t rely on choreography...

If you were going to convince someone to go….what would you tell them? What would be the tipping point?

I’d tell them to go just because of the day trips to the holy sights. You’ll never see churches like that ever…you won’t see the relics and incorruptible bodies of saints that are 500-600 years old. And the camp facilities are beyond what I expected.

What is the story of St. Dionysius, the patron saint of the Ionian Village camp?

He’s the patron saint of forgiveness. He was a clergy of a church where a guy came in running from the authorities and he had killed St.Dionysius’s brother but didn’t know it. He was seeking refuge in the church. Then the authorities came there and told St. Dionysius that this man had killed his brother and asked if he had seen him. He answered, “No, I haven’t seen him.” We get samples of pieces of his slippers that the priests have to keep replacing because it is believed that he walks the grounds at night. The slippers become worn out. There are three walking saints: St. Gerasimos, St. Dionysius and Saint Spyridon.

You saw Saint Spyridon on the island of Corfu. So now you’ve been to all three churches of those saints.

Tell us about St. Gerasimos’s cave.

He lived in a cave for 19 years and I think the church was built around the cave. He lived in this hole for 19 years and we got to see where he lived for all those years. I think they dropped food down to him in a basket.

You ran into a high school friend/classmate in Athens…twice! What are the odds of that?

Yeah. That was totally unexpected.