Travel Narrative Offers Antidote To Terrorism Fears

At a time when the risk of terrorism attacks makes many tourists a little jittery, one woman has not only traveled alone to remote mountain villages, but she has experienced what Greeks call philoxenia, hospitality, along the way.

(PRWEB) August 19, 2005 -- In a new book, Dancing on the Off Beat, Travels in Greece, by Joan Carol Friedberg, we are reminded of our innate humanity at a time when we have perhaps lost sight of it.

At a time when the risk of terrorist attacks makes many tourists a little jittery, the author has not only traveled alone to remote mountain villages of Greece, but she has experienced what Greeks call philoxenia along the way. Philo, the Greek for friend, and xenia, the Greek for stranger or foreigner, combine to define an archaic tradition in the Greek world -- the offering of hospitality to the traveler.

Greece is a member of the European Union and proved to the world during this years Olympics that in many ways it is a first-world nation. Nevertheless, such old traditions as treating a foreigner to a cup of coffee or a cool drink are still alive in the countryside.

In the small village of Kerasovo, near Ioannina, the proprietor of the only café offered her a soda on the house. In a remote village high in the mountains of the Zagora, a woman with rooms to rent served her water, coffee, and a homemade pastry, and refused to accept any payment. Even in Athens, a hotel clerk brought a cup of mountain herb tea for her upset stomach and would not allow her to pay for it.

"It is those unexpected things that happen in Greece, as nowhere else ... an elliniko café and homemade tiropita offered to a total xeni..." says Joan Carol Friedberg in Dancing on the Off Beat, Travels in Greece. "These are the experiences that make Greece memorable for a lifetime."

"Its emphasis is on the country's music, but the book also investigates other, deeper aspects of Greek life ... in this deftly-written, instructive and deeply-felt book," writes the Hellenic Journal.

Dancing on the Off Beat, Travels in Greece is available through Xlibris.com.

ISBN Softcover: 1-4134-8418-2
200 pages
www.xlibris.com/bookstore
888 -- 795-4274, ext. 876
Trade orders available through Ingram

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