Greek Islands - Books and Movies

Overseas travel can be inspired by a visual image of the country that we have seen in a photograph or movie. In some cases it can be inspired by a written description that is so vivid that we believe that we can see it. The Greek Islands have inspired many tales - here are a few that caught me.

One of my favorites is Shirley Valentine. I wonder how many women were inspired to visit Mykonos after seeing this movie about a bored British housewife. She takes a Greek Island vacation and discovers that there's more to life than cooking eggs and chips for her husband.

It's a charming film, celebrating her new-found spirit and independence, and a little romance with a sexy Greek, too. Apparently, many Greek restaurant owners saw that movie. Rumor has it that they now serve chips with everything. (You'll understand when you see the movie!)

That said, when I visited Spetses, I found it charming and appealing - not really a place that would inspire an emotional volcano.

However, I did visit the site of a real volcano: the Island of Santorini. Parts of the Angelina Jolie film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Cradle of Life were filmed in Santorini.

In the year 1,650 BC, a massive volcanic eruption destroyed an advanced civilation on the island of Thera -- present day Santorini. The explosion was one of the biggest in 10,000 years, and the caldera it left is spectacular.

Today, Santorini is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Greece. While many people stay in town, I stayed down near the water. It was the best sleep I've had in year.

A particularly powerful book is John Fowles' The Magus, set in a school on the lonely island of Phraxos.

Like all of Fowles' work, The Magus is complex and disturbingly erotic. After reading it, I was filled with an almost masochistic desire to visit this place that seemed to be capable of stirring up an emotional volcano.

However, when researching Phraxos, I would discover that there was no such place! Fowles based The Magus in Spetses, where he taught school. It seems that I am not the only one who searched for the enigmatic yet non-existent Island of Phraxos.