Γεια σου Glossonaut,

This is how I look when I am super tired after hours of hiking in the wild nature of mountainous North Turkey:

But how did I get here?

Long story short, I am on a quest to find my own roots.

One of the most important questions when you meet someone in Greece is to ask

“Από πού κατάγεσαι;” (Where you come from?). Greece might be a rather small country but it is very versatile in terms of peoples’ special origins. All of them are ethnically Greeks and Orthodox Christians. However, their ancestors lived outside of the borders of modern Greece.

For example, here are some of the origins:

Πόντιοι – Greeks from the Pontus region modern Karadeniz in Turkey

Μικρασιάτες – Greeks from the Asia Minor region in Turkey

Κωνσταντινουπολίτες- Greeks from Constantinople modern Istanbul

Αιγυπτιώτες- Greeks from Egypt

Σαρακατσάνοι-  Greeks from the Balkan region

Βλάχοι – Greeks Eastern Europe and Romania

The list goes on and on…

From my mother’s side, I am from Pontus- modern Karadeniz. That is both of my mother’s grandparents were born and raised in villages near the city of Giresun.

So, I decided to go and see with my own eyes the beauty of that place.

My good friends and I started a road trip of 1000 kilometers [621 miles] from Istanbul to Trabzon. This is what this looks like on the map:

I saw places like these:

Views that my ancestors were seeing…

Perhaps your ancestors were born and raised in Greece, so this is the message of the day:

“Go on an adventure and find your roots!”

You will be amazed of the landscapes, the people, the food, and the people that you will meet.

At least this is my experience, and I want to share it with you in this video:

Τα λέμε,

Κωνσταντίνος