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Practice the Greek Alphabet

By deTraci Regula, About.com

7 of 10

What - no Festos allowed?

I have a block on recognizing the letter "F" in Greek - even though it makes up part of the name of one of my favorite places, the Minoan Palace of Phaistos or Festos.

On Greek roadsigns and in many places throughout Europe, the angular red line through a sign means you are leaving that place. A sign without the red line means are arriving in it.

Knowing this difference can be crucial in your travels. If your passenger says, "Oh, we just passed a sign saying it's up ahead, keep going," you better make sure there was no red line through it.

Some towns offer T-shirts with the plain village sign name on the front, and the same image with the red line through it on the back. I find these terribly amusing, I don't know why.

Unfortunately, this sign also shows that no place on earth is entirely graffiti-free. But then, the earliest examples of classical Greek writing, found on the island of Santorini, were just that - graffiti scrawled by schoolboys around a concealed, rocky "hangout". area. (And yes, the content was indeed "classic" for their age - some things are indeed timeless.)

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