In Greek culture, you get to celebrate two birthdays! Sounds like my kind of fun.
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| Happy Name Day, Ilias! |
L's Greek name (or translated to Greek) is Ilias or Elijah. Ilias was named not only after a prophet but also for his grandfather as first born sons and daughters are named for their grandparents. In Greek tradition, you also celebrate your name day if you are named after a prophet. As it so happened, Ilias’ name day fell on the 20th of July, and so we were out for adventure to celebrate.
Ilias' father recommended that we visit a beach up on the North end of the island called Kolimpithra. It is east of Panormos and more toward the center of the North coast. The beaches were supposed to be somewhat secluded and private. I was more interested in the hiking part of the trip, so I did not pack a bathing suit for this jaunt. Fortunately, it did not matter.
First things first: must have lunch. We found the local taverna at the end of the road and up a hill. I noticed that the further out you go on Tinos, the less likely you are to find someone who speaks English. Our waitress did speak a little English, but we had Ilias to pick up the slack for us. We ordered salads and main courses. By this time, M and R were ready for more extensive selection of vegetables, but on a Greek Island you must eat what is in season and what is available most likely from the private gardens of the taverna. Then again, there is always slouvakia!
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| view from the taverna |
From the taverna, you could see two beaches. One was right below us and had a large assembly of beach chairs and umbrellas. The other was around a cove and also had a few beach chairs and umbrellas. I was not interested in sitting on a chair because the landscape was full of rocks and hills to climb. I was itching to get out and walk.
After lunch, I walked up the last part of the paved road of the village thinking that it would crest out and I could walk across a hill to overlook the entire area. Well little did I know what wonderful treasures awaited over that small hill. As I got to the top, I felt like I was in a vast desert area of scrub and brush. But just over the hill, it sloped back down to a little cove where the water was a beautiful blue green. Just past the cove was a third beach. This beach was occupied by a few people, but because it was harder to get to there were less people there. P and I decided that climbing down the slope to the cove would be a fun thing to do. We left the others behind and started our descend. The further down we went, the harder it was to see us and the rest of our party began to shout down to us from the top. I thought P and I would be left to our own devices down there, but Louis was out for adventure too. Soon, P and I were joined by M and L. We decided to be archaeologists and collect some rock samples and even found a large salt pool where we collected a great amount of natural sea salt.
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| Sea Salt pools |
P and I also noticed that the land must have a great deal of rabbits because there was rabbit scat everywhere. P was content to climb on the rocks, but the water was looking very inviting. At this point, I was disappointed that I had not packed my suit. However, that was no matter. Ilias began to undress and I was not to be outdone. I stripped off the bottom part of my attire and carefully climbed down to a rock that was covered in some sort of plant that felt like shag carpet. I eased out into the warm water and dived down. Nothing on this earth has ever felt that good!
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| best skinny dipping spot ever! |
Meanwhile, R had remained up top to take some pictures and a rest. When she finally realized she could not hear us any longer, she came down to see what was going on. She found her family half dressed (some not dressed) and playing in the salt pools and water. P did not feel comfortable in the deeper parts, but L was very happy hanging out in the water. Ilias and I left the children to M and R and swam out to a rock that was jutting out from our cove. We got out and crossed over the small land bridge to see another small secluded cove. We found that it was possible to climb up the rock and jump out into the cove. It was only a five foot drop but it was quite exhilarating. We did it twice before we swam around the rock and back within eyesight of our party.
Afterwards, we decided that drinks were in order because it was hot and we were tired from swimming and climbing. We headed back to the taverna where orange soda, chocolate milk and frappe flowed like the sweet water of the Kardiani spring. At the taverna, there was a hill with a small outcropping where someone had built a small sheltered. There were no trails leading out to the shelter. Ilias bet me 10 Euros he could run out there in less than two minutes. I took him up on his offer. Turns out, the fellow can run pretty fast through the sticky scrub. That ten euros bought us all drinks.
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| alcove where I lost 10 euros |
More info on Name Days and the Prophet Elias, click below
Name Days
Elias
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