What do you do on your last day on a Greek island?

It’s your last day on a Greek Island before you go back to the mainland and prepare to depart for home. What do you do?
Drink OUZO! But before you do that, you must take one more adventure out to see what you can see.

Ilias and I pulled out the maps and took a look and what there was left to explore. We still had several options open to us. We had yet to visit either the far east of the island or the far west. I wanted to check out the very tip of the western part of the island called Mali. The maps showed that most of the way was paved and two lanes, but a big chunk of it was not. What we really needed was a topographical map.

Turns out that the western part of the island goes up, and then it goes straight down....switch back down. Tear your breaks up down. I was handling the ride fairly well for most of it because I was riding in the front seat. But the view from the back was scarey and eventually M called it quits. I was perfectly fine with that because I was wondering if we were going to be able to get a Volvo back up that steep incline with 6 people in it. We got close enough to see a small beach down below that looked deserted, but there was a good reason no one was down there. We decided that since we were on the north-western side already, we would head back to Panormos and do that rock-climbing and hiking around the church we had missed out on before. That turned out to be a great idea.

the other side of the beach

Since we were mostly familiar with where we were, it was an easier hike down to the beach. R had not accompanied us on the last trip here so she was seeing the beauty in those hard to reach places. We did not linger on the beach this time, but hiked right on through, around the church and to the outer part of the point. Here were some treasures that we did not expect to find! There were several stone carvings in the side of the large rocks. There was one of a sun/star image and another in the side of a large boulder of a face. I wonder how long they had been there. There were also more salt pools and neat little pools of water that L could easily play in.

 

Up across a rock jetty, you could see a small outcropping of a tower that had been erected there before. Ilias wanted ever so badly to swim across the small inlet and climb the hill. I would have gladly gone myself, but it was getting late in the day and we still had to return to the house to pack and get ready to catch a ferry the next day. Once again, we decided to take a dip in the ocean without our clothes and enjoy the energy of the ocean and the earth one last time.

Ilias climbs. His son cheers him on.

Days like this make me wish I could have stayed on the island a little longer. There were still villages and beaches I had not seen but that would have to wait for the next visit. Tomorrow is a traveling day, and just like everything else in Greece, it will need our full attention to detail.

steps from the church

Church of St. Nicolas

Heading Home

Ilias' Name Day Part 2: The view is always worth the trip

Since it was Ilias’ name day he wanted to visit a church on Tinos named for the prophet. Most churches dedicated to Ilias or Elias are located high on mountain tops. Some say it is because he is connected to Helios as they both rode their chariots of fire into the sky. There is another story that is more amusing that Ilias told:

Elijah the prophet was at sea and found himself caught in a terrible storm. The boat tossed him so much that he began to fear for his life. When he was finally able to reach land, he began to find a place to found his church. He brought with him the paddle he had from his boat. He traveled into the village and asked the first person he saw "what is this I am holding?" The person replied "a boat oar." Elijah kept walking
Further up the road and slope, Elijah encountered another man. He asked the man "Do you know what this is I am holding?" The man replied "a boat oar, of course." Elijah kept walking up the mountain.
When Elijah reached the top, he saw several men with herds of goats. He approached the men, held out the oar and asked "gentlemen, do you know what this is I am holding?" The men replied "a goat herder." Elijah decided to build his church there. And so, up the mountain we drove.

The roads in Tinos are not always paved, nor always two lanes. We had two different maps on this journey, and both of them were slightly different. One showed that the road all the way up to the church was a dirt road and the other showed it as a secondary somewhat paved road. Street signs were also sporadic. If you have a decent lay of the land, you can find this place easily. We stopped and asked for directions twice.

Church of Agios Louliani

Once up the winding hills, it began to quiet down a bit. The roads began to narrow, the villages more sparse. Just past the village of Agapi, there is pretty much nothing....except a church: St. Louliani. We stopped here to stretch our legs and get some photos. We were unable to get inside the main sanctuary, but we did come across a curious find in the adjoining fellowship hall.

curious find

P, being a young boy of 4, needed to get out some energy so he and his father set to racing in the courtyard. Once we got the jiggles out, it was time to pile back in and head further up the hill.

If we stayed on the paved road we were on, we would come to another church, Panagia Vourniotsa. As a matter of fact, the only thing out this far was churches. It appeared that we even came across a ghost town of sorts, but were too focused (and tired) to explore it. As we crested the final hill on a road steep and rocky, we saw the church of Profitis Ilias standing alone up high.

Church of Prof. Ilias

We parked our car and headed down the road to the path and gate. There is a small rock wall lining the dirt road up to the church. We were able to enter the church gate and walk around the grounds, but the church was locked and we could not enter. Ilias ventured off to check out the building behind the church to see if anyone was around. The children found some very large bells to ring. I circled around the grounds to take some pictures. We were up high and it was very windy and the sun was beginning to set. I eventually found Ilias sitting on the church roof in quiet meditation. P and I joined him to enjoy the view of the Aegean sea and to feel the wind in our hair.
After I climbed down from the roof, I was able to peek into the church and see that someone had lit a candle in honor of Ilias’ name day.

We gathered our party and headed back down the hill. I was ahead of the party with Perrin who was quite tired but needed to get out more energy. We piled back into the car, each of us reflective of the day. On the way back down the mountain we encountered two baby goats out for a walk on the main road. We stopped for a moment to take some pictures and show them to P. L began her usual "I’m hungry and tired scream" and continued it all the way to Kardiani. P fell asleep in his mother’s lap. And I have to say that this was the best day on Tinos yet.

Check out the views from the hill.

Ilias' Name Day (Part 1): Clothing Optional

In Greek culture, you get to celebrate two birthdays! Sounds like my kind of fun.

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 20^th 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!

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.

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!

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.

alcove where I lost 10 euros

Because of the clothing optional portion of this trip, not many pictures were taken. But many, many memories were made.

More info on Name Days and the Prophet Elias, click below

Name Days

Elias

Civil Unrest in a Foreign Country is Not all bad

Lately, I have become quite the cynic. I used to be that social studies teacher that taught current events everyday (or at least once a week) so that my students knew what was going on in the world. I trusted, for the most part, the press because they were supposed to be “free” from the government. Hmm. Before I left for my trip to Greece, I was warned by a few that it may not be the safest time to go because the people were rioting. After all, this is a great time of civil unrest in several countries across the “big pond.” Hell, there’s civil unrest here. But I insisted that it would be fine. I mean, new counties are formed from revolutions, like ours, right? This could be a valuable learning experience.

When I got to Athens, all was calm. Granted, the people were not happy with the situation. However, most were only discussing it, not rioting. I did not see one car on fire the whole time. How disappointing (note the sarcasm in my voice). A little over a week after arrival, I attended an after wedding party. I had arrived there with my friend Louis, who speaks Greek, but he had to leave for about an hour to take some food back for the children. I was left there with his father who spoke English, but decided not to use it so much. So I did what any self respecting American girl in a foreign country would do. I sat down at the table with the older men and drank hard liquor. Now, the liquor in this case was Raki, which is a lot like white lighting–or corn liquor. It was strong enough to use as fuel and had a rough taste. I preferred Ouzo but it was not available. I sat and drank and listened to their conversations without having one clue as to what they were talking about. It was confusing and then amusing. I wondered how long I could just sit there and listen. Then an angel appeared. Her name was Natalia and she spoke English. She looked at me sitting there with the Raki and said “do you understand any of what they are saying?” My reply: “not a bloody word.” Long story short, we sat and talked about politics and economics of living and Greece and it turned out that she was one of the protestors. I, of course, immediately asked about the riots. She said that she was never there for those. As a matter of fact, when she saw the rioters coming, she promptly left. Well, this raised questions for me. Turns out that the government, including the police department, is corrupt. Surprise, surprise. It has been proven, numerous times, that the police department would hire this “gang of thugs” to come in a start a riot at the protest. When the violence broke out, the crowds would disperse. The media would have a frenzy about the protestors and the jobs of the police were done by the thugs. Pictures have been taken and published with police and known rioters together after the violence ended. Police have the mess cleaned up and the media gets a good story to share with the world. So much for your truth and justice.

Meanwhile, back home, my friends are watching the news and hearing that the roads leading to the airports are being blocked by taxi drivers. When I arrive back in Athens, I ask Louis’ uncle what that was all about. Turns out it is a different story all together. It seems that the Grecian government had recently passed a law that would allow taxi drivers to get their licenses at a much cheaper rate than previously. This upset the current taxi drivers because they had to spend a great deal of money just to get the license and now their jobs would be given out so easily. So in protest, they parked their taxis on one street. One street. It just so happened that it was one of the many roads leading to the airport. I had no trouble getting through the airport or customs. I found out quickly that it is easier to get out of our country than to get in. So there you have it. Civil unrest in other countries is not always as it seems. I wonder what it’s really like in Libya.....

If you go around your butt and take a left at your elbow, you will find the best beach ever.

There is an old Greek saying:

“Οι πιο όμορφες παραλίες είναι οι πιο δύσκολες να επιτευχθεί.” Which roughly translates to “you must go around your ass and your elbow to get to the best beaches.” I have found that this is mostly true.

The day after the wedding should have been a day of rest. But yet we had been seated with some of Louis’ cousins and they had a child the same age as Perrin. So our new friends Theodora, Harry and their son George decided to show us a somewhat private beach on the north end of the island. It was just past the city of Panormos. We would take a winding road up across the island, take a rocky road a little further in, and then hike the rest of the way. As usual, we did not leave our house until after 12. We met our friends about a half hour later at their hotel and headed to the secluded spot. Joining us on his scooter was Louis’ father, Peter. We found the town, drove across a small beach, up a rocky road and parked our vehicles. Then we loaded ourselves down and headed to the beach. And it was very much worth the work!

This beach was lovely. It was outlined as a cove with rocky terrain going up on all sides. It had crystal clear water that was just chilly enough to cool you off. It was lined with about six pine-like trees for shade. We found a nice spot down toward the end next to a rock hill. If you continued to the end of the beach, there was a trail that led you to a small church on the side of the hill. This happened to be the church of St. Nicolas. On this particular day, we did not venture out through the path because we needed to be back in the village to attend an post-wedding get together. But after all of the celebrations we were to attend and host on this trip, we returned to Panormos and the wonderful beach several days later to climb some rocks and explore some more.


After the beach time, we walked back into the village and had a wonderful lunch. This was an opportune time to sample the local fish faire. Greece, being outlines by the Aegean Sea and all should be full of seafood right? Well, most of the time we ate chicken and pork. Harry, who was more of a seafood eater than Louis, ordered up several fish dishes to sample. Tried grilled sardines (they were rather bigger than the ones I am used to) and these small fish that are fried whole. It was like eating french fries except it was small fish. You ate the bones and all and I have to say they were quite good. Unfortunately, Greeks don’t eat a lot of ketchup. I really missed that. But when you are sitting at an ocean-side taverna, drinking beer, eating good food and enjoying the company of wonderful people, all is right with the world.


Lunch with the family

Wedding Day!

Saturday-- the BIG day. The day of LOVE. There is a full moon. What a wonderful start to a new life as a married couple. July16th, 2011–a glorious day in the town of Kardiani, on the island of Tinos, in the country of Greece, on the planet of Earth (I could not resist) at the time of 6pm (local Greek time) Georgia and Markos finally said their “I-do’s” in front of approximately 250 people. Now, I have never attended a Greek wedding (until then), but I did see one on TV and man does a lot go into one of those! Georgia arrived on the island with us on Tuesday and we barely saw her all the way up to the big day. No doubt she was planning and decorating and making this poor little village the quintessential wedding extravaganza. I will tell you now, I don’t think I could ever put this much into a party. But apparently, weddings are a really big deal for the Greeks so this was going to be a true cultural experience for me. And it was, no doubt, the best wedding ever.

First of all, there were to be two ceremonies: one Greek Orthodox and one Catholic. Marcos is Catholic and Georgia is Greek Orthodox and it seems that the Greek Orthodox church does not recognize a Catholic wedding, so the first service was to be done in the Catholic Church. Also, there are no real bridesmaids or such. You basically have two people who you are close to that “stand up” (koumbari) for you at your wedding and essentially marry you. Third, this is the one that melts my heart, you walk to the church with your bride/groom while leading a parade of people through the village accompanied by two stringed instruments (in this case a violin and a bouzouki). We arrived at Yiorgo and Kalliope’s (Georgia’s grandparents) house at about 5:30 pm where they were having a pre-wedding party. Georgia was there in her dress saying hello and finishing the touches to her already beautiful appearance. We were up on the very top roof of the cottage. From out in the village, you could hear cannon fire (which apparently signals the beginning of the festivities). Then, as the groom and his party approached, you could hear the violin and bouzouki serenading us. Marcos went up the stairs and retrieved his bride and we all marched behind them to the church. Now, both churches that the ceremonies were in were not much bigger than my house. The Catholic Church was bigger but the Greek Orthodox Church was about the size of my house, if not smaller. We were packed in. Then to top it all off, the whole ceremony was in ancient Greek. Louis tried to translate some, but I think he lost track when he told me they were now reciting the second act of Romeo and Juliet. Luckily, the ceremony was only 30 minutes.

The Greek Orthodox one was also short, but much more exciting. It too was in ancient Greek but there were rings and head dresses and walking around and you could stand up front and take pictures because the ceremony was done in the middle of the church. Afterwards, they exited and we threw massive amounts of rice at them. We then headed down to the town square for the reception while our hosts disappeared for what felt like several hours to have pictures made. But when they arrived back, the party started! There was dancing, there was wine, there was Raki, there was the best damn wedding food I have ever had in my life, and there was fun. The bride had sat our party at a table with other English speaking people and Perrin met his new best friend, George. I have to say that even though I did not dance, I had a fantastic time soaking the atmosphere, the music and the people. I ducked out of there at about 1am, but from what I understand, the party went on until about 4. It was a great time of celebration and I consider myself very lucky to be a part of it.

Volax

So the day before the big wedding, we decide to go adventuring. In hind-sight, this was a stupid idea. However, when you only have so much time to spend, you end up spending as much time as possible seeing as much as you can. Thia Kandia, Louis’ Auntie suggested we take a ride inland to the center of the island to a small village called Volax. We were in search of rocks to climb and Volax apparently had many, many rocks because there was once some volcanic activity. That period has long past. But as we set out crammed into the car once again we noticed that the landscape was scattered with large boulders. There is a Greek myth that the islands of Greece were created when the gods threw out some land in anger. If you look at a map of the islands, you can see this could not be far from the truth. The island of Tinos has rocks scattered about it like the islands are scattered in the sea.

Of course the first thing you must do when visiting a new village is check out the local taverna. Tinos Town has many tavernas, but the majority of the villages on the island only have one. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived and the taverna was deserted. We were the only customers that afternoon and the taverna’s children were hanging out. This made for a good time for Perrin. Unfortunately, the children did not speak English and Perrin does not speak Greek. There were several instances of confusion, but for the most part, running and jumping are universal playing techniques.

Now, from what I understand, one of the reasons Thia Kandia thought we would like this village was the fact that the taverna served this special omelet. This omelet held five eggs and everything else you can put in an omelet. We ordered that, some pastitsio, some artichokes and potatoes, this incredible potato and garlic dip and I will always wish I had, roasted eggplant dip, and that is all I remember. We ate... A LOT!

However, instead of that rock climbing we were thinking of, we decided to check out the village. Just like Kardiani, it was not very big. But they are very proud of al the things they do have such as an awesome taverna, a basket maker, a gift shop, a natural spring/well, and a church with a town museum full of artifacts that were found over the years. We bought Georgia and Markos part of their “thank you” gifts in the gift shop (complete with hand woven basket) and then climbed down a set of steps to find the town well. This was good for a few minutes because children do like to play in the water.

We later found the cute little woman who was in charge of the museum and she let us in for a moment to view the artifacts. We left a small donation for our appreciation. The sun was getting ready to set, so we headed back up through the hills to our little town to get some rest for the night. Unfortunately, Lena, who we could almost always count on to fall asleep in the car, screamed the entire way home. Perrin, however, fell asleep against his mother in the back seat. Only one word describes how this day ended: OUZO