A Little Taste of Paradise

Yasas (hello) from Kythira!
What does Diana’s first day on a Greek Island look like you ask? Well in a nutshell it can be perfectly and accurately characterized by: turquoise waters, post card sunsets, and the “Don’t worry, be happy” song playing in the background (seriously though, Greeks listen to that song obsessively). Well...at least that’s what Kythira was like after:

1. Being dropped off by a ferry at midnight, having no way to get to our hotel (which was in a city 10 miles away)

2. Hiking the seaside road to the nearest lighted town and

3. Begging an old woman who only spoke Greek to give us a room for the night.

In case you were wondering, the fact that she only spoke Greek was a pretty significant challenge seeing as the only Greek phrases we knew were “hello” and “do you speak English?” – to which she responded “no” therefore leaving us staring at her blankly not really knowing how to proceed with our begging…but apparently luck was on our side as her English-speaking daughter emerged and indeed gave us a good deal on a 4-bed room complete with a TV playing American shows in English and a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea - - seriously though, I haven’t decided whether it’s our American charm (not likely, they seem to equate all Americans with Bush here), exasperated expressions of persistence, or just luck – but throughout our travels of Greece, things seem to magically work out for us whenever we run into an obstacle (knock on wood).

After a rather interesting arrival, we’ve quickly decided that the island, Kythira (the southern most of the Ionian Islands just south of the mainland of Greece), was worth the effort in getting here. It seems to be the polar opposite of Athens (well, minus that everyone is still speaking Greek of course…) - - the presence of Mother Nature is it’s best quality, i.e. being outside doesn’t quite produce the same sense of claustrophobia and panic as in Athens, but rather an overwhelming sense of tranquility as I effortlessly bobbed around the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea with my jaw dropped as my eyes darted from the tropical appearance of the waters to the enormous hills dotted with white and blue houses. The sense of calm is definitely enhanced by the fact that there really is nothing to do on Kythira but swim, sun bathe, eat, hike, and have dysfunctional conversations with people in some mix of English and Greek (I haven’t decided whether to name the mixed language Genglish or Eeek, but I’ll let you know).

After our first night in the hotel near our arrival port (Diakofti), we got up in search of breakfast only to find that the power was out on the entire island and thus there wasn’t a single restaurant cooking any food – yet another issue I did not expect, a kind of a major one in an area that only uses fresh foods - - a.k.a. they don’t whip out the mac & cheese or cans of soup. So, after each having a juice box and some water for breakfast (yummy, I know) and finding out that the bus to our destination town (Potamos) where Ally has extended family just decides not to run some days, we decided we’d wait to call a taxi until the afternoon and spent the day on the beach in the meantime – a well needed recuperation day. So after a day spent getting our first Greek tans (and finding out that evidently true Greeks don’t use sunscreen over SPF 20, or at least don’t sell it), and enjoying some Greek salads while sitting on the sand (yep, on the sand) at a café (once the power came back on around 2 p.m.), we took a taxi (which happened to be a Mercedes, it was either that or a Jaguar) to the hotel Ally’s extended family owns in the town of Potamos, or rather isolated on a scenic vineyard-esc hill overlooking the town of Potamos.

Potamos was my favorite part of the trip so far. Our hotel, owned by Ally’s second cousin, was exactly what I’d pictured as the perfect Greek house; a white house with royal blue and yellow shutters, flowering-vine covered stone arches and paths, all of which was set on acres upon acres of land growing various edible things and overlooking the hills, valleys, and river surrounding the town. The town itself was about a 10-minute walk and contained a little bit of everything needed for its residents to have no reason to leave. Our favorites? The market full of only Kythira-grown fruits and veggies, the clothing store owned by an old Greek woman who would not only force us to try on the latest Greek fashions but would then proceed to spin us around vigorously as she straightened the clothing on us and then squealed at how amazing we looked (we seemed to disagree, but maybe the Greek fashions have yet to the hit the US, or maybe they just won’t hit? Either way, I came out of the experience with a new shirt), and lastly the bakery complete with fresh bread at all hours of the day and English-speaking Greek boys to help us choose the best loaf (Well, Tyler didn’t appreciate that part, but the rest of us found it to be a perk, haha).

Despite all of the glorious perks listed above, my favorite part of Potamos was simply that it was truly a Greek village. The way the streets run, all of the main shops are centered on one teeny tiny square that was constantly full of Greeks of all ages. It’s one of those towns where everyone knows everyone (well except us, haha). If one hotel ran out of rooms or a market out of some product, they’d call the one down the street and send customers there. It was so refreshing to experience a purely cooperation-based mentality; although there’re still the restaurant owners, all of whom seem to be older men claiming that their restaurant serves the best baklava, yogurt and honey, souvlaka, etc. (although we’re pretty sure that their restaurants shared kitchens? Haha). It was also quite obvious that we were the lone group of Americans to visit the town in quite some time. This morning we got pastries from the bakery and were sitting in the town square eating only to find that everyone else sitting in the square seemed to be staring at us and talking about us. Not only those in the square but word spread so quickly that shop owners would pop their heads out just to get a glance at us before popping back in just a quickly. Oh and the Greek boys from the bakery? They rode their motorcycles in circles around the square giving us the classic European male gaze. Despite the fact that we’re the first Americans the people of Potamos had seen in a while, they were incredibly hospitable. Some of the nicest people we’ve met. I think the fact that we were there with ties to Ally’s family made them readily accept us and thus eager to talk to us about what part of the US each of us is from, Obama (every Greek person we’ve met to bring up politics is incredibly anti-Bush and pro-Obama, fine by me), etc. They really enjoyed learning new English words or phrases from us as well. Ally’s second cousin (the one who owns the hotel) lived with many members of his family including his father-in-law who was very eager to please us and talk to us. He loved to take us through the hotel’s land showing us the best places to get pictures of the land or the town and he’d even grab our cameras from us insisting he take pictures of us together in each location. He introduced us to the hotel dogs, Nilo and Nilo’s mother, Menna. He, in particular, picked up a few words and phrases from us - - for example when we first started talking to him in English he’d always bring up a topic and then ask if we thought it was good. “Obama, Obama good? Yes?,” “Room, room good?,” “Greece, Greece good?” After a while he caught on that we’d reply with a “very good” and thus began his obsessive use of the word “very” in every single English sentence he attempted ☺

On our last morning in Potamos, Ally’s second cousin, Antoniko, drove us around the island from town to town showing us the homes of her relatives and stopping at bakery’s to buy us whatever we craved and/or show us off to others that he had Americans on the island. After meeting the rest of the family they all sent us on our way by giving us our stay free of charge, a gift (Greek calendar and a small sculpture to prop it us) for each of us, as well as some traditional Greek candies for the ferry ride. So, while we’re currently on the 3 hour ferry ride from Kythira to the largest Greek (and also Turkish) island, Crete, en route to Santorini - we left wishing we could stay longer and already thinking about going back to Kythira next time we’re in Europe.

That’s all for now, next time you hear from me I should be on the beaches of Santorini where we already have a sailing day trip and snorkeling planned through our hostel - - well that’s assuming that our island hop/overnight stay at Crete goes as planned ☺ Let the adventure continue!

Andio,
Diana