It has only taken 51 and 46 years respectively, but Rachel and I have finally arrived in Paradise. Amorgos Island is everything that we wished for and much, much more. Rachel is already scheming and planning our next trip or life here, maybe Tides Canada, Amorgos Island Branch?
Beautiful beaches, ours a mere 50 meters from our house, crystal clear water, lots of sun and wind which keeps it cool. Our town, Aigiali, is very small and is about 500 meters from our residence. It has a great grocery store and when I went to buy groceries and water and beer, Yannis, the owner, offered to give me a ride to deliver the groceries, even though I made prior arrangement with our hosts. Truly fantastic!!
We arrived very late on Monday night, about 1:30 in the morning and were met by our hosts. When we are arrived at our house, we discovered they had stocked our larder with cheese, tomatos, coffee, bread, fruits, honey, crackers, olives, Amorgian olive oil, two types of vinegar, hot chocolate, capers, etc. What a welcome!! I know many of you have been subjected to repeated viewing of the website showing our place on Amorgos, but the website does not begin to show how beautiful this maisonette really is. Two levels, top with bedroom and full bathroom (with a tub- I must confess I almost started to cry when I saw this) and huge balcony. Bottom level, sitting room, the cutest most functional kitchen I have even seen, windows which look onto yet another deck (with clothesline!!) and then to farm land ahead of the house, another bathroom with shower.
0ur hosts, Yuli and Yorgos are interesting and lovely people. Yuli is a web designer and documentary film maker, passionate advocate of the environment and also of the history of Amorgos. Yorgos is a house builder and all round handyman and creator who is constantly working. He is also passionate about the environment and the state of the world.
Right now we are the only guests in the 3 suite house, as the other two suites are undergoing renos. Both Yorgos and Yuli, like many small island dwellers, have many jobs and work all the time, on top of trying to reno and get the other suites ready for guests. The surrounding land belongs to Yorgos’ father and family, his brother lives in an adjacent house and there are olive trees, winter crops (right now the fava beans are being harvested), a vegetable garden, and many fruit trees. Apparently the plums will be ready in a day or so, as well as more tomatoes.
Food is good, fresh tomatos and cucumbers, beautiful feta cheese, and we have just arrived in time for the spring cheese (myzithra, a very soft, super delicious variety) which only lasts a few months, gleaned from lactating goats. I had a dish called patatato last night at a restaurant which basically means meat and potatoes braised in juice, usually it is made with goat, but mine was with lamb, it was so good, I was in the bowl with my hands (yes Meghna I did think of you). We were dining with Patty Moore’s and her students who are here on a Greece field school trip!! Patty actually introduced us to the island and are we glad she did. The prices in this restaurant as with others, seem very reasonable and service very friendly. Yuli, one of our hosts, came after to dinner to speak to the students about environmental issues affecting the island and also about local history.
Rachel has many hikes planned for us, as you can well imagine, there are several other towns on the island, Katapola, another port town, Hora-the capital, Langada, Thorlia, Osmos, and Patmos, among others. There are many foot paths connecting these towns, the road between Aigiali and Katapola, both port towns, was only built in 1997 and electricity has been only been on the island since 1987. All the hillsides are terraced and the views as you can imagine are very striking.
Just got back from a day hike to Langada, apparently Yuli does this hike in 15 minutes, but it took us about an hour, in the blasting heat. We had lunch at Nikos Taverna, baked eggplant with tomates and cheese the spicy one called "Kafteri" , very tasty and had a little walk about. We met the local herb specialist and her husband who is a accupunturist and stocked up on some Amorgian herbs. The path to Lagada was one of these “ye olde ancient paths”, as you see….boy was I glad when this was over and I could once again dive into the crystal clear water!!!
YP
2 comments:
Please can we come to Greece....whiiiiine :0)
Yvon... I almost started crying when I read your blog. I am so happy you found Paradise... Dive into the water, drink retsina wine with your salads and seafood... order an extra crispy calamari for me please!!!
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