Month: November 2017

Chios (Χιοσ), is Greece’s fifth largest island.  Situated in the north Aegan, Turkey is just eight nautical miles away.  It’s the birthplace of Homer.  It’s probably the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. Its history goes back to the Neolithic period and Chios’ claim to fame is its mastic trees.

Most of the Greek islands (e.g., Syros, Milos, Skiathos, Hydra) are a summer destination for most of Greece and half of Europe.  They are insanely fun, busy and crowded until September when they essentially close up until the following May.  Some islands, like  Chios, have a thriving agricultural base, and are busy, productive islands with year-round inhabitants. That was the draw last week when Demetri and Papou spent three days here.

Chios was conquered by the Genovese.  The village of  Kampos has many 13th century mansions that each had huge walled orchards for citrus fruits. Lots of these farmers came to the US in the 19th and 20th centuries and started citrus orchards in Florida, then returned to Greece after building their fortunes.

The island has an interesting history regarding the Genovese control. Chios was a republic of Genoa (invaded and settled by them) and there is a lot of evidence that the island is most likely the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, as many various documents from/about him say “republic of Genoa” and not city of Genoa, which is in Italy.  The Columbus (Kolombos) family name in Chios goes back 700 years and there’s a house marked as his birthplace.  There’s a lot of controversy around his origin and there are a lot of books written about where indeed Columbus was from with significant evidence that he was not the son of an Italian wool farmer.  Most interesting is that Columbus kept 2 logs – one fake and one real.  The ‘real’ one, which has been used to verify his discovery of San Salvador and to clear up discrepancies about it, was written in Greek.  The ‘fake’ one was written in Italian. Matt Barrett, a prolific Greece travel writer, reviews a book on his website that he believes answers the question about Columbus once and for all.  It’s a fun read.

Chios mastic is produced on the south side of the island by 24 villages. It’s been harvested for almost 3000 years. Hippocrates used it to treat colds, bad breath and to prevent digestive issues. It’s still used in gum, cosmetics, pastries and liquers — the drink has a wonderful woody, pine smell.  We enjoyed it in Milos many evenings this summer. In 2014, we enjoyed it as a spoon sweet after lunch in Kalamata.

Mastic sap drips from the trees and forms little teardrops.   The drops are hard, but they soften as you chew. Mastic was a great source of wealth for hundreds of years. Everyone wanted it – Venetians, Genovese, Turks.  During Ottoman rule, the penalty for stealing it was execution.  Oh, and Columbus was known to patch his boats with mastic.  Ahem.

There’s a cool Byzantine village called Anavatos, which translates to ‘you can’t walk up here’.  Now that the place is in ruins, it was easier to explore than a few hundred years ago.  In 1822, nearly 75% of the island’s population was killed in a battle against the Turks during the War of Independence; much of the battle took place near this village.

One of the best parts of island travel is the local food and learning what influences their cooking.  One afternoon, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner.  Papou and Demetri stopped in a little town and found an ouzereia — a little cafe with mezetes, ouzo and coffee. There were 7 men sitting there with ouzo and coffee, not speaking to each other. They were all watching some sort of reality fashion show on television.  The owner had just made a cheese pie.  Cheese pies in any form are delightful. Fresh cheese pies are phenomenal.

They found an excellent restaurant in Chios town and ate there both nights.  They had fazolia, cannelini beans in tomato sauce with local mandarin oranges and it was fantastic.  The soutzoukakia, traditional meatballs in tomato sauce, had some turkish influences with cumin.  Also excellent.  Stifado, historically made with rabbit, is braised beef cooked for hours.  This restaurant made it with chestnuts (which have just come into season) and it was the best thing they’ve eaten in weeks.

Kalavryta is a ski town in the central Peloponnese, with a lovely square, nice bakeries and restaurants and cute houses and buildings.  It was under Turkish rule from the mid 1400s on, with the exception of a 30 year Venetian occupation.  Kalavryta, specifically the Agia Lavra monastery just outside the town, is where the Greek Revolution launched in 1821.

It’s also the site of a horrific Nazi massacre of the second world war.  In December 1943, 80 German soldiers were captured and held prisoner by Greek resistance fighters.  Most were executed; the few who survived got word to the Nazis, who sent troops to this quiet little town for retribution.  On December 13, the Nazis separated males 12 and older from women and children.  More than 600 men were taken to a field and executed by machine gun. Fewer than 15 survived.  The Nazis placed the women and children in the school house and set it on fire.  They managed to escape, though much of the city caught fire after that, and the Nazis burned what was left the following day.  Two victims of the massacre were named Fefes — they were cousins and great uncles of Papou’s.   The memorials to this tragedy are unbearably sad, especially a sculpture of a woman and her two children dragging her husband out of the field.  Names of the dead are inscribed on the memorial that sits above the town; every year on 13 December, the city reads the names of the victims.

About 15 kilometers outside of Kalavryta is the very cool “Cave of the Lakes.”  Several different fossils — including a hippopotamus — have been found in these caves that were discovered in 1964.  50 different bat species make their home here.  The path through the caves is on a metal suspension bridge, as from November to March, the caves fill with water and have a bunch of natural waterfalls. At one point at the far end of the caves, there is a stalagmite (ground up) that connects to a stalactite (ceiling down), which is very rare.  One centimeter of rock takes 100 years to form.  Cameras aren’t allowed.

We ate well (again!) in these pretty mountain villages.  At one point, Peter finished a bite and sighed, “boy I love lamb.’  It’s especially good cooked for hours in the oven with lemon and oregano.  Kokoras (rooster) with tomato sauce and red wine is fantastic & served with a huge side of spaghetti, much to Michael’s delight.  One taverna’s specialty was a hortapitaki — sauteed or boiled greens with dill and some local cheese baked into a phyllo.

In other news, there is a suicidal bird that keeps flying into our apartment.  Demetri and Papou are out of town for a few days so I’ll be camped out in the bathroom.

Since Oxi Day is a national holiday, we took advantage of the three day weekend to road trip around our favorite area of Greece — the Peloponnese. In our summer visit, we spent time in the northeast section (Korfos, Epidavros, Portocheli).   In 2014, we spent almost a week in the southwest corner (Pylos, Kalamata, Stoupa, Vivari, Nafplio).  This time, we focused on the south-central and southeast parts — the two ‘middle fingers’ of the peninsula. Demetri, Papou and I picked the kids up at Μπασκετ (basketball) after school, car packed, snacks ready, music cued.  To get to the Pelopponese, you must cross the Corinth canal — which is really cool no matter if you are watching from the bridge above, or the lowlands on either end, which we did this time. We waited for a cruise ship come through right next to us – you can see it on the right side of the photo of Peter in the Oxi Day post.

Our destination was Monemvasia,  a castle town that everyone we know who has visited absolutely loves.  One of my mom friends said it’s the most romantic place in Greece – and not to worry it’s even more romantic in the rain.  We had blue skies all weekend and it is indeed spectacular. The town is carved out of the back of a huge rock that sits in the sea.  In Medieval times, locals avoided attacks because the city wasn’t visible from the mainland; the only way to reach it then was by boat.  Now, there’s a causeway paved from the mainland to the rock, which is how the city got its name: Monemvasia means ‘single entrance.’ It’s been occupied by nearly everyone — Arabs, Normans, Turks, Venetians — so it wasn’t successful in staying entirely hidden.

There is a walled city at the bottom and the remains of a medieval city at the top. Views are spectacular no matter where you are.  We loved hiking up and around the old city and we stopped for coffee at a cafe that faces the sea while the boys played and hiked in a little protected area.

We then drove to the quiet, little island of Elafonisos, which is said to have some of the best beaches in Greece.  Papou and Sandy spent a weekend there in May.  We knew that most of the island would be closed for the season, but we took the 15 minute ferry ride anyway and watched the boys ninja warrior themselves across and over rocks at the shore.  We got back on the last ferry of the day and got back in the car.

The next couple of hours we were diverted by car trouble.  Earlier that day, a warning light came on telling us to add antifreeze.  We stopped to do that, and somehow, the radiator cap didn’t get tightened. About five kilometers later, we heard a clunk, and that was the end of the cap.  After Elafonisos, we stopped a gas station where one of the mechanics fashioned a cap for us.   Then, close to the top of the mountain pass we were climbing, a red light came on telling us to stop the car.  The new temporary cap was gone.  Demetri and Papou turned the heat on, put some water in the radiator, and we coasted down the other side of the mountain in complete silence.  We went back to the service station where they had put the original top off in there and 4 mechanics inspected the car. They had no caps we could purchase, so we figured we’d call the Greek equivalent of AAA the following day.  We bought a lot of antifreeze and slowly drove back to Monemvasia, and had dinner in a grill house and played at a park.  We got back to our hotel, the kids got ready for bed and Demetri went back out to the car and found BOTH caps on the skid plate.  Road trip back on!

Saturday, we drove south and west and south again around the coast and into the Mani peninsula. Mani’s terrain is rugged with rocky mountains and lots of olive trees. We stopped for lunch at a fish tavern in the harbor town of Gerolimenas. We ate lots of local fish paired with nice, cold ouzo and sat next to the water watching the black rain clouds.

Maniots are thought to descend from the ancient Dorian civilization and their reputation is tough, fierce, independent. The most common housing in Mani was a fortified village made of house towers where they could defend themselves from invaders.  There are a view of these villages that still exist; after lunch we drove to one called Vathia, which is one of the best preserved towns.  Most of the homes have been abandoned, though there was one that had a courtyard with pretty well maintained plants and new doors with screens. We walked up, through and around the dirt paths imagining what it would be like to live here. We stopped in the large-ish town of Gytheo on the way back, walked in the harbor and played foosball and air hockey on the patio of a tavern.

Sunday, we took a coastal route back north, stopping to see a huge shipwreck called the Demetrios. Next was another harbor town for a coffee. Peter was ninja warrioring and fell in the water but it wasn’t deep.  Then we made our way to a very cool village called Leonidio where we watched climbers scale these long, vertical rocks.  We had Sunday lunch in a taverna facing the water — roasted chicken in lemon sauce, roasted goat in lemon sauce, imam (roasted eggplant with tomatoes and onions) and more ouzo.  We headed back to Athens through mountain towns, and found a beach town that we’ll come back to in the Spring or Summer where the water is crystal clear.

There is so much to see in this pretty region of Greece and it’s full of cities that we all learned about in history class: Tripoli, Sparta, Olympia, Myceanae, Thermopylae.  I can see Mrs. Miles’ handwriting covering the entire blackboard with the day’s lecture in 10th grade ancient and medieval history class.  The coastal towns are all pristine and adorable and the swimming is some of the best in the world. We scoped a few places to return to this spring when it’s beach time again.

Our next Pelopponesian stop will be Kalavryta, home of some of the Fefes family.