"Ah, Nisyros, Nisyros"!

Oh gosh - we found our island! But first of all, this is a looong post. So grab yourself a cuppa and settle in if you plan to see it to the end!

We caught the ferry from Kos to Nisyros. Once again, the departure time was changed and we were now leaving at 2.45am. The ferry was massive and very fancy but hardly anyone was on it. We had all this mostly to ourselves.

We love the way anything and everything gets transported by ferry!

It was only a short walk to our accommodation. Luckily the directions were good and we found the key that was left out for us and hit the comfy bed at about 4am.

Mandraki

We woke later in the morning and found ourselves in the most amazing house. We were in one of those whitewashed buildings with blue shutters that we had walked past and admired so many times in other places. It had three stories with steep wooden stairs and just a couple of rooms on each floor. Over our 10-day stay here, one of my favourite things to do was open the shutters in our bedroom. That stunning Greek sunshine would pour into the room and the view was framed by blue shutters. It doesn't look like much in this pic but it was amazing!

We also had a balcony with a clothes line on it so I got to pretend I was Greek and hung our washing out over a laneway like everyone else does :)

The house was owned by a couple who lived in it while they were renovating another place. When they moved out they just left everything behind. It was so full of "grandma stuff" that it would be hard to find enough place for your own things if there were a few of you.

We were right in the old town, called Mandraki, but in a quiet location. All around us, white washed buildings lined narrow, cobblestoned laneways. Colourful balconies hung over the lanes and washing flapped in the breeze. It was all so picture-perfect! The town wasn't too large but I still didn't find all the laneways in the time that we were there. 

My obsession with gorgeous shuttered windows and beautiful doors continued but I'll spare you the endless photos!

Like all Greek islands we've visited, cats were everywhere.

It's a feature of this region to use black and white pebbles to create patterns in courtyards. The largest by far was outside the town hall.

This made me laugh, especially as I came back three days later and the motorbike hadn't moved!

No truer words were ever written on a wall!

One night we watched a gorgeous sunset as a crescent moon hung in the sky above the cliff-top monastery.

It didn't take us long to realise that we had found 'our' island. We found the house, the lifestyle and the culture we were looking for. One of the highlights is that we met such amazing people here and were welcomed by locals. Our house was only 20 metres from a café. This café was popular with locals and John would go there each morning for coffee. We usually don't eat breakfast out but we soon realised that this café was a great place to meet people so we ate breakfast there each day. In John's words, we would "go there and talk shit". We had originally booked our accommodation for five days but we re-arranged our bookings and stayed for 10 days instead. We can't remember staying this long anywhere else for many years (apart from family holidays at home.)

Part of the reason we could meet so many people is because the culture here dictates that whenever you walk into a café or even just pass someone on the street, you always say hello. If you talk to someone near you in a café then it seems to be accepted that the conversation is for anyone else to join in if they choose. So, we go to the café and talk to Maria in English, if anyone else speaks English (and even if they don't!) they often just join in the conversation and suddenly we've met new people.

The People:
Maria ran the café. She was great value. A lot of the food in her café came from her family farm. Like nearly all café owners, "her" seat was the one closest to the kitchen. From there she could get food and coffees when they were needed and could talk to the customers and smoke in between. Greeks are such heavy smokers! This was the same set-up at so many cafes and restaurants. Even shop owners generally had their chair where they would sit and chat to people as they went past then they would go inside to serve someone when needed.

Spyros. With an Italian mother and Greek father from Nisyros, Spyros was someone we soon met every morning for breakfast. He was a fit and sprightly 80 year-old who spoke very little English. We speak only a little Italian and Greek but Maria often translated for us. Whenever he couldn't express what he was trying to say he'd just wave his hands expansively at his surroundings and say "Ah, Nisyros, Nisyros!" He was devastated that his family home in Nisyros got sold. He now has a house in Rome but spends about 10 months a year here. He was a wonderful gentleman and delighted in sharing his island with us. 

Betty and Yiannis owned our house. Betty was really good at telling us when events were happening and took us for a drive one day. She fed us home-made sweets every time we visited.

Betty also showed us through an apartment she has under her house. It's all very old and she has filled it with items of interest. There was an antique coolbox that was filled with ice. It also had a tap so that as the ice melted you could get cold water. Most old houses had their own cisterns (the one in our house takes up the space of a whole room!) In Betty's house, the original access to the cistern was still there - a space where a bucket hung ready to be lowered down to collect the water.

Irini, the owner of Irini's restaurant, was such a sweet lady. She would meet us with hugs, hand holding and kisses. She is personally responsible for some of the extra kilos I've put on. We would go there and order a main meal each. First would come out some homemade cheese and a dip plus bread. Then came our meals (the only part we ordered). After that came a dessert and a drink. Calories ordered - about 800. Calories eaten - about 2,000!

One night she refused payment for the meal at all even though she had given us all the extras as well. When we left she gave us some pottery cups and a bottle of ouzo. She was amazing!

Irini #2. She worked in a restaurant in the next village. Her English was great and, when I asked her why it was so good, she said she grew up in Melbourne. To cut a long story short, it turns out that she went to the same primary school as me! (Although a long time later, haha.) Irini told us many interesting stories about Nisyros.

Maria Nektarina (this wasn't quite her name but it was similar to this so this is what we called her). We met Maria at the café one day. She lived in another village on the island and had caught the bus to 'town' to get her hair cut. She was a big, hearty woman whose false teeth didn't fit so they clacked about in her mouth as she spoke. 

There are so many Marias and Irinis here. Maria's daughter is Maria and her granddaughter is Mary.

There were so many other people - the Aussies, Sally and Michael, who live on Nisyros. Something like seven years ago they learned that they could get residency if they owned property in Greece worth 250,000 euros. At the time they had to buy two houses and a block of land to spend that much! Now those places are worth far more, however doing up old houses has turned out to be a nightmare for them. Many tourists buy houses in the Greek islands and renovate them and I'm sure they all have their own stories of frustration and despair. Its enough to put anyone off. Lots of people do it though. By the way, we found a stunning old stone house in desperate need of renovation....... (just joking!)

There was also the Greek guy who lived in Australia for a while. There were the staff and family of Irini's restaurant plus friends of Betty and Yiannis. There was the Greek Cypriot guy that we met in another village. His father moved to Australia in the 1950's to work on some sort of project (we're guessing the Snowy River Scheme). The Greeks are passionate fishermen and he hated that he had to eat meat in Australia and couldn't get enough fish. 

The mayor stood out because he was the only one who wore a suit around town. He often rode a bike. He seemed to be well respected. People were impressed he was a professor, but I suspect "professor" is a term that's used loosely as we seemed to meet a few of them.

The guy below would fish each day and sell his catch to Maria. He always had a big smile on his face.

Most people are usually very cheery but we could never get a smile out of the fruit-seller lady. The best we got was a grimace!

A random Greek American we met says there is a lot of bitching behind people's backs. Everyone knows everyone and most are related. Considering the entire island has a population of about 1,000 across several towns and villages, I guess this isn't surprising.

The Sights

Nisyros is a little greener than other Dodecanese islands, but some parts still look like central Australia. Greek islands are not what most people would call "pretty" - they're wild, rough and rugged. But they're spectacular in their contrasts - grey rocks dazzle against blue seas and the villages are often gorgeous. Nisyros isn't a large island - only 41 sq kms - but it punches well above its weight for attractions. It has amazing history, spectacular natural sights and incredible ancient buildings.

Unfortunately, this makes it very attractive to day trippers from Kos. Strangely, all the different tour companies time their boats to arrive at the same time, so one minute the town is peaceful and the next minute hundreds of ice-cream licking tourists fill the narrow lanes. We were pretty shocked the first time we experienced this but we realise how important the income is to the islanders.

There was plenty to see and do just around Mandraki. At the top of a nearby hill was the remains of an ancient city wall. We can't find a lot of info on it but it was built in the 4th century BC. The construction is incredible. The massive stones were cut to fit each other exactly. It reminded us of the famous Incan walls in Cusco in Peru only these are about 2,000 years older! I explored this on one of my walks, then Spyros took us up there one day. He showed his fitness when he clambered around the old walls with amazing agility!

Even the track to the top of the hill was gorgeous. It wandered past olive graves, a small church and old ruins.

A stunning monastery looks over the town.

Spyros also showed us this old church, completely below ground level. So many times I have seen parts of old buildings sticking up out of the ground and now I realise that the rest of those buildings are buried beneath. It's amazing how much the ground level builds up over the centuries.

The thing that Nisyros is most famous for though is its volcano. Classified as dormant, it's one of many in the area. We hired a car and set out to explore the island and its famous volcano.

Driving around the island was a delight. It gave me a wonderful sense of freedom to drive around twisty roads with the window rolled down looking out over spectacular views.

We wound our way down the walls of the huge exterior crater and could smell the sulphur of the volcano long before we made it to the centre. The scenery became more like something you'd expect to see in a sci-fi movie the closer we got. The rocky cliffs changed colour to gorgeous yellows and pinks and very little plant life grew.

There are about eight craters here within the large one. This is the largest of those eight. To give you an idea of the size of it, look closely and you'll see a person on the right hand side.

As if all this wasn't cool enough, there were hissing vents of steam rising up from the ground! They're called fumaroles. We were really lucky to beat the tourists here and were able to hear it all.

Fresh sulphur crystals surrounded the fumaroles. This one was photographed at torso level right beside us on a track. You wouldn't want to bump into the steaming vent!

We time our visit beautifully. Just as we were leaving, six busloads of tourists from Kos turned up!

Happy travellers at the volcano.

There are also two really pretty villages in the hills. Nikia (pronounced NikYA) was beautiful. It's famous for its central square, which is actually an oval, which is decorated with stones. Unfortunately, the two cafes there had put their tables and chairs over the 'square' so it wasn't easy to see it all. 

Wandering the old streets I was surprised to see a sheep wandering along one of them!

The views of the town are just as spectacular as the views in and from the town. Many of the old houses have been renovated by tourists.

Above the town was a church with the most amazing views! 

We could see other islands, large swathes of Nisyros, plus we could look straight down into the volcano!

Nikia is a town that's visited by the tour groups that come in from Kos. We walked out of museum at Nikia to find our car blocked in by three tour buses in a tiny space. I don't know how those buses even turned around there. When we could get out we bolted for Emborio, and came back later when the tour groups left. 

We could never figure out why the tour boats from Kos all arrived at the same time. This meant that hundreds of people arrived at the crater at the same time, so none of them would have heard the gentle hissing of the fumaroles. They all arrive in Mandraki at the same time too, choking the narrow laneways. Weird.

Emborio was another beautiful village. Quieter than Nikia, it had a dilapidated charm about it.

We stumbled across a few tables set up on a path and realised this was a café - the only one that was open. One of the more bizarre things that we've seen is that warm air from the volcanic activity seeps out from a couple of holes in a wall. In winter it must be wonderful to sit here!

A long way down a narrow, twisting road was Avlaki. This lovely harbour has a ruined spa house on its shore. We had heard that the water here was warm from volcanic activity so we took the plunge but it was pretty cool! The water was incredibly clear though and it was really fun swimming beneath ruins and weird rocky cliffs formed from volcanic activity.

I forgot to take my snorkel and mask so I just snapped a few random photos under the water to see what it was like. Much to my amazement there were rocks coloured red, presumably by sulfur.

Around the island we explored ruined monasteries.....

........ and old churches with amazing frescoes. All these sights were just unlocked, unmanned and often not even signposted.

The dry, arid look of the islands in summer still sometimes surprises me. I often wonder if the islands are denuded because the goats eat everything or if they were already like that and the goats are the only things that can survive here. The second Irini, the one that went to my primary school, told us that people used to be fined if goats damaged people's property. They had goatherds with them all the time. Now it's not worthwhile having a family member watching the goats all day so people just let them roam free. This way it costs nothing to feed them and farmers are subsidised by the EU as well. Goats damage the old terraces and nobody is around to maintain them. Terraces are essential for keeping the soil. Nisyros used to be covered in a variety of trees but now the only things that grow are what can tolerate the goats.

Only a few kilometres along the coast from Mandraki was the smaller village of Pali. This was a bit of a yachtie place and was very pretty.

We came here a few times to eat at Irini #2's restaurant (the Irini who went to my primary school). Early one evening I saw this black cat sitting on a yellow wall of a house.

There was a good sandy beach here so John managed to get some kata practice in.

The Celebrations

Oh my goodness - did we time our trip well! We had the great fortune to be involved in three local celebrations!

First up was a night of traditional dancing. Three dancing troupes were brought in from Rhodes, just for the cultural experience. A brass band led the dance troupes through the town, winding up and down the laneways. People followed along behind.

The main square was set up with chairs. Houses behind got a birds'-eye view but, as they created an unintentional background to the performances, I think if I was this family I would have brought the washing in!

The event was free but it was a bit sad to see that there were more dancers than spectators. They performed many different types of dances. This one was danced in the dark with candles. It was beautiful!

There were dancers of all ages and they seemed to have a ball.

The guys seem to get the more interesting dances sometimes.

After the show finished - and after an hour-long speech by the mayor! - we wandered the 10 metres or so back to Irini's restaurant. We had met an Irish/German couple at the dancing and we all had dinner together. Irini's is one of only two restaurants in this area and soon all the dancers came down for dinner, spreading themselves across the restaurants. The group near us were all quite young and as soon as they finished eating they turned on traditional music and started dancing. We got talking to one of the boys and it turns out he was only 14 although he clearly felt like king of the dancers that night. There were about 20 gorgeous girls and only four boys but they were all passionate about dancing.

It only took a few ouzos and some friendly encouragement and soon we were up dancing with them. We had a blast!

We somehow ended up dancing around the huge fig tree that stood in the centre of the square. We had such a great night (and sore heads in the morning!)

The next event was "Ohi Day". This celebrates the day in 1940 when the Greek Prime Minister said "No" ("Ohi") to Mussolini's request for troops to enter Greece or face war.

All the local school kids marched to the main square which was set up with the Greek flag, soldiers and rifles . Priests then conducted a religious ceremony among the rifles! (The rifles are stacked to the right of this pic.)

These two youngsters in traditional costume won everyone over.

We had picked a prime table at a nearby restaurant to watch the ceremony. Afterwards, the priests and other dignitaries were all seated near us!

By now we were starting to feel like we belonged here. John caught up with local friends at the event.

The third event was a baptism. Most of the town was invited. Again it was in the main square. Long tables were lined up and set with glasses and bread. Irini's restaurant was just below it so we ate at the restaurant while the tables upstairs slowly filled with guests. We knew the celebrations had started when fireworks went off. They have lots of fireworks in Greece.

Soon the square was buzzing. Mary Nektarina and her family sat at the end here.

We had invited Spyros to dinner so when we finished we went upstairs to watch. When the restaurant finished serving food, Irini and her staff member came up too.

After everyone had a huge serving each of meat and rice (they even offered it to us) the dancing began. Maria Nektarina took me under her wing and away we went. These dances were fairly easy compared to some of the ones in saw in Halki. At one stage I got Spyros up dancing but it was a bit much for him.

Bike Rides

John had good bike rides here. One day I rented an e-bike. It's the first time I've ridden one and it was great! We did a loop of the whole island. It was amazing riding through the crater.

There were spectacular views everywhere.

It was interesting to be in a place at the end of the season as things were shutting down. One by one the restaurants closed. Maria's will run all winter - she's more of a local hangout anyway. Up at Emborio, the only café left open only does dinners and you have to let them know in advance.

We love the outdoor lifestyle here. We almost never sat inside at a café, bar or restaurant. Not all of them even have indoor seating. Apparently, it's great in winter when people do sit inside. In fact we've heard a lot about winter and it sounds amazing - it's not too cold (most of the time), there are few people around, the island turns green then is covered in flowers in spring. It's a very different place and we'd like to experience it one day.

We will definitely come back here not too far in the future. It holds a special place in our hearts.

Heather and John