Fourni

The Fourni islands are a group of small islands not far from Ikaria. Many of the pirates I've talked about in previous posts were based here, so it's kind of known as the pirate island. In fact the main town, Fourni Korseon, is named after the Corsair pirates that lived here. I was looking forward to a small island experience.

Our airbnb host, Dimitris, said he would meet us at a certain taverna and would be wearing a red hat. We had visions of him getting plastered in the taverna while he was waiting for us. We couldn't have been more wrong if we tried. The ferry ride was only 20 minutes from Ikaria and we duly walked to the taverna. An elderly man in a red cap and a woman who was clearly his wife were hovering expectantly outside. Dimitris and Toula were the sweetest people you could ever meet.

Dimitris had a taverna and invited us down that night for a drink on him. We ended up having drinks with him a few nights, plus snacks of course because no host gives you a drink without food. He was on the verge of closing the restaurant down for the season but stayed open that night for us. John had mentioned earlier that he'd like some fish so Dimitri walked across the road and caught fish for him! He used a lobster trap with bread in it and caught heaps. I was a bit sad though because I've seen these fish when I've been snorkelling and they're not in large schools. His net probably contained an entire school and, although they're relatively common, there aren't oodles of them.

We had read somewhere that the island had no cars. It must have been very old info as there were plenty of cars and motorbikes. In fact the first words we saw from the ferry were emblazoned across the top floors of a couple of buildings: "MOTORENT" and "CAR & SCOOTER RENT" screamed at us in huge letters. They were also doing some sort of roadworks along the foreshore so a jackhammer punctuated the relative quiet on a number of days. Cats yowled and puppies barked. So much for the silence we were expecting!

The town layout was very unusual for a Greek island town - the roads were in a grid! I wasn't able to find out why but Dimitris said this was due to the Ottomans. The main street was lined with mulberry trees that had been trained to arch over the road and it was lovely.

Tavernas lined the waterfront.

Photos we'd seen of the main town showed a single pier sticking out into the blue water. Now there are three jetties. The whole foreshore had clearly been modernised recently. A new neon sign ran all day and night telling us the temperature, time and date. Further along was a phone charging station, the size of a small bus stop. It was solar charged with a (probably very expensive) battery backup. How many people need to use a public phone charging station? All you have to do is buy a coffee and charge there. There seems to be so much money wasted on things that aren't that important.

There was a huge soccer field above the town. We thought that was fair enough however we later found another older one in the middle of the island where there was nobody! More wasted money. Meanwhile, people like Dimitris had had his pension cut by the government. It must be frustrating to see such wasted funds.

The restaurants along the waterfront were still mostly open and we enjoyed sitting there each evening watching the comings and goings of the town. We were horrified by the overconsumption of plastic bags though.  Everything was sold in a plastic bag, whether it was water, fruit, or a packet of biscuits. And why put multiple items in one bag when you can have a bag for each one? This has been the case everywhere we've been really. To their credit, we don't see a lot of plastic bags along the roads although a few invariably end up in the sea.

Sunsets from the waterfront area were glorious.

Our apartment was large compared to what we'd been in and was lovely. The shower was tiny though. Like most Greek showers, the shower head was hand-held but in this shower there was nowhere to hang the shower head to enable us to stand underneath it. Here's how to shower in these situations:
1. Hold the shower head and turn the shower on. While you wait for the water to warm up, direct the spray at the shower curtain to encourage it to stick to the shower base and not your body.

2. Wet your body, turn the water off and rest the shower head on the taps.

3. Try to pick up the tiny soap without it slipping through the large spaces between the wires on the rack it's sitting on. Watch as the soap slips through the gaps anyway and falls to the floor.

4. Pick up the soap and swear as the shower curtain sticks to your bum.

5. Unstick yourself from the shower curtain and wash yourself with the soap.

6. Return the soap to the rack and watch it slip through the gaps again. Repeat step 4.

7. Turn the tap on again and rinse yourself off, making sure you don't spray through any gap in the shower curtain or you'll saturate the bathroom.

My theory is that this method saves heaps of water. Maybe we should introduce it at home!

As much as I'd looked forward to a small island experience, Fourni was possibly a bit too small as I ran out of walks that I could do from our town after a couple of days. My first walk was hard but very rewarding.

After a hot slog up a steep hill I ended up at a church perched high above the town. There were a couple of old columns nearby so I assume the church was built on the site of an old temple, which is not uncommon. The views were amazing.

Looking down over the town and another Fourni island, Thymena.

As I was coming down from the hills I walked above a bay where I could see straight into the water. The clarity of the water was incredible!

There are a number of old windmills on the island. I found this one which still had an old stone threshing circle in front of it.

We love how people use roads as their own space. We often see cars parked all over the roads as their owners just duck into a shop or stop for a chat. Things are often stored on the roads when there's not enough space in a shed - even boats!

I was delighted to find this stack of pallets. That may seem like a strange comment but pallets are the lifeblood of people here. They're used for fencing, gates, covering holes on roads and so much more. After stones and bricks, I believe they would be the next most commonly used construction material! And at least these were stored on the footpath and not the road!

The main town is very much alive. There are probably a dozen places to eat. Tourism isn't as strong here as elsewhere so the island didn't seem to shut down as much as others do at this time of year.

We didn't know which restaurant to choose at first so we picked the one where men were repairing their fishing net in the restaurant!

They told us that seals and dolphins eat the fish from the nets and they tear holes in them in the process. The seals in particular make a mess of the nets.

One night we got talking to a scruffy looking man at the next table when we were having drinks with Dimitris. His clothes were sloppy, he needed a shave and he looked like he lived a hard life. Dimitris told us he was a doctor! We watched in amazement as he rolled his own cigarettes and drank from one of the several cans of beer in front of him. Dimitris later told us that he's a very heavy drinker. He was interesting to talk to though. He's a fill-in doctor. He stays on islands for a year or two and moves on again. He's married but his wife won't leave their home city so it's a very strange sort of existence. I was secretly glad that I didn't need a doctor while we were on the island!

The main island was long and skinny with one long arm. It had lots of bays and coves which made it very scenic. We hired a car one day. It only took a couple of hours to drive over the entire island! There was one road heading south, one east and a short one heading north. There were a few side roads off those and that was it! 

There were some spectacular views although the sky was starting to get a bit grey.

The roads were incredible - they were like major highways compared to roads elsewhere. Two-lane roads meandered along the ridges. At Ikaria, which has a much larger population, the roads were terrible! Here, you could drive for half an hour (if you went out and back) and not see another car. The goats used the roads as their own territory though. These were milking goats so they were very tame.

They were a bit too tame - it took some effort to get them to move!

We found a gorgeous little fishing village with people out working on their boats and nets. 

The only place to eat outside of the main town was at the tiny village of Kamari where we couldn't drive right into the village because a couple of men were mixing concrete in the middle of the road, using the road as their mixing base. There's that public use of the roads again! 

I decided to be very brave and have a snorkel here. It was only about 22 degrees and the water should have been warmish but it still took my breath away. I'm glad I did it though.

We would love to have met more people here but the opportunities didn't really arise, although one big opportunity almost did! Dimitris' name day was on a day that we were here and he told us he would invite us to the celebrations. Sadly, he got sick and the party was called off. It was such a shame as I think they had some of the food ready and Dimitris was looking forward to it.

Every time we walked to our apartment we went past this sign. We can't even begin to imagine there being a nightclub here but there was clearly a dilapidated air about this location now.

The island we were on is the main island in a group of them. The only other inhabited one of consequence, Thymena, was just a short boat ride away. I wanted to walk on that island so, on another grey day, I caught the small boat that takes kids to and from the main island for school plus whoever else needs transport. 

Half a dozen or so school kids boarded along with people who had obviously come to the main island to shop. Groceries, in plastic bags of course, were stacked on the deck along with various boxes that looked like they'd been posted. Online ordering maybe?

As soon as the boat left our port it started to spit rain. We disembarked and I climbed up a gazillion steps out of the village. Soon, it began to rain properly. It wasn't cold though so I continued. I didn't have a lot of time as a different boat would be taking me back in 2.5 hours. I had a lovely walk along the only long road on the island to a church and tiny village on the other side. I got very wet but it was great!

Going back down those gazillion steps....

.... to the lovely little port at the bottom.

Another walk the next day also took me down a looooong flight of steps.

Sadly, we didn't time our departure here well. It was "Oji Day" the day after we left and we watched as the small town was spruced up for the celebrations. Banners lined the main street and square. (I'll talk more about Oji Day in my next post.)

Ladies everywhere were cleaning their houses and the roads outside their houses.

This cat wasn't too fussed though.

I initially wasn't enamoured with this island, but it somehow grew on me. Maybe it was the abundance of oranges, lemons and limes growing in every garden yet we never saw an orange for sale. (Who would buy them? Everyone has their own!) Maybe it was watching an animal feed truck pull up in front of our restaurant one night and unload orders, including many boxes for our restaurant. (What the?) Maybe it was watching that same truck back up a road and catch the Oji Day bunting and nearly break a streetlamp that the bunting was attached to. Or maybe it was watching a couple of guys shimmy up the street lamp, bend it straight again and re-tie the bunting, all without fuss. Maybe it was that I started to recognise which kids caught the boat to school each day. Maybe it was the way everyone said good morning to us at the coffee shop. Maybe it was the way our coffee lady would rather us underpay than have to find the right change for us. When I later took the extra coins back to her she gave me a kiss and wished us well. 

I'll leave you with a glorious sunset that we watched from the balcony of our apartment one night.

Hooroo!
Heather and John