Agios Efstratios and Goodbye to Greece!

We left our spacious apartment in Myrina and slogged the 25 minutes along a rough road to the ferry. This ferry was a smaller one that the huge super-ferries that we often seem to end up on, but it was large enough.

It was a 2.5 hour trip to Agios Efstratios island, and it was all smooth sailing. 

We saw dolphins!

Agios Efstratios would be our last new island for a while so we were keen to experience it.

The owner of our apartment there and a friend of hers who spoke English picked us up from the port and took us to our apartment. It was great! A two-storey place, it had plenty of space and was surprisingly new. We were on a side street and only about 10 houses or so from the beach. We just dawdled along our road and walked straight onto the chocolate sand beach at the end of it! Public umbrellas and sunbeds were set up and there were far more of them than there were people to use them. It was wonderful!

We soon settled into a routine - exercise in the morning, then have a swim. After lunch we'd go for another swim. Can life get any better than that? I also seem to have caught up with things like blog posts, day-to-day things from home and ArtStacks stuff so I felt like we were having a bit of a holiday there.

There are cars on the island but, with a winter population of about 250 people, there aren't that many. I saw more goats than cars on our street! This one had its hind legs on a rock wall and its front legs on the Perspex windscreen of a motorbike to reach the tree.

Each morning a council worker cleaned the whole street with a broom. I'm sure she cleaned up a bit of rubbish but the majority of what she swept up was fallen olives and goat poo!

We met a local lady in the water on our first day. Her name was Elpi. She was really interesting. She had been born on the island but now lives in Athens. She and her husband come back for a few months each year. She was really helpful and told us important things like how many cafes and restaurants were open (two of each), lol. I love that we would just sit/stand in the water and chat, like many locals did.

The water was surprisingly cold though. I've never felt water this cold in Greece at this time of year before. It must be influenced by cooler currents.

The island was really dry and my longer walks weren't incredibly exciting. Fortunately, there was a lot of history nearby and I had a great time exploring things quite near to the town.

First up was the old ruined village. In 1968 a huge earthquake rocked the island. Nearly every building in the old village collapsed and 20 people were killed. The dictatorial government of the time rebuilt the town on the fertile river flats beneath the old village and forced the people to move there. This area had previously been used for growing fruit and vegetables. Houses were allocated by a raffle. The new houses were just four bare walls. Then, once they moved in, people were forced to pay for them, despite the houses supposedly being donated. It was a very tough time for the locals. 

The result is that the current town isn't a gorgeous old stone village. The houses aren't that interesting but they still seem to have a certain charm. The army built the town from scratch and it was all laid out in a grid with rows of identical houses. It looked terrible to start with. This is a photo from a book about the island's history.

Fortunately, many people have altered their houses over the years and trees have grown up so now it doesn't look very uniform at all. It must have been strange to live in a new house within view of the rubble of your old one.

Despite the sad history of the old village, scrambling around it was fun. Collapsed walls made up most of the rubble. Doorsteps led upwards to meet the air where doors used to stand. Laneways were littered with so much rubble that they were sometimes difficult to pass through.

An old stone trough.

Looking across to the bay and the new village from the old one.

Faded whitewashed steps led to a magnificent church that stood in ruins at a prime point overlooking the ocean. I learned later that it was very old.  

Fallen columns had been recycled from earlier Greek temples. It was sad that they had survived for so many years, only to be ruined in the earthquake in 1968.

The old marble floor was still in great condition, including this pattern in the middle.

An ancient Corinthian capital held up an altar.

I had read in what I thought was current info, that there were amazing frescos on the old church. All that remains now is this small patch. It has all been lost to the elements in relatively recent times.

From the church door I looked straight out over the sea.

Looking out from the old town ruins I could see parts of the new town, the port and the long arc of the town beach.

I found what must have been an old mill building. This huge millstone sat nearby.

Above everything sat a whitewashed church in a whitewashed walled enclosure. There were two buildings inside the enclosure. The church and a small building. As I walked past the smaller one, its door creaked - it wasn't shut properly. I peeked inside and at first I thought it was a storage shed. Then I realised that the metal and wooden boxes all had names and dates on them. I think they were peoples' ashes storage! Or maybe they stored things belonging to deceased people. Either way, it was rather bizarre.

This island is supposed to be a "100% green" island, meaning that it's meant to be totally powered by renewable energy. A lone wind turbine stands on a hill surrounded by solar panels. A diesel power station still operated on most of the days we were there.
One question that has come up numerous times in our wind farm discussions is "what happens to old turbines?" I found what happened to the old one here. It just lay where it was left.

This cool artwork adorned an old building.

A small group of original village houses didn't get knocked down. I love their gorgeous style.

But my favourite house belonged to our new friend Elpi. 

The port was lovely. It only held a dozen or so little boats, plus our ferry, and we spent a few nights watching the comings and goings of the fishermen. Each evening, an hour or two before dusk, they would all head out at the same time. They all then returned at dusk. As each fisherman got off his boat, he carried a small bucket with a few fish in it. Do they really maintain these boats for a few fish each day?

The food on the island was nothing special but John managed to score some decent seafood dishes.

We soon learned how important the ferry is that shuttled between this island and Lemnos each day. It's the only way that people can get to medical appointments, etc. It must cost the government a huge amount of money to maintain it. We estimated that there were around six staff on each trip. Both times that we used this ferry, there were only a handful of people on it, although the car deck, which took about four cars, was full both times. 

The government, and presumably the EU, try hard to keep people on the islands. This probably has more than a little to do with the fact that many of these islands are close to Turkey and Turkey is a threat that lurks constantly in the background to Greeks.

The sun sank behind the lovely little port with the ferry silhouetted against the sky.

I hiked up and down a few rolling hills on the island. The dry summer grass contrasted beautifully against the blue sea.

One track took me to a lovely beach. I shared it with nobody but a few goats.

There was a split in the rock that would have been great to scramble through if only I'd brought my bathers!

Another, longer walk took me to the island's oak tree forest. Scrubby oaks lined one sloping section of the island. In the old days, the caps of the acorns were used in a treatment phase for tanning hides. It was quite an industry at the time. Then new chemicals were found for treating the hides and the industry collapsed. The result is that something like 100 hectares of land is now covered by oaks.

Most of the forest seemed to be on fenced land but you don't worry about that in Greece! There are often home-made gates across roads. You just go through them, making sure you shut them behind you. I walked through a farm gate, said hello to six cows and a bull, and explored the forest.

The acorns are quite large.

I scrambled down to a knoll on a hill with great views.

Another walk took me behind the village to a church on a hill. The church was locked but in the church grounds was a memorial.
As if the recent history of the island wasn't enough, it had a more sinister history only a handful of decades earlier. During and after the Greek civil war, the Greek government was a paranoid dictatorship. It brought in laws to make it illegal to be a Communist or Trade Unionist. Thousands of Greeks were sent into exile on many islands, including Agios Efstratios. Even their family members were exiled, including mothers, children and old grandparents. Conditions were harsh and many died.
This memorial showed the names and ages of the exiles that died here. Some were as young as 20.
Greece's only Museum of Democracy is on the island and it was an eye-opener. It's good though that they're being open about this terrible time in their history.

We later learned that Elpi's father had been exiled to this island. At most times of exile, the exiles could mingle with the locals and Elpi's father met her mother, who was born there. When the exiles were finally freed, the couple stayed on the island for a while. They then moved to what was then Belgian Congo. Along with Australia and a few other countries, this was considered to be a good country to migrate to! Apparently it was very different then to what it is now, or when John and I visited in 1992. Elpi was at school age at the time so she was left on the island with relatives. Gosh our lives seem easy compared to this. 

Elpi is short for Elpida. This means Hope in Greek. It seems like such a wonderful name for the situation they were in.

A loooooong flight of stairs led to the church. Plus I had to go through a farm gate, lol.

The ants here are pretty serious, although they don't bother us much. This is an ant highway!

Our last full day on the island was my birthday. After my walk we had a video call with the kids which was great. I then spent the day lazing on the beach and swimming. It was wonderful!

As we were leaving the beach, we saw Elpi sitting nearby. She was waiting for me and had a present for me! She gave me this hand-painted rock that had the name of the island written on it. It was a really lovely thought but it was a heavy rock and there's no way I'm lugging that across the world. A photo of it will have to do!

We finished the day with a cocktail at one of the cafe/bars that's right on the port. We then had an unusually nice meal at the restaurant. It was a great day!

Our relaxation ended with a jolt when the alarm went of at 4.15am. We had to catch the ferry back to Lemnos. Again, it was smooth sailing. We watched a lovely sunrise.

For our last stay in Greece, we booked a flasher place than we usually would. We head off to Moldova after this and we don't have high expectations of the accommodation so we are lapping it up while we can!

Our room backed onto the hill that the castle sat on top of. Goats were regular visitors!

Our return to Lemnos was surprising. We hadn't been too fussed about it the first time around, but coming back was a bit like coming home to a familiar place. We had wonderful food and caught up with a great waiter in one of the restaurants. We were surprised when we asked his name and he said it was Dragan. This is a Serbian name. It turns out that he was born in Serbia and, when he was 10 years old, the Balkan War ended. His father had been killed and his mother mustn't have had the means to raise him. 300 kids were sent to other countries. 20 kids were sent to Lemnos and he was one of them. His new family owned the restaurant where he now worked. He was a really lovely guy and was very switched on. He was great!

While we were having dinner a parade of tooting cars drove by. They always do this as part of wedding celebrations. The funny thing was that because the drivable area of the town is fairly small they could really only do one lap up and down the main drag.

We had our last walk and ride in Greece for this trip. I had been eyeing off a track that seemed to lead upwards from the sea. I discovered that it was an emergency escape from the castle. To my surprise, I ended up hiking to the castle again.

I found a young buck and a young doe this time. If you remember my last post, the deer are all descended from two does and one stag. So it looks to me like this guy has shacked up with his half-sister. I don't know how the situation can improve without the introduction of fresh blood.

On our last day we had to make a decision. Who do we give John's bike to? In the past we've found charities to donate it to but there's wasn't anything like that on Lemnos. We asked the owner of our accommodation but he wasn't much help. We decided to ask Dragan, the Serbian waiter, to see if he had any ideas. He certainly did - he was looking for a bike! He was such a great guy that we gave it to him. In return, not only was our dinner free but he bought some wine that he knew we liked and followed that with some Serbian rakia and some Ouzo. We weren't planning on drinking that night as we had an early start but hey, when the offer's there......

We learned more about Dragan's past. He was seven years old when war broke out. His father, a Serbian Orthodox was best friends with a Muslim man. They spent a lot of time together. Then the war broke out and the men found themselves on opposite sides, shooting at each other. Both men were killed in the war. If ever there's a story about the futility and cruelty of war, then surely this is it.

Dragan thought we should take a photo. As we walked to the bike John said to me, "Don't take a photo with us shaking hands. It'll look like I'm a big donor or something." Dragan and John stood beside the bike and Dragan grabbed John's hand and shook it!
I don't know why Dragan's not smiling. He's usually a very smiling kind of guy.

We had one last feed of all our favourite foods in our last couple of days - frozen yoghourt with sour cherries, amazing moussaka and John had lots of seafood. I spent my time trying to absorb all the sights and smells of this amazing country to sustain me until we return.

There are so many things we will miss. We could learn a lot from the Greek's laid-back attitude. They also work closely with the rhythm of the seasons. Foods are only available at certain times of the year. They work fishing around the breeding seasons and fruit and vegetables are something that most people grow at home. 

The food is tasty, simple and very good, although it's pretty much the same everywhere. Greeks are proud of their cuisine and it's hard to find anything - apart from pizzas and burgers - that isn't Greek food in most places outside of the big cities. 

We were talking to the owners of one of the places we stayed at once and we were surprised to learn that he had been to Thailand. It turns out that he had a Thai girlfriend. We immediately started gushing about how wonderful Thai food is. His response was that it was ok, but you could never beat some meat on a grill with Greek salad! Seriously, how many Greek salads can anyone eat in their lifetime? As good as they are, I really don't mind it I don't have one again for a long time.

Like anywhere, some cooks are better than others. Some rely too much on salt and dishes were sometimes overpowered with it. We were in a restaurant in Kissos once and watched as the cook cut a plate of meat from the meat on the rotisserie. He then picked up the large salt container (just like the large white Saxa salt ones we have at home), set it on the 'pour' setting and poured the salt onto the meat for about three seconds! Think about that. Count out three seconds and imagine how much salt can be poured onto a plate of meat for four people in that time. It's very scary.

Oil is used on everything and many dishes come with chips which catches us out constantly. I think we only ever ordered chips once in our whole trip but we probably ate them on average twice a week because, once they're put in front of you, it's pretty hard to say no! Before I left home, my doctor told me I needed to cut back on fats a bit. Hmmm, that one went out the window!

Quick meals are harder to come by. I miss our salad rolls dreadfully. Of course, there is always a gyros, which comes complete with chips!

The other go-to takeaway food here is pies. Philo pastry encases cheese or spinach. 'Bougatsa', a sweet custard pie, is sensational but my all time favourite is orange pie which actually isn't a pie at all, it's a cake. An orange-flavoured cake is soaked in orange syrup. It sounds terrible but it's amazing and is something everyone deserves to taste once in their lifetime!

Bougatsa comes sprinkled with icing sugar and cinnamon.

The Greeks are great people but, like anywhere, they can be both cruel and kind. I've seen donkeys and goats in descent-sized yards but they're hobbled so tight that they can barely move. Dogs are often tied up or caged as protection for a remote farm, which means there's no company for the dog. Stray cats are tolerated, if not adored, yet sick cats or ones with eye infections are left untreated. On the other hand, some places have cat feeling stations set up and the food is supplied by locals. I saw a man ride his motorbike out from the town to the port in Lemnos. He went to a particular place and pulled out a heap of cat food. The otherwise timid cats here swarmed at the food.

Like so many countries, there are many things we don't understand. 

    - Why do they decorate restaurants and houses with healthy pots of basil but never seem to use it cooking?
    - Why does everyone, including kids, stay up so late then sleep in?
    - Why don't they think that getting endless cold coffees in plastic cups is a problem?

There was also the occasional cultural blunder. We were in our small hotel one day when I had to go to reception for something. Our room was directly over reception and it was only a short flight of stairs down to it. I had bare feet in the room and I briefly wondered if I needed to put my sandals on to go to reception. Surely not. I ducked downstairs only to find that a family were checking in. A boy, about 6 or 7, raced up to me, pointed at my bare feet and blabbered something excitedly to me in Greek. His grandmother quickly grabbed him and led him away, embarrassed that the kid had pointed out my error! After that, I kept an eye open for other bare feet but never saw any except for at the beach. How strange! 

The sad news for tourists is that Greece has become expensive. It's probably similar to costs at home now, depending on where you are. For a country that loves coffee even more than Australians do, the coffees are very expensive - around $8 to $10 for a cappuccino, although the local coffees are cheaper. Petrol is also expensive, particularly on the islands where it's around $4 a litre.

We travelled to some new regions on this trip and the ruggedness and beauty of the mountains were a surprise. I had no idea that Greece had such a variety of landscapes. The people were great and we had some fantastic experiences here.

It's the islands that keep calling me back though. Diving into the warm Aegean sea on a hot day is something that fills me with joy. The arid islands and blue seas are a strangely beautiful combination and they really speak to me. We only visited a few islands on this trip and found that people generally didn't seem quite as outgoing as previous trips though. Maybe it's because we're here in peak summer. Things are often quite different after the busy season is over.

As I write this, we are on our way to Moldova! We really don't know what to expect there. I think we're in for some interesting times!

Heather and Yiannis (Greek for John)