Itisallgreek2me

Early morning scene - Oinousses Harbour

At noon Saturday, I happily left Chios Rooms, with enough time to spare to eat before catching the ferry boat ” Oinousses III” to the small island of Oinousses, famous for the significant number of ship owning families who originate from here.  With a cargo including hay bales, air conditioning units and fresh fruit and vegetables, we departed at 1400 hours, arriving just 50 minutes later. 

I had not pre-booked a room and knew it was going to be difficult – the Oinoussians are mostly well to do and not in the least bit interested in tourism, they don’t need to be.  Anyway, with the help of a local taverna owner, I procured what is for me a rather expensive, however, very nice studio apartment where I will treat myself to a 3 night stay. 

Oinousses is actually a cluster of 9 small islands with the majority of the some 1,000 permanent population living in the town of Oinousses.  The world famous ship owning families including Lemos, Pateras, Hadjipateras, Kallokis and Lyras live elsewhere for most of the year, only returning during summer.  Donations from them have assisted the island greatly to build the Stadium here and more.  From my observations, the people are quite happy to keep to themselves and since my arrival, I have yet to see another person who looks non Greek or who is a tourist or traveller. 

Despite the obvious wealth, there is much more I feel could be done to clean up the place.  Rubbish in the harbour waters and in places throughout the town and so many abandoned homes amongst the well maintained mansions.  The cats here would have to be the most timid and hungry that I have come across – cat fights are regularly heard and seen, it seems to be survival of the fittest.  Two privately owned tiny islands with churches sit across from the yacht filled harbour – overall Oinousses is a very charming island. 

This morning I set off early to walk along the coastal road to the beautiful Monastery of Evangelismos, founded in 1964.  The air was still and warm and the only sound was the chanting from the service in the church on the hill, which could still be heard long after I had left the town.  Picked and ate my first ripe figs from roadside trees, warmed by the sun – so delicious!  An abundance of wild herbaceous plants along the way, including young lavender seedlings, just oozing aromatic oils which made my fingers sticky when touched.  Returned via a hillside road and after some 4 hours walking, arrived at a deserted beach for a swim.  2 hours later it had become populated and so I left to walk back to the town for a taverna lunch, followed by a well deserved siesta. 

Presently the time is 2245 hours and I am sitting at Navtikos Omilos Cafe Bar at the harbour, no Internet connection at my studio apartment.  This is a young person’s hangout and as the music gets louder and the crowd grows, I’m feeling anxious to finish and move on.  Tomorrow evening at this time there is a screening of  “Julie and Julia” at the local outdoor cinema.  I would very much like to go, however, with an early start on Tuesday catching the “Oinousses III” back to Chios and then an all day wait until 2245 hours that night for the departure of the ferry boat “Theofilos” for the island of Limnos, arriving 0850 hours the following day, it maybe wise for me to retire early tomorrow evening.  Anyway, I still have one more day to enjoy here tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.