Day trip to Diafani and Olymbos, Karpathos
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Olymbos, Karpathos
Up at the crack of dawn and one of the first to venture downstairs to the dining room for breakfast just after 0700 hours. Bread arrived late (that famous Greek time) however, not a major. Had packed and left the hotel soon after 0800 hours to pass by the office to buy my boat and bus tickets to Diafani and Olymbos, departing 0830 hours. By boat is the best way to get to Diafani, today it was late by 25 minutes (again, Greek time) – travelling along a mostly rugged coastline with a sprinkling of small isolated villages and beaches.
After 1 1/2 hours we arrived at Diafani and for the dozen or so of us who were not in the Group, a mini bus was waiting to take us up to Olymbos, a mountain village where I had been told, time has stood still. Before reaching the village, a stop for photographic opportunities and oh, that first sight of the village – stunning, awesome, breathtaking, amazing – all of those.
Wandered about looking for all the old traditional aspects of the village and it’s people that I have read about for such a long time. The older women still dress in traditional costumes, sometimes elaborately embroidered, with headscarves and some still wear the goatskin boots. They bake their bread in outdoor communal ovens and although I did not see them, I believe there are still working windmills in which they grind their own corn. In one Taverna a woman was busy preparing makarounes, a hand made pasta. As I walked back towards our meeting point, I came across a very clever cat doing his work, for in his jaws was a snake. Very much still alive, the cat had the snake by it’s neck. When I asked one of the local women if it was a species for us to be fearful of, she answered no, however, added, would you like to wake to one next to you in bed? A little later on, I walked back to that same Cafe/Restaurant to photograph a Greek man playing an ancient musical instrument Sofia told me is called a Sambuna although I have been unable to find out anything more about it on the Net. Several times I saw an African worker with donkey going about his duties, transporting building materials and other requirements about the village. Motorised transport can go only as far as the village boundary.
A very interesting hour or so, I spent in the company of Sofia at her Restaurant/Cafe. I ordered an orange drink and after a while Sofia offered me a kourambiethes, i.e. a Greek butter cookie covered with icing sugar- quite yummy! Although her husband spent 10 years in America, Sofia has been in the village all her life and adheres as much as she can to the traditional ways, like she has never cut her hair. As we talked she busied herself working with needle and thread on a tablecloth for Christmas. Apparently, visitors are few compared to recent times. If I have one regret it would be that I never went to Olymbos years’ ago – still worth visiting, however, as we all well know, time has changed everything in the world.
From Olymbos, the mini bus took us back down to the seaside town of Diafani where we had time to relax – eat, swim or do whatever, before our boat left around 1700 hours to take us back to Pigadia. Thinking the boat left at 1600 hours, I returned in good time and as it happened, Markello, the boat’s chief commando, asked me where I was from. Unbeknown to me, Markello has had a desire for many years to emigrate to New Zealand and so it was that we struck up a lengthy conversation about Aotearoa and other things.
Arrived back in Pigadia in time to purchase my ticket for the ferry boat Preveli, departing for Rhodos at 2155 hours, a couple of hours on the computer back at Sunrise Hotel where I also needed to collect my back pack, then a walk to the harbour to meet Markello – earlier he had invited me to join him at Taverna Kyma (Restaurant Waves) for some fresh fish and beer before leaving the island.