Itisallgreek2me

Anna, Janet and Dimitris at "Atherinis" - Skyros

I was sitting in the courtyard early on Wednesday evening, awaiting Anna’s arrival, when suddenly we heard the bus up on the road and Janet and I ran up the drive to meet her.  Just as had happened the previous night when I had arrived, Anna literally dropped her luggage in our room and we came down to the courtyard for a few wines and mezes.  

Amazingly, Anna and Janet share the same star sign “Aries” and were born in the same year (the one after me).  Both women had premonitions of a major world changing event just before the death of Princess Diana.  Anna’s hero is Mick Jagger – Mick is also Janet’s hero and in fact, some years’ ago she worked as a Girl Friday for The Rolling Stones and The Kinks had their office downstairs.  Actually, Janet has met so many music stars from the 60’s and 70’s, including Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, my favourite band of all time and she says he is a lovely guy.  She has the same sentiments of Annie Lennox whom she once spent time with whilst holidaying on the Greek island of Corfu.  

There is almost always music playing here in the courtyard.  Last evening when I came down, there were candles glowing on every table, Janet said for about only the third time this year.  She never does anything unless she really feels it is what she wants to do – you cannot help but feel and be affected by the positive energy that is here at “Atherinis” – I have no doubt, it is a very special place. 

That first night Anna was here, we did not go to bed until the early hours of Thursday morning.  Thursday evening Janet and Dimitris invited us to have dinner with them – Lasagna, patates tiganetes, salad and naturally, plenty of wine.  Last evening the same thing happened again only this time it was a delicious chicken meal with a beetroot salad (including the tops), patates tiganetes and more wine.  The best fried potatoes I have ever tasted and Janet shared with us her secret way of cooking them.  Today Dimitris arrived home with small fish for tonight’s meal which it took Janet 1 1/2 hours to clean and all the neighbourhood cats turned up looking for their share.  A family of very clean rats, Ilias, his partner and babies live amongst the trees and on top of the courtyard roof, where they are able to find an abundance of fruit and nuts to eat.  They race along the upper railings, sometimes stopping for a short time to look and to listen. 

With such a feeling of belonging here, we have not ventured too far, however, on Thursday we went up to the town and found the Statue to commemorate the English poet, Rupert Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915).  Although he never lived on Skyros, he died on a French hospital ship moored off the island and is buried here and the Skyrians see him as some kind of hero. 

That same day we spent a long time at the Manos Faltaits Museum.  Established in 1964, it is one of the oldest folk art museums in Greece with only the Benaki Museum in Athens being older.  The Museum embraces the history and culture of Skyros from the post Byzantine period to the present day and is housed in the residence of the “Faldai” family.  In the Gallery you can see a collection of representative paintings by Manos Faltaits, paintings in a unique style which cannot be easily classified.  In the shop, originals and reproductions are available for sale. 

I had hoped that while I was here on the island, I would get to see at least one of the ancient horses known as Skyrian ponies, however, it is not to be.  They are a protected species, their numbers are decreasing and although moves are in place to preserve them, it maybe too late.  They have small bodies, a relatively large head, big eyes and nostrils and a large, strong neck in comparison to their shoulder blades and chest.  With long hair, an arched back and a large belly, they are in various shades of brown and copper or the more rare white and grey. 

Sadly, I fare-welled Anna this morning at 0600 hours.  With the time constraints she has and an earlier ferry being available today, she was more likely to make it to the island of Hydra, without necessitating a night’s stopover in Athens.  When I came down to the courtyard around 0945 hours, Janet told me of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake back home in Christchurch and the plane crash at Fox Glacier which killed nine, including four persons from overseas.  It was and still is very hard to believe – only last night we were talking about the number of Greek islands which have suffered from earthquakes in our lifetime and I had said, not knowing then what had happened in the early hours of Saturday morning, that it was only a matter of time before a big one would strike somewhere in New Zealand. 

Tomorrow I leave Skyros for a stay of three nights in Limni on the island of Evia before returning to Spetses on Wednesday to see my friend Costas and to be part of the annual Armata Festival, celebrations in memory of the sea battle of Spetses – 8 September 1822.  As I pass through Athens, I will complete a circuit which has taken me all the way around mainland Greece and the Greek islands and with just six weeks of my journey remaining.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at 12:57 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.