A Greek Oddity

Posts for Tag: viper

Sunday 23rd June 2013 - The Caves of Antiparos have a surprise for us!

This morning we have decided to take a trip to the Caves of Antiparos.  I visited the caves on my first trip nearly 20 years ago but I didn't make it on my second visit.  We are told that we can either take the local bus which leaves at 11.30am or we can take the tourist bus that leaves at 11.00am.  The tickets are 1.60 euros each way on the tourist bus so we decide to take this.  We have a bit of time before the bus leaves so we walk to the top of the main street until we reach the bakery.  I've had this overwhelming craving for cream pie so we order one of these along with a spinach and feta pie - what a great breakfast!

[The tickets to the Cave of Antiparos are 1.60 euros each way.  You have about an hour at the cave but you can stay longer and catch the next one back if you wish - 1 hour is ample.  See the bus timetable below which was correct up until 9th July 2013]

We make our way to the bus stop by the square and eat our pies.  Shortly after the driver boards the bus, opens his window and lights a cigarette.  A Greek lady with two friends asks if she can get on - I take it from his expression that the answer was no!  As he starts up the engine to the bus we see a large party of people approaching - most of them sporting Viper tshirts and baseball caps.  These are Greeks on holiday and must be here for the festival.  The driver gesticulates for us to get on the bus and before long the bus is full without a seat to spare.  

The bus slowly spirals up the scrub covered hillside, past windmills and pretty white villas. We arrive at the cave bus stop but there is still about 100 metre walk up to the mouth of the cave and the Agios Giannis Spiliotis church so we take our time and take in the spectacular views over the bay. 

 
We purchase our tickets and make our way into the mouth of the cave where we see signs of holy communion about to take place. 

[During the summer season the cave is open between 10.45 - 15.45.  Tickets are 3.50 euros each]


The priest isn't here and we start making our way towards the steps down to the cave.  A man who appears to be a tour leader with the large party calls to a couple of Greeks who are also walking towards the steps - as we turn to hear what he is saying he tells us "not you" and waves us forward with his arms.  

We don't get down very far before I begin to feel the vertigo kicking in.   20 years ago this wasn't as much of a problem - well I made the 100 meters down to the bottom even if I did have to cling on to the handrails.  This condition is clearly becoming more acute the older I get!  I am reminded of the time when I got stuck at the top of the castle of Chrisoxerias on Kalymnos.  I managed to make it up there (just about) but absolutely freaked out at the thought of going back down.  I had asked my boyfriend at the time if he could ask the police to send a rescue helicopter for me (I was deadly serious - but panic stricken!)  When I realised I had not choice, I ended up making most of the descent on my bottom one step at a time!  But that's another story!

As I turn to go back, a lady who is part of the Viper party asks if Peter will take her photograph which he does obligingly.  She offers to take ours too and this is to remind me that I barely made it past the first set of steps!


As the lady hands back our camera we hear the sound of the priest beginning holy communion.  She waves her hand as if to say that she won't bother with it and starts heading down into the cave.  Peter and I stay where we are and listen to the chanting which resonates around the walls of the cave, into its mouth, past the oesophagus and deep down into its belly.  


The video I take is a little shaky - that's because my knees had turned to jelly!  Peter makes his way down the 360 or so steps into the cave.  I would have been more disappointed at not going with him had I not already visited the caves but because I got a case of the eebiejeebies I was able to see the holy communion in the cave.  

[The cave of Antiparos has the most amazing stalagmites and stalactites, the oldest stalagmite which is located in the entrance is believed to be 45 million years old.  According to Greeka.com  " As findings from the Geometric and Classical Era have shown, it was initially used as a refuge and then as a worship place. Macedonian generals also used the cave in the 4th century B.C. as a refuge after their conspiracy against Alexander the Great.

The interior of the cave was explored in the 15th century A.D. There, in 1673, the French ambassador in Constantinople Marquis de Nouadel performed a Christmas Mass on top of a stalagmite resembling an altar. Since then, the stalagmite was named "Holy Table" and an inscription was placed beneath it to commemorate the incident."

Archilochos  a poet from Paros was said to have visited the cave in 728-650 BC.  However, during the Russian occupation of 1770-74, Russian officers cut off many stalactites that can be seen today at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.  The cave was also damaged by the German soldiers during the second world war who used it for rifle practice.  Graffiti can be found all over the cave including scribblings from famous 'vandals' such as King Otho of Greece and Lord Byron.]

I return to the mouth of the cave to watch the end of the service.  This is a wonderful and unexpected surprise and I'm glad that we decided to come on this particular day.  Blessed bread is shared with the congregation, tourists and all.


After the service has finished I venture out into the midday heat to have a short wander by the church.  Two ladies help the priest wrap the remaining bread in large cloths and take back inside the church.  Shortly after I see the priest leave with his assistant.  I take a few photographs of the view over the bay but the heat is too much so I decide to go back into the shade of the cave entrance to wait for Peter.

It is nearly time for the bus so Peter and I make our way down and sit in the shade of the bus shelter.  The bus is a little late but soon it arrives and more tourist disembark and make the climb up the hill. Peter and I are the only ones on the bus but despite it being late the driver waits until the Viper party arrive.  They are in good spirits and on the way back down the mountain one of the group takes out his guitar and strikes up a rousing song.  All the Greeks join in the chorus - an amazing accompaniment to the wonderful scenery that flies past the window.  The exuberant singing continues until we are back in the square by the port - what a fantastic morning!


We decide to head to the beach to spend another relaxing afternoon.  After a couple of hours of doing nothing in particular, we take a slow walk back past the harbour, stopping to watch the car ferry come in and then back up through the pretty streets of the chora.  

Before we reach Villa Harmonia we see a sign for a restaurant called Kalamataria.  We take a left turn off the main street to look at it (location is almost everything!) and decide that this is where we will eat tonight.


It's straight back to the room for a shower and we then sit on our little bougainvillea covered terrace for a Pimms and lemonade - a great way to spend time waiting for my hair to dry!

It is less than a five minute walk to the restaurant.  It is fairly quiet (how we like it) and after perusing the menu we order dolmades, garlic sauce and Greek salad to start.  I have stuffed tomatoes and Peter has dog fish - we both have dry white wine.

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As we are sitting in Restaurant Kalamataria I see children walking down the alleyway carrying garlands.  I didn't think anything of this at the time - but all becomes clearer later on!

We finish our meal which was nice.  We like the quiet location but the staff weren't as welcoming as Maria and Giorgios at T'ageri - I think we've been spoilt!  Nonetheless we enjoyed the meal.  Now it's time to walk back towards the square and see what the night brings.

As we reach the tiny harbour we immediately see a small bonfire on the little patch of beach on the front.  As we approach we see children taking it in turns to jump over the fire.  I remember reading about this tradition and then realise that it is part of the festival weekend.  I don't think this would sit quite well everywhere - young children leaping through flames but here it seems perfectly normal!


After watching for a short while we decide to go to one of the cafe bars on the harbour front for ice cream.  We also have access to wifi here so I take the opportunity to Google more information about the festival.  Google tells me this:

["The custom:
Since antiquity, the Greeks welcomed the spring with flower wreaths from their gardens and fields. The wreaths were hung on the front door of each house up to the eve of St. John, 23rd June. On that day, each household took the wreath that is called “protomagiatiko” (May Day garland). After the sunset all the people gathered to light a big fire to burn the wreaths. 
Young people and especially children jumped over the flames with hidden wishes about health, happiness in their mind. Rhodes used to say it is the feast of St. John the “Kalafouniari”. The passage over the fire, meant to exorcise bad evil and give them health and happiness, as the fire was cathartic power."]

We order waffles and ice cream with Belgian chocolate sauce. In the cafe bar next to us we hear people singing and we see that the group is being led by the musician from the bus this morning.  I love the exuberance of the Greeks!



Saturday 22nd June 2013 - Antiparos - You Haven't Changed a Bit!

We wake up at 9am after just 6 hours sleep, relieved to be here on the beautiful island of Antiparos.  Our eagerness to go and explore outweighed any exhaustion we still felt.  We showered and flung on some clothes and as we left the room took time to appreciate the pretty little terrace outside our room - Pimms and lemonade tonight I think!

We took the short walk back to the little main street. Everywhere is quiet and the streets were still quite empty.  One of the first cafe's we spotted was a small place called Cafe Babel.  The lady who seemed to own the cafe, took our order in between tending a small baby.   I think both Peter and I were in need of sustenance so we ordered a breakfast of fried eggs and bacon with toasted bread and tea.  Within minutes an older lady appeared to take over the kitchen duties.  When breakfast arrived the eggs really were the most perfect ones I'd ever seen or tasted!  

I had a strong urge to visit Psaraliki Beach of which I had such fond memories.  I remember it was a short walk from the town but instead of taking the direct route we decided to walk further up into the town and access it from over the main road. The beach was exactly how I remembered it.  A narrow stretch of sand and small stones, curving around the sheltered bay, lined with a row of tamarisk trees. It's parent island Paros providing shelter and keeping the shallow waters warm.  I get the feeling that today is going to be a very lazy day.  

We spread out our towels and lay under a tamarisk tree which covers us in its dappled shade.  The branches dance in the gentle breeze, fanning us slowly to sleep.  The hypnotic sound of the waves rolling in and out and the sound of the rustling leaves were broken periodically by the sound of shrill chirping from cicadas.

Between short bouts of sleep we took occasional dips in the sea, the beach gently shelving into deep turquoise water.  The most activity we experienced was a swim over to rocks at the end of the beach - Peter snorkelling whilst I clambered between the rocks under which green crabs scuttled to seek shelter.

We stayed  on the beach until about 5pm and then we walked back to the port past the old windmill and the blue domed church.


Not wishing to be caught out again we decided to purchase our tickets for Folegandros and made our way to the nearest ticket office.  We had planned to spend 4 nights on Antiparos, leaving on Tuesday - the end of the festival.  The tickets were 10 Euros each for the Speedrunner high speed ferry.  The lady in the ticket office tells us that today is the festival of the boats.  Later on I try to find some more information on this festival but can't seem to find a reference to it anywhere.  Anyway,I 'm not sure what the 'boat festival' is but there is certainly a lot of activity down by the marina.  A number of boats have been arriving at the island throughout the day,  There are gazebo's along the marina - whatever it is seems to be sponsored by Viper and we also see a poster with the picture of a musician on it promoting an event this evening in the square.  We are told this is part of the boat festival - oh to be able to read Greek!


After a walk along the marina we return to the room for a shower and Pimms and lemonade on our tiny terrace under the Bougainvillea canopy.


Still tired from the travel yesterday the Pimms nearly wipes us out. We force ourselves to get ready and head back to the marina to find a restaurant to eat. The marina is full of life. Families and groups of young people sitting in cafes or promenading along the harbour.  We can see rows of chairs stacked up against the church wall in the square, ready to be set out for the music event later that night.  I like to think that I can stay awake that long!  As we walk to the end of the marina it begins to feel less populated.  We survey the row of restaurants but it is difficult to choose which one.  We eventually decide on Restaurant T'ageri in the corner.  A pretty little spot overlooking the end of the small marina.



We really chose well.  This restaurant more than exceeded our expectations.   The waitress Maria introduces herself to us and asks us where we are from.  She tells us that she has been to Cairo and liked it very much - we both agreed that we didn't really like Alexandria.  Peter was keen to have sea food and chose crab. I didn't have much of an appetite and chose meatballs  - I think I know who's looked most impressive!  This was all washed down by a glass of cold, crisp dry white wine.  I think I had a second glass whilst Peter concentrated on extracting the crab meat out of the shell.


Maria told us that she was from Patras, opposite the coast of Italy. Giorgios the chef and the owners were also from there.  This is only their second season in Antiparos and they tell us that it hasn't been easy.  Giorgios told us that because they weren't locals, the council hadn't  been very helpful.  He said that some pipework repairs had been carried out outside the restaurant over the last few days and this had left a lot of mud all over the road.  He had phoned the council a number of times asking them to clean up the road because it looked bad for the restaurant.  In the end he did it himself by hosing down the street and cleaning the mud away with a stiff brush - he wanted to make it better for the customers!

Giorgios goes on to tell us about how hard they have worked to develop a very special menu in the restaurant.  He wanted us to try his crab salad and brought us out a sample - I'm not a lover of seafood but this crab salad was absolutely fantastic. He spoke passionately about how he loved his kitchen and every day he cleaned every part of it down with oil. We ordered desert - a local dish with a sponge base and fruit jelly topping.  My description here hasn't done it justice but the food here is absolutely exceptional! Everyone here has been friendly and accommodating and we will definitely be back another night.

We decide to walk back along the marina to see what's happening in the square.  The little marina is so pretty at night.


The show is now in full swing and gregarious Greeks are dancing and singing along with the musicians on the stage.  A man fills a endless plastic cups with water and hands them out amongst the crowd.  Above the small stage, children sit with their legs dangling over the church wall to get a birdseye view of the entertainment.  


After the musicians have delivered a couple of numbers, a group of men get on stage to make a series of announcements which is met with warm applause.  The night is rounded off with a final piece from the musicians and a small firework display which we see burst into life from behind the village church.  I've enjoyed this mysterious 'boat festival!'