As soon as I saw the most masculine of containers - cement mixer lorries - painted purple and pink, I knew this was an island of interest. In a land where men look in the mirror even more than they think of sex, and masculinity needs to be visual at all times, it was satisfying to see that some man could be comfortable enough with himself to paint his vehicles and works buildings in such girlie colours. This needed further exploration.
So, let me introduce myself. I, Liz, have had a love affair with Greece for the past 30 plus years. It is only superceeded in time, depth and power by my love for my partner, Waldo. Just as Greece embraces me, it's people care for me and cherish me, so does Waldo. In many ways Greece has been the third party in our relationship ever since we first discovered it. But unlike so many third parties, the land and its people have enriched our relationship. Together we have come to know ourselves and each other as we have explored mainland and island communities, amazing scenery and the lifestyle, traditions and culture of a land we have come to know and love.
Some four decades ago we made our first visit to Greece. A long weekend to Athens when the Junta were in power and soldiers with guns stood on the top of buildings around the major squares of the city. The streets were clean and there was a certain discipline, or was it fear, in the atmosphere. The Plaka district was still full of bouzouki clubs, restaurants where people threw plates and danced on the tables, and old traditional shops selling locally made goods. Now the bouzouki clubs have morphed into out-of-town night clubs with singing and dancing and the throwing of expensive posies of flowers. Health and Safety issues, as well as cost, have put paid to the breaking of plates and dancing on the tables. The local shops in the Plaka all too often now sell goods made in China, Eastern Europe and even Turkey. How is it that some places grow their skills base, yet others loose it? Does the import of goods do something for the Greek shipping economy? Or is it just part of the global shift of manufacturing bases?
In our short visit we even found time to visit the island of Hydra, where cars were not allowed. The pace of life, the clearness of the air were unimagineable. Yet it was no backward island. I recall spending quite some time in a very up market hat shop where the owner, designer, milliner set a hat on my head and then proceeded to position the hat in some 10 different styles. Delightful as it was, the price was way out of my range.
Our next visit to Greece came in 1978 when we visited Corfu, the Greek island of Kerkyra. Both Waldo and I fell in love with the island. We made good friends there and spent the next 10 years visiting once or twice a year. Our local friendships deepened, but sadly tourist development changed the nature of the island and in places scarred it's beauty. Through our Corfiot friends we met Greek people from other areas of Greece and we began to expand out horizons. We started to explore islands such as Lefkas, Skiathos, Skopelos, Crete, Lesbos and Evia. We toured Halkidiki and the Peloponnese. Indeed such was my desire to visit Greece that I started looking for business opportunities, just to have an excuse to return again and again. The ploy worked and through business I travelled the breadth and depth of the land. The was usually followed up with holidays and as such we visited regions such as Epirus with its spectacular mountains and gorges, Pelion with it's traditional stone houses, and the Outer and Deep Mani which is purported to have more men per head of population in the Greek army than any other part of Greece.
It must be about 30 years ago that we decided that one day we would have somewhere to stay in Greece, a place that we could use particularly after our retirement. After our travels, visits and revisits we decided that the Deep Mani, the middle peninsular of the Peloponnese would be the place. About 20 years ago, we started to plan our finances, our work, our lifestyle, our individual retirement times, our properties to optimise our dream and make it reality. In 2002 we bought our air tickets, hired a car from Athens airport and set off to find a place in the Mani. We set off at a leisurely pace. From Sparta we travelled to the beautiful village of Kardamili where Patrick Leigh-Fermor, writer, resistance fighter and philhellene lived. I have read all of his books and do wish I had been able to meet and talk with him. Kardamili is one of the most relaxed places to stay and somehow has the ability to inspire and calm one, at the same time.
From Kardamili we travelled south on the western edge of the peninsular. Stoupa had been top of our list, or at least somewhere in one of the mountain villages above the seaside resort. But our memories were completely out-dated from reality as we saw the development of the place which now spread not just back to the main road but over the other side and towards the mountains. Even if we could have found somewhere quiet in a village it was clear that development was on the move and we did not want to have to fight our way through the ebb and flow of package tourists every time we needed some shopping beyond the capabilities of a village shop. Aghious Nikoliaos, although delightful, was permeated with an amazingly strong smell of something rotten. When we found the source in drying out marsh land we realised this was not going to go away quickly. Further south, Itilio was a strong contender but we could not find anything suitable for sale. Pity. Property around Areopolis was wildly expensive with developers restoring old traditional houses and hoping to make a huge profit. Not off our hard earned money though.
Gerolimenas was a possibility. But we eventually decided it was a long way down the peninsular and yet not protected from tourist development. Porta Kago (the door to the quails) is a lovely place to visit and there is an excellent taverna there. But for us it is a place to visit, not remain. Vathia, the beautiful village of Maniot Tower houses whose picture was used as a promotion by the Greerk Tourist Board some years ago, has reaped the benefit of such promotion. Crumbling buildings have been restored and saved and the place has come alive again. Unfortunately such activity had put it out of our financial reach.
Traveling north, up the western side of the peninsular we had not expected to find anything that took our fancy. The mountains on the western side of the peninsular drop almost straight to the sea and the vistas are much harsher, although dramatic. We prefered the softer run on gentle slopes at the base of the mountainds followed by meadows and sandy coastal resports of the east. Bt having lunch at a taverna on the water's edge at Skoutari we saw a beautiful old Venitian style property which was being restored. It was one of those love at first sight moments, but sadly the property was not for sale. Neither could we find any similar ones in our search through the village, in Mavrovouni or the area behind the village.
Eventually we came to Gythion. The ancient town had been made famous for it is said that the fleeing Paris and Helen of Troy stayed the night here before their ship departed for Troy. Some 10 years previously Waldo had sent a postcard from here telling some friends of Gythion's claim to fame, adding 'I think that last night we had their old room', refering to the very old house in which we had spent the previous uncomfortable night trying to sleep on a traditional stone slab with thin matress turning it into a bed. This time we intended to book into a hotel.
It is well not to rush things in Greece. In Spain the pace of life is such that 'manyana' (tomorrow) is an important and frequently used response to asking when something will happen. Here is Greece, 'avrio' (tomorrow) is far too soon and although the word is used, pragmatically it actually means 'maybe', 'sometime in the future', 'perhaps'. Spain and Greece, like most of Mediterranean Europe do however stick rigidly to the afternoon 'siesta'. Thus, rather than attempt to find a hotel with a reception open in the middle of the afternoon we decided to stop for a drink and catch up with some postcard writing. Also we needed to have a serious discussion for we had completed our trip around the Mani in record time. We were both despondent at not having found anywhere with even a possibility. We still had 10 days of our house hunting trip to go and so we needed to revise our strategy.
We had considered our needs quite carefully and set out certain criteria for our property-to-be. It had to be in sight of the sea, but not necessarily close to it. It needed to be in a quiet area, on the outskirts of a village, set apart from other houses but not isolated. We prefered an old traditional property and were quite happy to find one that needed some, but not complete restoration. We wanted some garden but not too much; just space to sit outside in the shade and to grow a few herbs. The area needed to be on mainland Greece, reasonably near a main town with larger shops, health care and public facilities and within 100 - 150 miles road transport reach to Athens airport. For certain the property should have accessible title deeds of ownership and we would engage our own Greek solicitor to manage the purchase. We had a few no-no's for sure; no swimming pool to maintain, not on an island unless it was big enough to have good health care facilities and direct flights from London, no modern property, and no land to maintain.
As we sat overlooking the harbour at Gythion we tussled with the dilemma. Should we look at another part of Greece, Pelion perhaps? Should we revise our criteria? With great sadness we had to acknowledge that so far we had not seen anything that was available and affordable that needed any compromise, so changing our criteria would not alter where we were. We didn't want to rush over to another part of Greece and be forced, by our strong desire to achieve what we had come for, into buying somewhere that we would later regret. So, if we weren't going to continue house hunting, what were we going to do for the next 10 days?
As so often happens when two people know each other very well, a sort of telepathy exists when they both say exactly the same things at the same time, or start to think around similar concepts. Having come to an end of discussion we looked around and watched a ferry boat coming into port. We both had the same idea - where was the ferry going? It turned out that it was going to an island, called Kythera, that we had attempted to visit some 10 years previously. Then, as now, we thought we would take a ferry to the island and then some days later take a ferry from the island to Pireaus, a short trip to Athens airport and we would catch our flight home. Then as now, it turned out that the Gythion travel agent only had the local timetable and could sell tickets from Gythion to Kythera. In order to give all businesses a chance, tickets from Kythera to Githion had to be bought on the island; wherever initiated, return tickets could not be bought. And, as the man was not actually a travel agent as the sign over his shop indicated, he was actually a ticket agent and had no knowledge of any other ferry company. Whereas previously we had baulked at the trip as we only had 4 days holiday left, this time with 10 days we reasoned that the worst that could happen was that we came back to Gythion on the ferry in a week's time and then drive leisurely to Athens. Our intention was to spend two or three days in Kythera, get a ferry to Pireaus and then drive down to Sounion to spend the rest of our holiday there. With that in mind we set off for Kythera.
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