(Lesvos; photo: Tzeli Hadjidimitriou)
The
latest Chinese National Geographic
published a big article about the Petrified Forest of Lesvos. Woaw,
are we going to have a Chinese run on Lesvos now?! I’m sure that
the Chinese will also love the rest of the island. Even though Lesvos
doesn’t have dangerous walking paths, like those on the Chinese
mountain of Huashan,
it does have kilometers of old footpaths through the mountains, with
views as stunning as in China. The small donkey paths meandering
through the olive groves, the pine and chestnut forests are also a
challenge for hikers.
When
you walk from the chestnut wood above Agiasos to the Cristal mountain
in the direction of Karionas, you might just get such a Huashan
feeling, because it leads over a narrow mountain ridge with steep
slopes on both sides: one side looking over a Chinese like panorama
with capricious silhouettes of mountain ridges descending to the
sparkling sea and in the background the floating landmass of Chios.
At the other side the view is over the Bay of Gera, nibbling at the
mountains where Mytilini tries to hide and beyond the mountains is
the light blue sea, with Turkey beyond. It is a dream spot for
photographers.
However,
the petrified trees of Lesvos are not alone in getting notice in the
Chinese papers. In August the beauty of the island was spotted in
Bejing during an exhibition of the Lesvorian
photographer Tzeli
Hadjidimitriou,
the first Greek woman to have a solo exhibition in China.
Many
tourists may know Tzeli because of her books about cafenions (39
coffee houses & a barber's shop)
and the hot springs of the island (Το άγιο
νερό,
The sacred
water).
Those beautiful Greek traditional cafes, where bright neon lights
shine over treasures of faded glory, will eventually die out, because
young Greeks do not want to spend time in the interiors of their
grandparents. The same is true for the hot springs. Tzeli’s photos
catch particularly well the lightfall in these springs, all carefully
calculated long ago by Ottoman architects.
My
favourite book of Tzeli is the one about stones:
In
communion with stone,
a symphony of old stone houses, walls and enormous boulders which are
so characteristic for the Lesvorian landscape. Volcanoes long ago
distributed them profusely all over the place and the inhabitants
were very happy with this wealth: everywhere on the island, you will
spot a stone wall, used as a barrier or a support for an olive tree.
There are places so crowded with old walls that you are bewildered
and wonder how anyone found the time to build them. Coming across
‘kula's’,
old sheds or little houses, on mountain slopes is not unusual, and
you wonder how the old inhabitants managed to live there. And of
course, even in the most remote and impossible spots, like on top of
mountains or hidden in caves with difficult access, you will find
churches built with old stones. Some regions, like near Kalochori,
are studded with Stonehenge-like boulders, making you glad that you
were not there when the volcanoes spewed them out. In the area of
Plati, above Michou, you will find plenty of tower-like heaps of
stones scattered over the olive groves, as if generations of farmers
had too much free time and built them.
When you watch out over this Empire of Stones, you also ask yourself
why most tourists only come for the summer sun. Lesvos is so much
more than beaches, sea, Molyvos and Petra.
Tzeli's
work is as varied as is Lesvos. Besides her travel guides like a
Greek guide of car tours on Lesvos (Ανεχερεύνητη
Λέσβος)
and A
girl's guide to Lesbos,
her photographs catch the amazing fall of light on the apparently
never-changing landscapes. These are the colourful works that were on
exhibition in Istanbul in summer 2015 and this year travelled to
faraway China. In Bejing a new piquant detail was added: from her
series of naked women in the sea, some images were printed on very
thin and large silk clothes, hung in the space in front of sunsets,
olive trees, flamingo's and mountains, bringing alive these ‘floating
Sappho's’.
Before
the refugee deluge of last year, Lesvos (the third biggest island of
Greece) was still fairly unknown and had small tourism. Now everybody
knows of the island with the nickname ‘refugee island’. However,
the wealth of
natural treasures, the magnificent varied landscapes and the still
traditional lifestyle remain one of the best kept secrets of the
Aegean. Let's see if the Chinese – who received a taste of Lesvos
in Bejing and who can read now about what
nature has created on Lesvos
– will appreciate the island as it is.
Books of Tzeli Hadjidimitriou:
39
coffee houses & a barber shop,
Crete University Press
Το
αγιο νερο, The sacred water,
Athena 2003
In
communion with stone,
Crete University Press
Ανεχερευνητη
Λεσωοσ (travel
guide Lesvos), Road Εκδοσεισ
A
girl's guide to Lesbos,
Tzeli Hadjidimitriou
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