Iron and concrete

(The new parking place at Molyvos)

Most of the time Easter means the beginning of the summer season here on the island. This year however, Greek Easter - the same date this year as the Catholic and Anglican Easter - is so early that it will really won’t be the beginning of summer. Normally most hotels try to be open by Easter: they do the gardens, refresh the rooms and tourists are all welcome. But this year only a few hotels are ready to open for Easter. Not many Greek visitors are coming because of the financial crisis. The municipalities try hard to get their roads and amenities ready for Easter, but for them this year it’s also too early.

I have to report that the municipality of Molyvos has not been lucky in this respect, especially with the road to Eftalou which suffered so much storm damage during winter. Sometimes you will see a bulldozer or truck shuffling rocks on to the road, but that hasn’t helped much. Last week our notorious west wind started blowing again so it looks like the municipality has one of the 12 labours of Herakles to perform, because waves have again pounded the boulevard and, will, I am sure, have undone some of the repair work.

The municipality seems to be a bit luckier with their work on a new parking lot, although that won’t be ready before Easter either. The town of Molyvos is a protected area and at the foot of its hill, just behind the school there used to be a beautiful parking space, a kind of field with olive trees where everybody could park their car. I thought it functioned very well but the municipality had different ideas, so the whole area is to be covered with concrete, and they are even building a huge wall in order to make a higher field as well as a parking space. Until now they have kept the olive trees, but you have to ask yourself why are they spending so much money on a parking place in such a time of crisis?

The municipality of Lisvori has no money left to realize all their projects. And so the refurbishing of the Hot Springs has also come to a halt. The mayor however has kept to his word about parking facilities so now the huge concrete apron in front of the two hot springs is covered with tiles. But the hotel and the baths have been left as they were: the improvements to the baths are not finished because the Archeological Service stopped the work because it did not have the permits.

The municipality of Petra is also taking part in the competition to see which town can make the island uglier. The new priest of the famous Maria Glikofilousa church on the rock that towers above the little seaside village has decided to make it easier for the many pilgrims that come every year to climb its 114 steps: along the path that winds over the rocks to the church he has placed a huge and ugly fence. Maybe you might think: everybody his own taste. But Petra’s beautiful eye catching Byzantine relic hardly deserves to have the kind of fence you normally see around a building site. Come Easter the thousands of cameras that will be pointed at the rock and its church will not be capturing images of family members proudly climbing all the stairs; all that will be seen will be the fences!

But at least the priest of the Maria Glikofilousa Church will be ready to receive churchgoers on the Saturday to Sunday night when most Greeks will attend the Easter midnight mass. But the parking lot at Molyvos and the coastal road in Eftalou will not be ready and will probably be the causes of some entertaining chaos.

Every year we wonder if everything will be ready for the summer season by the middle of April. And every year again we are surprised that many Greeks succeed in fulfilling their version of those labours of Herakles. However, this year, I am sure the above named projects will not be ready.

Messy Petra

Petra is a small village in the north of the island close to Molyvos. It is situated in a plain area and built around a big monolith. On this big rock you will find the most famous building of the village: the Panagia Glikofilousa Church, which attracts thousands of pilgrims around the 15th of August, who haul themselves up the 114 steps of the stairway leading to the church in order to honor Maria.

The history of Petra is kind of dull. It is said that Homer before going to Troy anchored there to take provisions and than nothing but tragic events took place: in 1462 Petra was taken by the Turkish, in 1878 it was ransacked by the pirate Hugo de Crevelier who took as well 500 young villagers with him, in 1865 it was looted by Turkish troops and just before the village got freed from the Turkish in 1912, they set the houses on fire.

Petra did restore itself and from a little fishing town it became a nice and popular little tourist village. However, the year 2009 can be added to the years of disaster in the history of Petra. Although the worldwide crisis will help this disaster, the tourism in Petra will go down mainly due to incapable municipality people that have no vision and a lack of organization that has turned Petra into an ugly mess

I always say that Argenos (municipality of Molyvos) gets the first prize for the ugliest village of the island, mainly due to the building material business, that seems to be the visiting card of the village, having its mess right in front of the village when you pass it (these building material businesses that everywhere grow like mushrooms are a serious plague in the landscape pollution). But now it is Petra that passed Argenos on the list because Petra now looks like Hugo de Crevelier did pass again and took all the beauty with him.

Already for two winters the villagers of Petra (and everybody that visits the village to shop) are at the mercy of the street builders and other so-called specialists that have to put sewer pipes and other modern cables under the road. A winter ago they started with the main road (from Kaloni to Molyvos). Two years later and the road never recovered from this operation. Holes and puts form dangerous obstacles in the road, especially for the fast drivers and the motor riders. Do not think that somebody has drunk too much ouzo when he slaloms his car or drives at the wrong side of the road. People do this just to keep from damaging their cars too much.

This winter the works included as well the little village streets and the main road along the beach. So you could not get anywhere and even as a pedestrian you risked your life. Now the main street at the beach has been finished with a paving of nice cobblestones and that is the only thing the municipality of Petra can be proud of.

Petra is situated low, so many lands and gardens get flooded during wet seasons like this past winter. That is why many a villager thought: let’s get the debris that came free with opening the streets in order to make our land a little higher. The result is that when you pass Petra all fields that normally are full of colorful wild flowers are now filled with heaps of rubble. Welcome to Petra! Do these people really think that the tourists come to see there rubbish that not only pollutes nature but has now entered the village as well?!

Travel agents in Molyvos will not allow that their walks to pass the refuse dump above Eftalou, so the tourists cannot see it. But there is no way you can skip Petra coming to and from Molyvos and I feel a pity with the tourists that booked a room in the middle of this rubbish heap.

These rubbish heaps and very bad roads are not the only disasters that struck Petra. The tourist as well will arrive in quite an empty village. Many stores and cafes will not open again their doors because of different reasons. Two big cafes on the main square, one of the two is Cantina, has been closed down and the shop of Tsalikis has been moved to Agios Tsalikis (more about that further down), the two beach bars on the beach next to the harbor and according to the grapevine the café in the corner opposed the harbor will not open as well. Some owners thought they could get away with for years not paying the rent or their electricity bills, other ones did not have the right licenses or made too much noise.

Some Petra lovers will be very glad to hear this news. Many people who came for a quiet area were not at all amused by the loud music they had in Bay Watch. But I must admit that these trendy businesses made Petra into an attractive modern little seaside town for the young people. Now the beach is set up with the mess what was once a lively business. That now perfectly links well with the rest of Petra.

To have a good view over this messy village you can go up now to the new place of Tsalikis, built just next to the open air disco that closed it doors years ago on the road between Petra and Molyvos (and links now as well perfectly well with the rest of Petra). At night Tsalikis has that many lights that you think they built a new village. That is the reason why I call it Agios Tsalikis.

Tsalikis is known for the best cakes and pies of the island. You can see that with their prices. You pay a fortune, not only for the cakes and pies, but as well for a coffee and other consumptions. For this amount of money you can enjoy a marvelous view over the Bay of Petra and the mountainous coastline that goes west. When you bring your binoculars you can even map all the messy heaps of Petra.

High season

Other years around the Ascension of Maria, on the 15th of August, the island has often been cooled by a shower. This year it looks as if the Weather gods will let Maria go to heaven in rather higher temperatures. Although last week there seemed to have been a disagreement on this typical weather: parts of the island were very happy to get a cooling shower. Other parts like Eftalou did not get one drop, while the far part of Eftalou, near the Eftalou restaurant, the one of Manolis, enjoyed ten minutes of heavy rain!

The island really needs all this water. Last week the northern part of the island, Molyvos, Petra and Anaxos, had serious water problems. This resulted in tourists fleeing their hotels and some even left the island. Only after some hotel managers complained to the island's government, the army was send out to transport water from springs to hotels and a day later there was running water again in the bathrooms of Molyvos. Only Anaxos, whose water problems were different, is still said to have some problems.

Well, these days there are enough angry tourists. They complain about all kind of things. They get bored, there are not enough glasses in their room, their toilet is not well enough cleaned, they think the salad is not properly washed. Tourists seem to not realize that they have travelled to a Greek island, where it is Greek High Season and everybody is worn out, because it is so busy and so terribly hot.

Let me give you one good piece of advice: Do not come to the island around the 15th of August. Unless you like to force your way in the midst of thousands of screaming Greeks shambling slowly towards the harbour. Unless you want to enjoy a noisy Greek family which seats itself just next to your towel on the beach. Unless you like to philosophise on the waitress who takes one hour to bring you your beer. Unless you are happy to have to end your romantic dinner because a whole Greek family takes possession of the dinning hall where you are eating. Unless you like to rediscover the old bread because the fresh is now always sold out. Unless you embrace some stress being on the road because so many Greeks seem to have never learned their highway code.

And when you want to make complaints about all of this, do not go to your tour leader! They arealready up to their eyeballs in the problems their bosses cause: overbooking, flight delays, bankruptcy. Realize that the hotels do everything to make your stay as comfortable as they can, but sometimes they have such little money that they are also facing a mountain of problems.

For example. Did you know that a lot of hotels who last year had guests from the Dutch tour operator Belair never got paid, because that company went bankrupt? And for sure you know that most of the hotels on Lesvos are family affairs. So that whe such a travel company does not pay it brings them huge financial problems. Last week the same happened to a Scandinavian tour operator. It went bankrupt but still had some guests on the island who were scheduled to go home with the last flight. Well, people on Lesvos learnt their lesson from Belair. The Greek travel agent told the hotels to hold onto the passports of their Scandinavian customers until all hotels and tour leaders were paid. And it worked. Everybody got paid and the guests could go home without any delay. It is said that on Crete they were not that smart and they will probably face other debts.

Tonight and tomorrow the Greeks on Lesvos will all visit a Church of Maria. Especially the churches in Mandamados, Agiassos and Petra. Some will make it a pilgrimage: crawling on hands and knees, some on foot and others by car. On the sea delayed ferries will race to their destinations and in the blue sky planes hurry to transport other Greeks to their holiday islands.

Tomorrow it is Ascension Day of Maria. At noon the Greeks will celebrate the day with an extended lunch, after which they will lie down for their well deserved siesta. Then their vacation will be over, they will pack their belongings and leave. But such a mass cannot leave the island on one day. So slowly, slowly the island will become itself again, being friendly to the guests and the people working at the restaurants will even remember how to smile. But do not be amazed, if on a deserted beach, you see a big Greek family approaching and of all the places to sit down, they will put their umbrella right next to your towel. I have yet to have anybody explain to me this Greek sociable behaviour, which also means that Greek people like to make busy restaurants even busier and will never sit down in an empty restaurant. Somewhere there must be an island that is so quiet that no Greek will ever put a foot on its soil. I am wondering where that can be...

Copyright © Smitaki 2006