Mini Spring

Yes, you can forget the winter. It is spring on the island! The temperatures rose to at least 15°C! Now not only all inhabitants come out of the shadows, also all birds and flowers behave as at their Sundays best.

Now you drink your coffee outside and in a spot out of the wind you take your lunch. Everybody seems busy with cleaning and building. The fields are cleared of the olive nets, the olive presses will be closed in a little time, fields are ploughed and everybody is in a spring mood.

Walking though the fields you see many pink, purple and white anemones, we even found the first red one. The black grapes, dark blue on the underside, bright blue on the top have joined the party. Almond trees start being like a sweet scented pink cloud. Marigolds and marsh marigolds are colouring the grounds under the olive trees.

At some spots you will find wild scented daffodils. I know a place where there are plenty of them but no way will I explain where that is. I have learned my lesson, it is just the same as with the mushrooms or the white lilies. When you find a spot full of them and you think they are still too small or not flowering yet, there's a big chance that when you come back after a few days they will all be gone. Especially about the disappearance of the white lilies I can get very angry. For weeks you pass the plants with the growing buds and you are looking forward to their magical scent and beautiful flowers. On the day you think you can pick the first ones with opened flowers, you will find them all gone, even the ones which are not yet flowering. And now I speak about arms full of flowers and probably about somebody who sells them to the shops. So no way will I tell you my places.

It seems the real flower collectors do the same. The spots where the real special flowers are growing - and there seem to be many a rare flower on this island - are seldom or not communicated. Somebody even told me this week that there are people who are selling these rare flowers for a lot of money. So can you imagine, when there finally is a spring, but there are no more flowers...

For the moment there are still enough flowers, they are difficult not be seen. Although... When you walk and fix the ground - which can be difficult when there are superb views or on the unpaved roads you better keep an eye on the ground if you do not want to finish with your nose in the earth - you can discover the mini-flowers. These look like very small versions of a dandelion, a marigold, a daisy, or a red campion. It is not that they are ugly but they are pretty mini. And it is not that they are bonsai-versions of the above named flowers, they all have their own names and botanic families. The most beautiful is the mini-crocus (Romulea Linaresii) that you can find in some places. A very small version of the common crocus which looks pretty forwardly into the world. They are really too small to pick and make a bunch of them, but whenever you are used to those looks on the ground, you will discover a marvellous mini-world.

So hurrah for the spring. But the winter with its cold also had advantages: no insects. You did not have to look for an earwig in the bread, the nights were mosquito-free and taking a bite into an apple did not make you bump into an angry wasp.

With the rise of temperatures and the happy choruses of the birds you will hear the first zoomm sounds of the bees, there are already some colourfull butterflies in the air and you see sleepy spiders coming out of their holes. The mosquitos are back again to make your life difficult and I even had my first collision with a wasp. It is like winter never happened.

When nature starts awakening, you will remember why you had to tie the knot so hard in the bag with the bread, why you had to close so well the jar with sugar, why you do not open your window without it being protected by a screen, why you hammered on your shoe before putting it on. So help, the insects are coming again! The winter quietness is over.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

The Molyvos Way

As soon as the tourists turn their backs on Molyvos at the end of the season, the roads are dug up. New wires have to be put in, the drain pipes renewed and God knows what else, maybe they will straighten out the street.

If there had been a secret camera, you could have enjoyed the soap. This winter it was the turn of the Harbour Street. In the morning at some points they open up the street with rusty bulldozers, stones and sand carefully laid out on the street and wires and pipes could see the blue sky. First they started with the telephone cables. The electronic world is evolving and also Molyvos has to get ADSL. At the end of the day the gullies are closed again because the harbour must stay open and lorries with fish have to be able to go and come to and from Mytilini. The next day they will reopen the gullies to close them again at night. Etcetera.

When the pavement has regained its old shabby look, you think, so, that is done. But no, after they did the telephone cables, the drain pipes need to be looked at. So the gullies are re-opened, deep holes are dug out to be closed at night and this ritual will endlessly repeat itself. Then we are nearly through the winter when the sewing is done and you think everything is over. But no, we also have an electricity company which needs to put in some new lines as well. And so during the whole winter the street is like a way for an obstacle race and a major subject for sour looking people.

You know the Greeks. They do everything to push through with their bikes or cars. Well, this winter even in Molyvos they did not manage to get through. Especially the narrow part of the street where is the Internet café and the Brasserie where the street takes a steep turn to the harbour, this part was no way for all motorized traffic. Mostly there was a deep hole where wires and pipes laughed at you. It is a real wonder that nobody got hurt falling from the high step of the Internet café into that dangerous hole.

Also a pedestrian had to work out some Olympic moves in order to reach the harbour. When you wanted to buy an airplane ticket at Com.Travel, at the least you had to creep through the sewer. And this was not the only concern for this company. People doing the sewer only respected their pipes and seeing a wire, what the heck, oops, small accident, sorry, the line is broken. This left computers cut off for days from the world and their owners left desperate. You understand that after a week it was the turn of the telephone company to reopen the gullies in order to repair their lines.

I do not know who is doing what at the moment, but it seems that an enormous amount of pipes and wires are getting repaired. The cold winter - January was the coldest for 100 years - did not do much good either. But if finally the new season is in view everybody is heated up: will the street definitely be finished before the first charter plane hits the island? Pessimists say that it will not be before August, the time that the Greek tourists arrive.

These meticulous side-by-side planned works are notorious for Molyvos. But there is hope. I just heard from a planner what I do hope will be worked out in time. You'd better dive underneath a bulldozer and climb over a pipe instead of going all the way up through Molyvos in order to reach the harbour. Also you do not want to go through Argenos, Sykaminia, Clio, Kapi, Pelopi, Ypsilometopo, Stipsi in order to reach Petra.

A lot of walkers last summer were irritated by the works on the idyllic sandy road that starts halfway up the Vafios - Molyvos road and ends in Petra. They started to make the road larger and ready for asphalt and many people got angry about this silly asphalt hype. Now it seems that the Molyvos - Petra road is falling down together with the mountain, just above Petra harbour where last year big rocks rolled down and blocked the road. You cannot stop a mountain from falling, so there is nothing to do. They give the road along the coast another 10 years and then there has to be an alternative that buses and lorries can rumble over. That will be that nice walking road from Molyvos to Petra.

So before you call names again at the innocent workers or at the mayor, you must know that they do what they can on the island. But it is the system or the laws that make that everything is not worked out that easily. It's the same system that does not enable the government of the island to require in which municipality the new power station has to be built, or the new central installation for the refuse dump. This discussion between the government and the municipalities has gone on for years already and will probably go on for another few years, even though power cuts are again daily business, as well as once in a while we are being smoked out and poisoned by the smoke and stink of the local garbage dump. Well, nothing is perfect in paradise...

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

Hüzün

After a few days of beautiful spring weather again there are some bitter cold days with snow nearly up to Molyvos and the famous gale blowing from the North East. Even though the whole of Greece is upside down because of the eavesdropping scandal through mobile telephones, the Greek news still has plenty of time for the new heavy snowfall in the north and the middle of the country. They will not forget to show as well pictures of their neighbouring country Turkey which mostly gets even worse weather. This time they showed Istanbul where heavy snowfall made daily life kind of risky.

Whoever read the book 'Istanbul' by Orhan Pamuk, and especially took a good look in the book, knows that snow in Istanbul is not hot news. Besides the story of Pamuks beloved home and living town, there are plenty of black and white pictures in the book and many of them show that snow in Istanbul is a regular plague.

In 'Istanbul' Orhan Pamuk describes his young years, but the story is more an ode to a city that according to him is generating. Once it was a powerful capital of the Ottoman Empire with a lot of luxurious villas and other great buildings. When Kemal Atatürk founded the Turkish state in 1923 a lot of foreigners, amongst them mostly Greek and Armenian people, were murdered and chased out of the country. The Turks had to start without these big trades people. They got a new alphabet and they tried to be as western a state as possible.

Orhan Pamuk was born in 1952 and was raised in a city where the once so gorgeous villas were left for western apartment blocks and the big country houses and palaces along the Bosporus got burned in fires that regularly broke out. The authentic wooden houses in many parts of the city also burned down or just collapsed. Then there started a furious growth of building, which meant that Istanbul grew at a very fast pace, along, between, at cost of and next to great old fortifications and whatever there was left of the mighty past. Reading 'Istanbul' from Orhan Pamuk you get homesick for this beautiful Istanbul without even having been there.

You will never have this kind of feeling about Lesvos, although this island has its own story of generating buildings. No hüzün, as Pamuk calls this longing for the past, although the buildings are collapsing in front of your nose. The old Hot Springs Hotel with the great Turkish arches at Thermi near Mytilini does not remind you exactly of a great time in the past. Nor the Hotel Arion that is slowly collapsing along the road to Molyvos gets you the feeling of hüzün for the good old eighties. It more makes you angry at a municipality that cannot deal with its buildings or building ground.

You do not get hüzün from reading the books from the well known Lesvian writer Stratis Myrivilis. Books like 'The Mermaid Madonna' and 'The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes' which are set on this island. The first book is about Skala Sykaminia where around 1920 big groups of Greek people who were chased out of Turkey had to be housed and integrated into the Lesvian life. The second book is set in the same time and is about a soldier who has to tell the widow of his mate that he was killed. These were hard times for the island, whose inhabitants only got back their Greek passports in 1912.

There is no Hüzün in the impressive book 'Birds Without Wings' by Louis de Bernières, who describes the chasing of all Greek inhabitants from a small village in Anatolia, Turkey. Though thanks to this thrilling story you somewhat get a view about what the earlier life in the Ottoman Empire looked like. Greek, Armenian and Muslim people were all living together without big problems. The expressive 'La masseria delle allodole' (the house with the larks) from Antonia Arslan is about the same drama, although this is written from an Armenian view. The enchanting 'Middlesex' of the American writer Jeffrey Euginides starts at the genocides and tells the story of a Greek brother and sister who escaped the slaughter at Smyrna (nowadays Izmir) and emigrated as man and wife to Detroit in America. You can find a little bit of hüzün in the nearly magic realistic book 'The Maze' by the Greek writer Panis Karnezis, although this might be more homesickness. After the war a Greek army gets lost in the hills of Anatolia and finally arrives at a remote village where the war never seems to have happened.

You do not get hüzün from a war. But you get a warm feeling reading the story of 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' by Louis de Bernières. Although there is the Second World War as the background, a love story that makes you nearly cry takes the better part of the book. We find that same war as the background of the book 'In the shape of a Boar' from Lawrence Norfolk. Here it is a terrific plot of old and new Greek myths that makes the book so thrilling. Another unforgettable book where no war is but where poverty rules all life is the family story of 'Kai me ton fos ton likon epanerxontai' (On the hour of the Wolf they return) from Zyranna Zateli. This story gives a view of the earlier life in Greece, a time that especially in the country and on the islands is not very far away.

There are too many books about Alexander the Great or Greek mythology. Especially entertaining is the book 'The Songs for the Kings' from the English writer Barry Unsworth who gives new life to the myths around the war of Troy. He writes memorable scenes like the one about the big and small Ajax who try to raise a kind of Olympic Games when their army is stranded because the Gods of the Wind do not want to help them get to Troy.

So you see, we do a lot of reading in times when we have power cuts and are chased to the open fire or when the sun shines that abundantly that we have to go and sit in the sun with a book. Winter on Lesvos is never dull and I do hope that with all those names of books which touch the Greek life I managed to give you a little bit of hüzün.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

Weather permitting

After a little week of heavy frost, ice and snow the sun is out again as if nothing happened on the island. Silent witnesses are however the white capped tops of the mountains and the lower slopes which do everything to hide their snow and ice from the sun. How much nature is damaged from this cold we cannot say this soon. We managed very well, unless the car which got a little frozen and we were a little bit cold. That was all. Friends from Agia Paraskevi who have the Wildlife Hospital of Lesvos had some more problems with the heavy weather. So I present you the report, somewhat shortened, from Joris Peeters who always has black humour to describe the dramas on the island. For the entire report or in case you want to know more about them, you can look at the website: http://www.wildlifeonlesvos.org

Looking for a warm place in the Aegean Sea?

23 January: The roofing material on the room for the sick-bay is rattling like hell in the wind, the same as the metal plates which are on the cages! The corrugated iron on the cage of the falcon tore off in the thundering storm and had to be fastened again in order to prevent worse. It was an ice cold and risky job! According to the weather reports they expect snow in the afternoon on the island... We are prepared and did some shopping this morning. We as well as the animals have a supply for one week! At 15.15 the first (small) snowflakes came blowing down: the wind is that cold that we can barely reach 16°C in the living room, even with the central heater full open. The wind is that strong that the sparrows (while they were eating some seeds on the street) were picked up and smashed against the fence! In the Neighbour House we had to close the last shutter that was still a little open (near the cage of the tiny Scop's Owl). The wind was tearing that hard that it nearly managed to take out the whole window-frame! The gale will be of a force of 9-10 Beaufort!

24 January: Half of the night we did not sleep because of the rattling of a shutter that ran loose. More than one time out of bed to control everything: nothing to be found. At 5.15 in the morning we found out it was the last shut shutter at the Neighbour House. It was completely torn apart. We have to repair that by daylight. After breakfast we started to try to get the living room somewhat more friendlier for us as for the animals. That meant that we had to look for narrow openings and close them. For this we had to remove an entire skirting- board where behind we found a complete 'zoo-like' concentration of mouse-nests. We saw as well the daylight right through the door! It did some pain, because of my back, but the first job on it resulted in a raise of temperature from 14 to 16°C. At 11.15 it started again to snow. During the siesta we received a phone call from Mytilini about a pigeon which had a damaged wing. Considering the weather conditions (The 'Table Mountain' had become invisible thanks to the snow storm and the white stuff does stay!) we delayed the eventual delivery until tomorrow.

25 January: Yesterday night we were 1 hour without electricity (which means no heating!) This morning we woke up in a white world and that was not only outside! The snowstorm managed to crawl everywhere underneath. The central heater was on during the whole night (as well as a prevention against the freezing of the water pipes) but never mind, it still was only 17°C this morning! When we tried to get in the Neighbour House, we were confronted with a big heap of snow piled up from the inside against the door! We really have to try to prevent that happening again today. Anyhow, no entry anymore through this door upstairs! The owner of the pigeon is going to try to bring the pigeon herself...! Well, she managed until the first turning going to our village. There she glided off the road. So we had to ask somebody with a 4 x 4 for help, for getting the bird as well as the car out of the ditch. The roads in the village were in that bad condition that the 4 x 4 did not manage to reach us. So the pigeon was walked to our home. Two hours after we cleaned away the snow in the Neighbour House we could do it again! But now we hammered a plank down against the door. Maybe that will help! The water pipes in the Neighbour House are frozen. After there was some sun in the afternoon around 4 o'clock our street was like the Thialf Hall in Heerenveen (a famous skating rink in Holland). It only had one way: off the slope!

Later on we discovered that it was due to a broken water pipe at the end (upstairs) of the street. We did try to contact the owner, but this good man was said to be critically wounded in the hospital, because some days ago he was in a fight in the village about a piece of land and he got shot, as well as his son who did not survive! Because there are still sheep on his piece of land we tried to organize some help. Which was difficult because all people had other things on their mind in these days.

26 January: The street is still like a skating rink. Only very carefully one can try to descend. Let's hope that neither we nor other people have to go out! Our fight for better conditions in our living room did result in a raise to 19°C! We found the wounded pigeon dead when we wanted to feed him (07.00). At the same time it started snowing again and then the street became even more dangerous! In the Neighbour House the water for the Scop's Owl was that deeply frozen that it could not even be broken by hand! The snow is lying as far as into his cage!

At 10.50 we received a phone call from Skala Kaloni about a wounded duck. The finder had snow chains, so he would try to drive as close as possible. At 11.40 the Teal was brought in. By feet because even with snow chains you could not reach our house. Even though that it seems to thaw. Thanks to that and to the replacing of 4 meters of skirting- board the temperature reached 20°C in the living. So... coats out. After the siesta we found the water pipes in the Neighbour House broken. Not too much damage was done.

27 January: The street is still the same skating rink. Even the dogs cannot keep their legs straight. The Teal was in a very poor condition and died in our hands. After we cleaned the cages we tried to remove the ice by pickaxe. The outlet pipe of the sick-bay was like a beautiful ice pillar. At 09.00 we got a phone call from Larsos about an Eagle Owl in a bad condition. The man wanted to bring it himself. At 9.30 he was down at our street. Together we climbed back to our house by feet, which took us 8 minutes! It turned out to be a White Barn Owl who was really pretty ill (it did not eat for at least 2 days) We were again 1 hour without electricity (and without heating) as well as the water pressure fell down, but we did manage to replace another skirting-board. At 12.50 the two of us managed to get our street ice free, also we closed down three water-pipes, which was not done by the municipality even though the whole street had begged for it. Then we controlled the White Barn Owl, but he had died. During the siesta we got a phone call from Petra about a wounded predatory bird that was difficult to catch. Because we were pretty damaged by falling and ice hacking we agreed to be contacted the following day. We did not want to go out anymore this day. A little after 16.30 the fisherman Nikos was again at our house with a big box (yesterday he brought the Teal). He brought another duck and this time it was a Shelduck, a duck we never had before. Nikos was pretty disappointed that the Teal did not make it (so were we!).

28 January: Even though it froze last night the street was clean of ice! 13.10 a telephone call from Petra: the bird was spotted. So I did not eat and left immediately. At 13.30 I was at the meeting point. In the middle of a field there was a hawk and it was clear that he had flying problems. But it was still healthy enough to flee to a tree in the midst of bramble bushes. There were metres of bramble bushes around that tree. Go and try to fetch the bird! For a little moment I had to think of Moses, but that did not help. These bushes did not burn! So finally the one who spotted the bird took a road sign to make the bird 'use' his wings. What followed then was a crazy run over fences, underneath fences and straight through the bushes. We finally caught the bird on a shed. I'm getting too old to do this 'field-work'. It took another 5 minutes to reach the road and the car. Driving home there was a tanker lorry upside down at the road and no way of passing this obstacle. So I had to drive backwards over the slippery road, gliding through the snow until I reached a point where I could turn. Then to Stipsi and the other villages where there was still plenty of snow on the roads. A fancy drive it was! I finally reached home at 15.10.

29 January: We managed to feed the Hawk (a pretty quiet bird for his kind!) and got him 30 gram heavier than yesterday. At 08.00 the boiler gave up. Fortunately the heater still works. Later in the morning we met a plumber from the municipality who worked out the problem, charging only 15 euros!

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

The Big Frost Kais

They say that the Dutch always talk about the weather. But look at the Greeks! While the Siberian winter sneaks into Europe from the East the Dutch News only continues to squabble over the failing politics while the Greek News cannot get enough of all the snowy images of the cold and the big snow that is drifting into the country. Although Greece is not as badly off as countries like Russia, Germany, Romania or Poland, the bitter cold and snowstorms are the talk of the day.

It is already a week that they are preparing us for the cold. A few days ago the website www.wunderground.com, which I think is one of the more reliable weather forecasts on the net, predicted -11°C for Lesvos. Which is pretty scary. I come from a cold land in the North, but for an island that is full of nature that can handle only a few bites of frost, that prediction might be pretty bad.

In the 19th century Lesvos was hit by three big catastrophes: in 1836 the island got hit by the plague and 25.000 people died. In 1867 there was a severe earthquake that badly damaged the life on the island. The third disaster was the Big Frost (Kais) that hit the island on the 12th of January in 1850 and caused a real disaster.

According to the writer Prodromos Anagnostou in his booklet 'Froso's Little Violets' a bitter cold set in on the eve of the 11th of January. The next day the people went as usual working on their fields. Suddenly the sky became pitch black and threatening. The people, although it was too early, went home feeling a disaster coming. As did the animals like goats, sheep and donkeys who were out on the fields. They foresaw the deep drop of the temperature and all went into the villages, stopping in front of the doors, begging to be let in.

Until then it had been a beautiful winter with mild temperatures and a lot of sun. The nature was ready to embrace the spring. The first almond blossoms merrily rocked themselves in the sun, the trees were full of juice for the buds and the new fruit. At midday the sea started smoking, two hours later the temperature fell to - 13-15°C! The ground hurled the new sawn grain and there could be heard a terrible noise: the barks of the trees were tearing open...

The cold destroyed all olive trees, all fruit trees and many other crops. A lot of animals died. After this there was famine on the island and no more work on the fields. A lot of people left the island searching for a new life. They left for Egypt, Smyrna (Izmir) and Constantinople (nowadays Istanbul). They built whole new villages in Anatolia.

It is difficult to imagine how Lesvos looked after this Big Cold. Barren trees, no flowers, no blossoms, no green... Nowadays we have the internet to prepare us for such big colds.

And they seem to enjoy doing that. The terrible cold from Russia that was ready to capture Europe got huge dimensions, as well as for Greece. The day after they predicted a -11°C, they somewhat raised the temperatures: it would be more days in a row -8°C, which is also pretty bad for the island. Finally they postponed the cold and raiseded some more the temperatures. Lucky us, because we really do not want to flee from this island after such a Big Frost...

Today the Siberian cold reached the island. A North eastern gale makes the temperature feel far below zero. The real temperature now, Tuesday morning the 24st of January, will be around zero. But you never know. Two years ago we also had a crazy drop in temperatures: in one hour the temperature of 10°C dropped to 10°C below zero, causing the death of several trees and other crops. The majestic eucalyptus trees are still recovering. Now the mountains slowly become white and the first showers of snow, caused by a mercilessness snowstorm, race over the fields. Is Lesvos going to survive this Russian Cold?

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

On our way to Africa!

O, island of Sappho, how cold it was last week! A stormy north- eastern wind seven days long battered our house and when at night you glided between the bitter cold drapes into your bed the wind kept on thundering around the house. Too cold to read at night in bed, but I slept as best I could in that crazy wind.

Also it was boring weather. No sensational rainfall, there didn't even fall one drop, the wind was not strong enough to cause severe damage, the sun did not put on magical sunsets because it mostly was hidden behind thick formations of clouds and the temperatures played around the 1 and 3 °C. The anemones kept closed their flowers and the almond trees forbade their blossoms to open.

And the Greeks? Well, you did not see them nor hear them. Most of them thought it to be too cold to pick olives, although the amount of sacks at the Olive Press kept on being even, so there must have been people harvesting. Maybe they needed the money or they wanted to finish if off. There are so many olives this year that the end of the harvest is still a long way to go.

We did not even feel the earthquake on Sunday afternoon the 8th of January that woke up the whole of Greece out of their hibernal sleep. It was good that we did not get afraid, because quite a few people did run from their lunch table in order to flee outside in safety. But it was mainly on the small island of Kithera, some 200 km from Athens, that there was some severe damage. They say that we really got lucky because this earthquake, which was 6.9 on the Richter scale, was that deep under the sea that there was only minor damage.

The week that followed people were afraid that there might be other quakes. But the earth kept still, although I heard somebody saying that in one step we got 10 cm closer to Africa. (Somebody else heard somebody else even say that this was 5 metres!) If I may believe the papers, the continental plate where Greece and Turkey reside, and whose front is in the Aegean Sea at the southwest of Greece, moves each year 1 cm closer to that of Africa, which of course will sometimes cause some friction. Well, at least I think it is a nice thought that we are moving towards a tropical continent instead of towards the North Pole.

Because it was a quake in the sea, the papers were also full of speculation about tsunamis. If you asked a Greek last summer if there could be tsunamis in Greece, he probably would have said: no. But now I read in the paper that in 1963 a huge wave six metres high came up from the Gulf of Corinth 400 metres inland and 2 people were killed and many injured. The scientists more and more agree that the once so rich Minoan culture, whose Palace of Knossos on Crete is one of its best known remains, got swept away by a tsunami which was caused by the eruption of a volcano on the neighbouring island of Santorini.

Although all danger of earthquakes was soon forgotten when the avian flu in Turkey got serious. The Greek government is getting ready for this flying disease and different from the last time now all Greeks realize that this flu can reach Greece as well. In the past days all poultry were ordered inside. Not that everybody is shutting up their birds. Today we kept on crossing chickens, turkeys and geese. Not everybody maybe was reached by the common crier, here in Eftalou I did not hear anything. Fortunately Eftalou does not participate in the electronic common crier system. Sometimes when you are in Molyvos you get scared to death by a metallic voice which suddenly asks which stupid person has parked his car in the wrong way or announces the hours for the holy masses. We will stay free of this old communication system and for some time we will not hear anymore kukeleku or the sound of the always quarrelling turkeys. It already is pretty quiet, but now this island will be even more quiet and in quietness it will continue to slowly slowly glide towards Africa.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

Dinner is ready!

Last week I wrote that I would like to see something different on the Greek table, especially during the holidays. But there are also dishes to which I'm really looking forwards. With Easter there will be the stuffed lamb. And with some luck you will find shellfish in the restaurants around the Bay of Kaloni or in the shops in Mytilini.

A sea creature that I did not eat yet is the giant mussel from the Bay of Kaloni. I still haven't traced it's real name, but I saw a huge specimen of nearly half a metre in restaurant Ellis in Anaxos. When you take a walk along the beach in Skala Kaloni, along the high water-mark line you will find many pieces of this giant mussel. There is also a smaller one, the giant pen mussel, which has a nearly transparent but wrinkly shell. Those animals living inside are already big, the one living in the giant mussel must be enough for a main course.

There is no fish shop near Eftalou, so it is always difficult to make the project of a fish meal. Officially there is a mobile fish shop (a car with fish) that will be each morning at 8.30 at the school. But each time we went there still full of sleep, there was no trace of a fishmonger.

Our latest strategy is to go at night to the brasserie in Molyvos. From there you have a good view over the harbour as well as over the little fish auction which will only open when the bigger fishing boats come ashore. And then still you cannot be sure if it opens. During storms and celebration days they remain closed and Greece has many of those festivity days. On the second day of Christmas, which is not a holiday here in Greece, big boats came into the harbour but the auction did not open it's doors. On the 6th of January it was Epiphany Christos, the day that the papas bless the sea and throw a cross into the water and can be dived up by some boys. That day I did not even try the fish auction, it is a national holiday, especially for the fishermen.

When you plan to prepare meat for a meal it will be no problem, although lamb meat is also not always available. Like in the coming time all lambs will be saved for the Easter meal. The closer Easter will come, lesser chance you will have to get lamb meat. An alternative will be a good pork leg. In December when we couldn't get a nice leg of lamb, because the lambs were still too small, we bought a leg of pig.

It took me one sleepless hour where I was thinking of how I would prepare that leg because our oven is pretty small. Then I remembered the outside oven we have on our land. You regularly see them in gardens, a small stone building close to the house with an oven or grill in it. Never in my life did I cook such good meat in such an easy way.

In the afternoon for some hours you heat up the oven with a bunch of branches. Then you wipe all wood and ash out of the oven. In the mean time you prepare the leg. You put it in a large dish, you make some cuts at the upper part, you pinch in some garlic cloves and you range big pieces of potatoes besides. You spread the meat with a mix of lemon juice, mustard and olive oil, you add some branches of thyme, oregano and rosemary, you pour some water in the dish and cover all with tinfoil and hoopla, the leg is ready to enter the oven. The door is then securely closed and the waiting starts. A whole day long. The next day you check if everything is alright and then at dinner time you take the ready meat out of the oven and for sure it will be good...

In Greece sometimes you have the problem of pieces of meat, or fishes, which are too big to enter one of your pans. I sometimes get chickens the size of a big fat turkey. Or somebody brings you a fish of half a metre. Then it is time to use the outside oven, which is very handy because you just need to do some preparations. Because of the increasing temperature inside the oven the meat will be perfectly cooked.

I wrote that the Greeks are no culinary adventurers, but for the curious eater there will be plenty of culinary adventures in Greece. Last Saturday night we went to a desolate Anaxos. The whole winter through I did not see that many people. Even though it was freezing cold the restaurant was full thanks to an evening of the local football club who brought whole families. A Greek band was playing and the atmosphere was really Greek: chaotic. Under the bright white lights and amidst running children, parents hasting to the toilet, dancing people, friends who walked around, a secretary playing the host and getting around for some money, running people who served out, smoking cooks, we got some magnificent lamb chops and excellent baked liver.

It is the first winter that Ellis has been open. Only for the weekends, but always with live music. If they can continue to serve their superb grilled meat from such a little grill place I'm sure that on Saturday nights in wintertime they will be the most crowded village of the whole island. And at least we found a new place to go.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006