Apollonos bound

There is something slightly surreal about sitting at a seaside taverna on a small Greek island, watching the local fisherman bash a kalimari into mouth watering tenderness on a rock whilst listening to Aretha Franklin belt out R.E.S.P.E.C.T. on tinny speakers. I am in the tiny fishing village of Appolonas on the island of Naxos, approximately 100 miles from where you would be lost forever.

The road pretty much ends here. A bus of dubious mechanical health comes here once a day, after navigating hair raising switch back roads without benefit of guard rails but lavishly decorated with tiny heartbreaking roadside shrines to all who have failed to negotiate these twists and turns.

Appolonas’ main claim to fame is that this is where you can hike into the surrounding hillsides and see the giant sleeping kouros statues resting where they were abandoned by the carvers so many thousands of years ago – for reasons no one quite knows now.


But I’ve climbed the mountain paths and found the kouros many times in the past. Now I come just to drink in the mountains spilling down into the sea. And to drink a glass of wine in the country the grape was grown in while the kouros sleeps on.

Naxos sunsets

Volcano induced, ouzo enhanced

Today, the wine tasted like cherries

I’ve been in a bit of a funk this past week. Call it post-Pascha hangover, call it homesickness. Whatever. I haven’t really felt like doing much or socializing with my Naxian friends. The weather has been fine – gorgeous strong sunshine, but the winds on my north-facing aerie have been fierce and relentless the whole week. Perhaps their constant howl has added to my blue mood. I have less than three weeks before returning to Canada and about one more week here dedicated to work before I am officially in the “vacation” part of this odyssey.

So today to lift my spirits, I rented a car. A petite little orange thing that makes a Smart Car look like a bus. I suspect it is the only one on the island with an automatic transmission. There. Now you know. I can’t drive a stick – hanging my head in shame.

So once the rental formalities were observed - license, money, evidence of a heartbeat - I was good to go and I hit the open road. Map? Pfffft….. how can you get lost on an island? Just keep the sea out one window and keep turning in the same direction.

I visited my favourite parts of the island today – the golden beaches of Agios Prokopias, Agia Anna, Maragas and Plaka. Pretty much deserted of course this time of year … so I had miles of coast all to myself allowing me to commune with the sea, collect the obligatory handful of seashells, and ignore the two nutty Danes sunbathing in the nude behind an outcropping of rocks (it was 16C today, that’s why I say nutty). Drinking in the loveliness of this coast recalibrated my brain and settled my soul.

The tiny village of Agia Anna holds many tavernas, but one of my favourites is the huge Taverna Gorgona. The gorgon that owns it is genial with a dry sense of humour , bad knees, and a quirky but determined grasp of English. Her place commands the most important corner of the village, overlooking the crossroads, wharf and beach access. One can sit on her terrace, enjoy her excellent food and watch the boats bob in the marina. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Today she brought me a generous slab of her moussaka, sizzling pommes frites (made the way god intended- in olive oil) and a special treat of her crispy spanakopites and tyropites as an appetizer. Since my intention was to dwaddle the afternoon away, I ordered wine. Wine can be a dodgy prospect in Greece – some of the local barrel wine can burn the hair out of the inside of your ears, and sometimes it is ambrosia and each mouthful is a gift from Dionysius. Today, I got lucky – for the gorgon’s wine was rich and fat and tasted of cherries. Bliss.

My mood lifted, my equilibrium was restored – not from the wine but from the total package of perfection of being in the right place at the right time, as the gods ordained. Endorphins cycling high from good food, sunshine, a friendly gorgon …. and a sea as blue as forever. And wine tasting of cherries.

Naxos Beaches

More Naxos pictures

Naxos pics

The weather is sublime here this week. The whole country is in high holiday mode for Pascha - Easter. Each day is special, with special rituals and food. More on that later....

Naxos

Hello! My name is Shirley Valentine. HI SHIRLEY! Ok, my name isn’t Shirley and there is no 12-step program for people who have my particular kind of addiction. Travel is my poison, my vice, my love. Travel to Greece in particular seems to have become the drug of choice.

I’ve been indulging myself by going to Greece for over 25 years now. It started when I got a scholarship to go study archaeology there. I KNOW! How cool is THAT!?! Ever since then, I’ve been lured back – to work, to play, to explore – to live the Greek version of la dolce vita… er, I’m sure Zorba has a phrase for that, but it escapes me at the moment.

Of the 1400 or so of Greek islands, I’ve managed to visit about 50 so far. I track them in a diary, much like birders do when they spot rare purple-footed boobies. If I have to be a geek of some sort, I suppose there are worse ones to be.

In the pre-9/11 days, I’ve been known to take off to Greece with a day’s notice….. GIMME A TICKET TO ANYWHERE BUT HERE! Once there, I’ve been know to sashay down to the port and grab the first likely looking tub to the island de jour…. “This looks like a fine boat – Ooooo look, they serve ouzo for breakfast…. So where are we headed exactly?”

I swear to god, this is precisely how I found the island that has now been my spiritual home for over 20 years now. I found a ship that was leaving, settled my ratty hobo bag at my feet, pulled out my ever-present corkscrew and bottle of retsina and only after opening it and taking a long pull, inquired of the ship’s purser where the heck we were headed. “Naxos,” he said. It was a serendipitous discovery.

Naxos – the largest and greenest in the Cycladic group of islands…. a thriving bustling island with mountains, farmlands and the best beaches in Greece. Tourism is important here, but second to agriculture and the commerce of the islands. I found this place purely by accident. I honestly settled on a ferry one whimsical day and only then inquired where we were bound. I was captivated by the sail past tiny islands and by the endless azure sea. Once on the port in Naxos town I was captured by a determined granny who insisted she had the finest rooms in town. She did. And so the love affair lasting more than two decades began.