Day 5: Chios
By JoeBruin88. Filed in Travels |Tags: Food, Greece, Travels
Café: I didn’t sleep very well, probably because I had taken a 5-hour nap earlier in the day. But after a couple of cups of Greek coffee, I felt fine. We left for the day’s sightseeing events by 9:30 AM.
Parelia Beach: First stop was the beach front property of Papu. We heard an interesting story regarding that property from Uncle Chris and Aunt Voula, which I will reserve for a private entry. Josephine’s Uncle Andy owns the house now, but it is not maintained very well. Unfortunately, it looks very run down with tall weeds growing all around the house. One interesting thing that we saw was a poisonous plant called: We avoided touching any part of that plant. Notice the warning colors on the leaves.
Black balls: That’s the literal translation for Mavro Volia, the beach near the village of Emborios. The beachfront was formed naturally by a volcanic eruption. The resulting black lava rocks were softened over time by the crashing waves onto the shore, hence the name. Up close and dry, the stones don’t look black at all, but rather like a dark grey. However, when wet, the stones look very dark black. And from a distance the entire beach head looks black. Aunt Voula secured two black stones for us even though it is prohibited from taking them from the beach.
Etched in Stone: Our next stop was to the village of Pyrgi. This village contained houses made of stone; however, the unique thing about them is that the stones had decorative markings on them that were hand-etched. The designs are both intricate and amazing. It’s mind-boggling to think that an “artist” would take the time to etch in these complicated designs into a stone building by hand. Take a look at some of my amazing pictures.
The city’s homes seem to be all interconnected. Together they comprise a fortified “castle” of stone. Interspersed between the homes are these “towers,” which are now part of homes, but once were watchtowers. The towers have holes in the stone walls through which the ancient peoples would place their guns to defend against attackers and pirates.
Yaya in Black: One of my favorite shots of the day was a picture of an old yaya dressed in black. I asked Aunt Voula to ask her if I could take her pictures. What I like about the picture is not only the great shot that it ended up being, but that it also encapsulates much of the very traditional Greek culture. The woman dresses in black because she is a widow. She wears black for the rest of her life, a sign of love, devotion, and loyalty to her husband, but also a sign of history, culture, and tradition.
Pyrgi Favs: Here is a short collection of some of my other favorite shots.
Old Friends: While we were there, we ran into a friend of Uncle Chris, who also is friends with Andonis and Kiki from Lithi. The story goes that they are very wealthy from their mastika tree business. The guy owns 3,00 trees and harvests from only 1,000 trees each year, rotating the crop of trees from which he extracts the hard resin/sap, which is a very profitable business in Greece even today.
While visiting with this family inside their house, we learned that they have a daughter who lives in New York. They have upgraded their kitchen with very modern and expensive appliances and other remodeled features.
I got to eat some homemade Greek candy called Liko, which was made out of soured oranges in this particular case.
The other daughter has fraternal twins, which as you may know is a genetic trend in Josephine’s family on both sides. Like typical young twins, the boy (use hyperlink) and the girl (use hyperlink) both enjoyed playing and fighting together.
Ocean Blue: In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Our next stop was the village of Mesta, which had houses made of bricks and stones. Again the houses were interconnected to make a fortified “castle” to protect its inhabitants from attackers and pirates. It is said that Columbus “stopped” here for two years on his voyages to repair his ships. He used the resin/sap from the mastika trees to repair the leaks caused by cracking dried wood. The streets of the village are lined with cobblestone.
Priceless: We found an outdoor restaurant in Mesta that accepted credit cards, so we treated Uncle Chris and Aunt Voula to lunch. It was very good as to be expected. We had Greek salad, fried eggplant with ground beef, sausage with cumin, beef with orzo topped with melted cheese, stuffed tomatoes, bread with Greek yogurt, and sweet red wine.
Oxenos: One of the old yayas in Mesta was talking with us. She said Josephine looked Greek, but that I looked “Oxenos,” which means “not Greek.” She didn’t mean for the word to be offensive, but it has kind of a funny and somewhat negative connotation for me since it was used that way in the comedy hit movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The old yaya, said to me in Greek: “When your feet land in our country, you are one of us.” There is nothing like the hospitality of traditional Greeks.
