kleeblatt

This is like a travel lesson! Thanks for sharing and putting all the work into it. Folegandros is on my bucket list. I went to Naxos at the end of the 80s and loved the island. There was so much to explore. Thirty plus years on, I'm sure it's changed greatly.

Judy

Awesome photos!! Worth the wait. Thanks for posting.

gruezi

what a lovely find zebec - enjoyed your report very much - especially the photos and the quiz!

zebec

Well thank you all for reading and viewing so far. Please Stay Tuned. Let's call this 'Halftime Intermission' (you're kidding, right?--editor). The next thematic sections will cover Karavostasis port, schistose slate, Anemomilos and the enduring emblem of Folegandros: Panagia Church and its famed zig zag path. As well, there are still some interesting stories from both '92 and 2014. Be sure to read about my self-appointed tour guide, 8 yr old Alex.

Judy

Hoping part two will come soon. I was wondering where Anemomilos and the church were!

zebec

Judy and her better half have also stayed at the lovely Anemomilos Hotel, named for the main Hora windmill that was once located in that same cliffside spot. Back in '92, I noticed owner-architect Dmitris Patelis and his crew living in onsite tents. The resultant hotel has peerless views onto the craggy cliffs of Cape Panagia. Genius Dmiris somehow installed a nocturnal floodlight part way down that rock face, so the awesome visuals continue day into night. Dmitris, his wife Cornelia and their lovely daughter Danae, provide top-quality service. Their staff includes an excellent bartender, Aleksander, former member of the Bulgarian Olympic soccer team. His fresh juices are stellar! Rounding out the team is the largest dog in the Cyclades.
Their picturesque pool is lovely and features a mockup version of those limonata lemon-tree enclosures as a change room.
*Stay here if you want: a romantic, easy-going place, with easy proximity to Hora plus the bus stop. Judy informs us that since our visit, Dmitris has installed outdoor whirlpool hot tubs for some units.
Fotos to follow.

progol

Love these photos - you’ve really given us a wonderful feel of the island.

shelemm

Thank you for sharing your gift with us. I feel privileged. I already knew life was good before seeing your photos, but now I will have to upgrade my assessment.

zebec

Anemomilos morn.

Anemomilos sunrise.

Anemomilos shower tiles.

Anemomilos reflection.

Anemomilos patio view.

Anemomilos same.

Anemomilos flora.

Anemomilos arch tunnel.

Anemomilos fountain dolphin motif.

Anemomilos usage of schistose on pavement at doorway entries.

Anemomilos corner.

Anemomilos lodgings.

Anemomilos style.

Anemomilos bed headboard.

Anemomilos guest engulfed in stripes.

Anemomilos pool faux-limonspitaki changeroom.

Anemomilos poolside.

Anemomilos needs-no-caption.

Anemomilos still-life wine & melon.

Anemomilos moody.

Anemomilos Pergola cafe outdoors side-room.

View from same One.

View from same Two.

Judy

More fantastic photos! I do not remember saying Demitri installed outdoor tubs…..perhaps I was thinking of another hotel. Sorry for the misunderstanding. In my view the hotel is perfect as is!

zebec

Well, a recent guest foto taken there shows at least one unit with its own private outdoors tub. Dmitris did a great job with the installation, as that aforementioned tub blends right in with the whitewashed walls and does not stand out like a sore thumb, like so many other tubs do elsewhere. Dunno, maybe its a singular item featured as an added-value thing for one specific luxe unit?
Btw, Aleksander the bartender once told us about some recent guests who posed for selfies atop the Pergola Cafe cliff wall---can you believe it?

Some updates, after having more closely read our old trip journals and perused the older fotos. I had forgotten some of the details. First, that elderly Castro woman close-up, was Mrs. Nikos, whose son runs their Nikos Taverna. They have a fine collection of rare, historical Folegandros fotos on the wall there. Also, that farm tool shown in the Ano Meria section, the machinery shown by a green door, may well have been the isle's first-ever stand-up thresher, which arrived the year prior to my visit. As for manual labor, there are fotos showing men and sometimes women, walking around an olive well while pushing the handles of a sizable stone roller-crusher, as well as other shots depicting folks crushing grapes with their feet Italian-style.

*And TJ, it turns out that the folks in that old Laoumi foto upthread, the ones whom I seemed to recall were gymnasium (high school) staff, were: Manos the Math teacher, Sofia the English teacher, plus their female Science colleague and finally, the tallest guy on the right, beside Fotis--their Phys Ed teacher. Incidentally, I have tried recently to reach Laoumi owner Dmitris, to no avail. Hope that he is OK.

Next: a few shots taken at Karavostasis port, focusing mostly on some wonderful people there who were among my minor ties to the island back in '92.

zebec

Firstly, a forgotten shot. This is Danae, daughter of the abovementioned Hora hotel Anemomilos owners Dmitris and Cornelia. Danae does an excellent job of making guests feel comfortable.

Helen Marinakis and her daughter Artemis, at their Karavostasis cafe 'Evangelos'. Although their original establishment was up in Hora, Helen and Evangelo Marinakis eventually opened this cafe by the port. It is now managed by their son Alex (back in '92, Helen was concerned that my camera would steal her soul). *see next caption

Alex had been my self-appointed tour guide back in '92, a clever, English-speaking 8 yr old to whom I owe much. If not for him, my intro to the real culture on this isle would've been far more limited. After he introduced me to his parents Helen and Evangelo, doors opened and my experience was infinitely more interesting. In the decades since, whenever folks have asked 'which was the best trip ever?', I have trotted out Folegandros on that list.

Artemis had not yet been born when I arrived in '92. Here, she holds harbormasters 'Aladdin' and 'Sonny'. My wife and I were sorry to miss both Alex and Evangelo on our fall 2014 visit. The latter was in Athens on business, while now-not-so-little Alex was In London, where he spends half the year as 'gigolo to the stars', in exclusive Mayfair.

Karavostasis port has some 'tafoni' on its eastern edge.

Where there are fish, there are...

Next: Panagia, for many the highlight of this isle.

zebec

Quotes Quotes Quotes Quotes

A dozen verbatim remarks made by local folks in '92, offered now as yet-another way to convey Folegandros culture. *note that some comments below (inc. my own) were captured on my tape-recorder during live interviews; others were translated for me.

1) "You must be SHOCKED to have come all the way for this!" (Fotis Papadopoulos to myself). Fotis was expressing sympathy that any traveler would arrive for an easy Cycladic visit, only to encounter that BIG STORM and its 'eenay krio' temperatures.

2) "When does your boat leave?" (a Hora curmudgeon asked me this through Thodoris, the 11 yr old son of social worker Anna Work and Fotis above). Read the curmudgeon's comment as, "I cannot wait til you get the fuck off our isle!" The ferry was in fact delayed. I later gifted Thodoris a cassette tape, in an effort to cheer him up after he accidentally knocked over a cafe's oversized Metaxa bottle. *Theo, if you ever read this, I was the tall, bearded, glasses-wearing Canadian teacher in his mid-thirties who befriended your parents plus those of Alex. Aka the Canadian idiot who arrived on Folegandros underdressed for the meltemi.

3) "Of course our dolphins are dying of AIDS! Whaddya' expect with all these gay tourists swimming on our beaches!" (a loud redneck in Manolis Beniepe's 'Melissa' kafenion). Manolis had named his kafenion for his teen daughter. Kafenions are 'the Greek man's living room', a masculine gathering spot for locals, all cigarette smoke, ouzo and (loud smack onto table) card-playing. A place to meet buddies en masse, when most local homes are simply too small to accommodate a crowd. They still exist throughout the Greek diaspora, in Melbourne, New York and certainly in our nearby Greektown in Toronto--I once worked in one here. One elder here tapped my shoulder with his bandaged hand, then indicated that he wanted his pal to use my camera to take a picture of the two of us together. I had to really stoop down to place my face next to his--he was Lilliputian! And he was a Jimmy Durante lookalike. *brief correction: The Italian screenwriter who had offered to buy 'O Kritikos' eatery was not infatuated with the Manolis mentioned here. Rather, the filmic fellow was obsessed with manly Cristos, the owner of 'O Kritikos'.

4) "Easter is a major event here. Gusts have blown all the chalk away by then, so each Easter there is whitewashing. Kids get new shoes too." (Evangelo Marinakis to me). Folegandros also brings out its special silver religious relic each Easter. The holy item is carried to every household throughout the week and thus, blesses families.

5) "Off-season fruit here, is rarer than prohibition booze!" (Fotis to me, after I'd naively asked for melons or tomatoes at a cafe breakfast, the waitress collapsing in laughter).

6) "Sssssssh! Zebec, PLEASE!" ('Veggerra' cafe owner Lefteris to a certain chirpy traveler). I'd misread the silence in the room then at the cafe, as diners had rushed to get closer to the TV. There'd been an earthquake on another Greek isle, an event taken seriously in this area. Diners were laser-focused and wanted to hear an update from the TV coverage, without any undue noise. Lefteris ('freedom') was another local who made my visit special. He and his wife now run the popular 'Astartis' bar in Hora. Best rebetiko music in town.

7) "What's up Doc?!" (a hidden voice from the group of kids whom I was photographing as they traipsed home after school). Imagine my shock at hearing that, here on an isle where only a handful of persons could speak English, including exactly zero of the children. Turned out to be little Alex (Smart Alec?--editor). That was how we met, after I eventually picked him out of the crowd. Pretty sure, that 'Palindrome' was the first math game that I introduced to curly-haired little Alex.

8) "Desert?" The Alexandria cafe waiter had got his English mixed up. He was asking Fotis (born there), Anna and their Brit gardener friend, whether they fancied a post-meal 'dessert' sweet. They'd just that hour returned from a week of touring throughout the Egyptian oasis Siwa, a deep Saharan voyage. So the witty Brit gardener had immediately responded to that waiter, "No thank you, We've just had enough (desert)."

9) "You can't imagine what used to happen here for gasoline. Before there was that new weekly tanker ship, it meant that we all had to drive to Athens then return with our cars all stuffed with gas-filled containers." (Dmitris Venios, owner of the isle's first cafe 'Laoumi' explaining a logistical fact to me). I imagined the nerve-wracking return ferry ride, and the crew member whom nobody had the guts to ask if he'd please stop smoking.

10) "Shameless attempt to increase sales." (Helen Marinakis to me). Her cafe radio was playing a song by a local artist who'd blatantly included the names of several Greek islands in the lyrics to his song. Btw, She and her hubbie, Evangelo, were striking sight, when they both dressed in red.

11) "Probably a gift to her grandma from some sea captain." (Fotis to me, out on the fringes of Ano Meria). Fotis was theorizing about the probable source of the 1899 music box that had moments earlier been handed to him by an elderly woman. She'd done so in hopes that his worldly skill-set included repair to antique mechanical stuff. The old relic had many original family autographs, a tile-picture front plus a backing board made from wood not found on Folegandros.

12) A real sea captain figured in the following. Sea-capped Captain Yiannis saw me freezing to death gamely hiking near his property in the harshlands of Ano Meria, took pity, then invited me in to spend some time. Shelter from the storm. His daughter-in-law Katerina, kindly served me some warm 'mizithra' cheese, a delicious treat whose taste was magnified 1,000 % given my near-frozen state. The family had just made a fresh batch of the cheese, which is sometimes used in the local dessert, melopita pie. My slice was served with a few walnut chunks. Their farm had cows and chickens. There were baskets of apples, carrots, peppers and quince in the corner. Katerina's 19 yr old, English-speaking daughter Epthalia, would months later write me the following note on the back of a foto that she'd taken of her family's rural rental property:
'Thanks very much for the photos and the pencils. We wate with your family to come again at Folegandros. With many greetings, Epthalia.'

Bonus quote
"Its like Poseidon's spear!" (me to Anna and Fotis). I was referring to the makeshift pole-with-an-attached-scoop that we three had together fashioned up at their remote second home overlooking the old Asproundas Lighthouse. After borrowing some soil from the port area (gardening research, you understand), we'd driven in their new-used VW van (cost only $400 vs license fee of over $3,000) up to their nearly-finished property. There, a valve had suddenly fallen off their shower, only to drop deep into their nearby water well. After a fruitless hour of trying to retrieve the rascal metallic part, and also reverting to a fork as the tool, we finally gave up and just enjoyed our joint makeshift picnic: retsina wine, figs, and bread. I contributed (sound of trumpets) some real-imitation fruit juice. However much we three were then crestfallen, that was a genuine Folegandros experience, out in the hinterland, winds through our hair, disappointed but happy--see below.

Bonuser Quote (Henry Miller)
"The happiest man on earth is the man with the fewest needs.
Also, I believe that if you have light, such as you have here,
all ugliness is obliterated."


Next: foodic facts

zebec

Didja' eat yet? Folegandros Foodic Facts.

Visitors eat well on Folegandros. Off-season closures take a bite out of that possibility, but during season anyway, there exists a wide variety of cafes and restaurants.
Local specialities not already mentioned above include:

-pastitsio= local lasagna.
-gylotiri=cheese aged in wine sediment
-baked chickpeas plus fava broad beans
-dristithese and manoura: a pair of 'drained' cheeses
-locals love their octopus meals; any of those creatures that might innocently linger near the surface in the port, will set off a frenzy with men coming on the run to try and capture it (once both cops came sprinting).

-Sweets include:
-traditional Greek brittle gelato
-kefalotiri, a soft goat feta similar to mizithra (mostly used as cream cheese in pastry).
-bougatsa=creamy phyllo pastry
-amygdalota=almond sweets
-ekmek=Turk-style sweet cake
-ravani cake
-portokalood=orange pie
-pasteli=sesame with honey
-karpouzenia=watermelon-honey pie with cinnamon and sesame
-given that the isle has mastic trees, one assumes that the tree's famed red-berry resin ('mastika') must be available here, either in the traditional chewing gum form or in bread (think challah, only more sweet and aromatic). Aka 'pistacia' here.
-**kalasouna recipe soon come here near end of TR

zebec

A Word game.
The Greek Language has contributed to English in a number of ways. Cross out the word that does not belong below.


Irony Omicron Dilemma Dialogue Sarcastic Algebra Chaos Geography Moderator Antique Economy Idol
Next: (sorry for delay) Panagia.

zebec

The Many Moods of Panagia ('Our Lady') Church.

This iconic emblem serves as the isle's motif and is directly above Hora. Its famed zig zag path is an easy 15 minute uphill stroll. The record for ascension belongs to a local 'groom' who sprinted up in only 8 soggy minutes, during a hot 35 degree day!

It sits atop the Cape Panagia summit.

A meloi is at the bottom.

The next two images were taken through bus windows and such, in an effort to be arty.

Art, you understand.

School sign with Panagia shown above.

Similar view from area of sports field and helicopter landing pad.

Window framed image--taken at Ampelos Hotel.

As above.

Photographers are now using drone photography. This was the closest that we could come.

From distance.

By Night.

This Greek-American visitor gave permission to have her picture taken atop the Panagia Church.

zebec

Below is the email response that we just received from the current Laoumi bar owner. I'd suspected that the original owner Dmitris was no longer involved with that establishment, and it turned out that was correct. The year that Mrs Z and I visited (2014), Laoumi was handed over to another 'Dmitris'. The latter sent me this today:
"Hi Zebec
My name is also dimitris and I am the new owner of laumi since 2014
The old dimitris is a very good friend of mine because I also come to Folegandros from the 90s
Most of the people you mention are still ok and dimitris owns a pansion named kymastophos you can contact with him
Laumi is still the best bar on the island nice to hear from you
Hope see you sometime"

zebec

Kymastophos: 'wave action'.
Btw, the Panagia ascension record was in fact, achieved by the best man, not as I indicated above, the groom. Also, that concentric square door handle above was at the dual Katherine-Phanouris church in Hora.
Below are some shots taken along, then atop, the zig zag path to the Panagia church. One ascends by first passing Giorgios church mausoleum and Ag. Anna chapel. One finds there both the mausoleum plus the 4C Hellenic retaining wall. Links with yesteryear are so much more evident here on Folegandros. Archaeologists believe that Panagia was built atop the former site of a temple to Artemis. The Palaiokastro summit (353m) looks down on Panagia, a windy eyrie if ever.

The mausoleum area at the base of the uphill zig zag path. One of the isle's ubiquitous tamarisk trees.

Ag. Anna

The lime-covered stones bordering that path.

Panagia is a larger religious edifice than most here.

View SE from its courtyard patio. Note mouse in foreground.

The belltower.

The front gate, where clever shutterbugs have shot through its circular symbol and encircled the setting sun.

Front door.

The rear section at the back. Unlike on Santorini's more small churches, here visitors are welcome to walk atop for the view. Santorini now posts warning signs plus clumps of vine, to dissuade selfie-seekers.

Detail of historic symbolism.

Mrs Z's fave shot.

My fave shot.

Can anyone translate this for us all?

Magnificent sunset view from atop. There, I met a pro photographer from the isle of Tinos, adjusting his Manfrotto tripod. He was a friendly, young man taking advantage of the waning daylight to shoot imagery for the local Tourism Board. They had hired him.

On the way back down. *Next: we're nearing the end. Time for schistose.

zebec

There is a wide variety of stone found across the isle. On the far margins of Ano Meria near Kastelli point, we once once saw a large section of what appeared to be grey marble with pink stripes. Green schistose slate however, is by far the most common. Seen here on right.

It is found everywhere, from great slab barriers, to seams, ceilings, pens, walls, enclosures, boundaries and fences. This café above is one of many that utilized the local schistose. Care was taken to neatly paint whitewash around the edges of each piece.

Schistose stairs and flagstone walkway at another café.

Here, the schistose was used widely throughout a hotel pool area.

This monopatia path used by both hikers and locals, is bordered by schistose.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge could clarify where exactly the most common schistose 'extraction-mining' areas are on Folegandros?

Mrs Z favoured this foto.

This was part of the boundary wall for the Italian-run 'Pane e Vino' seasonal restaurant.

Tasteful usage abounds, on this architect's dream isle.

For Sale sign, atop pile of......you guessed it.

Creative style using schistose with complimentary rust-colored rocks.

Geologists could best explain the preponderance of this rare rock on the isle.

A wall near a derelict meloi, long battered by incessant winds. This was beside remote St. Andrew church in Ano Meria. One can see how plaster was used to cover the dry-stone schistose arrangement.

Near the namesake Meloi restaurant.

Modern application.

Cut chunk.

More natural geology.

Time stands still in Ano Meria, like going back a century.

Next: some specific stories about our Foto delivery adventure.

Judy

Thanks for this fabulous report. Looking at your Panagia photos I was reminded of a stay at Anemomilos when we watched a motorcycle go up to the church. I was nervous watching him go up the switchbacks!