The Greek Island of Kythera

I am just back from a very special week on the Greek island of Kythera. Whilst normally I like to write a blog post of my travels to serve as a guide should you visit the same place, in this case I am loathe to recommend you visit Kythera, and I am incapable of guiding you through it. This is not only because I want to keep it secret, but because I was lucky enough to have one of those experiences which comes only when you are privileged enough to have a connection with a place - the same would not be true for everyone! Y's mother, Photene, is from Kythera. Her parents had each migrated separately to Australia when young and met in Queensland, where Photene was born. Photene's parents left fields of olives, which are now owned and farmed by relatives, such as Photene's cousin Panayioti, and Photene's father contributed to the building of the church and monastery, Agia Elesa.

We stayed on the beach at Agia Pelagia. The owners of the apartments where we stayed, Pantonia, are Cosmas & Despina - they were delighted to see Photene again and insisted on bringing us fresh white figs (the season for black figs had finished) and pears from their farm. Later in the week Cosmas & Despina took Photene, Y & her sister for a visit to his farm. Panayioti and his wife Mathi brought us eggs from their farm on our first night and the next night arrived with a tray of galaktoboureko made by Mathi, which is a lemony custard wrapped in layers of syrupy pastry - she wasn't 100% happy with this batch but it was divine. We shared many meals with Panayioti (he had a sixth sense for seeking us out and appearing at whichever restaurant we were at!), and on the final day he brought us a bottle of the extra virgin olive oil from his olive trees. He doesn't sell it, he only makes it for his family's consumption.

One day we went to Agia Elesa. Mahi and Costa (aged about 85 and 97 respectively) have been the caretakers of the monastery for 60 years and Mahi is a relation of Photene from her father's side.

They welcomed us into their home and Mahi immediately began force feeding us soft, cheesy macaronia (made with Greek spaghetti, which is hollow) and chicken which had been slow cooked in tomato and olive oil - lovely! Although I couldn't understand most of the conversation (the conversation was largely in Greek, with Y as my translator), I enjoyed the lunch immensely. Mahi is quite cheeky, and there's an art (which I am yet to master) to showing full appreciation for such delicious food by eating everything, whilst avoiding having to stuff oneself with third & fourth helpings (seconds are a given). We had taken along some galaktoboureko from a patisserie for dessert (above - it was delicious but not as good as the one Mathi later made for us). Mahi had a big bowl of plums, most of which she up-ended into a plastic bag for us, along with a huge jar of her home made plum jam (she peels and then stones every plum before cooking them in sugar - no water. She assured us it would help keep us regular, or words to that effect). I grew extremely good at spotting ripe figs on trees as we raced past in the car. Stop! and we'd pull over and jump out to pull a few figs from the trees. I even spotted some pomegranates. By the end of the week our fig and pear supply was over flowing, so I dried some in the oven to take home (in a very low oven 75-100 degrees C for many hours). Most nights we ate at one of the restaurants in Agia Pelagia, preferring usually to share a selection of mezzes - deep fried anchovies, skordalia, spanakopita (spinach pie), kolokithopita (pumpkin pie), calamari, vlitas (a type of spinach, which we were only able to get at the beginning of the week as by Wednesday onwards it was mysteriously out of season/"finished"), fasoulia (green beans with olive oil & lemon), keftethes (meat balls), saganaki (fried cheese), loukanika (local pork sausages), melitzanosalata (aubergine/eggplant dip), yemistas (stuffed tomatoes or peppers), and youvetsi (slow cooked lamb in rissoni). When not indulging in mezzes we had pork or chicken souvlaki.
One day we visited the bakery at Karavas. The owner of course knew Photene and olive oil bread fresh from the oven was soon thrust into our hands. The bakery makes (and is well known for) paximathia which is a kind of biscotti but not as sweet. The first stage involves steaming the bread before it is baked to become crisp rusks - olive oil, orange, raisin - all delicious. The fresh bread we were given was actually the doughy rusks which had been steamed but not yet baked - heaven. From this bakery we bought spanakopita & tiropita (cheese pie - both below) which we devoured at a nearby cafe whilst sipping our obligatory coffee frappes. Summer in Greece is all about the frappe it seems. We usually ordered one at a cafe in the late afternoon (you choose your level of sweetness), although you can DIY at home with these Nescafe numbers. Each Sunday the island's inhabitants seem to congregate at the Potamos markets to purchase local produce and just sit and people watch. We ate beautiful spanakopita (below) from the smiling lady below (she looks so happy because we bought her entire tray of spanakopita and also a bag of her dried figs). There were jars of capers, jams, lemons and olives for sale, as well as bottles of olive oil and big bags of salt (we'd bought a bag a few days earlier from salt harvested at my favourite swimming hole, Avlemona - the last photo in the post). I feel so lucky to have had such a special experience on Kythera. If you went, I'm sure it would be as beautiful, the food as delicious, the beaches as lovely and the people as welcoming. But I can't guarantee that you (or a member of your parea) will somehow be related to the lady who runs the gift shop, the woman pumping petrol, or the man with his cigarettes & komboloi beads (worry beads) who mysteriously knows when you're eating and joins you for most meals, always with a smile. You may not have a connection to the land the olive trees are grown on, the monastery on the hill or what's left of a house in Aroniadika. It's unlikely you'll be showered with fresh figs, plums, eggs, pears, home made pastries and olive oil. For me, this trip captured the difference between simply going on holiday, and being lucky enough to be thoroughly immersed into a different culture and place.
(With many thanks to Y for her photography and assistance with spelling Greek words, and to Photene for inviting me to share such a special experience)