It's New to Me

When visitors come to town they frequent places, tavernas,beaches

that for one reason or another are not on our list of  where to stay or eat, probably because none of our friends go there or the family that runs the place isn't our family

They do things differently, experience the island in their way, not ours.  It's always interesting to visit with them and try, usually not successfully, to answer their questions.

Why does the island have so many eucalyptus trees.  Those gum trees are native to Australia, not Greece.

Well. Wolf, first of all the name is from the Greek 'kalytpo' meaning 'to cover', secondly 'I don't know why the hell they're here'!  Which is what I said at the time.  Even google didn't help.  

Obviously they love the environment.  Poros has dozens along the sides of the roads and when they're trimmed every few years there's a fight for the wood.  They are terrific for burning on a wood stove.

Another question I remember (not from this lot) was 'do you still have to put used toilet paper into a bin and not down the loo?'

Yes.  Our plumbing gets clogged up by toilet paper and it's a 'hands-on' job to clear the damn drains.  Don't do it.  Though in the big modern hotels they must have sorted their plumbing by now.

The entrance to 'Anasa' beach.  A shallow sandy beach perfect for Mums who can let their kids dig in the sand, wade through the sea.  There are no waves and no sharks and the canteen has iced coffee, beer and even a greek salad

You can order an omelette for breakfast at our favourite 'Green chairs' cafe.  Not something we would ever order.  If we want something to eat with our coffee we bring our own cheese pies or pop across to the big supermarket (which looks like a mini market to out-of-towners) and buy a sesame bread ring.  The only thing we would ever eat there would be a plate of nibbles (meze) to go with an ouzo or raki

Roof terrace at sundown.  Haven't done that for months.  Didn't go up there all summer.  Too much hassle hauling all the food and drink up the spiral staircase and then hauling it all down again at the end.  Takes a visit from family to get poor Elli and Kyriakos up there finding cushions, seeing if the fridge works (can't have warm beer and the deadly sangria definitely needs ice), sweeping up a years detritus.  It was more than worth it, magical for first timers, watching the sunset and all the activity in the harbour and the old town below

  

Niki's village

It has been many many years since I went in here.

Just luvly.  It was full of German tourists having their breakfast around the pool and to our amusement there was a group of germans learning greek from a woman who spoke to them in english.  They were doing very well

Our own Niki stayed here.  It's not far from beaches and town, there is a bike hire shop virtually next door and in the summer there are 3 tavernas just a hop and a skip away.  The sea is right there in front of the hotel, not for swimming but idyllic to sit on your balcony and watch the fishing boats putt-putting out in the early morning and evening and just watch the activity (of the germans) below

Saga Hotel

I haven't been in here for donkeys years either.  It's in  back street, very close to the beaches, town and tavernas.  The family that run it are extremely friendly, always on hand.  Breakfast around the pool under the bougainvillia, whatever you need provided with a smile

Both these hotels have not been on our list of places to recommend to visitors but they'll be top of the list now. 

This is a view of our main back-drag in the centre of town.

I haven't been down here for a while obviously because all sorts of shops seem to have opened and there is a laundry, craft shop, clothes shops, electrical shop, scrummy bakery and the fish and meat market are on one side.  Oh, there's a great taverna with local food as well.

Used to be only tourist shops and then over the economic crisis years most shops closed up.  It's full of life now.  A sign of more prosperity, at long last!  There is even a municipal lending library for tourists!  Well done Poros

So, that's just a short photo trip

Till next time