The Karpathian Hospitality 2019

You know what I mean when I start talking about having a personal space? Well, the personal space of a Northern European person compared to a Greek is pretty different. Sometimes I get reminded of this. The other day we were just about to drive away after a quick visit to the supermarket when a stranger asked me if we were on our way home. She wanted a ride and I needed about 30 seconds to realize that ‘hey, this is normal here’. In most Northern European countries you wouldn’t walk up to someone you don’t know and ask them for a ride. Unless you’re hitchhiking with your thumb up, that is. The difference here is that you actually do know each other. Perhaps we’re just not aware sometimes of how small this place is. How safe it all is over here. What a nice feeling. Safe little Karpathos.

Last week during our walk from Othos to Piles through Stes we ran into a very friendly local man. He asked us if we knew where we were heading to and said we should look for his truck in the village. A few hours later we found him by coincidence in Stes. Okay, okay, Stes has like three houses, so it wasn’t that hard to run into him, but still. He offered us warm hospitality in the shape of delicious Karpathian wine and smooth bee honey. Why? Just because he can. Hospitality is such a big characteristic of the Greeks and we get to see it here anytime, anywhere. Even the foreigners who moved to the rock have taken over this characteristic. In Pyles we went to visit Dutch friends and also over there we get to feel at home.

Some days ago we were up at Menetes, as Thom mentioned in his previous blog. Up there it is very, very quiet right now. it always seems to be a quiet village, but now we saw maybe 1 or 2 persons on the street. When walking through the tiny Menetes streets we did find the owner of a little restaurant we happen to know. She just came back from Athens and we had to come inside for coffee and cookies. ‘Next time you have to come and try our Stifado!’ she told us. Karpathian hospitality I can say – the best there is.

Of course I have to share the growth of Jax with you now. This ‘little’ boy is getting bigger and stronger by the day and weighs about 14kg now. Even his muscles start to show. Months from now he will have added 20kg more. Can you imagine? Jax took his first real dip into the sea last week and he was in from top till toe before we were! Maybe he miss-stepped a little at the plateaus of Vronti beach and so he plunged in where he wasn’t entirely prepared, but he seemed to somewhat enjoy it. He runs around after a swim as if he had 5 red bulls for lunch. Jumping up and down, rolling through the sand and shaking off the sea salt. Once we’re back at the house we need to shower him to get the white sea salt out of his oily looking black fur. If we wouldn’t, he’d almost look like a Golden Retriever.

We can’t make him hike and walk every day right now because he is so young. Slowly, slowly we take him with us to get to know the walking routes. Maybe in the summer time he will try to guide a bit too 😉

Yesterday, after waiting for a long time, we got a visit from ‘the internet people’ at our home. We have been trying to connect a landline and now we have one! The guy managed to fix it even though it was raining while he had to climb up an electricity pole in the neighbor’s garden. It’s time to get out of the digital world now and head back to nature. Hope to see you very soon!

Cheers, Renate