At Agios Minas





18 July

I woke up this morning when it got light; went back to sleep for a while, then got up when the sun came up over Ayios Minas chapel on the cliffs. I let Lisa loose and we ran through the fields of olive trees and down to the beach, and jumped in the clear blue sea. Coming back and doing a few little chores around the taverna which we call home this summer, I remembered that the figs were ripe on the tree where I usually hang the laundry, and I reached up to pull a few down and eat them for breakfast. Stamatis’ fishing boat was still in the bay. This summer’s diet is fresh fish, our homemade bread made with Cretan flour, salads made with local goats’ cheese made at the top of the valley, yoghurt with local honey made from Erika flowers.



Mid-morning I drove up to Olympos, up the winding, narrow, bumpy dirt track in the rusty Lada, then along the mountain ridge. As usual, I walked up the alley through the village and exchanged greetings and a few words with everyone – Sophia, Evgenia, Foula, etc. ‘How are you? Running again?!’ they ask. Rigopoula and Yianni say hello and ask if there’s enough water pressure for their garden down in Filios. I get the day’s gossip from Maria and Marina, sitting sewing outside their shops. Then I go and clean one of the rooms at Anemos hotel. The hotel I went to stay at for three days back in late April…  

I’m still on the island of Karpathos. I did leave, but only for a week, to go back to Tilos and collect Lisa and a few things I’d need for the summer. The house with the lemon tree in Megalo Horio is hosting other visitors for a few months. In some ways it feels strange to be away from Tilos, but this place is also beginning to feel like home. There’s a long story in it, but for now instead of writing it here, I’ll continue just living it for now, here at Anemos Sunrise on Agios Minas beach.

It’s now eight thirty in the evening and there’s a bright white almost-full moon high above a sky of pink and pale blue. A wild wind is blowing through the olive trees and the pines.

Find us on Facebook or TripAdvisor at Taverna Anemos Sunrise :-)

12 comments:

  1. Great blog. Longing to read the "long story". Pleased you're so happy. XX.

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  3. What a wildly beautiful place! And an apartment right on the beach! More and different places for Lisa to explore! And how quickly you have got to know people there. If I had my life over again, I'd definitely learn more languages, so that I could really talk properly with "the natives" ;) Not going to happen though, so I will just let your writing and photographs take me back to beautiful places and interesting lives. thank you, Jen.

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    1. Thank you! Not exactly an apartment, more of a tent next to the taverna...!

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  5. Sounds like my kind of camping! You lucky soul.
    Vicki

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  6. Absolutely gorgeous and so serene!

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  7. Absolutely gorgeous and so serene!

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  9. thanks for sharing this wonderful journey with us. I love traveling to beaches. And this is something very special to me. you are really enjoying some good time out there. Nice day!

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