My sister Angie and George my brother in law had already planned a trip to Thassos island about two months ago. I had been invited as well to join them for a couple of days and i said 'yes' without hesitation.
Wednesday 12 of August. I was on the ferry to Thassos. Feeding seagulls can be a lot of fun. That's why kids was feeding them all the time. They swooped down to the stretched hands and grabbed the snacks. By the way, it is illegal to feed seagulls in some US states but not in Greece like money-feeding or bribery as well.So i was enjoying the feeding and taking pictures of it. It took about half an hour to get from Keramoti to Limenas, the main port of Thassos and the capital of the island.
The guys were waiting for me at the port. Their hotel was fully booked so they spend some time to found for me a room in a hotel nearby.It was a descent two bed room with A/C a shower bathroom, a sea view and it stank like an ashtray.That stinky odor came from the 'never been cleaned' made in Japan A/C. So i had to choose between stinky and sweaty nights.
I took the stinky nights and felt again like a real smoker.I dressed in my 4 years old boardshorts swimsuit, we climbed into the car and all headed to the Alykes beach at the opposite side of the island.
We saw the beach from upstairs. It was a great place with turquoise water and fine white sand about 200 meters length from side to side. We passed through a tavern to reached the seashore, we snag a free set of sunbeds and an umbrella then we were ready for a seasplash. I was about 100 meter away from the seashore, wearing my goggles and watching the sea bed. It was like a private swimming pool not with tiles but with blond sand instead. I took my head out of the water staring at the beach. Then i realized that all along the 200 meters seashore there were 7 taverns in a row. Not even a meter of empty space, just taverns. This is insane! We have to give a new name at the beach something like "The 7 taverns beach" or "Snow white beach and the 7 taverns" "The Magnificent 7 tavern beach" etc. Anyway, we choose just one to drink a beer and then we drove away up to the mountain to Theologos village, famous for its yummy goat-kid and lamb meat. The small center of the village was full of taverns. Exactly like Alykes beach but 500 meters higher and without the beach.It was the beachless version of Alykes.If i had visited only those two
places i could easily named Thassos "The tavern island". When i stopped counting taverns i realized that we were in the middle of a smoky cloud. Smoke came over every single tavern.That smell reminded me of something but i couldn't say exactly what it was.I found it out when we stepped inside the tavern. It was smoke from a burning coffee powder. They put some coffee in a dish, put it on fire and ..voila.They did that to whisk away the wasps the way we smoke bees. The place was full of smoking aluminum dishes. For every dish with food was an extra smoking dish. Smoking dishes was like "side-dishes" for everything you ordered. We took 3 main dishes and 2 salads and they brought us 5 extra smoking dishes. I double checked the Menu for that special dish with no luck. "Hope we don't have to pay for these" i thought. Firstly, in that table we were just the 3 of us. After the dishes arrived 3 dozen of wasps popped out from nowhere and took place around the meat.They started eating in the first place.They didn't even waiting for us. My sister has a DNA-wise fear of wasps so we moved into the tavern to get rid of them. Then the sweat came. Totally butt-sweated we got up, passed through the coffee smoke cloud and some flocks of wasps took the way all around the island to go to our rooms.
Day 2. To avoid wasps we decided not to eat when the sun is up. Wasps never do night flights.
So, we found a nice beach to relaxed. Paradise beach. East side. Perfect sea, perfect sand, perfect sea bed, too many kids dammit.So we started playing frisbee. We hit a couple of persons around. When parents saw that we were playing deadly frisbee one after the other removed their children from us.A-ha...We defined our triangle territory. Later my sister split...then we stopped playing...then kids came back.
We stopped at Potos to drink a coffee or have a snack and see the sunset. Then we went to a fish tavern named "kleisma" .
In Greek , if you just heard the name "kleisma" without see it written it sounds like "enema" , cool huh? Besides the cool double-meaning name, the food was excellent. Still got that great taste of the calamari in my mouth.After that fantastic meal we went to Limenas just to drink a Bacardi breezer right next to the sea, gazing at the shooting stars. I saw 4 in a row, George only one, my sister none.Day 3. I got a "mpougatsa" for breakfast and a chocolate milk and then drove by to picked my sister and George up from their hotel. We just passed from a place name "Skala Maries". I used to go there 18 years ago with some very special friends eating octopus and calamaris.The place has changed a lot and i couldn't found that little tavern we used to eat at. Anyway, we went to "Rosogkremos beach, climbed on our sunbeds collecting sun-rays. Then back to Limenas for a quick shower and again back to Limenaria for lobster-pasta with my classmate Stelios and his family. We ate well, finished the meal with some 'loukoumades" (deep fried-dough-pastry with honey on top) and having great time.Then again back to Limenas to my smokey-smelling room.
We spend the next day to "Pefkospilia" (pine tree cave) till the time i took the ferry to Keramoti.
Last time i was in Thassos was 1992-93. I guess not many thing has changed since. I found Thassos much smokey and full of wasps. I couldn't found that little fish tavern in Skala Maries and that made me sad.At least tavern "kleisma" is still there offering great food. So...don't be afraid because in greek sounds like "enema" , try it out and you're gonna like it.
And remember. In Thassos , you don't have to drink coffee, you can also smoke some instead.
c.u.later
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