Five Star Greece on the road again – Paros & Antiparos

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May 22nd to 23rd

Evi and I turned up bleary-eyed at 7.00 in the morning at the port of Rafina for the hydrofoil to Paros. By 8.00 we still hadn’t left which is very unusual for the hyper-punctual hydrofoils. “The captain’s car has broken down and he is waiting for a taxi” said the second captain.
Rubbish said the Greek chorus of passengers. He was out late with his mistress and overslept and is making excuses. There was general agreement on this, so by the time the captain arrived (in his definitely not broken-down car,) he was faced with a fearsome barricade of stout and angry ladies, who shouted abuse at him as he boarded, observations about his virility, the virtue of his mother and the sufferings of his wife, till even his epaulettes drooped in complete submission.

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Rouble in Paradise? Ionian island real estate…

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What is going on in the Ionian? Corfu, Zakynthos and Kephalonia have all been pretty well discovered/exploited/developed, but below the radar, quietly quietly, keeping low profiles, large concerns and private buyers from the north are buying up big chunks of land on the smaller and less well known islands.

Lefkada, an island of stupendous beaches and wild mountains, is the new home away from home of a prominent Russian. The owner of a private island nearby would not be averse to a sale. Other large tracts of land are being snaffled up with no sound and no fuss. Ithaca real estate only comes in  100 acre parcels it seems and pretty well belongs to three people.

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Five Star Greece on the Road again

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Five Star Greece on the road…

Poor Evi has been on the road inspecting houses. I say “Poor Evi”  without a hint of irony even though that is normally the part of the job that I look forward to the most, and I had not been pleased when she said to me, “You stay and man the office and pay the bills while I go to a wonderful villa on Corfu for the weekend, and then swan around Greece in the lovely April sunshine looking at glamorous houses.”

She spent 8 hours yesterday driving in a positively scotch broth of mist, fog, rain, drizzle and road works from northern Epirus down to Athens, having seen one house that won’t be ready till next year, and another where the owner – post visit – said that he wasn’t going to rent after all and just wanted us to see the house, and tomorrow she is setting off again to drive down the Peloponnese. And it is still raining.

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Mount Athos, Hitler and some Easter musings

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Easter 2011

For those who were wondering, my Tsoureki (Easter bread) turned out just fine this year, although the ends of the braid did look a bit peculiar and the red egg in the middle of the bread for some  strange reason exploded in the oven.   I turned it (the egg)  upside down and  no-one noticed,  but thank you anyway to Mr Porfyratos of Andros for his helpful comment that I should try buying a Tsoureki as every normal person does….

More seriously, did you catch the documentary about Mount Athos on CBS 60 minutes shown on Easter Sunday? A friend of mine produced the double length feature.  He had unprecedented access to the monasteries of Simonos Petra and Vatopedi, and garnered extraordinary footage of the church services, liturgies and interviews with monks.

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Greek Easter week – reflections on an imperfect religious upbringing.

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Five Star Greece

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Easter Week or “Megali Evdomada”

Easter is the high point of the Greek year, much more important than Christmas – to my father who was of an older Greek generation, Christmas was just a day when his devout mother would try to impose yet another fast on the family and the dreaded lentils would make another appearance at table. He never got used to the idea that presents should be given, and would get horribly crabby around mid December. Easter on the other hand was  the climax of a finely orchestrated succession of fasts and festivities, and although he only went to church for weddings, (and then, only his own as a rule,) he would make an exception for Easter, suddenly ban all meat and animal products from the house on Good Friday, and cry a lot when he heard the beautiful Easter lament of Friday night and the joyous Resurrection hymn of Saturday midnight sung in Church. All very bewildering for us children suffocating at knee height between the herds of fur coats in the crush of midnight mass.

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Patmos – for connoisseurs.

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Five Star Greece recommends  the Jerusalem of the Aegean.

We thought we would feature Patmos this week as we have taken on two really lovely houses on the beach. The only places to stay until now were beautiful but not frightfully comfortable village houses.  Now we can offer you air conditioning, pools and beaches nearby;  Evi is so pleased about them that she has quite uncharacteristically volunteered to go shopping with the owner of one of them to help tweak the decor – and Evi is possibly the most talented decorator I know, so lucky owner is all I can say. And lucky guest who stays here.

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Evi’s Easter Lamb recipe

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Evi’s Greek Easter lamb recipe:

Vegetarians, small children and Temperance League, look away….

Ask your local shepherd to supply you with a whole young lamb and put it on a spit.
Choose a flowery meadow with an olive tree nearby and preferably a little pebble beach within greasy finger wiping distance.
At around 6.00 am, send your husband to build a fire with plenty of wood and start burning it down to get lots of charcoal.
Fuel up a group of pyromaniac young men with plenty of ouzo and wine to spend the next 5 hours turning the spit. Once the lamb has browned, raise the level of the spit so the lamb doesn’t burn.
Baste frequently with a thick bunch of fresh oregano dipped in an emulsion of olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper.

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