The Island of Hugh

Despite the lack of sleep we managed to do a fair amount yesterday, thanks to the excitement of a new place to explore and the powers of Nescafé. We easily found the house where we are staying, which is in Avgonima, a stunning medieval village where every single thing is stone and very few have been stuccoed. It’s beautifully preserved and it really feels like living in another century. The house is very homey and has a wood fireplace and nice views from the upstairs balcony over some of the town (see photo opposite). We had a quick lie down while the boys went exploring, looking to buy us some pastries but they soon came back and reported that they couldn’t find any. We all took a quick walk around town and went to the village square (pictured below) to a cafe/taverna that was open and had some local fried pancakes with honey and coffee.

We then headed out of town to nearby Anavatos, another medieval stone village that has been abandoned for what looks like a long time, but someone seems to have put a lot of effort into keeping the buildings standing and stabilizing the ruins (see photos on the following three pages). I’m assuming the Greek government started helping out at some point, as there is an awful

lot of stonework being maintained. The village is perched atop a steep mountain with deep valleys on all sides, to protect against piracy. It’s a very impressive place and our pictures will not come close to capturing it. There are still a few houses inhabited, which I think would be a pretty lonely existence. Even the landscape is desolate as it is very rocky and we saw evidence of fairly recent wildfires.

Next we headed south (bottom photo opposite is of scenery on our drive) to the “mastic villages” where the local specialty of mastic is produced. It’s the sap of a small tree used in all kinds of products from soap to liqueur, but the original way of enjoying it is to simply chew the dried resin. It’s quite delicious - tastes faintly piney - and we just bought some to bring home. We didn’t have time to stop at the brand spanking new mastic museum (built

with EU funding) but instead went to Emporeios, a small village on the coast that the car rental guy had recommended for a seafood lunch. The restaurant he had suggested was closed but we found one with tables in the sun overlooking the tiny harbour (photos opposite), which was great. I ate way too much food and couldn’t eat anything more for the rest of the day, especially after all the driving on twisty roads.

After lunch we hung out enjoying the sunshine on a black volcanic beach (pictured above) a few hundred metres away with large pebbles that the boys had fun skipping. They really wanted to bring some home, but we encouraged them to follow the posted signs asking people to please leave the pebbles. We saw one couple stuffing their backpack full of them. David managed to find a couple in the parking lot so he felt he was respecting at least the letter of the law!

We drove home the long way to see more of the coast, passing lots of mastic farms and some stunning scenery, but were too tired to stop and take more pictures. We got home and the kids built a fire and we let them fend for themselves for supper from what little food we had.

Today we had a fairly easy morning and the kids caught up on their diaries. Hugh and I had breakfast at the cafe in the square as we are super low on groceries and the village has no stores. Since it’s our last day in Greece, I figured I should order a Greek coffee for a change. It was pretty awful, but I think the coffee beans themselves weren’t the greatest.

We all then headed to the 11th century monastery just a few kilometres away called Nea Moni (pictured above and on following pages). It is part of a World Heritage Site (together with two other monasteries on Chios), largely because of its Byzantine mosaics. It was at one time a very rich monastery as it was built with money from the emperor in return for a favourable prophecy that came true. It was an interesting site but not particularly well interpreted or riveting for the kids, but I think they could appreciate the skill of the mosaic artists at least and they thought the conservation work that was happening on the mosaic floor was kind of cool.

We then drove toward Kampos, an area just outside of Chios that is recognized as a heritage landscape because of its 17th century mansion estates (pictured on following page). We kept looking for a place to have lunch but we soon passed from being in villages with tavernas, which would have been fine, to a more suburban landscape and found nothing but gas stations and a few closed restaurants. While looking for a restaurant we managed to see a lot of the Kampos area. Essentially the estates were wealthy farms that were walled off (picture very narrow roads with high stone walls) with large neoclassical mansions and often decorative gates. It was very pretty and well worth a detour.

We finally headed into Chios to find food and to do a bit of souvenir shopping (photos below and on following pages). We decided to split up, so Topher went off to enjoy some quiet, and the kids and I found a restaurant that had what they were looking for (I gave them the choice for a change), which was basically pasta. We’ve spent the last couple of hours wandering around downtown trying to find shops that weren’t having a siesta. We picked the wrong time to do shopping! The kids found worry beads (which David decided he wanted since he sees all of the old men fidgeting with them), and I stocked up on mastic products.

After trying to find as many signs as possible with Hugh (Xioy) written on them (see below), we’re now hanging out in the main square, the kids playing with their worry beads and mastic gum (which hardens when you take it out of your mouth, so it’s fun to play with too!). Later we plan to go out for one last meal at a Greek taverna in our village (photo on bottom right of page 104 is the restaurant in the main square; bottom left is our Airbnb) and get to bed early. Hard to believe we’ll be in Turkey tomorrow!