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 Pan of HydraAnyone who has visited Hydra, either by sailboat, yacht or as a regular tourist in a hotel has probably met or at least seen Pan. He is not hard to miss, standing about five-feet tall with a long beard and hair and an energy that may be unrivaled in Greece. He seems to be everywhere at once, helping sailors tie up their boats, talking with his friends in the cafes or running one of his businesses.Pan is one of those island characters that you end up reading about in some novel twenty years after he has left the planet. He has been featured in films too. One night I was channel surfing and somehow found myself watching a low-budget soft-porn movie, (like Summer Lovers but worse if that is possible), and who should appear but Pan, standing by the cannons, playing a bit-role of a painter. My first thought was not "Wow! It's Pan and he is in a movie!" The first thing that came to my mind was "I didn't know Pan paints". But I guess that is how he is. If I saw a photo of George W Bush with his buddies and in the background was Pan, telling a dirty joke to Colin Powell, my first thought would not be how odd that Pan was in the picture but wondering to myself if the joke was in good taste and whether or not Powell was offended. (Not that I care.) Sometimes I like to imagine Pan and Leonard Cohen together in Hydra in the sixties, having a quiet drink in one of the cafeneons that have now turned into cafes, maybe playing backgammon or talking about Rimbaud or Rambo.  Pan used to have the most popular bar on the island, (called Pan's Bar of course). It was decorated with anything he could find that was American, from license plates, to hubcaps, American flags and those kind of Green Beret T-shirts that make you feel nervous about the person you see wearing it. (You know the type with a grinning skull and a knife in it's mouth and an eye patch with a slogan like "Kill em all and let God sort em out".) Pan was one of those guys. He served in the Green Beret's in Viet Nam in the sixties and if you can slow him down enough to tell you about it he would probably have some interesting stories. It is my guess that because he was 5 feet tall and built like a condensed version of Arnold Schwartzenegger his buddies gave him all the good jobs. If Pan had played pro-football he would have been a star. He might still have a shot at pro-wrestling.
Pan's bar closed and after numerous trips to the USA (where he hung out with his buddy Nikos Voulgaris, another Hydriot who owns the Olympia restaurant in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina), he returned to the island where he is now the harbor master. That means he not only helps people dock but helps them get their supplies, gives them information on services and whatever else a harbormaster does. I have seen him on his cell-phone coaxing a first-time sailor into a tight squeeze between two other sailboats. "Don't tell me you can't do it! Of course you can do it!" He yells into the phone. Sure enough he is right and the young skipper proudly walks down the dock to the closest bar. Pan is supposedly beginning a new venture. He has rented the entire second floor above the Pirate Bar. What it will be is unclear. Maybe a real estate office, a place for yachters to take showers, or a tourist information center (or if he is smart an Internet cafe because the existing cafe is way over-priced.) Maybe he will just rent out some rooms. Who knows? Whatever he does it will probably be interesting. In the meantime he has a couple beautiful houses that he rents through his friend Ana at www.greecetravel.com/villas So if you are in Hydra say hello... - Matt Barrett |
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