|
Traditional Greek Mountain Villages are one of the most charming aspects of life on Lesvos
Perhaps the least known and most charming aspect of Lesvos is life in the traditional mountain villages. While most travelers stick to the beaches and seaports, life in the villages goes on as it has for hundreds of years though now modern conveniences like electricity, television and motorized transportation have made it a bit easier.
In a typical village life revolves around the main square and the cafeneons around it or scattered throughout the village. The men work in the fields or whatever crafts they have been trained in. But no matter how hard they work they always find time to go to the cafeneons.
There are carpenters who build doors and window frames and whatever else is needed. There is a barber who will shave you using a straight razor and plenty of hot lather.There is usually a dry good store that sells anything from beans to canned foods, soap, and whatever is grown locally and can be stored.
Fresh fish is sold out of trucks that load up from the fishing boats of Molyvos, Skala Kaloni and the other fishing ports of the island, and then drive through all the villages announcing what they have through a loudspeaker. They will stop in the platia and a crowd will gather, most to look on and a few to buy.
A majority of the people in the villages are old. Most of the young leave after high-school to work in Mytilini, Athens or overseas. Many of the old people have lived in America or Australia and come back to their ancestral home to retire. Some of the old people never left and continue to work the fields and orchards their parents and grandparents worked.
There are butchers who not only carve up the meat but actually slaughter it in the shop. If a villager decides it is time to eat one of his sheep, either for a special occasion or just to have the meat, the animal is lead to the butcher shop and using techniques that have been passed down from father and son, first hypnotizes, then kills, skins and cleans the animal in about 15 minutes.
Many villages have olive trees and in October-November when the olives are ripe all activity is focused on the collecting and picking. Many villages have an olive-oil cooperative. The olives are pressed locally or in a nearby village that has a facility and the profits are shared.
Cheese is usually home made since many people have sheep and goats. The process of cheese-making is virtually un-changed from ancient times. The milk is cooked outdoors in a big cauldron. These are pictures of Thanasis the Australian and his son making cheese for his family and his cafeneon. Some villages have their own cheese factories where farmers can sell or trade their milk.
Some villages have walnut trees and you will know when they are in season because everyone's hands will be dyed black from picking them.
Products like shoes, tables, chairs, socks, clothes. houseplants, carpets and almost anything you can imagine are also sold out of trucks that make their way through the villages. Some of these mobile stores are owned by gypsies who not only travel from village to village but from island to island as well.
There is usually a 'periptero' where you can buy cigarettes, gum, envelopes, matches, newspapers(sometimes), and many other daily 'necessities'. If it is not a free standing building then there will be a store which serves the same purpose, usually near the main platia.
Many of the village platias are centered around a giant 'platanos' or plane tree. Sometimes important announcements are posted on these trees and in some villages the inside of the tree is actually hollow and used for storage. Some of these trees have provided cool shade in the hot summer months for hundreds of years.
In come cases farmers will exhibit and sell their produce in the village platia.
|
|
The village life for the older men, and some of the younger men too, revolves around the cafeneons. The old men come and go appearing at different cafeneons in various formations all day long. There are just under four-hundred inhabitants in our village of Xidera, perhaps a third of them men. There are seven cafeneons.
The women generally don't go to the cafeneons unless they happen to own it. They stay within the walls of their homes and gardens or work in the fields until sunset when they come out to sit in groups on the street and talk with one another.
The cafeneons can be lively with conversation. Card games usually draw a crowd. I can't walk into a cafeneon without someone buying me an ouzo and asking me about life in America. Many of the old men you see speak English but they will not let you know unless you ask them directly. I don't know if they feel rusty or shy because they have not used the language in so long but there are always one or two surprises waiting to happen in any room full of old men. (My friend Mikey moved to the village of Vatoussa in 1958 after spending his entire life in Brooklyn. He has never left.)
Most cafeneons have a television in the corner and if there is nothing else to do people may be sitting around watching a movie, though in some villages reception is limited because of interference by the mountains. Though TV seems to have filled in the gaps between conversation, it has by no means dominated life in the cafeneons. Unless there is something important going on like elections or a big basketball game the television is treated like a fellow patron who talks a lot but nobody pays that much attention to unless he says something interesting. Then they will discuss it amongst themselves and forget the TV is there.
There are few if any restaurants in the villages. Food is served at the cafeneons and the owners are almost always excellent cooks. They usually serve one special a day and then basic foods that they always have on hand like fried potatoes, salads, feta and whatever fish they have bought off the trucks. Many times when I see Tryphonos at his cafe for my breakfast or coffee I will ask him to buy some mackerel, gopes, sardines or another variety of fish if a truck comes around and they look fresh. Then at night we have a feast. For breakfast you can always get eggs, fresh bread and cheese and of course excellent Greek coffee. A meal in a village cafeneon will generally cost a fraction of what a meal in a restaurant will cost. There are no menus. You have to ask what they have.
There is almost always a village priest who you will see walking to and from wherever it is that priests go. Many times they can be found in the cafeneons with the boys or even watching a soccer match. Though they can look quite severe, with long beards and dressed in black robes, they are actually very approachable and it is not a sin to offer to buy one a drink while you are conversing in the cafeneons. Regardless of whether they accept or order a coffee instead, they will be happy to speak with you about village life, both material and spiritual.
There is always more than one church in or around the village and the popular Saint day of a particular church is celebrated at a Panayiri with services and a celebration with food wine and dancing. The August 15th celebration of the Virgin Mary is the biggest. There are musicians, roasting of lambs and dancing that goes on until dawn. At other times during the year people will visit neighboring villages on their particular Saint's day.
Very few villages have hotels but usually there is a guest house of some sort. In the summer the villages are full of activity. People return from Athens or abroad and the streets are filled with children. The cafes are filled with men and women who sit outside and enjoy the cool evening air which is filled with music and conversation. Inside, the cafe owner is kept quite busy.
The temperature is generally much more pleasant in the mountains of Lesvos than it is on the plains or the coast. Anyway there is no village that is more than twenty minutes away from the nearest beach.
And thanks to the local garbage truck the villages are always clean.
|
|
