We could
not remember the exact time we last saw each other but it must have been at
least fifteen years. We had both been working at the regional police force
around Eindhoven. Elma was responsible for the police force’s communications. A
job she performed very professionally. I was a police commissioner and had left
the force a few years earlier but was invited now and then at the working
jubilee of former colleagues. That is where Elma and I must have met last.
About two
years ago I accidently found Elma again; she was being mentioned in a Facebook
post. In the period we were working for the police, I once briefly met her
Greek husband Vangelis. I do remember her telling stories about their trips to
Greece, visiting his parents on the mainland north of Athens.
From the
facebook post I determined that Elma and Vangelis had settled on a Greek island
named Kastelorizo. Finding the island on google maps required zooming deep down
for this island is but a very small dot right before the Turkish coast, south
of Rhodes. I send a friendship request and I followed Elma from a distance for
over a year. I could see that some former colleagues were following
her and that one or two actually visited them. The
pictures from Kastelorizo that Elma shared were wonderful. Seeing that pictures
you could almost smell and hear everything on it; the flowers, the
Mediterranean and the fresh caught fish.
A few months
back Jeannette and I were convinced that we had earned a short leave and we
certainly needed it for we had been working our ….. off for quite some time. We
decided to visit Kastelorizo and see how Elma and Vangelis were doing. Now
Jeannette is a former travel agent so she found the perfect way to organise
this trip. A very early flight from Schiphol Amsterdam brought us to Rhodes
were we checked in to a small boutique hotel in the old town. The Evdokia hotel
was a renovated knights house and showed very nice details from that time.
After having admired the nice hotel guided by the owner, we went to buy tickets
for the ferry from Rhodes to Kastelorizo that would sail the next morning at 10
o’clock. That left us plenty of time to visit the old town of Rhodes and spent
some time at a very trendy beach club at Elli Beach. Late that night we finally
got a table at a very nice restaurant.
Docking,
unloading and loading a ferry can go very smoothly. We Dutch have plenty of
ferries and we are very organized in this. Now this ferry that hops the Greek
islands, does so every day, for years and years but…… every time it looks like
it is the first time it ever happens. While pedestrians and cars leave the
ferry at the same time, the pedestrian that wants to embark starts walking in
the opposite direction on the already crowded ramp. The ships personnel are
shouting, running up and down and screaming their hearts out (I suppose the
walkie talkie they are holding in their hand doesn’t function). And then, when we left this craziness of the
hot and smelling ramp, we went through a door and there was a totally different
atmosphere. Well-dressed stewards welcomed us and gestured us up the escalator
stairs, all well air conditioned. We passed a lovely lunge and restaurant on
our way up to one of the outer decks. With a well-stocked bar on that deck we
started the three-and-a-half-hour sail to Kastelorizo.
Arriving at
that small hidden island is a mere fairy-tale. The Blue Star Paros had to sail
one quarter around the island before it deployed its beautiful main harbour.
Colourful buildings lined up around the harbour that seems way too small to
facilitate the big ferry. But it fills up the harbour, docks and the same
hectic unloading and loading repeated itself. We stepped aside until we could
calmly start our walk along the harbour. After just two minutes we reached
Radio Café, and Elma was waiting on the small stairs in front of the entrance.
It was a
warm reunion after all these years and we sat down at the edge of the harbour
on their terrace to exchange the first essential information. When was…. Who
was again…. Where did…. How was…. At the time the first customers sat down and
started ordering lunch, we left Elma and Vangelis to do their work and we went
to see our hotel at the opposite side of the harbour; the Poseidon Hotel.
Now on
Kastelorizo the few hotels are not what you would expect. No big buildings but
several former houses that are transformed in hotel rooms. In one of the hotel
houses we found the reception where we received a warm welcome. We were given a
very new, big and beautiful room / apartment. Classic living, efficient bedroom
and a very design and trendy bathroom. A nice balcony in front with a view at
the harbour.
Now you
need to know that Kastelorizo has around 250 inhabitants. At this time there also
are over 100 soldiers and some civil servants as teachers, post office
employees, harbour control and so on. All together that brings the number at a
small 400 people. Now in summer all hotel rooms are booked as are the B&B’s
and the second houses will be occupied. But even then there will be not more
than some 900 people on the island. In former wealthy trading periods the
island had around 14.000 inhabitants. During WWII the island has been destroyed
and almost all inhabitants fled. Many of them went to Australia and today some
of their offspring is resettling on the island. Mostly by buying a summer home.
Touristic
stuff we did: we went to the blue cave where small sloops can enter and where
the sun lightens the ceiling clear blue through the water that seems to be
glowing. Walk to the other side of the island, the smaller Mandraki harbour.
Wanted to cross to Kas, the Turkish town opposite of Kastelorizo but there were
not enough people to make the captain sail.
But most of
all we enjoyed the weather, swimming in the harbour together with the caretta
caretta (loggerhead sea turtles) that swim there and are looking for treats
from the fishermen and cooks. We tasted good food; grilled octopus, stuffed
tomatoes, goat stew, moussaka and much more.
Kastelorizo
has many many lovely people who are more than willing to help you, tell about
the island and their life.
We’ll be
back !!!
