Bric-a-Brac 8
Endless Greek summer: Low-key Lefkada, the Hydra Book Club, and your man in Greece….
JUST BACK FROM
My friend Naima went to Lefkada this summer and her trip looked so fantastic I asked her to share it here:
“Normally I curate all of our trips myself through endless research. This summer, with the pandemic still a factor, I wanted to book a week with no room for error and full concierge services, so turned to luxury villa company The Thinking Traveller. This was our third holiday in Greece, and I chose the villa before the location, which turned out to be Lefkada, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, accessible to the mainland via a causeway bridge.
This summer was the hottest Greece has experienced in over 40 years. After exploring Athens in excruciating heat, we rented a car and drove the very scenic five hours to the mountainous, green island of Lefkada, with beaches that edge the bluest of waters, earning it the nickname, “the Caribbean of Greece." Our stunning villa, Cape Lougi, was in Lefkada’s southeast, a 15-minute drive from the nearest beach and seaside tavernas and across the water from the island of Meganisi. We were greeted at the villa by Cora, its manager, with a hamper of coffee, fruits and other yummy eats and together with the rest of our group—the villa was big enough for our family of three, as well as my cousin and her family—we immediately began relaxing in the villa’s stunning landscaped gardens and epic pool.
One of our favorite beaches on the island was Porto Katsiki, a beach with clear azure waters flanked by chalk-white cliffs. Ammouso is another beautiful little pebbly beach with an excellent taverna. Through The Thinking Traveller I booked a full-day sailing trip around Lefkada, with a swim on Jackie Onassis's famous beach on the island of Skorpios and a stop to explore the quaint port of Vathi in Meganisi. We also wound up drinking rum cocktails at a reggae beach bar called "Jammin in Paradise," then swimming at Fanari beach—as a Caribbean girl from the island of Trinidad, this was an unexpected treat. For dinner we loved Seaside, a modern Greek restaurant with locally sourced ingredients right on the water, where Kostas greeted us warmly each time–affirming the sense we had of Lefkada as one of the most authentic, low-key and majestic places we’d been in Greece.” - Naima Sanowar Anthony
ARMCHAIR TRAVELER
If you are one of those people who loves to immerse themselves in the literature of a place while traveling, The Hydra Book Club is a trove. Conceived by Josh Hickey of the community-building platform Applied Research Group, this temporary community bookstore within the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra is stocked with books by dozens of the writers and creators who have at one time or another lived on this Saronic island (Sept 4 - Oct 22). We asked Josh about his process and for a few of his selections:
“Hydra has a literary heritage spanning nearly 100 years and includes titles by many very important artists who have lived or worked here. To make a selection of recommended reading could surely begin with the most well-known authors: Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi or Leonard Cohen’s much loved verse. But to suggest these works is to state the obvious. Some lesser-known writers have lived intriguing lives on the island and have written some of the most compelling books. My selection reflects a less frontal view of Hydra and its residents and instead, one that goes deeper through its winding alleyways, higher up the mountain, and more directly into the complexity of this very unique Island.”
1. The Sleepwalker, by Margarita Karapanou
This was the story that surprised me the most, a completely hallucinatory novel whose main character is the island policeman who is also part God and part serial killer. Tensions between locals and foreign “artists” become deadly as the Island is scorched by heat and eventually swallowed by garbage. If it sounds crazy, it is, yet written with a quiet elegance typical of Karapanou’s work.
2. A Rope of Vines, by Brenda Chamberlain
Welsh writer Brenda Chamberlain journaled her personal experience living on the island. Her Greek lover “accidentally” killed an English tourist at the port and was sent to Athens to await trial. Brenda was horrified by the libertine artists and hangers-on in the tavernas around the port, so took refuge in the monastery, living high on the mountain with the nuns. Her poetic observations are accompanied by her strange line drawings of the island.
3. An Accidental Autobiography, letters of Gregory Corso
This is a fascinating collection of letters written by the American Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso to his contemporaries like Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others. Though these letters cover a lot of the distance Corso traveled, there are some absolutely remarkable ones written from Hydra. In one, Corso recounts first how he assaulted a LIFE magazine photographer sent to Greece to cover Leonard Cohen and continues to describe a (substance-induced) awakening he had while hiking out to the tip of the island. He speaks of the light and powerful, rugged nature as teachers—familiar, violent, yet loving.
4. Three Summers, by Margarita Liberaki
Liberaki is the mother of Margarita Karapanou and was also a great writer living between Hydra, Athens and Paris, where she was a friend of JP Sartre. Though this novel takes place in an Athens suburb, the pace and detail with which she unravels the events that occur to three sisters over three summers gives great insight into Greek village life. Penguin just released a new edition, which includes an introduction by Polly Samson, the bestselling author of A Theatre for Dreamers (see below).
5. Peel Me a Lotus, by Charmian Clift
Perhaps the most underrated yet influential foreign writer on the island, Charmian Clift was known to be extremely generous, tending to a flock of artists and writers all in various stages of anxiety, depression, ecstasy and often alcoholism. She was the hub of the artists’ community of Hydra for decades. In Peel me a Lotus, she tells the very personal story of her early days in Hydra, buying a run-down house, having a child, navigating Greek tradition and invasive neighbors all while holding court to a nightly social scene of foreign artists. Another great novel to be re-published this year after being several decades out of print. Polly Samson has written the introduction to this new edition as well, and her intro gives a great context from which to start reading.
To this list I would add one more, from a genre also unique to Hydra: writers on Hydra writing about writers on Hydra, telling the often dramatic and always captivating stories of writers from Henry Miller and George Seferis to Charmian Clift and the scene around Leonard Cohen. The previously mentioned Polly Samson has written A Theatre for Dreamers, a fun and bestselling beach read about Clift, Cohen, and the eccentric characters that gravitate to them.
THE NAVIGATOR
Christos Stergiou, Founder & CEO, TrueTrips
Tell us about you and your company.
Travel runs in my blood. From my childhood memories spending summers in our family-owned hotel on Patmos island and my young adult years traveling between continents while studying and working in the US, to the first trip I ever designed for my fellow classmates at the Stanford MBA program, each and every of these experiences lead to the creation of TrueTrips, which I have been growing for the past 17 years.
When I set out to create TrueTrips, I wanted to share my love of Greece and help travelers connect with my home country in a meaningful way. Today, TrueTrips has evolved into a multi-awarded company that offers fascinating, tailor-made travel experiences in 14 countries in Europe and the Mediterranean, with an incredible team of travel experts and a group of handpicked, world-class guides and experience providers who bring each country’s richness to life. Of course, Greece remains our stronghold, and is the only country in which I remain involved in trip planning personally.
What’s the entry level to talk to you?
Our complete personalized trips include luxury hotel accommodations, in-country transfers (door-to-door), domestic tickets, and a wide variety of hand-picked, tailor-made activities and guided tours. The starting price of each trip depends on the location and time of year – in Greece, our trips start from $400 per person per day (not including international airfare) but most trips range from $550 per person per day and higher.
In addition to the cost of the trip, we charge a service fee of $350 per person, which works towards the time and cost involved in placing all reservations, arranging the trip details, and offering exemplary in-country support. However, we have grown confident to only charge such a fee once a purchase decision is made and not during the planning stages. Personally, I work with guests to plan numerous upscale itineraries each year across the higher end of our spectrum, yet I don’t charge any additional fee for my personal time and involvement.
A favorite trip you’ve planned that best represents your travel philosophy…
A recent trip that stands out could be the one organized for the CEO of a publicly traded company and his family. Having distant origins from Greece himself but never having visited the country, he wanted to explore his roots and discover the Greek islands, culture, and culinary treasures. We did indeed plan an amazing trip, but the highlight lay elsewhere. During their stay on one of the Greek islands, the family loved a piece of art decorating their hotel so much that they contacted us to learn the name of the artist and ask whether they could somehow buy a piece of his artwork. Upon their return from the islands to Athens, we surprised them with an organized private visit to the artist’s atelier in Athens (who happened to be a celebrated Greek sculptor). They saw his work in progress, admired his latest sculptures, learned his story and sources of inspiration, and as they had envisioned, bought a unique piece of his collection.
A favorite place you go back to again and again…
The island of Patmos is my “happy place” on earth. Patmos is known as the place where St. John wrote the Book of Revelation, but it is so much more. There is a delicate, mystical aura that can be felt anywhere across the island, and countless people will tell you the same. Wandering around the narrow streets of Hora (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and its narrow, whitewashed alleys, you can’t help but feel that Patmos is a place where things move at a slower pace of a different era, yet it is blessed with the sophistication of a modern-day destination.
My favorite hotel will always be my family-owned Small Luxury Hotel of the World on Patmos, the intimate Petra Hotel & Suites that has been a landmark of Patmos for over 30 years. The reason is not my personal ownership: our guests have long rated the Petra among our top-3 hotels in our portfolio of collaborators. The Petra has just 11 rooms, homemade breakfasts, and an unfathomable view of the bay in a small village-like setting that resembles the traditional architecture of Hora. With hostess extraordinaire Petra (my mother, whose care and talents are felt across the property!), it truly doesn’t get much better than that.
The most memorable meal you’ve had while traveling…
My most memorable meal is scattered around the country. It is the family-run taverna where two generations work together to prepare and serve a fresh spanakopita, or the local find where the fishermen take their catch of the day. It is where I find myself enjoying a glass of wine or ouzo with the sound of waves lapping on the beach, or where I observe kids playing soccer in the main village square as I savor my calamari. The microcosm of a taverna, even for us Greeks, offers indeed an unforgettable, unique experience where pure Greek flavors are perfectly combined with the values of sharing, generosity, and hospitality (“filoxenia”).
Underrated location, overrated location, personal favorite, recent discovery?
I don’t think I would easily characterize a destination as overrated: it’s all about how you experience a place. For example, in Greece, Mykonos, Santorini, and Crete are all extremely popular destinations for a good reason. The endless hype gets travelers overexcited and creates a fear of FOMO that at times seems insurmountable, even for some guests who clearly seek something different. To me, the ideal itinerary is nothing more than a perfect mix and match of different kinds of destinations to get the deepest and most authentic experience out of each place.
As for the most underrated destination, I always claim that Athens is the place in Greece where pre-arrival expectations and the actual positive travel experience are further apart. Often travelers eliminate Athens from their plans, or at least limit their time there. But spending your first hours in Athens will make you soon realize that culture and entertainment are a way of life for Athenians. The food scene is a perfect combination of smart and traditional, the arts scene has been resurrected with landmark venues, and just when you think you’ve had a perfect day, the city wakes up at dawn with an entirely different face. Endless cafes, bars and restaurants with different style, vibe and music compose the scenery of a city that stands out for its spark and vividness.
As for my personal favorite, the Peloponnese typically comes first. Monuments of every period of Greek history and important archeological sites such as Ancient Olympia, Mycenae, Epidaurus, and its countless Byzantine churches nestled in places of breathtaking natural beauty comprise an ideal destination for history lovers. In the Peloponnese, guests can combine sightseeing and an active lifestyle with explorations of fascinating villages, seductive castles, mountains, rivers, forests, and caves. Not to mention its beautiful Mediterranean beaches, with their sandy and silky shores on the west and the rocky and lacy ones on the east. And of course, top-rated resorts such as the Amanzoe or the Costa Navarino are destinations in themselves.
For a new, promising place, I would go with Kalesma Mykonos. Located on a quieter slope past Ornos Bay, Kalesma is a new luxury boutique hotel offering spectacular views of the Aegean Sea and breathtaking sunsets. It is a modern, sophisticated property that maintains deep roots in tradition. The overall feel revolves around going back to fundamentals on an island that sometimes seeks extravagance.
What is something you wished we all knew or were better at as travelers?
When visiting a place, we are in a constant rush to see more and more and in the end, we may miss the real purpose of travel itself: to learn and grow, to come closer to ourselves and others. All of us may look back on trips and realize that we hadn’t really connected with the people or the place, as we were so focused on the attraction itself, or the prospect of fulfilling a dream. I constantly get requests for a 2-week trip that should include 5 or 6 different locations, or even combine two countries. I preach that sometimes it helps to see less and absorb more, get truly engaged in a destination or an activity, and even go back to your favorite taverna, town, or beach after a few days, already having some sense of familiarity. It makes a ton of difference, and we will all be richer for it.