Zyknthos -Land of Greek Gods - Mountain Climb

[Guest guest]

Yassos!

Visit to Zyknthos Town affectionately known by Locals as " Zante "

Zante is eight miles Bus ride away from our Hotel at " Laganas " - Busses are on

the hour, well almost on the hour

......Twenty minutes here and there over the hour is normal Greek Standard Time!

Local transport is very cheap compared

to UK. It costs 250 drachmas - 0.50pence for eight miles air-conditioned ride!

Bus ride is a tour in itself. The bus leaves Laganas and heads for Kalamaki

Beach - More " Thongs " - Greeks turn a blind

eye to Topless and Thongs but Nudity is forbidden!

Mayor of Laganas, skinny seventy year old man with thick glasses caused a stir

during our stay, he launched a

campaign...All fat women and beyond certain measurements must cover up ...Only

curvaceous women with certain

measurements defined by him are allowed to wear thongs! Well it caused a stir

not of feminist kind but almost turned

into a carnival.

Men urged women to be measured by him, women queued up in the " briefest of

brief thongs " Tourist women Germans,

Dutch, Italians, Austrian and Scandinavians joined in the fun day! .The mayor

loved it and this campaign assured him

another popular vote and return to office! I thoroughly enjoyed the

proceedings! Big round women turned up to protest

in Thongs accompanied by their male admirers - Shouting hoarse " big is best

" and got tremendous round of applause! What

a day?

Anyway the Bus heads for the mountain villages to pick up Passengers. Each one

has a long conversation with the driver

and other passengers join in. I would love to know what they are talking about!

No one appears to be concerned about the

delays.

Finally down the mountain and long ride to Zante. On the roadside are Lemon,

Orange, Peach

Fig and Banana trees. Fruits for the picking! Every now and then there are

roadside vendors

Sitting besides piles of Watermelon's! These are massive. Bus stops and the

driver purchase a massive watermelon. This

is instantly slaughtered! Pieces distributed to all passengers. I told my fellow

passenger..WoW the driver is generous!

Apparently everyone contributes towards it when getting on the bus apart from

purchasing a ticket. Now I know the

conversation was all about the best water melon seller!

Zynthos, the capital was rebuilt after the destructive earthquake in 1953. Its

setting is superb, on a bay facing

Peloponnese, with the ancient acropolis hovering above, with a fertile central

plain, with the one side flanked by a

wooden hillside and the other by Mount Skopos.

I made it a point to visit Places of great interest which include the

Neo-Byzantine Museum (near the town hall in Platia

Solomou) with a splendid collection of Ionian art rescued from churches, the

church Kyra tou Angelou which was built in

1687 with icons by Panagiotis Doxaras, the Faneromeni church (15th century), the

Solomos Museum with mementoes of the

poets, the Venetian Fortress with excellent views. Greek Churches are

absolutely splendid. Entry to church is forbidden

for those in shorts. At doorway priests hand out trousers to wear over shorts

before entering. Inside the church one

is awe-struck by paintings on ceilings, ornate gold plated artwork.

I was told the best view of the town is from the top of the mountain. It is

accessible by road. I decided to walk as

everyone kept saying its not a long walk up..Kirubu Sana as they say in Nairobi

...not far not far. To my horror

Within hundred yards of I saw a road sign saying nine kilometres! There is no

way I could make it in miday heat.

Having once climbed Mount Kilmanjaro...I told myself what is eight kilometres in

comparison. Eventually, I decided to

turn back and take a taxi up the mountain. One Greek driver must have figured

out my plight, stopped and gave me lift

right to the top. Unfortunately we had no conversation as neither of us could

make any sense of what the other was

saying. I was so grateful to him and offered him money that he declined.

The panoramic view from the Mountaintop is absolutely stunning. I finished two

rolls of films here. I sat under an olive

tree for shade in the afternoon, as the heat was becoming unbearable. There is

couple of restaurants and bars at the top

including another beautiful Greek Orthodox Church. I went and sat inside the

church as it was very cool, calm and

peaceful. I sat down for few moments of meditation .the beauty of the Church

gets one. Greeks always light a candle,

approach various statutes and pictures of saints, Virgin marking a cross on

chest and then kiss the photos.

Quite interesting to see presence of large number of teenagers in the church. So

the Greek Kids remain within the fold.

Way down presented another problem. No transport available. Taverna owner phoned

for the taxi several times for me but

to within half-hour never happened. Eventually I decided to walk down the road.

Well , a Muhindi laden with my camera

bag, tripod and in shorts and large hat going down the mountain must have been a

strange site for the Greeks. My decent

was at 5 pm .temperature range was still about 32c -35c. It was my first walk of

eight kilometres since our arrival.

Bottom of the hill I was shattered. I had most dreadfull Hypo - I had not

carried any emergency food with me. I sat on

the bench on road side to recover. But it only seemed to make my hypo worse. I

was getting worried too .....I have read

about keytones and Gosh! Middle of nowere, I did not want to go into a coma. As

I sat with these negative thougts, I

looked up and realised that I was under a fig tree with overipe figs....Well

this was my savious, figs rich in

Sugar......I reached out and grabbed few figs and felt better.....This gave me

energy to walk up to the town. The walk

had used up all my stores of body glucose and fats and dehydrated me. There was

only one thing to do ...to replenish my

blood sugar level build up stores of fat, and replenish my vital bodily

fluids....A Greek Meal and drink.

For starters I had .. " Kalamari " battered and fried squid with a glass of white

wine. . I choose the main dish called

" Kleftico " knuckle of lamb, marinated and cooked in a slow oven with herbs and

served with broad beans, vegetables and

rice. I had a crafe of chilled red wine to accompany this dish. Greeks always

have a salad with meal. So I choose

Horiatiki Salada village Greek salad with black olives and fetta cheese. No meal

is complete without Greek Sweet dish

but reluctantly , I refused to have the sweet dish - Backlava - layers of

pastery with almonds and honey! That would

have sent me hyper!

I was served by absolutely stunning Greek Waitress. I told her ....You are

beautiful just like Aprodite. I would like to

take a picture of you. She said wait a moment.....returned with her Greek

Husband and told me ....Please take a photo of

us both as we have never had a photodone by a Professional. It must have been my

tripod which gave me a profession look

in Greek Eyes!! She posed ...He gave his best colgate smile ....both gave me the

address to send the photo. For my

services ....I was presented with a plate full of water melon

slices.....compliments of the house!

Having Suitably charged up my blood suger level and replinished my bodily

fluids...I walked to the Bus station and took

the Bus back to Laganas from Zante.

Before retiring to bed......I went out for a walk along the beach and on impulse

dashed back to my hotel, grabbed my

swimming costume and went for a midnight swim in the ionian sea. There were

loads of people in the sea, nude and I was

the only one in a costume!! Now I understand - Nuditiy is allowed at

midnight.....The sea was cold - outside the

tempratre was still 32 C about 110F.....Beautifull Cool Sea .....On return I

had my customary roast corn from my

favourite Greek Gypsy vendor!Superfino Magnifico Italiano....says he!

Yammas

Karam Bharij ( Zyknthos)

Karam Bharij

Email karam@...

FAX - 0870 7066419

web site

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/7348/index.html