Wednesday 14 September 2011
Business first, that pesky fuel leak. David's mechanic had to be good: he had Communist Party Youth posters on the wall, and an actual hammer and sickle. No, really, metal tools, properly crossed over, nailed to the old walls. (The communist tradition was strong there, until the last election all the elected officials were of the island's local communist party. Years ago, after the civil war that followed WWII, 17,000 communists were exiled to Ikaria, which now has a total population of less than half that. So there you go.) We met Fanouri but his young assistant took care of us. Charles pointed to the leak area, David did the translating, and they left knowing our van was in good hands.
Back home David had to work but the rest of us were able to explore. We took off for an afternoon's drive around the island, stopping first at a dam and hiking up the hill. "There used to be a woman here who sold the best honeyed doughnuts, but I'm sure she's closed for the season." Robyn said. Then we rounded a bend and there in the middle of nowhere was a big trailer, and the woman, and the sweets. What a treat. She told us that it was her own honey. They specialized in honey on Ikaria, in fact they're said to have the best honey in all of Greece (and therefore, they say, in the world).
The rest of the day was spent hiking and driving and hiking some more. Then we drove back home for another fantastic homemade meal, fresh from the garden. Life was good.
Business first, that pesky fuel leak. David's mechanic had to be good: he had Communist Party Youth posters on the wall, and an actual hammer and sickle. No, really, metal tools, properly crossed over, nailed to the old walls. (The communist tradition was strong there, until the last election all the elected officials were of the island's local communist party. Years ago, after the civil war that followed WWII, 17,000 communists were exiled to Ikaria, which now has a total population of less than half that. So there you go.) We met Fanouri but his young assistant took care of us. Charles pointed to the leak area, David did the translating, and they left knowing our van was in good hands.
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