Goodbye to Vatera

Maria's Lamb Masterpiece!

Lamb Dinner at Vatera Beach Hotel

One of our Turtles

Feeding the Turtles

We are now back in the land of the living, which for some of us, means we can access the Internet!

I will attempt to get caught up on the happenings of the past week in a couple of blogs.

Our last days in Vatera saw us truly appreciating why patrons of the Vatera Beach Hotel keep coming back year after year.

Jenny had Maria make us a spectacular lamb accompanied by a 1998 Satyrion wine that Takis and Jenny had found in the old cellar below the hotel. You can see the dinner pictured here which would have fed Lubertpallooza! It was truly a feast. Another night we dined on red snapper, fresh from the sea, cooked over the grill to perfection with a very nice white wine from Lymnos.

During the day we would go to feed the turtles.

As we were approaching the bridge, the turtles would swarm towards us like a concert-going crowd rushing the stage, encouraging the musician in me to try to serenade them. “Happy Together” isn't about turtles, and Sweet Lorraine (SL) was giving me strange looks after only one verse with “Two Turtle-Doves”. We would then throw them the bread that Jenny and Takis would save for them and walk back to our hotel with our canine friends following happily along.

The days in Vatera were peaceful and slow. Ultimate relaxation. We grew to love it.

Vatera Beach

Vatera Beach at Sunset

JL in Agiossis

JL on Mount Olympus Looking for a Lightning Bolt

SL and the Flowering Shrubs by the Roadside

SL Mount Olympus

Vatera Beach

We said goodbye to our much-beloved Molivos and headed off for Vatera, a much more quiet, secluded place.  Although we had no idea what to expect, I appreciated how Lorraine must have felt before we married about going out on a blind date with someone else, after all, she was dating me, so how could it be any better???
Anyway, at first our fears seemed to be justified, as our blind date seemed to fall far short of what we had been used to in Molivos. Vatera is MUCH smaller, with almost no shops, and only about a dozen restaurants/bars scattered around the beach. Many of the houses?/shops?/hotels? under construction seemed to have just been abandoned, given part of the strip a bit of a war zone appearance.  In many cases, there is a first floor, then steps outside leading to ??  Nothing!  (inspiration for a song, "and she's buying a stairway, to..."
We decided to make the most of it, and started to appreciate Vatera (VatterAH, not VaTERRa) for what it had to offer.
Takis and Jenny, our innkeepers, couldn't be nicer or more knowledgeable. They both speak excellent English, and have a good sense of humour – they laugh at my jokes. Our hotel is very good – clean, AC, and a large balcony.
The beach at Vatera looks stony at first, but then you learn to appreciate the sparkling blue waters that each year are awarded the Blue Flag of Europe for the cleanest waters.  We try to swim every day, something we did not do in Molivos. The water feels a bit cool at first, but then it is just fabulous!
The town is quiet, but that's OK as most days we do an excursion or just swim in the sea.  The food at the hotel is fabulous, and I am still eating fish almost every day.
Our excursions mostly exist of getting lost on mountain roads trying to find an historic site or museum before we break an axle on the car.  We recently went up Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Lesvos, and the second highest in all of Greece. The view was spectacular and it was a beautiful day, but that did not stop me hurling thunderbolts down on the unsuspecting villagers - Zeus would have approved.
We also went through a beautiful little mountain village called Agiossis, famous for its pottery and wood-carving.  It seemed to us to be by far the most traditional atmosphere we have come across to date.  The townsfolk were all gathered in the square, drinking coffee and Mythos (beer), arguing about the Greek basketball team and wondering aloud who was the jerk throwing all those thunderbolts earlier.  Potters sat by their wheels and vendors shouted out their wares as the storekeepers tried to entice you in to their little shops to buy something.
We returned to our little hotel The Vatera Beach to dine on “Married Sardines”.  Sardines are gutted, cleaned, marinated, and then filled with fresh herbs and spices before being forced to lay facing together on top of each other in pairs “Married Sardines???” on the grill.  They are then covered in a lemon-mustard sauce.  In all the years that Jenny has been serving them, she has never had a single diner say anything but superlatives about this dish.  We did not break her record.
Next – feeding the turtles, fine dining and wine.

Bouzoukis, Bikes and off to Vaterra

John, George and VanGellis Bouzouki!

Dancers at Right of Picture

In Full Voice!!

Hell's Angel Sweet Lorraine

View From our Window at the Sea Horse Hotel in Molivos

Two things you absolutely must credit SL (Sweet Lorraine) with are: a sense of humour, and being a good sport. We have discussed the possibility of something happening to me while we are trekking to some remote monastery, and we agreed that she should learn how to drive our motorcycle – not the 1200 pound behemoth that we have at home, but our little 150cc scooter we rent here in Greece. It would be nice to think that she could get us back to civilization in the event of an emergency.
She gamely took on the challenge, and apart from one scary moment when she forgot to back off the throttle when she was trying to stop, she acquitted herself very well.
Our music night was very successful, and I played guitar till the wee hours with George, and a bouzouki player named VanGellis. At one point, children, men, and ladies were all dancing.  It was a great deal of fun, a great deal of ouzo, and a great deal when I was presented with the bill to find that most of it was paid for by the owner.
The next day we discovered a restaurant in Petra called the Reef on a beautiful, sandy beach.  The owner, Kosta, was an Australian who moved to Greece 31 years ago and never left.  Absolutely a great guy!  He owned a Harley Fat Boy and was very proud of his state of the art TV and Music systems, connected to the Internet, You Tube, and integrated into his stereo.  We got on like a house on fire. After I told him the error of his ways in purchasing Samsung, not LG products (You getting this Melissa?),  we found the Youtube video of  “Lend a Helping Hand” the song that Klaude Walters and I wrote and recorded.)  He was MOST impressed, and called the kitchen staff to come see.
When we came back about 30 minutes later, he was still playing it to customers and staff, and when I came in, he pointed excitedly to me just as my face came on the video.  I am now a minor celebrity in Petra.
We now leave Molivos for Vaterra. It will be hard, if not impossible, for any place to live up to the beauty and the ambiance that was Molivos.

Sleep With the Fishes

Fish Foot Spa!!!

Thermal Spa

Sometimes you 're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail.
For some reason I have been eating fish almost every night here on Lesvos.  SL (Sweet Lorraine) will tell you that at home I cannot be accused of depleting the population of any marine life, nor am I eager to embrace the taste of new vegetables, but here, SL keeps saying “Try this you'll like it.”, and funnily enough, I do – even beet salad!
But back to my point, turnabout is fair play, I've been eating fish, so they got to eat me!
I went to a “Fish Spa” where the fish give you a pedicure....
During a treatment you place your feet in a tank of warm freshwater containing dozens of toothless Garra rufa fish, which are about the size of minnows. They are also known as doctor or nibble fish. They suck and gently nibble away at dry and dead skin. The end result is said to leave your feet feeling refreshed and healthy. To me it felt like mild electric shocks as they nibbled away.  I was a little concerned when I saw one of the bigger fish with what looked like a packet of ketchup approaching my big toe.
The next day we went to the thermal spas at Eftalou.  Spas are recommended for rheumatism, arthritis, sciatica, neuralgia, skin diseases, kidney and gall stones and gynecological complaints.  Unless my good Doctor Swanson has missed something, I do not have any of the latter, but the experience was certainly relaxing. You first shower in very cold water, then ease yourself into the VERY VERY hot waters.  You put your feet in first, then slowly ease the rest of your body in.  After about 3 minutes, you have to get out, and go swim in the sea or shower, then repeat.
We then ate a Greek salad and shared a beer at a taverna overlooking the sea.
Each night here in Molivos has been wonderful – fish for dinner, then music!
Next – John plays with the Bouzouki players.