Vathi, Astipalaia

Today was a motor job just 15 miles North up to Vathi, a landlocked inlet on the NE tip of the island.

Views of Vathi anchorage & Camira at dusk

It’s a fishing harbour and has a canteen type taverna run by Maria.

Maria is a good age and her mother seems to be chair ridden on the balcony. The sons are the fishermen but do little in the way of help in the taverna.

Maria does all the cooking but you set & clear your own table, help yourself to beer, wine etc from the fridge in her kitchen. You then select your meal from the menu, give it to her and she then shouts you when it’s ready …..”Louise!!!” and you go up an collect it . It’s brilliant.

The hard working Maria & her kitchen

We ran into Michael (of bus stop fame) here, now with his wife. She was a lovely gentle character and a delight to talk to. They had arranged a driver from their hotel to bring and collect them. God only knows how the car gets down the track. If you look back at our blog of a few years back we had to turn back on our hired scooter!

The meal itself was good but the experience itself was the major fun of it all.

Strangely the fishermen seem to have a penchant for teddy bears?

We only stayed the one night which is just as well as the cockerels start hollering about 03:00 am and drove Louise batty – well battier than she already is. Being deaf in one ear sometimes does have its advantages, I just buried my good ear in the pillow, lol

Early rise thanks to the Cockle Doodle Doooing !