The day dawned with sunshine so we took a nice long walk on the beach in the early morning. The Mediterranean, Aegean seas do not have real tides since they are inland with only a narrow outlet at Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean. With these minimal tides, the flotsam and jetsam on the beach are only a few yards wide; we have found some interesting things on the beach including a few shells, some colorful rocks, pieces of fishing nets, and plastic of every description. Had Tom Hanks been marooned here he could have made a nice meal with the sealed one kilo bag of couscous, packaged dry soup, containers of juice and lots of water bottles, plus made a decent fishing net instead of the little spear. The beach is here is pretty empty at this time of year since the rest of the ‘foreigners’ do not show up until the beginning of May, so we had the beach to ourselves.
About 10:00 we drove to Polichnitos for a bath; that would be the hot mineral baths that were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to heal their battle wounds, we had no battle wounds but according to the literature, these baths can heal any sort of affliction from a spear in the chest to lumbago. The baths are very nice, there are two large pools, one for men and the other for women, with showers and changing rooms, the cost is only 2 Euros which is very reasonable. A small café and store selling natural items from the area helps bring in a little more income. They had local olive oil, honey, soaps and other natural body care products. The water comes from the volcanic cracks in the ground at 67 degrees Celsius, or about 152 F, the water is tempered so in the pool it is about 102 F, full of minerals, radon and other mysterious properties, it was overall a pleasant experience.
When we left Vatera, the rain had started so after the bath we went to the local taverna for coffee and something to eat, plus the free internet. The local tavernas are usually filled with men playing backgammon, smoking, drinking coffee, and the occasional tourist. The local establishment provides small computers for the customers who will sit for hours spending little money. Saturday was a busy day with lots of young men in the taverna, normally there are just a few people during the weekdays. The taverna is a community meeting place, again normally just for the men, the Greek government recently banned smoking in all indoor facilities, but like many rules in Greece, (including the traffic laws) the smoking ban is universally ignored and no one says anything. The taverna owners are always concerned about losing business, and during the warmer day they do have outside facilities. The owner of the taverna is gruff older fellow who is very nice to us, there is also a younger man who works with him. The interior of the taverna is separated into two rooms, the main bar area and the larger dining type room. There is always music playing, many days American music, other days, French, Spanish and Greek music, two large screen TV’s provide either sports or movies. So for a few Euros, it is a nice warm place to sit and use the internet, have some coffee and a little something to eat.
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