Grecian Paradise: First Day in Aristi

Going from Chania to Arist involves flying from the bottom of Greece to almost the very top, and includes an external propeller airplane that is frighteningly loud and creaky. We were on it with about twenty other people and landed in a two-gate airport without security. There was exactly one employee total at the Avis lot, and he gave us his cell number in case we had trouble--and then it was off through Ioannina (yo-ANN-inn-ah) and into the countryside, heading for the Zagori region. We quickly moved from flat fields to massive mountains, since the 46 tiny villages in the area flank the famous Vikos Gorge (the deepest gorge in the world!).

 

My favorite thing to see alongside the road--livestock! Which is certainly not in short supply around here, as future posts will include sheep, goats, and turkeys.

 

A wall of the gorge in the distance.

 

We are staying at the Aristi Mountain Resort, which is a National Geographic Unique Lodge of the World. It's an eco-lodge and has a spa, an indoor pool overlooking the gorge, a restaurant that gets its produce from an onsite greenhouse, and comfortable spacious rooms.

 

This is the view from our front door.

 

Since we'd been traveling all day, the first thing we did upon arriving at the hotel was have lunch, which included probably the most unique wine I've ever had--it was called "Tears of the Pine," and it really did taste like resin/fir/a Christmas tree.

 

The meal started with bread accompanied by locally made, salted butter and cream cheese with mint oil and herbs.

 

Taylor had beef tartare, and I had a cheese and leek pie. It tasted exactly like a sour cream and onion Pringle; perhaps that's not what they were going for, but nevertheless that is what they have achieved.

 

I also had a string bean and baby zucchini salad with olive oil, cheese, and almonds.

 

Taylor then had a stream-caught trout baked in dough, then brushed with herbed olive oil (this was a feast, if you can't tell).

 

And I had a handmade pasta with red pepper flakes, sun dried tomatoes, and vegetables from the hotel greenhouse.

 

For dessert, I had something with a very long name that was really just a custard with orange syrup and clove and cinnamon spices; it tasted mostly like Christmas, and a little bit like the cow from which it came.

 

Some scenes from the hotel grounds.

 

The sun starting to set over the gorge.

 

We also started to explore Aristi before it got dark and ended up at a bar called Joya, run by a woman named Rania and her husband. She runs over on a little wooden bridge from her house when she has customers, and the bar looks out over a small garden. Since we didn't have any euros yet, she told us just to come back the next day and pay her then--so perhaps this village is the most trusting place we've ever been.

 

The liquor is rakimeno, which is a warm honey liquor with a tiny cinnamon stick inside. The cat is named Tito, and he was excellent at catching moths.

 

All of our drinks here have come with whatever the Greek word for tapas is--sometimes it's a few slices of cheese, and sometimes it's a more substantial spread like the one below.

 

More views of the sunset over the gorge...I took approximately one zillion of these.

 

The path up to our hotel.

 

And dinner, though I promise we do other things than eat. Sometimes. Anyway, I wasn't very hungry since lunch was so huge, and I had a tomato and cream cheese salad with cucumber (their cream cheese is different here, so it's not as gross as it sounds). Taylor had pork with peach puree.

 

I was passed out cold by 9:30 pm, tucked up snug in my little stone cabin, though we'd be up at 6 am the next day to visit as many villages, ancient bridges, and gorge lookouts as we could.