We were in Leros for the first time last summer for just a few hours on the occasion of the Mylos restaurant. For this purpose, we boarded an inflatable boat after years from Kos. We disembarked at the port of Agia Marina, sat down for a coffee at Via Mare, and from there, it all started.
Gazing at the Mill in the background, the scene reminded me of the Yalos of Mykonos as I used to see it as a child, sitting on the beach outside Leto. And there was something familiar about the island`s energy, too, as if I was returning home after a long time.
That day, a few hours later, on a break from our truly excellent meal at the Mill, Panos and I swam in the clear blue waters at the side of the restaurant, on the small pebbled beach with its shady tamarisk trees.
Through the sea, we saw a little house on the water, with green windows, being renovated. And how nice it would be if we found something relevant to spend a week next summer on this island that captivated me.
As karma would have it, this particular little house belonged to Mario Koutsounaris, chef and co-owner of the Mylos with his brother George. He was renovating it so he could host his friends.
Fast forward to this summer, the week in Leros became ten days, and this little house with the green windows on the water hosted our most beautiful vacation in many years.
And Leros acquired that nickname, and the pronoun that makes all the difference - as a man I love dearly once wrote on his blog - and it became "my little island" so quickly but also so meaningfully that not only can I write this piece with what characterises it in my eyes and heart, but I will return year after year again and again until the time comes when I am fully integrated and can spend months and months there since for this blessed island I intend to trade the retirement I have always dreamed of in the French or English countryside.
Before I list the things I love about the island and the things I dream of in the winter until I can open the green window again and gaze at this view that fills my soul, I will tell you that Leros is not for everyone. It`s certainly not for those looking for the new Mykonos, who will be tweaked by its undeniable trend that has already started.
Leros is not the place for logos, loud music, champagne parties, plastic, and "you know who I am." The island has something that is rarely found anymore, and for me, it is the ultimate luxury: simplicity.
Even its airport, a great asset for those who stay on the island permanently, is primitive in that old movie-like way. The whole island is, after all, a backdrop.
The lovely neoclassical buildings in ochre colours blend harmoniously with the all-white houses with green and blue windows, with the Italian influence of the buildings in Lakki, with the silvery beaches shaded by tamarisk trees, with the turquoise waters, with the locals welcoming/calming you with their hearts, and of course, with the Psychiatric Hospital casting its own heavy yet human shadow on this place that has been imbued with a lot of pain, but has managed to resist and to transform this pain into an energy that is pure and strong, which you feel to the depths of your soul.
So, just as it deserves, I will also try to show you around "my" Leros. As we used to write in the scrapbooks of our childhood, "Leros is"...
· Mylos, first of all, since apart from our reason for visiting the island, it is the engine that drags the tourist development. The dream of Marios and George Koutsounaris, the best fish restaurant in the country with three FNL stars and first place in The List, the reason why inflatable boats and boats from all over the world arrive at its pier, the epitome of simplicity we used to say, with the best ingredients cooked with the utmost respect, with excellent wines, with great music, with impeccable yet friendly service, and most notably with the soul of the owners, and their quality reflected in every trim, perfectly thought out detail. The food is something the experts will write about very soon. For me, the essence of the Mylos will always be this photo—a horiatiki salad with five different kinds of tomatoes from the bushel, overlooking this dream window.
· The little house with the green windows on the water. To wake up in the morning with this view, to hang out for hours on endless hours on the shady porch, to get up after your afternoon nap and dive straight into the sea five measured steps from your door, to gaze at it lit up in the evenings, shining like a jewel.
· The mornings at Via Mare of Vassilis. Three hundred fifty steps from our house go, and another 350 steps come, on the harbour of Agia Marina, with its famous toasts, and with the most delicious spinach pie in a packet for lunch at noon, on the beach.
· The most beautiful ring of the summer, made entirely of hand-painted shell, was bought for just 15 euros by the lady who sets up her wares every day next to Via Mare.
· Ride in Mr. Thomas` (Thomas Vision Yachting) inflatable boat around the surrounding islands. Diving in the deep blue waters of Marathi and Tiganakia, a necessary stop in Arki is for lunch at Trypa, Lipsi, Makronissi, and back to Leros as the sun sets and paints the sea orange.
· Agia Kioura. Visit the church, which has unique icons painted by political exiles from 1967-1974, with models of their fellow prisoners and signatures all on the left. Then, swim on the small beach just beyond, with the towel laid out under a shady tamarisk.
· Serza, in Merikia. A brand new restaurant by the sea with delicious food and an exciting wine list. Delicious raw sardines with lemon sauce, sweet onion pie, and the most delightful soutzoukaki with fresh tomato and crispy fries.
· The Leros & Eros shopping bag and the Instagram account of the same name
· The sunset as we watched it sitting at Skipper`s at Marina in Lakki
· Mr Zachos with his taxi, who is always a phone call away, even if you need him because you`re too bored to walk those 350 meters from breakfast back home.
· Paradosiako in Agia Marina, for salty and sweet local delicacies. Be sure to try the Leriki cheese pie, which is like a tart
· The exhibition All things become Islands before my senses, at Perasma Gallery in Agia Marina. From Istanbul to Leros. (the photos are borrowed from Fay Bei)
· The book "Leros, the Grammar of Confinement" by Nefeli Publications. "By researching state and private archives, official and unofficial histories, interviews and testimonies, tracing a century of abuse of the island by various authorities, the book traces and gives relief to history as a personal and collective experience, and tells us that there is another Leros, outside and beyond the imposition, repression and exploitation of the state, a Leros that is the beautiful island of the Dodecanese, with its crystal clear seas and inhabitants who refuse to be defined solely through the history that has been imposed on them and stand upright and implicitly subject to the history they make. "
· Oysters and sunset on Sotos, in Drymonas. The owner has his boat and fishes himself for what he offers on his list.
· Alinda beach is suitable for swimming if you want an umbrella and sunbed.
· Our friends, old and new, are and always will be the connective tissue of all the beautiful moments we share. They become memories that will light up our hearts every time we reminisce. Our appointment has already been set for next year.