Playing Miss Marple – Trying to Find an old Friend
Today I decide to stay in Livadia whilst my compadres decide to hike up to one of the watchtowers on the hill above Livadia.
My mission today is to try and find the little taverna that I visited with my partner 17 years ago. The owner was certainly a character and I was keen to see if he was still around. It would also help me get my bearings a bit. I headed down to the Microchorio bar on the beach front for a pomegranate juice and it was here that I made my first line of enquiry. I asked if she knew of a man called Dimitris (I have changed his name) who had a little taverna in Livadia 17 years ago. I described the terracotta pots that were embedded in the wall – this was my marker for the taverna when I saw it.
The lady at the taverna told me that she hadn’t been on the island for 17 years but she would make a phone call to the owner of the bar for me.
Ten minutes later the lady came down onto the beach to tell me what she had discovered. The grave look on her face and they way she bent down towards me, told me that it wasn’t good news.
She told me that I most certainly would have walked past the little taverna on my way to Sevas Studios as it sat on the hill on the main road out of Livadia. She told me that about 8 years previously Dimitris had found out that he had cancer. He took a trip to Rhodes where he took his own life by hanging.
I was rendered speechless and just didn’t know what to say. I was shocked and saddened to hear this tragic news.
I recounted the story of how we met Dimitris to her and she in turn told me some funny stories that the owner of the bar had told her. You can read about how we met him from the original transcript of my diary from 2001:
Chance Encounters on Tilos – July 2001
After that shock I no longer felt like sitting on the beach and decided to walk along the beach road to the old marina. The beach begins to empty out at this end and the water is beautifully clear. At this point I get an incoming call from the family peeps – they can see me from the ruins of the watchtower that sits above Livadia. I can’t see them but we arrange to meet a little later.
Earlier today friends of mine from the UK arrived on Tilos and we have arranged to meet them at Trata taverna. We had passed this taverna several times and the smell of the wood burning cooker had caught our attention. The taverna also had the terracotta pots set into the wall like Dimitris taverna – but it definitely wasn’t the same place.
On the way back up to Sevas Studios, I began looking for Dimitris taverna according to the information the lady at Microchorio bar had given me. Just after Trata, there is a sad looking little taverna that has clearly been neglected. There are no pots set into the wall but when I went to take a close look I could see where the pots had once been set into the concrete. This was the place – and I HAD walked past it several times. It looks so much smaller than I remembered it. Nobody would give it a second look now – especially as it now seems to be a place to park the dumpsters. Nonetheless, I have fond memories of our encounter with this man who was such a character. May he rest in peace.
Later that evening we meet our friends that have just arrived on Tilos at Trata. The other five all opt to share a large freshly caught fish cooked by Elias on his fantastic wood burning oven whilst I choose the beef stifado cooked by Elizabeth in her magic pot. I can quite honestly say that this is the best stifado I have ever had. And I’ve had a LOT of stifado over the years! 🙂 This isn’t the last time we eat at Trata during our stay. The hospitality and food at this little taverna is second to none!
