45 minutes from rodos is the small village of haraki consisting of about two supermarkets and only a handful of restaurants and one lovely little beach. on our taxi ride in from the airport our driver, antonio seemed confused as to why we were going all the way out to little haraki and what exactly it was we were going to do there. we soon found out from the surprise of the many greek people we encountered that is was not yet tourist season. it does not begin until may. judging by the ghost town essence this little town gave off it imediately reaffirmed this newfound knowledge and i then understood antonio's confusion. he dropped us off at out little beachside apartment and my realization of the true beauty of greece holds began to sink in. since we were in fact the only ones occupying this humble abode, in a strange way i did not feel like the tourist that i indeed was. the greek hospitality we were welcomed with was definitely unlike any other country i have visited amongst my travles. we were treated as long lost friends. stella, the owner of haraki mare brought us gifts upon our arrival consisting of fresh oranges, home made olives, and a sweet food that was eaten on bread (i am not quite sure what it was) none the less we were welcomed with open arms.
our first day in greece, stella recommended for us to go to the orange festival in the next village over. with our plans to go into our spring break trip with no plans we gladly accpeted the request and set out for our first adventure. with anticipation as to what this orange festival would contain and excitement as to where we would end up we followed the route stella gave us with little hesitation. along the walk we encountered endless fields of wildflowers, small white washed houses, and the nautral beauties of the greek countryside. after walking for about thirty minutes we cam to a crossroads not sure exactly which way to go. we let the distant music lead our footsteps relying on the fact that the music we heard was in fact from the orange festival. the huge wooden oranges lining the street after we had turned also helped direct us. it was literally one large festival in celebration of oranges!!! it was wonderful. booths loned the outskirts of the venue giving smaples of freshly squeezed orange juice, orange cake, candied orange peels, orange marmelade, orange jam with greek yogurt and many other foods that i couldnt quite distinguish into one particular catergory but i am willing to bet some sort of orange contents are within the recipie.
There was a huge bbq with different kinds of meats and breads. it smelled so good. it briefly took me back to the annual easter celebration celebrated by my family carrying out lebanese traditions from our heritage. there was also a large stage that provided many different talents to the audience members that sat in the crowd. a band played lively music and differnt sytles of greek dancing took place one right after another. it was nearly mesmorizing to watch as their feet moved with such intention to the fast paced music that filled the air. one of my favorite parts about the dancing and for that matter the festival in general was the sense of family you felt just from being there. this sense of family was demonstrated when all of the dancers dressed in the traditional attire finished their dance and the fellow festival atendees picked up their last step right where they left off. people from all ages; four year olds who could barely walk to young agile adults to grandma's and grandpa's joined arms and began to dance the traditional greek dance. i loved watching and i wanted desperately to lean and be a part of this community this family this culture.
after we got our share of orange juice for the week we made our way back to haraki, once again by foot. during the week we made some dinners within the confines of our little kitchen mostly of the cheapest and easiest ingridentis we could find from the one supermarket that was open. our home made dinners consisted of pasta with oil, salt, and garlic powder. the nights we didnt cook we ate at this little place down the board walk from our apartment. it was called haraki dreams. oh the amazing experiences we had there. we quickly became regulars and good friends withthe owner mike, because of the wonderful treatment we received and many because it was nearly the only restuarant open in haraki.
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