Greek Food

I have been living in Kalymnos for 3 weeks now and I have tasted a lot of Greek national dishes.
Greek food is very different from the food I'm used to in Great Britain.

People on the island eat a lot of Feta cheese, yoghurt, honey and olive oil.

There are lots of lemon trees and Kalymnians squeeze the juice of lemons on their food.

There is no frozen food on the and ready cooked meals in the super market. So people buy fresh
vegetables and fresh meat or fish and cook everything from scratch. Also Kalymnians keep loads of animals( goats, chickens, rabbits and sheep) to provide them with their own fresh eggs, milk and meat.

As well you can find a lot of fig, orange and olive trees on the island.

Overall I would like to say Kalymnians eat much healthier food than English people, and that is why they live to about the age of 100-110 and don't suffer with obesity.

Some of my favourite dishes so far are:

FAKES - a lentil soup usually served with vinegar and olive oil.

GREEK SALAD - a tomato salad with cucumber, red onion, Feta cheese and kalamata olives, dressed with olive oil.

ZOUTZOUKAKIA - large meat balls with cumin, cinnamon and garlic and served in a tomato sauce.

And my favourite sweet so far is GALAKTOBOUREKA - custard between layers of phyllo pastry. The name derives from Greek "Ghala" meaning milk, and from the Turkish "borek" meaning filled, thus meaning "filled with milk".

  

The Monastery of Agios Savvas

The monastery of Agios Savvas lies on top of a hill above Pothia town, the capital of Kalymnos.

Saint Savvas was born in 1862 and he was a monk. During the last 20 years of his life he lived as a kind-hearted priest in Kalymnos.

I liked the monastery. It was very well looked after, incredibly tidy and pretty. All the buildings were made of stone (some of them painted white) with red slated roofs. I loved the views from the terraces over the sea and the town of Pothia and the delightful flowers that were growing around the buildings.

I couldn't believe that I wasn't allowed to run around because my favourite sport is running plus there is loads of space for running around. Also if you whistle in  the monastery it is considered to be disrespectful. I now know that in Holy places you shouldn't whistle or run and you have to be polite and quiet.

On the whole it is a wonderful monastery and I would recommend you visiting it if you are in Kalymnos. 

Stay tuned and don't forget to comment.

Beginning of my adventures (island Kalymnos)

A week ago me and my Mum came to a beautiful island called Kalymnos. It is a Greek island in Aegean Sea between the island of Kos and the island of Leros.

I liked the island because of all the stunning views over the mountains and the sea.  The houses are really pretty and are very traditional. The people in Kalymnos are very friendly and hospitable and I have made 6 friends already.

Kalymnos isn't a very big island. It has an area of 109 km sq and has a population of about 10,000 people.

Kalymnians are quite religious people and there are 300 churches and 5 monasteries  on the island. The majority of Kalymnians are Greek Orthodox.

We have already visited the monastery of Agious Savvas but I will tell you about it and show you the pictures in my next post.