 |
| The cove of Bali. |
The island of Fourni is one of the many small Greek Isles accessible almost exclusively by boat. On it resides a population whose numbers can be outdone by most public high schools but it’s the one place on this planet where I can be completely relaxed. My first time going I went with my friends Will and Jon, we travelled alone all the way to Athens where we met up with Gus, Jon’s dad. Gus owns two residences on Fourni because it’s where he grew up. Jon invited Will and I to spend time there for the summer. Now I’m back here, two summers later, and this time Jon brought along fifteen of us to share the Greek experience with.
The Greek experience is what this island is all about, this island is seemingly one of the few places in Europe that hasn’t been afflicted by rampant Americanism. Yesterday morning Gus took four of us to his cousins to see how they make goat cheese. There are no high tech milking machines, nor any automated processes, just a man and his wife and their many goats. They use the same methods and technologies that have been around for hundreds of years and the result is phenomenal. People on the island go crazy for this cheese, if you want some you have to order it days in advance but since Gus is family we were able to get some as a gift. It comes in a cone-like woven container which Gus placed a bottle of wine in when we returned it to his cousin later that day. It’s not exclusively the Greek experience to have amazing cooking everyday for every meal, but it is definitely the Gus experience. This man works wonders in the kitchen, he’s opened my eyes to foods and flavors that I would have never gone near if not for him. His steak. Oh my god his steak, it’s out of this world, the marinade, the perfect amount of time spent on the grill, and the premium meat, they’re all brought together with his magical hands and I can say as sure as sure as the sun shines that his steak is my favorite food in the world. When we stay here most of our time is spent in his house in the cove of Bali, he does have the townhouse in the village of Fourni but it’s nothing in comparison to the beauty that is Bali. He has a tremendous house there, the biggest I’ve seen on the island, a piece of America that Gus brought back to his home country. On the bottom floor are all the bedrooms, four of them, each with their own connected bathrooms. The one I stay in has a door that leads to the lower balcony and gives you a beautiful view of the water which is less than a football field away. Upstairs is the living space, there’s a wraparound couch, a very nice entertainment setup which includes a flat-screen TV, speakers that could break glass, and all the other media amenities you’d expect. Just a few feet further down is a kitchen table and the kitchen itself, it has all the standards you’d expect, a dishwasher, stove, oven, sink, fridge, and exhaust hood. These may seem like no big deal, things you’d expect to find in any house, but on an island where the roads have yet to be paved and where there are just as many people who catch their dinner as there are those who buy it, these are big deals. Next to the fridge comes a bonus, the ice chest. It’s a standalone freezer with as much space as the fridge, Gus keeps most of what he catches in there until he is ready to eat it. You had better believe me when I tell you, Gus catches a lot.
Going back to the Greek experience, one of the things anyone who comes to Bali must do is go out with Gus on one of his spear fishing trips, no need to rush that because he does go out to catch stuff on a daily basis. A product of hard work and a passion for being in the water, at the age of 56 he can go down one hundred feet on a single breath. No, that is not an exaggeration. When he goes down you really have to watch closely because the action happens faster than you realize, before you even see the fish he is aiming at he’ll have speared it and attached it to his water belt and be on his way back up to the surface. Whether it be fish, octopus, or even sea urchins, he can catch them all with ease. I still haven’t gone out with him on this most recent visit but I plan on getting around to it one of these days.
Being in the water here is an adventure that’s incomparable to anything you can do in America. The water is absolutely clear, if light went down to the bottom you’d see the sea floor from any point in the water no matter how deep it is. One of the many activities I enjoy doing while here is swimming out to this orange buoy out near a jetty that marks the end of the cove. From there you get a view of Bali so amazing that you can’t stop yourself from sitting there for at least ten minutes just to take it all in, all you have to do is turn around. I really must bring my camera out there soon so that I can hopefully capture the beauty for the rest of the world to see. Seeing it isn’t enough though, not for me anyway, until you’re out on that buoy, standing on the rope that holds it in place, breathing in the salty air and catching your breath from the swim you took to get there, you can’t hope to realize the true beauty of it. The same holds true for the view from the top of the mountain off to the right of Bali, the trek up there isn’t so bad that I’d call it grueling although it’s certainly not easy, but once you get to the top it doesn’t make a difference how hard it was because all you have to do is take one look around and it simply fades into the past.
