Eftalou! How 'bout you? Eftalou Eftalou. G to you!

So you might have looked at the title of this blog and thought... "Hmm... that looks a little strange." Well you would be right.  This title came from the brilliant and sometimes jumbled mind of my mama, Michele Hoovler.  I said, "What should we call this blog?"  My mom exclaimed from the other room, "OOH I think we should do something funny with Eftalou! Since we went there! We could call it Eftalou, how about you? Or Eftalou, g to you! Or Eftalou... Eftalou... Eftalou." Wow mom.  You shocked me with what a good title that was, you really did.  But in honor of her ideas, I decided to go with her idea anyways.


This is a bit of a catch up blog, I've gotten a bit behind the last few days!

We went to the beach again on Thursday!  I was trying to find cute pictures of us at the beach, but what we had (other than this one, which I guess is not so bad), we had: A) One of me napping, and we know from previous blogs how attractive me sleeping is.  B) A few unflattering shots of me waddling over the rocks into the ocean.  And C) Pictures that look exactly the same as all the ones we've already taken.  So this is what we got.

Papa Joe found some ruins on the way back from the beach!  They're probably from before the castle was constructed here.  At one time, they must have been closer to the beach because of how the ruins were arranged.  "It looks like a series of dwellings."- Direct Quote from Archaeologist Joe.

The castle and the town of Molivos! We walked down to the harbor, since we hadn't been there yet.  There is literally not one place in this village where there's a bad view.

A view off the pier at the harbor! So pretty.

A boat in the harbor :)

There were so many boats in the harbor! Probably more than 50, I would guess, although I'm not the best judge of  numbering things haha.

Papa Joe and I at the habor!

Mama and I on the pier! The little girl behind us was fishing and cats kept trying to eat her bait.  She was unhappy, to say the least.

We stopped at one of the restaurants in the harbor and had an appetizer.  We had a  bell pepper stuffed with feta cheese that was baked.  OHMYGODSOGOOD.  We also had olive paste spread on bread.  The food here is to die for!

On Friday, we got up and went to the bakery and then decided to take a taxi to Eftalou! It's another village on Lesvos about 5 minutes away by taxi.   Richard and Lana had recommended a fish restaurant to us and there is also a woodworking shop there!

Me on the beach at Eftalou! The water was so clear and cold!

Papa Joe and I on the beach! The land mass you can see behind us is Turkey! It's only 5 kilometers away from  Eftalou !!

Mama and I on the beach :)

We went to the woodworking shop, we were just blown away by how beautiful it is.  The people that own it, Eric and Philippa, have been living there for 12 years.  Their daughter Elleni is about to be 13.  Eric creates many pieces of art from olive wood, including jewelry and hairpins, statues, figurines, candle holders, and more.  He also paints scenery from Lesvos, among other things.  We sat and talked with the three of them for almost 3 hours! We ate plums that were picked fresh from their trees and got to look at the woodworking shop and their olive grove and their vegetable garden, as well as meet all of their animals! They have about 200 olive trees on their property.

The olive grove!

The piece we bought from Eric's shop!  

We had such a nice time and they invited us back to have dinner with them on Sunday night! We can't wait :) After we left the olive grove, we went to the Eftalou restaurant to have a late lunch! 

So.... I keep meaning to take pictures of the food we eat.  But. I either a) forget to actually take the picture or b) take the picture after we've already eaten half of it.  That's what happened here.  So.  Ignore the fact that there may or may not be drool or bite marks on the food.  These are stuffed zucchini flowers! They were fried and stuffed with feta cheese.  So. Yummy.  We also had olives.  THEY WERE NASTY.  I don't know how to describe what they tasted like.  Like.... something that has been underwater for a long time? Like something that was soaked and then boiled and then dipped in really old vinegar?  I don't know.  I DID NOT LIKE THEM.  But Papa Joe did.  What does that say, hmmmm???

This is my half eaten dinner.  I know that's a little gross.  But it was so good that it is worth having a picture of!  I had fresh cod that was fried, french fries, and a fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.  Everything was SO DELICIOUS.  Minus the olives from above.  Those still sucked.

Mama and I standing on the beach, waiting for the taxi to take us back to Molivos! We had the loveliest of days in Eftalou.

Today has just been kind of a lazy day!  We've been doing our laundry and hanging it out to dry on our lovely terrace.

And my mom and I made fresh tzatziki!!!  Recipe for tzatziki: Peeled and finely chopped cucumber, chopped red onion, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, lime juice, and yoghurt.  Recipe for a happy Rachel: LOTS OF TZATZIKI.  It turned out so well!!

We also explored a bit more of town today and poked around in a lot of the little shops! If you have any souvenir requests, send them my way via Facebook :)  Tonight, we were hoping to go to the open air cinema and see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie but these tricksy Greeks (I don't actually think all Greeks are tricksy, but they did trick me with the dates of the movies)  changed it to Something Borrowed!  We will be here for another weekend though, so we might go next weekend instead!  More to come soon! Happy reading!