EFI
Last night, after I had sat on the roof as the sun set looking at the harbor and was about to go to the grill restaurant with the good gyros just down the street that had reopened, Wolfgang knocked on my door and said that he was going to Lefkes, it turns out with Efi, to a restaurant he liked, did I want to come. I did and said that I wanted to pay since he had paid for the fabulous meal by the harbor last week.So off we went. I went down to Efi’s kitchen where Wolfgang was waiting. Efi was in the other room getting ready and shouting stuff in Greek out to Wolfgang.
The ride was nice but for the first time in Greece, my meal wasn’t that terrific. It was good. I had rabbit cooked with onions in red wine, as did Wolfgang. But he was a tough rabbit, a little long in the tooth or maybe he worked out a little too much, in any case he was rubbery and a little hard to eat, like eating a chicken leg with your hands when a knife is too complicated. The fries that came with him were very good. Efi didn’t eat her fries for some reason, the best part of the meal, and ate only two thirds of her large steak, cutting off a piece for me which I discovered had been grilled until it was dry and tasteless. Wolfgang seemed to enjoy his rabbit and told a rabbit story. His German family had rabbits which they ate, but only after the children had become attached to the rabbits. In order to get the kids to eat their pet rabbit the mother would cut up the rabbit in small pieces and keep it frozen for months and then slip it into a stew without announcing it so that they didn’t know they were eating rabbit.
We had three large bottles of beer between us. When the meal was over and we were down to two fingers of beer in each of our glasses Wolfgang ordered another bottle. The meal was over but not over and we sat for another hour and talked as I became woozier and woozier. We talked about Efi’s life. It was an odd conversation. I would ask a question about Efi, Wolfgang would repeat it in Greek for Efi and then Efi would have a long dialogue with Wolfgang in Greek after which Wolfgang would translate it for me in a few words. I was never sure that I got the whole story.
When I look back on the evening this morning I go back to the time just after I, on a whim, booked a flight to Athens. Just after that, one of Todd’s sisters heard about my proposed travels and sent a contest announcement from Airbnb. 12 people from around the world would be chosen to have a year of free Airbnb’s wherever they wanted to go with a companion or family with a good sum for travel. The pandemic had kept us in for a year. Susie and I each applied, it only took a half hour to write 500 words, saying we would take the other and Todd. My argument was that I was an octogenarian and raring to go. I thought that they might like that, apparently they didn’t. Susie was finally told she didn’t get accepted and I never heard. But it had gotten us to thinking and was probably the impetus for my booking two more trips, Barcelona and Paris. If Airbnb wouldn’t accept me, I would arrange my own trip. By this time I had read Scott Keyes book, Take More Vacations: How to Book Better, Travel Cheaper and Travel the World. He suggests more short trips spread out rather than one yearly or every other year expensive trip. And I realized that that is what I wanted to do, to come back for at least a month between trips. If I made a rash decision and didn’t like the place I was going to, for example Morocco about which I know nothing, it would only be for a month. I also read a book by an elderly couple, it turns out in their late sixties who wondered if they were too old to travel, who sold their house and Airbnbed around the world instead. One of the things they said was that it matters just as much who you stay with as the quality of your lodging. They got to know a number of people who they became good friends with by doing this.
And this brings me back to Efi and her story and Wolfgang. This was our second night out together with Efi all dressed up and was the second time that I had heard her story, this time in more detail. She married her childhood sweetheart at 17, had the first of her two children, Olga, at 18, was together with her husband who, was not a hard worker, for 16 years. Then she left her husband. Against the wishes of her parents she took the children to Athens where entirely through her own effort she managed to own a kiosk where she sold magazines and candy and drinks and made a living for 21 years before coming back to Paros and inheriting her mother’s house and turning it into an Airbnb. The husband remarried, an English woman who also left him, had two children, and is around here somewhere. As I mentioned, I didn’t get the whole story and may have misunderstood, but through her flashing eyes and the intense way she told it, I could feel both her pain and her satisfaction at succeeding to send her children to the university and to running her Airbnb here on Paros. She has put the pain behind her and is pleased with herself.
So the evening was over. We went out on the street and looked at the faraway bright lights of Naxos, Efi making sure that I didn’t fall down although a little wobbly herself, and then we drove home.
Todd, Susie and I have stayed at a number of Airbnb’s in Europe and Istanbul, some spacious and some cramped, but have never gotten to know the owners. Probably we stayed too short a time. But getting to know Efi is the best part of staying in one of Efi’s Rooms. The room is spacious enough, the porch under the bougainvillea is a pleasant place to write and the rooftop with the wide view of the harbor is marvelous, but the best part of staying at Efi’s Rooms for me is getting to know Efi and Wolfgang.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 