Kalofeggo in Pori (Pano Koufonisi)

I visited the 15th of August Pori on Pano Koufonisi and I sat down to snack on something Good moon. It was a revealing experience.

I was lucky enough to meet them Koufonisia in the 1970s. It had not arrived - it came under PASOK in the early 1980s - and the lighting was with acetylene lamps. On foot we took the beaches: Finikas, Italy, Pori. Paradise beaches, nudism, innocent times.

The years have passed. Ten years ago I arrived in Pori on an inflatable and went crazy. The beach, plain Vouliagmeni, hundreds of people. The sea is lined with a belt of protective cork - the limit of boats by swimmers - and beyond a ruin of inflatables, boats and sailboats. And behind the sandy beach among the dry stones dozens of cars.

"How did this island that was a paradise become like this?" It was my reaction, a reaction of one who lived with his memories. And I immediately took the road back.

I went again yesterday, on the eve of August 2017, XNUMX, with a friend who set out to prove me wrong.

Again a lot of people, but as I went to the beach, I saw that he was one of those who glad to see you. The beach is disorganized, without a trace of a sunbed, and everything that follows the philosophy of the sunbed. The people with their colorful sails spread out on the sand, beach games, happy people!

We chose it from the two taverns Good moon.

The atmosphere - despite the world - me reminded of Mykonos Paraga in 1970. Extremely tasteful place, customers new happy guys, most foreigners (Italian-French-Spanish), with their swimsuits, a very relaxed atmosphere, and on the other hand an excellent service, a sense of pastry everywhere, and a very good organization. We sat down and tried the menu. Wide range of "Mediterranean type" cuisine, teased Greek from where we tried:

• smoked eggplant salad with tahini
• fried feta cheese with crispy cereal crust
• beetroot salad with green apple
• chickpea meatballs with hummus
• peppered calf carpaccio with arugula and Naxos gruyere
• salad with cherry tomatoes, fennel, homemade pesto and xinomyzithra
• Cretan skewers (local pasta) with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil
• minced lamb fillet with grilled briam and yogurt.

I met him Alexandros Miaoulis the owner of "Kalofengos". A sweet and modest figure reminiscent of Fayoum faces (ascetic, dark face with a light beard). He told us his story:

"My father was a civil engineer, Nikolaos Miaoulis, in the 60's he built houses and apartment buildings in Athens and he has two craftsmen from Koufonisi who convince him to visit the island. He starts work in Koufonisi and at some point they pay him with land. And the earth was the Pori. (note: I remind you that coastal estates in the 1960s were given as useless, without any use and exchange value, they were not converted into plots). My father used a part of the land and 2006 I decide to leave and take my fingerprint with Kalofengo (the word means the 15 days following the full moon).”

Times change, tradition evolves.

Alexander created the next tradition. With ethos, aesthetics and poetry, he built an island of quality, using old and new materials. Seen with a modern look, Kalofengo is an oasis, on a noisy but heavenly beach that faces - to set its boundaries -, the sacred and untouched by development island of Keros.

Somehow I also changed my mind and I can say that in the heart of the peak of Summer I felt with a pleasant surprise.