“It’s family camp in Patmos!” Emily exclaimed. She was absolutely right. In Kampos Beach, everyone at George’s Place cafe and on the beach knew each other. A large group celebrated one man’s birthday. And everyone greeted each other and said goodbye at their comings and goings. It was the friendliest place on Earth.
It was all made clear to us as we lounged at the beach after finishing our work. A nice Norwegian woman who spoke – as all of the Norwegians we’ve met – perfect English as natural sounding as ours explained to us that everyone there comes to Patmos every year. Some, like her, come twice a year.
There’s nothing organized about it – they just all come. Because they’re all regulars, they have all come to know each other and most have become good friends. It’s a transient community of vacationers.
“If you come in June, there’s the June people and July has the people who come every July, September has its group of people….you just keep seeing the same people year after year,” the Norwegian woman explained. “You get to know this one, and the owners of this restaurant and you go to this party and that dinner and you all become friends.”
She should know – she’s been coming since 1982.
That was clearly how it was on Kampos Beach. They kissed, they wished one couple farewell, they all mixed around visiting each other’s lounge chairs and lunch tables as if the whole thing was an ongoing cocktail party.
The ones with children bring their kids every year. The Norwegian woman stopped bringing hers now that he’s 19. She’s only 42 herself and you’d never guess it. “I guess we ‘preserve’ well with all the cold,” she said.
The common theme among the travelers we meet here is that they all come regularly. Some once a year, some multiple times a year – but always annually. Apparently, once a Patmos person, always a Patmos person. And when you have vacation friends, and your kids run around together – why wouldn’t you become a Patmos person?
Many are very interesting people too. Our Norwegian woman is an emergency/trauma nurse. She used to work in an ER in Norway but now is a civilian employee of the Norwegian military and goes on UN missions to places like Chad and the Sudan. She’ll be deployed again soon after she gets back to Norway next week. She absolutely loves it and can’t imagine doing anything she loves more. God bless people like her.
We began talking with the Norwegian woman because she sat down next to the Greek-American guy we were talking with before her. He lives in New York, is a professional drummer and his wife plays the bassoon for the New York Symphony Orchestra. He was born on Patmos and they’ve been coming every summer since 1984. Three quarters of the year, they play in all kinds of venues all over the world.
During the summer she stays a few weeks and he spends the entire summer sitting on a beach, collecting €6 per beach chair. He makes a nice chunk of change doing nothing but opening and closing beach umbrellas and putting out lounge chair mattresses. He’s living the Greek Dream.
This group of Family Camp people use George’s Place as their center of operations. The beautiful and relaxed cafe, renown for its incredible Greek pies (spinach, chicken, vegetable, cheese, etc) sits right on the beach and offers WiFi. Many – like us – come with their laptops. George and his family – hang out and chat all day. Our waiter spent most of his afternoon sitting with a group of patrons at their table.
George can only make his Place work from Easter through October. After that there isn’t enough business, he closes shop. For the past two years he’s stayed on Patmos. He tried an off-season restaurant in another location, but it didn’t work well. He has no idea what he’ll do this year. He doesn’t have another business. So, it’s either live off the fat of the summer, or go elsewhere (I feel like this is National Geographic).
George says some years he’s gone to Athens, others abroad – wherever there’s work for him. He finds projects to do with friends and family who invite him to work with him. He doesn’t have a particular trade or vocation other than running restaurants, and wasn’t clear about exactly what he does. But whatever it is, he clearly would rather not do it.
Litros is a physical therapist and massage therapist who comes to Patmos every summer and does on-call massage around the island. He lives the rest of the year in the far northern city of Thessaloniki. Litros came to Patmos for the first time more than ten years ago to stay for a month. He stayed for four years. Now he’s married to a school teacher – so they have only summers. Besides, he can’t earn a living here the rest of the year. But like the Family Camp people and George, he keeps coming back – and he knows everyone.
The island developed a sudden hush this week. Except for the few hours when the cruises pull in, there are amazingly few people. Only the regular September people and the locals remain. It’s very clear that those who come this time of year like it low-key. So do we, as we plot to try to come back one day with kids so that they too can experience at least one summer of Patmos Family Camp.
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