Lush Living in the Peloponnese

Within just over two hours drive from Athens, we zip past the sprawling seaside town of Akrata and make a steep ascent up curvy mountain roads, past resilient old villages it takes just minutes to drive through, through a breathtaking landscape with a massive, imposing mountain wall on one side, cobalt blue sea on another, and lush vegetation abounding. With our windows rolled all the way down on this gloriously warm, early May day, the sweet smells of grass and leaves wet by flowing spring water, bright aromatic flowers and pungent herbs, pour through our windows in an intoxicating wave.

As we reach the 3000 year-old village of Seliana we follow directions until we come to a picturesque old church with a giant plain tree and old swings, then spotting Re-Green’s unassuming entrance – a stone-built, square archway (a reference to the Mycenaean finds excavated on their land). As we park we’re greeted by Flery Fotiadou, who runs the place with her partner Christos Alexiou, and who waves us in with a dazzling smile. “Are you hungry?” she calls out, “we’ve just started lunch!” We join the hosts and their two benches-full of international guests and volunteers in the outdoor “hangout” eating area, feeling as though we are among friends – a feeling that doesn’t change throughout our stay.

The pair are Athenians worn out by a hard core urban professional lifestyle, who gladly packed it all in for a simpler life in the country. Guests come and go at Re-Green, which is a kind of organic farm where people can stay while attending workshops on everything, from yoga to landscape art to permaculture, but the pair sticks it out at the remote spot throughout the year, hit by extreme weather in winter and never, ever, slowing down on their land-tending mission and on keeping everything running smoothly. After finding the spot where they decided to set up their new home, they studied permaculture to learn how to make the best of what they already had – not more than a variety of trees and plants – and later created a beautiful stone guesthouse, a vibrant and varied food garden, and several naturally built structures such as an outdoor jacuzzi, kitchen and a steam room.

“  The brutal financial crisis has definitely contributed to the desire in people from 20-50 years old to leave behind the struggles of unemployed, expensive, demanding city life and live somewhere scenic, fresh, healthier.”

More and more Greeks, who were part of a mass exodus from their in many cases beautiful and historical but perhaps also solitary and backward villages and islands over the last 50-60 years to the by now heavily overcrowded Greek capital, are going back to nature and tradition. The brutal financial crisis has definitely contributed to the desire in people from 20-50 years old to leave behind the struggles of unemployed, expensive, demanding city life and live somewhere scenic, fresh, healthier (and often even rewarding for raising young kids), where they can grow their own food, take long walks in fresh air and be part of a smaller community. Flery and Christos are only two of many such people around the country, and the Mt Telaithron Project, a hard-core eco community that has set up a natural living style in the mountains of Evia is a powerful example of this.

Of course learning skills like permaculture, organic farming, gardening, cob building and more, are crucial for city folk to manage such a lifestyle – and Re-Green offers such courses to encourage others to follow in their steps. When I lived on an organic farm in the Peloponnese as a volunteer for three months I much preferred to make chutneys, pickles and jams with the farm’s produce than to go feed the chickens and clean their stinky excrement. So in a way I feel I never quite lived the real farm life, though maybe I needed more time. Basically if you run a place like Regreen, which is 6000 square meters of land, you need to get down and dirty and keep ploughing when your back is killing you and the freezing rain is soaking through your clothes. The presence of volunteers is an integral part of such a venture, and the movement through sites like Workaway has become very active in Greece where there are now lots of options for individuals to live and work at some great natural locations while helping out proprietors.

While briefly there I participated in a two hour singing class run by French vocal instructor Claire Bosse, whose group of French ladies of all ages welcomed me to join in on vocal exercises and learning African polyphonic songs. I quickly got over my awkwardness of making weird sounds and body-percussioning my (complete stranger) partner and plunged into the fun. In their two weeks there, the group was also studying land art and yoga with two other instructors, with the average day made up of communal meals, workshops and free time, when they could explore the surrounding landscape, visit the numerous animals (a fuzzy brown donkey called Maya, ducks, chickens, cats and dogs), spot medicinal herbs, edible flowers and berries growing among the abundant nature, walk down to the nearby river, or just sit at a park bench at a cliff, watching the sky change colors. Re-Green’s sumptuous accommodations are also great for relaxing in, decked out with restored vintage furniture and décor items from nearby villages and natural landscapes, comfortable beds, pretty fireplaces, modern design bathrooms and relaxing sofas.

Weeks after visiting Re-Green I still felt ebullient from the experience, perhaps because it’s not so much a business as a country home, where interesting events take place and a colorful variety of people pass through, usually treading softly. I intend to go back, if only to see how Flery and Christos are doing, and probably learn something new.

(As published on Alexia’s blog, My Greek Review – http://mygreekreview.com)

INFO
Re-Green, Ecoculture Centre
Seliana, Akrata
Tel.: (+30) 6948.407233
e-mail: [email protected]
www.re-green.gr