What happened when I returned to Greece after 40 years to track down one special taverna owner
Stephen Wise wins our Just Back travel writing contest - and ￡250 - for his tale of tracking down a taverna owner after 40 years in order to fulfil a simple promise.
Susan looked at our old map of Lesbos. “This thing was probably printed before the last war,” she said. We were in the mountains and lost, a landscape of jagged summits piercing a cobalt blue sky.
The idea of hiring an old scooter and going in search of a taverna we had visited 40 years previously in 1978 was looking more like a joke. We had taken a picture of the old lady holding a battered copper tray while serving us a Greek coffee and had promised to post a copy of the image to her.
Alas, her scribbled writing was indecipherable and the photo had remained in a dusty drawer until we had returned to the island to try to deliver it in person all these years later.
As we rounded a hairpin bend, the taverna appeared, set back and almost invisible through the pine trees.
“That’s it,” Susan cried, above the complaining chug of our scooter engine, the joy at finding it turning to sadness as we surveyed the dilapidated building long since abandoned and chained up with a rusty lock. “What do we do now?” Susan said. I looked around.
A half-fallen iron signpost directed the traveller to a village up a barely rideable track. As we slowly made our way through the forest, the air filled with the scent of wild hollyhocks and thyme. Ten minutes later, we came to the old village; its stone houses like an old man’s remaining teeth grew out of the granite outcrop, the azure sea and coast now barely visible in the distance.
The only taverna in the village was set in the shade of an ancient walnut tree, its fruit scattered over the cobbled path. We were served octopus and a wonderful Greek salad with ice-cold lemonade. As we showed the picture to the taverna’s owner, he called over others sitting in a dark corner and an animated conversation ensued in staccato Greek.
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A young boy who spoke broken English explained that the taverna in our photograph had been shut for 20 years and the elderly owner appearing in it was now 95 and housebound in the cottage he pointed out on the hill above us.
We finished our lemonade and followed him on foot up the track to the cottage through flower-filled verges. Marbled white butterflies floated in the humid air, so numerous they brushed against us.
The young boy explained that the lady was his great grandmother and that while housebound, she was still alert. We all entered the ancient cottage without knocking and the boy explained our surprise presence to the old lady.
She smiled as though expecting us. Susan gave her the picture. She gazed at it, not speaking – and as a shaft of sunlight lit her face, she smiled and a tear ran down her cheek.
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How to enter the next round of Just Back
Email your entry, in 500 words (with the text in the body of the email), to [email protected]. For terms and conditions, see telegraph.co.uk/tt-justback.
The winner will receive ￡250 in the currency of their choice from the Post Office.
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