I came back from the gorge of the valley of the dead tired but in love with Kato Zakros. I spoke to my mom and said, you should send it all to hell and come to Kato Zakros. At the gate of the village I saw a beautiful garden, with the long vines crowing a profusion of green juicy grapes, and a sign inviting the visitor to partake, with the name of the taverna which gave shape to that dance of vines. I said yes, Cypris, but where is the man you promised? I saw a fountain and shoved my entire head under the water. It was still a bright day as I approached the row of tavernas to rest. A man immediately tells me kalimera. This is the taverna the vine garden belonged to. The man insists on talking to me, obviously asks me if I am from Israel, invites me to sit. “Do not listen to him. He is drunk” a man sitting in the taverna erupts. Me, simply: “How drunk?”. This second man was eating maccheroni and was abrupt: “Drunk, he is drunk. Alcohol. This is the water. Want to sit? And sit down. One fifty”. I ask for an orange juice and sit, a bit perplexed by this man’s ill-mannered tones.
The drunk man sits at my table and gently starts to talk, asks questions. I laugh and ask mine. Turns out both these men are the owners of the taverna, sons of the same father who gave the name to it and left for a better world. “What’s the deal with your brother? He keeps saying you are drunk”. He smokes an endless cigarette: “You know, my brother. No woman for years. This is why he is out of his mind.” I laugh and say that if he does not have a woman, he can still go to the mountains, it is the same. In that moment, a guy gathers up my backpack from the ground and puts it on the chair, then he leaves. I glance at this and look back at the drunk man, who keeps telling me I can camp with his seventy year old italian friends, that he can introduce me to a minoan cave nobody has ever heard about, that in the night there will be a music festival in a near village. “You can sleep in my place. I am not gonna touch you, unless you want.”
“I do not want.”
“You say this only now. You will change your mind in the end.”
He asks my name. I say my name is Alexandra.
He stares at me, “Alexandra the great.” His eyes had the colour of his grapes.