Kalives, Greece, October 2020

Bulgaria to Greece, October 2020

In summer, Kalives is a popular resort on the Aegean Sea. In October, it is a sleepy small village with the population of 1,600 people. Kalives is located in Halkidiki region between the two fingers (smaller peninsulas) of Kassandra and Sithonia, The third finger is the famous Holy Mount Athos, an autonomous and self-governed territory of Greece that hosts 20 monasteries.

During my 3 weeks in Kalives, I walked all over it to see every corner. Unlike some of my posts that are mostly text, this post is a lot of photos.

The beach was deserted at any time of the day, with crystal clear waters still warm enough to swim, i. e. the locals don’t consider the sea warm but I mean the visitors like me who don’t want to miss an opportunity to have a dip.

Someone is fortunate to have the Aegean Sea in their frontyard — Someone is fortunate to have the Aegean Sea in their front yard

This beachfront café is closed after the season as everything else in the village

A luxury villa on the beach is locked up for winter

The gates with ornate wrought iron details

It was odd to discover this typical for a small American town saloon among traditional Greek houses. Every detail is faithfully reproduced.

My accommodation in Kalives was one of the apartments owned by a Russian-speaking family of migrants from Georgia. The family rents them out to vacationers. They also have an olive business. I happened to be in Kalives when it’s time to pick up olives and volunteered to help.

These olive trees extend for miles and miles. There must be hundreds of thousands of them around the villages.

Gathering olives was a new experience for me. When I visited Greece for the first time 2 years ago, I saw plastic sheets spread under the trees. The olives got shaken off the trees mechanically and then collected from the sheets. I assumed that was the way to pick up all olives. Apparently, only the olives used to produce oil can be picked up like that. The olives that are marinated should be picked up by hand, one by one. Otherwise, they get bruised and will eventually rot.

The tree owners hire seasonal workers, Albanians, to pick up the most of olives. Some olives inevitably are left on the trees. Then the owners walk from one tree to another and pick the remaining olives. It is usually no more than a handful of olives on one tree which means a lot of walking to fill a box.

Wooden makeshift rakes are used to reach the top branches and pull olives from them. Everyone crawls under the tree to gather olives from the ground.

I did not realize how dusty the olive trees are. Every time when I reached for an olive, I swept the dust from the leaves with my clothes and hair. At the end of the day, I looked as if I rolled in the road dust.

When it is time for handpicking the rest of olives it is all right to do it from your neighbors’ trees or the olives are likely to be wasted. The trees will be pruned soon. They grow fast and can become enormous if not pruned annually.

My cultural program included a visit to an ancient city of Olynthos.

Around 430 BC, this classical city became the mightiest in the region and for a century, played a leading role in the political developments in Halkidiki until it was completely destroyed by Philip IItely destroyed by Philip II — Around 430 BC, this classical city became the mightiest in the region and for a century, played a leading role in the political developments in Halkidiki until it was completely destroyed by Philip II

Meteora, Greece, October 2020

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sphinxcakeelektra38883

October 30, 2020 at 6:44 am

Vewry picturesque and so warm! Good to be able to bathe there in October:) It is interesting to know about olive trees: they look dusty, but I always presumed that it is their natural colour and not the dust itself:)