The Red Rock

Beach day!

After two coffees, two cigarettes, and a bit of lemon cake from Maria, I made my way back to Armenistis to have some breakfast and then spend the day at the nearby Livadi Beach.

I found a nice Kafenio there and enjoyed avocado toast, an Americano, and a freshly squeezed orange juice with a splendid view. I remembered that Armenistis had some connection to the hippie culture and thought it might be worth researching…

It's a classic rabbit hole. Behind almost every aside, there's a wealth of information and other interesting stories, but I'll try to summarize it:

Ikaria is also known as κόκκινος βράχος (Kokkinos Vrachos, Red Rock) within Greece. While Greece was occupied by Italy and Germany around World War II, during the post-war period, when the first conflicts of the Cold War erupted here in the form of a civil war between fascists and communists, as well as the fascist dictatorship that lasted into the 1970s, thousands of leftist intellectuals, communists, and regime opponents were exiled to Ikaria.

Despite a strict contact ban and the threat of torture, the exiles were not isolated by the locals but instead were integrated into the village communities. As a result, Ikaria developed a deeply rooted culture of anti-authoritarianism (I spent 5 minutes on this word and it's still underlined in red 🤷‍♂️), solidarity, and alternative thinking quite early on.

This word spread, and thus Ikaria became a popular retreat for young people in the 1960s and 1970s who wanted to escape from the repressive Athenian regime.

In the early seventies, a group of German Marine scouts then landed in Armenistis. So the legend goes. I was today years old when I discovered there was such a thing as “German Marine scouts.” The emphasis seems to be on “scouts” rather than “marine,” as this group founded a permanent commune there together with Greek leftist students.

The locals referred to the newcomers as γρούβαλοι (Grouvaloi), which probably derives from “groove.” The hippies celebrated total freedom, wild camping, and naturism, and the Ikarians, who already live very slowly and shared the political views of the hippies, just let them be.

The hippie era is long gone, but a certain spirit of it has remained in Armenistis to this day. The place is still a popular destination for leftist Greek students, and some of the hippies from back then have settled there permanently.

I think I will spend the second half of my vacation there or in the neighboring Gialiskari (where I had a room 16 years ago), but who knows what will happen in the next few days.

On the topic of “communism in Ikaria,” I found two very worth-reading articles. One from Switzerland: https://www.woz.ch/2228/ikaria-griechenland/das-verborgene-herz-der-weltrevolution

And one in English from Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/9/16/neurotic-in-paradise

Thank you for your attention 🤓