In the 1930s, life in Hydra was different from season to season due to the sponging, the place’s only significant economic factor. But Sunday mornings were the same in all seasons on the beach of our island, except for Easter Sunday or if it coincided with the 25th of March or another holiday.
On Sunday morning all the shops were closed until the Church was dismissed, except for the coffee houses which only served, but did not give out cards or backgammon.
The dominant form of traffic in the port on Sunday mornings was the Monastery, even though nine parishes were operating at the same time. All eyes were on the great belfry, when the bells would ring for the movement to begin. The six coffee shops that had been open since morning were Nick’s. Kalogiannis (Katsika An.), the famous ouza distillery of Yiannis Tzitzas (today Fan. Surelis), of Spyr. Bikos (Takis Sourelis), by Lefteris Kotomatis and then Styl. Perkiza, Ar. Tsagaris, of Mich. Korou (D. Dracopoulos) with the Turkish hookah in its glory and Andreas Mastrogeorgiou (Lefteris Pinotsis). Mimis Giakalis was also open during the winter season.
The empty fishing stalls and an array of glazes set up from the current restaurant of G. Tiliakou to the statue of P. Kountouriotis. Barba Sotiris Minas, Barba Andreas from Kourmada, Giannis Georgiou (Pamfilis). And with them Sadik, a huge Livius who had been brought from Benghazi by Capta Yannis Danabasis, Zacharias Gis, and a multitude of children.
As soon as the bells of the Monastery rang, and this happened at ten o’clock, the bells of the shops opening could be heard almost at the same time. Let’s see them…
Restaurants of claim for the Athenian visitor to eat were Georgios I. Kalogiannis (Katsikas brothers), D. Tetsis-Noukos (Gallery I. Kremos) and St. Perkiza (K. Kalogianni) and later Pan. Pirri. At the end of 1930, Mr. Evstratios Koukoudakis opened his grocery store with cash register and cashier Matina St. Kalafati.
Many wineries. By S. Papathanasiou, M. Giozou, G. Meidani, Tzortzos, N. Loukas, I. Tiliakos with chef Yannis Lardis, G. Kokonelis and G. Kalafatis. They were all crowded and must have sold at least 100,000 okades (128 tons) of wine a year.
The barbershops, 6 in number, did not open on Sunday because they worked on Saturday until late at night. It belonged to E. Moutzouris, P. Rabia, the brothers D. and G. Lastkaros, P. Kalogiannis, G. Venizelos and N. Drivas. Also with them was a traveling barber N. Schwombs. The barbers of Hydra, at that time, one would think belonged to an aristocratic class. From them graduated the younger ones who also opened their own barbershops such as Gikas Theodorikas, Mimmis Gelos, Dimitrios Iordanidis, all dead now and also of G. Makrygioglou.
The other event of the day after the service was the arrival of the steamer, coming from Piraeus and literally shaking the port. The preparations started at 11 while the ship usually arrived at 12. Many times two ships came on Sunday from Piraeus and the orgasm in the port was great. Owners and share holders were G. Kalafantis, Gr. Koutsoumbelis, Barba Yiannis, Spanos, the always-in-love Nikolos Kolokythas, giant and easy-going, and Mitsos Kalafantis (called Spaghetti because he was very thin).
The Sarrides Dinos, Panagiotis, Vassilis, Giannis, the Teliakos Nikolos, Ilias, Charalambis, Giannis Sourelis, Petros Kritikos, Petros Panagos, Michalis Saroukos, Giannis Retitagos, Gikas Dardanos and the younger G. Bravakos, G. Tzortzis, N. Volonakis Iordanidis and a bunch of kids, together with the writer, to get paid.
There were many ships at that time that made the Argosaronic line starting from Piraeus. Some reached as far as Nafplio and others as far as Leonidio. Two of them were the famous and well-known “Hydraki” and the “Goissa” which collided off Korakia with another boat and sank, dragging several people to the bottom, including Hydraios Fokas, father if I remember correctly, of Mrs. Sophia Tsourtou. Other ships were “Mana“, “Moshanthi“, “Pteroti” and “Fokion“. “Ioanna” and “Aulis“. Competition with races of Koutsoumbelides, Kalafatides, Perkiza, Gastdopoulos (Alexiou Mich. ), Tzorgis G., happy everyone and many years to Delali Vas and Georgios Tsigaris. Travelers were often offered a plate of pasta.
The “foragers” Vassilis Delali, good time, G. Karagiannis, A. Vlassis and others took part in the two-hour job.
SOURCE: THE VOICE OF HYDRA MARCH 1988, CH. CHRISTODOULOU
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FROM THE MEMOIRS OF DR I.D. KANDILI
I visited Hydra, our great historical island, and toured it in the Spring of 1935. The reason for my trip was the student geological excursion there by Professor Th. Skoufos, of which I was the organizer, in my capacity at the time of the Curator at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. We stayed on the island for three days and it was thoroughly explored. It excited me and I really enjoyed the simplicity and the special grace that the island life had then. The small, beautiful port of Hydra is incredibly picturesque, teeming with all types of vessels, with an excess of small and large sailboats. The circular road that surrounded it, the well-paved from olden days with slabs, and the continuous embankment towards the sea. The row of picturesque buildings on this street that housed shops, cafes and taverns and among them the majestic metropolitan church. And in between, amphitheatrically built, the massive old mansions of the admirals of 21, like this fortress of Lazaros Kountouriotis. And many other smaller ones with their unnecessary appearance and their long history. The then hotels that housed us and our over fifty students were small, had a traditional island style and great simplicity, which was particularly pleasing. Unknown, of course, then, today’s ostentatiousness and luxury and the noise of the roving crowd of visitors and the secular centers, so frequented today. For us at that time, the cafes of the port with their small tables, the ones next to the sea, and the fish taverns with their fried fish and the centostaraki with the retsina were delightful and more than enough. We were shown all the interesting, historical and touristic, of the cute little state and we even visited the merchant school which was housed in a nice building, on the hill to the left of the harbor entrance. We were welcomed by the principals, with great enthusiasm, showed us all their facilities and explained to our students the history and aspirations of their school, which is related and, in some ways, parallel to our own university. The tour of the interior of the island was also detailed, the larger part of which is rocky and bare and the smaller part wooded with a wild dense pine forest. There were no significant villages in the interior of the island apart from rare small settlements and huts. We stayed a few hours in a nice large monastery, whose Abbot and his monks treated us very well, and we also visited the villa of Professor Haramis, a colleague and friend of the head of our excursion Geologist-Professor Th. Skoufos. The villa was luxurious and the view from its terraces towards the surrounding rocky mountains and the endless sea was of unimaginable beauty.
THE OLD HYDRA: PRE-WAR BAKERY
By the pen of Christos Christodoulou
We will refer to those old glories leaving something else to the future researcher since the treacherous homeland has been unimaginably alienated.
So we turn on the faucets of our insatiable memory with bakeries. We caught up with eight bakeries, one of which was owned by the Blessed John V. Verveniotis (Neos Kosmos area, today’s Hotel of Mr. Lykourgos Keramidas), which produced the galette for the sponge shops. Other bakeries also produced galette, but that of Verbeniotis produced approximately 80% of the quantity needed by the sponge shops.
The brothers Christos and Kostis Giakalis owned a bakery. The first had it in the current store of Mrs. Athena Roussi with some extension towards the current guest house of Mr. Nikos Chiotis, and the second opposite the Holy Church of Agios Konstantinos and Eleni. Mr. Evangelos Siakos had his bakery on the beach, which was then passed on to Mr. Nikolaos Saitis. It occupied the space occupied today by the store of Mr. Th. Saiti and the store of Mrs. Nektarias Sureli.
Zafeiris Paraskevopoulos was the only one who had changed the oven. We caught up with him at the current store of Mrs. Klious Soureli-Voulgari, in a current tourist store across the street from Balaska and at the current “Xenona Kirkis”, then Maniatis Nik’s Bakery. Georgopapadakou.
A little above the current guest house of Nikos Botsis, his father, Antonis Botsis, had a bakery. In the narrow street of Antoniou Oikonomou, immediately to the left of those coming up, was the Bakery of Evangelos Tsigaris, and a little further where Zafeiris Paraskevopoulos had opened a bakery, some “refugees” opened a motorized bakery, which startled with their progressiveness.
A family of three generations, headed by the grandfather-Georgis Chalkidis, and with patriarchal discipline, had set up the modern oven, moving from the old one that was next to the house of the late Yannis A. Karamitsos from the entrance. Most of these bakeries also had a donkey on which they loaded two large baskets of bread, which they distributed or sold in Chora, small “servants”.
But besides the bakeries we mentioned, there were also some who made bread at home and sold it in the neighborhoods. We caught up with Klapsa (probably a nickname).
If there were houses in Kamini that made bread and sold it, we did not know.
Frontpage picture. Production of galette. A commemorative photo of 1938. The Georgiou Chalkidis brothers’ bakery in action. Pictured from left are Georgios Tiliakos, Panagiotis Kranidiotis, Ioannis Stroumboulis, Ioannis Chalkidis, the girl Paraskevi Chalkidis-Vamvakas, Lazaros and Anestis Chalkidis. The “patriarch” Georgios Chalkidis is standing and in front of him is Panagiotis Ravdas.
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