Wow, what a flashback. Spent some time in one of the ground level caves back in the mid 70's. That was before the night lighting. My guess is that overnight stays are now forbidden too?
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Wow, what a flashback. Spent some time in one of the ground level caves back in the mid 70's. That was before the night lighting. My guess is that overnight stays are now forbidden too?
Really, you have been there in the 70s? Cool! Have you met some of the cafe dwellers.
I assume it's nowadays officially forbidden to set camp there but I heard that a few hardened hippies / alternatives are still living in some of the more remote caves.
Not sure if you mean those who hung out and worked in the cafe or if it is a typo and you meant cave dwellers.
There was some drinking done in the Mermaid Cafe (obligatory to Joni Michell fans at the time) yet no deep connections made with the folks who worked there. Used to party with folks who also were staying in the caves. One such night almost cost me my life.
We had been drinking and smoking in one of the upper tiered caves and it was getting late and time to lay my tipsy head down. Went walking out of there as if it were my ground floor cave. It was right out of a road runner cartoon. Either in the fall or the landing I became unconscious.
It was late in the quiet night when consciousness returned. The memory of travelling to Greece was still vivid, yet had no idea if I was still in Greece nor where was the present location in the dark moonless night. My hosts had been staying in a cave that was more on the inland side which placed me after the fall in, what at that time had been, a small olive grove.
I started walking through the grove until finally coming to the road on the other side. Having no idea which way to go I chose to the right which led me into Matala. A left turn would have had me stumbling along the roadway for many kilometers. My memory started coming back (or maybe I was just more sober at that point) once coming into town, eventually finding my way back across the beach to recover in my cave.
Lost one of my nine cat's lives that night.
Thank you very much for contributing your personal story about that night. For me, this contributes more to the peculiarity of this place than a travel guide could ever do.
And yes, as you rightly suspected, I obviously meant those staying in the caves :)
Cheers!