You all saw the movie! Wait! It's an old movie so you probably didn't! Shame! Find it, 1953's "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef." Robert Wagner (a really young Robert Wagner), Richard Boone (the greatest actor not on any greatest actor lists), and Peter Graves! Set in Greece...wait, no, not Greece, but Tarpon Springs, Florida. Same thing. Picture one of the Aegean islands and the very Greek Orthodox community that lives on it. Over 70 years after that film was released, is Tarpon Springs still a carbon copy of an Aegean island?
Sponge boats still line the docks of the inlet. The days take from sponge divers still adorn the decks. Every year a priest throws one of those ornate Orthodox crosses into the inlet and the sponge divers jump in. Fortune will besiege the lucky diver who emerges with it.
Trendy, and expensive, and very quaint shops will sell you trinkets, souvenirs, candy, and artsy-fartsy stuff. A lot of boats will bring you on tours of the inlet. Get away from the college kids and drunks seeking prurient activities for a more mature day on Florida's Gulf Coast.
Ask anyone for the best restaurant and you will be told, without exception Hellas Restaurant and Bakery. Click on this link for their website and menu
Hellas website. Greek food! Real Greek Food. The stuffed Grape Leaves they make show why Turkey will never be as good as Greece, and are dripping with egg lemon sauce. The bakery, which is attached, has Greek breads, cookies, and pastries.
One wonders if Richard Boone, famous for having Vodka lunches, would have had an Ouzo lunch if he dined at Hellas' during the filming of the aforementioned film. Here are the stuffed grape leaves.
...and the flaming cheese...don't ask. Sort of a cross between a grilled cheese sandwich and Baked Alaska. Just go with it!
Work off the calories after dinner by walking the streets of Tarpon Springs. Greek flags were very prevalent. It was nice in the month of June to see Greek flags, American flags, and no other flag.
As a civilizational mindset spreads across Europe, Asia, and Africa, that same mindset, if it arrives here in the U.S. may preserve the Greek culture here in Tarpon Springs. Where I live in Virginia, the culture is gone and the landscape is teeming with CBD smoke shops, urgent care facilities, and tattoo parlors. Hopefully Florida will reject what Virginia allowed to happen up there.
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