#kehl

août 2021

Yunus Emre Mosque, Kehl, Germany

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역시, 장보고 나오니까 노을이 진다. 정말정말 예뻐서 한정거장은 걸어서 산책하기. 보따리 짐과 함께,,

White and pastel-washed buildings set atop rugged hills overlook clear, blue water. The sun sets in breathtaking fashion. The Karpathos moon is so full and bright that intrepid traveler Katie Sehl figured it for a lamp or a giant spotlight the first time she saw it. In many ways, Karpathos looks like the other islands of Greece you've seen in pictures or in person, and Sehl, a freelance writer and editor based in Montreal, has just arrived on the remote island for the second time in less than two years. Although only an hour-long flight from Athens, Karpathos has an edge-of-the-world feel to it, especially in the quiet mountainous northern region of Olympos, in the off-season. Pigadia, the island's main town, is where the action is, relatively speaking, and though it's where Sehl is staying, it's not where she plans to devote most of her time. There are vestiges of a matriarchy in Olympos, a village in the northern part of the island, and it's this unusual, unknown structure Sehl wants to understand. Olympos, while picturesque and pretty, isn't really a tourist attraction, not yet anyway. Karpathos, though marked by beaches all around, isn't like the other bustling Greek islands with their five-star luxury digs and fancy, white tablecloth restaurants and bars with well-known DJs spinning all night long. But then again, Sehl isn't like most travelers. "There aren't too many places in the world that describe themselves as a matriarchy ... it seems like a rare chance to see something different from what I'm used to," Sehl says.