Next year, the Kastellorizian Association of Victoria plans to celebrate their 100th anniversary with a trip to Greece, embracing the beauty and culture of their ancestral homeland.
The 14-day centenary tour, scheduled for 7 – 21 September 2025, will take place in Athens, Rhodes, Symi, Kas (Turkey), Livisi (Turkey), and of course, Kastellorizo.
In 2023, The Kastellorizian Association asked Anastasis Kokkinos, owner of Luxe Sailings and club member, “to take those interested to go back to the island.”
The trip, in collaboration with Luxe Sailing, a company that offers guided sailing and gastronomy tours throughout the Greek Islands, was a trial tour to “test” things “out.”
“I get something out of making other people happy and in educating them in the process because you can read things, you can go and see the island and you learn something every time you go back,” said Anastasis Kokkinos to Neos Kosmos.
He said the eleven people who joined the “rehearsal” Kastellorizo tour in 2023, visiting Athens, Rhodes, Symi, Kastellorizo, Kas, and Livisi “had a fantastic time.”
In Athens, participants were guided through historical sites like the Acropolis, tried “local cuisine,” admired “street art,” and experienced traditional “Greek dancing.”
In Rhodes, the tour visited the Acropolis of Lindos, an archaeological site in the village, while a “local councilor” guided travellers on a historical walk through the streets and helped those looking “for their parents’ land.”
While in Rhodes, the tour group stopped at the Faethon Miniature Horse Farm, where they saw “miniature horses” saved from extinction, and also visited old villages for dinners and dancing.
The visit to Symi included activities like sponge diving, and opportunities to learn about the area’s history and culture.
Kokkinos said visiting Livisi in Turkey, “an old Greek settlement that was evacuated during the transfer between the Greeks and the Turkish,” was “quite a moving experience.”
“It’s a place where the Turkish people won’t live because they fear the ghosts of the Greeks that they killed, It’s incredible. It’s just a ghost town.”
He said the tour aims to help the “younger Greeks” and “those born” in Kastellorizo, reconnect with their roots.
“They (Kastelorizians) go a long way back in Australia. A lot of them are 3rd, 4th, 5th generation, as opposed to the other Greeks who came in the 50s and. 60s.”
With his parents arriving “in the 1900s,” and others being here even “before that,” he said the Kastellorizians formed one of the earliest Greek communities in Australia.
He said visiting Kastellorizo, his mother’s homeland, was “one of the highlights of the trip.”
The tour for 2025 “is open for anyone who wants to come,” said Kokkinos, who sees it as an opportunity for Greek Australians to reconnect with traditions they may have lost touch with.
“It’s way to try and get people that haven’t been before and connect with their heritage and appreciate the island.”
He said, “despite the hardships the Greeks have been through,” they still hold on to traits like filotimo (“love of honor”) and filoxenia (being a friend to foreigners).
“I’m amazed by the generosity and the welcoming of the groups in their country.”
