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"The Sponge Capital of the World"Feb 12, 2009
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Sponge Capital of the World
Shopping for the perfect sponge
The fishing fleet
| Hello Family & Friends, I'm baaack. Right now we are staying at an r.v. resort in Dunedin Florida until Monday, then we move over to Fort DeSoto in St. Petersburg for the next two weeks. Steve, Jenn and our two grandaughters will be arriving on Sat. to spend a week with us. We are really looking forward to that. We had a great time exploring Tarpon Springs today, known as "The Sponge Capital of the World" We were pleasantly surprised to find this village as an authentic Greek community. The sponge dock area consists of restaurants, shops, and bakeries. Lunch was at a restaurant called Mykonos, named after the Greek Island. It was fun trying to figure out what was on the menu. First, we had to read every item, and through a process of elimanation figure out what it was that we were ordering. Then of course we couldn't pronounce it, so we just pointed, and the waitress took it from there. The food was great...soup, salad, and entree all homemade. Desert you may be wondering? What else but a Napoleon from one of the Greek bakeries yum. These rich sponge beds were discovered in the 1880s, and young sponge divers were recruited from Greece to harvest them. The sponge industry thrived, as did the Greek community. The natural sponges that are sold on the docks today, are now harvested by local divers who learned their profession from their ancestors before them. As well as the sponge boats, working fishing boats also line the docks. This visit to Tarpon Springs was truly an unexpected pleasure. Well it's getting late, so for now. Love Jack & Lorraine |
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