What a wonderful story and memory - thank you for sharing it with us!
I know exactly what you mean. When we lived in Germany hubby and I frequently visited different Greek islands to go windsurfing. One time we had booked Naxos but I broke my hand a few days before and couldn't go windsurfing, so we did a lot more driving around than we otherwise would do. We had rented one of those tiny motorbikes that felt like with the two of us on it wouldn't make it up the mountains 😁. But it did, very much so that while we didn't really get lost, we were so far up and inland that there was no traffic, no houses, nothing at all. Eventually, we found a cantina that didn't look very reputable but we stopped anyhow. It was the middle of the day, no people around, definitely not serving hours. But - we were treated like friends. The owner went out of his way to cook us a meal and we chatted quite a bit. I, too, remember it to this day, this was in 2016. So, well into the tourism time yet all good windsurfing places are always a bit out of tourist areas, plus we went a ways.
Anyways, just thought I'd share it with you :)
Greece still hides many pleasant surprises, especially when you move away from the mainstream destinations :)
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post and share your own experience!