Thursday another lovely evening…

 

Another lovely evening at the tiny house last night, with our friend Kim and the waitress in the Cameron restaurant. It’s interesting to meet someone who is a local, hear  tales of the island  and colourful characters in the past and present! At the end of the evening we had a snifter of the local drink tsipouro, which is a spirit, best described as fire water. I think it’s part of the initiation of living on the island, if so I failed, I only had one small glass! The lady also brought in some home made cake, which was lovely and moist, the Greek work for cake is the same as ours, the easiest word to learn! Ronnie also got a tub of treats which he liked the look of.


So my last day with the car and the rain would curtail my trip out as when I got to Fassolou beach near Faros, it just chucked it down and did not seem to want to clear. A lot of the churches I went in were also locked up. I first booked my covid test at a pharmacy in Apollonia, but I bumped into a German lady who I met last time I was here, who so happened to be visiting the island at this time also! I then went to  Poulati which is near Artemonas. The road was getting dodgy, so I walked down to the church. It was quite pretty, I then went down to the sea and it was crashing against the rocks. Before I carried on, I went to the local big supermarket for some wine and milk. The thing that has impressed me is the paths, they are marked well and often have signs indicating distance and where you are heading. The roads are quite good also, some are clearly not suitable for regular cars, but the regular ones seem in pretty good shape.  I then went to Castro, this is a village on a hill. It started to rain and I sheltered in one of its old stone gates which protected me and several cats. Water was then cascading down the paths, almost like little rivers. I wanted to visit a church on a very small promontory, which was very exposed to wind and rain, which had stopped by now. There was a shop open, I was hoping I could get lunch, but they did not really have anything suitable. There were several huge cactus, with fruit on them. My final stop before the heavy rain started was a monastery called Vrassi. It looked like it was still in use, there wasn’t anything that indicated it was closed to the public, so I had a quick wander round. They were growing crops, had animals etc.


I took the car back, despite the fact it was nearly three full days, he only charged me two. Back to two legs tomorrow!


Photos Poulati, windmills at Castro, coast at Castro, church on promontory at Castro, Vrassi monastery





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The wind returns…

Image
Monday 20st - Tuesday 21st,  Hora Serifos So while cooking my first meal in the house, the estate agent called again and asked if I could meet the owner of the property at seven thirty. Surely so I said. I was cooking kedgeree, two eggs were hard boiled, half an onion fried. I had a tin of tuna and what I thought was rice. With no scales it was a bit of an estimation job on how much to cook. I had  also bought this small jar of what was called  curry sauce to add a bit of a kick to the meal. So while checking the rice, it did not have the right texture I thought. I then realised it was a type of pasta! Anyhow I mixed it all up, added a dollop of the curry sauce, it was different, but it was quite edible! Moral of the story, find the Greek words for things you want to buy to make sure you get the groceries you want! While waiting for the owner I spotted this beautifully painted utility box So I met the owner of the property, and the builder who did the work. I had seen pho...
Read more

A day to remember…

Image
So my last full day on Paros and I took the car out again. This time to a village I had driven past, but needed to  explore properly. So I had a wander around the old part of Lefkes, I would have cheerfully bought a coffee or a candle in the church but everything was closed up. I did see an old lady wandering the streets, but no one else really. It’s gone cold again, that strong wind is back. Temperature single digits. I did hear the church  bells, that was largely the only sound coming out of the village. Here as elsewhere Montbretia is flowering, I think in the UK June would be when it flowers. I have no idea what the pretty yellow building is or was… My  next village was Marpissa, this was a village of windmills, except only one was intact, the others derelict. Like Lefkes everything was shut up, but I think I did see a couple of people to say hello to. There was an old lady here to, with a stick, and she was was finding every step extremely painful to take. But she go...
Read more

So my early morning duties

Image
  So my early morning duties are to turn the heating on which ignites an oil boiler outside the apartment. Turning on the hot water is my second job, in the winter you can’t rely on the sun to heat your morning shower. The boiler is quite an antiquated beast and reminds me of boilers in houses when I was a child. The fact this place has central heating is quite unusual on the island.     On the way to getting the car I pop into the bakery and buy myself a spanakopita a sort of pasty with cheese and spinach in it for lunch. My Greek is rubbish but I manage to buy one and pass on a few Kalamera to people I bump into along my way, including the local shop. I have a flask full of coffee as there are not likely to be any places open for drinks on the way. My first port of call in the car is Vathi, I have the roads to myself, I have driven on the right side of roads before so it’s ok for me. On my journey I meet a flock of sheep, the shepherd being pretty good at getting the tr...
Read more