Ramblings from Greece

 Wednesday Night 29 June - Thursday 30th Hora  So I went to the Taverna that is meant to be the best in Hora, it certainly has the best view, but outside as where I was, was very challenging! It was very windy! It has a lovely view of Hora, behind which we have Livadi, the sea and Sifnos. It’s right next door to the New House which is handy, but they are not  open in the closed season. I had a beer, Greek salad with local cheese and meatballs in tomato sauce. It was all really good and served by two very friendly guys. In front of me was a Greek couple, in a sheltered spot an English family. The only problem I have is the price. Just over twenty Euros. I don’t begrudge the owners of the money, but that feels expensive. But maybe it isn’t really, as I don’t really know how much I would pay for the same in the UK, as I often only go out in the lunchtimes. My friends in Sifnos say the prices here have gone up a lot. I guess a lot of what I ate had to be brought in. At the en...

 Wednesday 29th June - Hora  So it was still windy this morning, but when I opened the blinds I could see it was cloudy. Cloudy means lovely sunrises and sunsets. So I decided to walk to what I am going to call the New House, that is the one I hope to rent. It’s probably a mistake giving it a name until I have signed the contract, but I want to be optimistic! On the way, near the church, I met this old lady going the same way as me but much more slowly. She was panting and sounded like she was in pain, I said hello and she replied and I got a smile. I carried on, I got occasional glimpses of the sunrise, the good news is my walking is better,  the sunburn is improving at last.  When I got to the New House, the sunrise was not as I expected, it was not behind Hora, but ninety degrees to the left, so coming up over the sea. I was a bit late really, I think I will have to wait until, I move in when the sunrises are later and I don’t have so far to walk! I spoke to Hazel...

 Tuesday 28th Hora  So these posts are going to be a limited in scope, as I am not allowed out much, but like the medical centre experience, it’s good for me to see how I would fill my day, if I was stuck in a house here. I do know things like my favourite coffee shop and supermarket/bread shop will be open in the winter, thank goodness and the bus to Livadi. Well I hope to be able to walk down there unless it’s tipping down with rain. I have managed to manage to make contact with my prospective new landlord, I sent him a text then resent it  using Google Translate, I got a reply to my request that I be able to sign the contract before I leave here on Wed 6th July. In his reply he said “yes, I will let you know the procedure soon”. Whatever soon means!  This derelict house is actually opposite the big church near me. Someone has started working on another house near where I am staying, it’s not very tall, it’s one of those, that you would step down into from the fron...

 Monday 27th June  - Hora  So last night the wind picked up and was the same this morning. So I put the radio on, R4 courtesy of BBC Sounds and I started to get little breaks in the broadcast. I think I have been told these islands use line of sight internet connections and in windy times, they can be unreliable. Anyway after a while it went dead and yes the internet was down. It was a bit early so I decided to resort to the book I brought with me,  Life after Life  by Kate Atkinson. I ended up finishing it off. I could see I had a wifi connection but that’s as far as it went. I was not sure how the internet is plumbed in here, but I knew there was some kind of coaxial cable upstairs in the bedroom, and some little box thing which is just plugged into the mains. So I did a hard reset on both, no go. Eventually the internet did come back, it becoming unusable reminds me, I need to think about what I would do if that happens! It’s worse at the moment as I am being...

I have been reading an excellent web site about Serifos.   Here  is the link. It’s the best site I have found so far. It’s certainly opened my eyes, I look forward to trying to see as many of the festivals  as possible which are written about, from Easter to the one where the swing  is setup. I was appalled but maybe not surprised at the way the workers of the mines were treated . I have also discovered the use of the decorated square buildings that I have seen elsewhere in the Cyclades.  A few more sightseeing things have been identified by the pages including another planned trip to Mega Livadi . The wash house, I have now seen that from a distance, I would need to walk there and plan that carefully, preferably with someone else. If you read the myths  page, you will understand why the frog symbol is used a lot on the island. The locals will tell you they croak just like any other frog, unlike the story described in the myths! The church near me was built...

Saturday 25th evening - Sunday 26th - Hora   Before writing the Serifos history lesson, I thought I would give a medical update. In the afternoon I became increasingly worried about the state of things and was referring to the  NHS  information on sunburn. Really this site is probably the only one you should use and trust. I was worried about the swelling in my legs and the extreme pain I had in my tummy when I got up bended down etc. The problem I had was the medical centre was closed until Monday, but the web site made it clear you should seek an urgent medical response if you had one of the severe symptoms, including the swelling. As some of you might not want to remember, I bared all on that beach and my manhood was also swelling up alarmingly too. So having took that photo and knowing the emergency number, I rang it and was put through to a doctor. I explained the situation and she asked me if I could get to the centre. I said I could. So I staggered to the centre an...

 Saturday 25th June Hora and Livadi I was hoping the the cream I have dolloped on my sunburns would have helped overnight but I fear not. It has a nice chill effect when applied, but my legs and tummy are pink and getting up, or picking something off the floor is very painful. I don’t have heatstroke, I am not shivering or any of the other symptoms for it. I have decided to walk to the medical centre at some point to verify the opening times as per google. I don’t think it’s open Saturday or Sunday. I forgot the pharmacies can prescribe things that only our doctors can in the UK, like steroid cream which is the next thing they try I believe. But I felt like I should get out, and with no breeze I took the bus down you Livadi. I had a different pie in my cafe today, this one had feta, olives and tomatoes, it made a nice change. Livadi has a horseshoe beach and port area, the port is at one end of the horseshoe.  I have never walked to the other end. Despite the fact it’s a weeke...

Friday 24th  June Hora/Livadi  Slept a bit better last night, I did hear a cockerel this morning, but I was not woken by it, so I won’t be trying to find it… As I was not still  feeling brilliant I decided I should go down to Livadi and see a pharmacist.  My problem on getting the bus, was the smallest denominator Euro I had was fifty! There are no banks up here in Hora, in any case when I have tried to get change from them before, if you don’t bank with them, they won’t give you change. I could not see the bus driver being very happy about that, given the fare is only 1.80. So given it was windy I decided to walk down, it’s only thirty minutes. Once there I could spend a fifty euro note and get some change. This is one of the churches on route down the steps. As I walked down, you can see Livadi and the Sea Jet was rumbling in again. As it gets close to the port it sets of its horn to warn people it’s arriving and when it’s going to leave it does the same. While on ...

Wednesday 22nd evening - Thursday 23rd Hora    So while cooking the pasta for my meal last night I solved a question I have had for ages about my little mini cooker. It has two large cooking plates which you turn on with dials and you also have a mini one, that I think you can use to boil water. But there is no dial for the little plate. Problem solved, when you turn on one of the big plates, the little one comes on! I think this is a nasty safety situation, especially if you have never come across one of these cookers before. The good news is I successfully washed a load of t shirts and ‘smalls” and my big apartment towel after plumbing the washing machine into the toilet. It’s got really windy again and everything has dried in no time. My own tumble dryer with no co2 emissions! One one occasion when I woke up in the middle of the night on the sofa bed, I had a sneak peek outside. It was amazing. The stars are so bright and clear. There is hardly any light pollution here. I c...

Wednesday 22nd June  Hora/Livadi  - Serifos So another night on the sofa bed last night. The trouble is the upstairs gets baked by the sun all day, maybe I should try leaving the patio doors open to let the heat out during the day. I don’t know what the mosquito situation is here, but I don’t fancy leaving the doors  open at night, and the day light might wake me early in the morning. The rental house I looked at  is all on the one floor and if I remember it’s orientation correctly, the bedrooms should not get cooked by the sun. The main bedroom also has air conditioning, here the only unit is by the front door, I am not sure how effectively the cold air would reach the upstairs bedroom, hot air rising and all that. In any case I am off to Livadi at ten thirty am. As I can’t see a bus stop near the house, I will walk up to the bus stop in the upper Hora.  That gentle breeze is here this morning, but the wind is not gusting like it was yesterday.  On the way...

Tuesday 21st afternoon Hora, Serifos So a lot of the morning was taken up by a phone call and thinking about questions I might have for the Estate agents. Amazingly during a thirty minute phone call, the wind just stopped and there was no sign of it on the way out. As it was near lunchtime, I went to the bakers. But no sign of either of my favourite slices of loveliness. Tomorrow they will be back I was told. The supermarkets have things that I could turn into a lunch at home, but I did not really want to walk all the way back to put it all together. So I went to the Town hall square as I call it and went to the place I had dinner the other  night and had a coffee, bread and a small plate of mixed things, like cheese, salami and so on. The coffee arrived in a metal container with a handle so you pour it out yourself. At the bottom was what best can be called sludge, I don’t think you are meant to drink that. The standard Greek coffee is like an expresso. They are probably surprised...

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...

Monday 20th June - Hora, Serifos So a lazy start to my time up in the Pano Hora, that’s is the lower main town of Serifos. The wind is still present, maybe it’s always windy here? Time will tell! It’s very peaceful and looking out the window I see this huge mountain with the sun on it. It’s makes you appreciate the textures, colours and the things that cling to its rock such as the trees. The moon is up there in the sky too. ( not in my photo ) The plan today is to walk up to the upper town, that is Kato Hora, do some food shopping and come back and have a lazy day. I am waiting for an estate agent to call me to arrange a time to visit property in Kato Hora that is available for long term rental. Turns out I was right about the Town Hall, after all, there is a good information  site  on the Horas, if you look at it, you might need to select the English version, press the hamburger sign on the top left of the page. So I ventured out to the shops, with my list. First of all I ha...

 Sunday afternoon  and evening 19th June - Hora, Serifos So I decided to take a wander in the afternoon, get my bearings. I expected to see things I missed last time, but I was in for a big surprise! Luckily there is a big modern church near where I am staying, which is highly visible, so I imagined correctly, I could head for it from above and find the house on my way back. So I headed up past it. The Hora’s are a labyrinth of paths, there are multitude of ways you can get around, so it’s easy to miss things until you have been here for a while. The first very interesting building was this one, which seems to have been involved in a local film festival.   I did find evidence of more windmills, above the three by the bus stop to go down to Livadi. One had been  incorporated into a house and another was a ruin on a hillside where the wind neatly blew me flat on my face.  Btw These photos and more are available  here . Meanwhile I carried on past a hi tech la...