Knock knock

 Monday 26th September - Hora and Livadi

In the late afternoon yesterday I was relaxing in the house, you know when you hear a noise, you know what it is, but you are frozen for a moment, not knowing how to react? Well the sound I heard was the front door opening! I thought it might be the owner, but he is meant to contact me before visiting to check on the house. So this face appeared, and said “sorry” and the door closed. I was trying to work out why the person opened the door, what did he expect to find? The house has small windows and doesn’t look like a shop or taverna! I think he was English! Typical!

So the Taverna is closed for the the season now, and I noticed a bit of geranium plant which had broken off one of their plants and was on the ground. So I have put it in soil, to see if it will root as a cutting. It’s not ideal weather as it’s going to get hot again, so I made myself a pot and put it in the shade on its own.

I got the super zoom camera working with the phone yesterday, so it’s worth taking  out now. After going to the medical centre, I plan to go terrapin snapping down the road!

After a mushroom curry, which was pretty good, I went into the centre to have a beer in the locals bar. But it was dark and closed! Oh no! So I went to one of the “trendy” bars nearby and had a beer. There is nothing wrong with it, I sat outside and started reading that book I got from the Medical Centre. My beer arrived. Five Euros! That’s two more than the locals place, it’s a one minute walk between them. Tourists don’t go to the locals bar. I suppose they might worry about not being understood, his loos aren’t brilliant. So I decided to have just one beer. Meanwhile lights appeared on the locals place. So I paid up and went over.

Vasileas, the owner told me he had had a nap, but it lasted a lot longer than he expected and woke up after three hours, hence his late opening! His English is not as good as I had hoped, but I managed to get over the point, his beer is a lot cheaper than the trendy place. The lady I met last time from the Medical Centre came in with a friend,  she asked me had I decided to live here, I said yes. She said you need to make friends for the winter, I agreed. Her English is very good. Later on another Medical Centre employee dropped in, she was the one who I met about my medication and gave me the number that I never heard back from. She asked me, about this, and I said you don’t want to talk about work! Everyone seems to self serve if they want something. If I am properly accepted, then I might be able to do that. I certainly do in the bakers shop, you then carry you’ll purchase into the main supermarket.

Then another young girl turned up, she sat by Vasileas, more on her in a moment. A few more people rolled in, which is good. Vasileas then told me, some people from Scotland had turned up, they own a house here. They were sitting outside. Fortune favours the brave, so I went outside to introduce myself! So the man lives in Scotland but not Scottish, his partner was Greek, her parents own a house here. They were here on holiday. We had a good chat. Vasileas apparently runs this place like a hobby,  I knew he used to drive lorries. His nickname is the King. So the Scottish couple are about to go home, they might be at the bar Wednesday night, so I will pop over then. He is a nurse in a care home. He knew Anna who is the lady with the Panda eyes, I haven’t see her in recent days, she has gone back to Athens apparently. They also knew the girl who had sat by Vasileas, she has a bike which she wizzes around on. It’s electric. Interesting. She came down and sat with us before she left on it. The guy joked that there was a lack of men suitors on the island, but I think my age might preclude my suitability. Of course the couple are going home in a day or so, but another door has been opened, I think it shows that going out is a good thing, I probably had more beer than I should have, as I did not sleep so well last night. The good news is that Vasileas does open the bar all year, I think he has a few weeks off, but not many.

I walked down to the clinic, it was Monday morning busy but it wasn’t long before I saw the doctor. He rang a number, possibly different from the one I was given. He gave them my details, good job I had the temporary AMKA from the KEP, I have learnt taking my wad of Greek paperwork with me saves time! I saw him with Irene the nurse I saw last night in the bar. They were both impressed with my antics with Google Translate, at least it showed them I tried. The doctor should be ringing me soon.

The zoom camera is the size of an slr and experience has taught me to carry it in its protective case all the time. The tripod is very useful too, as camera shake is worse with a super zoom camera. I will only carry it if I am sure it’s going to be needed as it’s a slog carting it around. But still with 60X optical zoom it’s quite handy!

So I started from the centre of Hora and walked down the steps to the track. On the way I saw a cat with its kitten, both very wary of me. I carried on until I got  to the church and graveyard.  There were two men working in the graveyard and there were several cows munching things around the church.

I approached the pool of water slowly and as quietly as I could. The camera works best with a tripod, so I got everything set. There were quite a few terrapins on the rocks, so I got some good shots. 

I carried along the path to where the map claimed a path would be. Sure enough for once, by two new houses was a rocky path that was heading down to Livadi. Eventually we merged with a dried river bed and crossed it properly on a nice concrete bridge. Here there was some water but no inhabitants.

After this there was a path to the left as I expected but it soon became blocked in a field. I turned around and carried on. Nearer Livadi there were more houses and it became a bit messy, I saw more cows and sheep along the way. There was a group of rusting cars. I saw a pomegranate tree. Eventually I came out by the beach and I walked into Livadi’s centre. 

It’s feeling a lot quieter now, although the port has a ship in that is having its load of aggregate unloaded by a fleet of lorries. I am having a coffee, and have a little wait before the one pm  bus arrives.