Syros and two pieces of paper…

Sunday 18th afternoon and Monday 19th September - Syros


I was watching the Artemis ferry on the Marine Watch app as  it plods along on its way to us. It was late as usual. The slower ferries never seem to do the frenetic turn around the Sea Jets do. It’s got nothing to do with the ship, they just are so fast. It’s a very old ship and potters around doing island hopping. Meanwhile there was cormorant drying itself by the ferry berth, despite the noise of a Sea Jet coming in, it just stayed put. By the ferry berth, an oil tanker was there, disgorging it’s load, for the power station I expect. The good news is that for years Greece has been heating its water with solar. They could cover the island with solar panels…

Eventually the ferry turned up and we all got on. All the other ferry companies,  have a mask optional rule. These guys would not let me inside without a mask. Eventually Hazel found me, lent me one of hers and we went inside. We had a lovely view of a sunset over Sifnos. Sadly it was obscured by diesel smoke. 


We had a stop at Paros and then we turned towards Syros. By this time it was getting late and not really likely we would sleep. So we went out, had a few glasses of wine, and a plate of photo  chips. We went to bed and slept well. It’s a lovely old Artisan hotel with a beautiful wooden staircase and floors. The next day we had an early start to meet our policeman, so not much chance for breakfast. When we got to the police station we were told he was out, doing something. There was no eta. The police station is a real mess, plaster falling off, and looking very sorry for itself. A fluorescent tube was missing, so some enterprising person had hooked up a regular filament bulb hanging from the light. There was this odd first aid kit stuck to the wall, maybe a Greek joke? Downstairs there are cells, and we saw a handcuffed prisoner being led out for a court appearance perhaps?


Later on an English lady turned up, she was there to meet our policeman and pick up a replacement five year permit card, as hers had been lost/stolen. She said that she had heard the policeman was very busy and was doing other work as well. She also managed through her excellent Greek to find out he would  he back by  eleven. Which he was. We let her be taken care of first, and then we went in. I was very nervous at this point. But we had all the paperwork and I soon had the first half of  the temporary permit in my hands., the second half would be done as soon as my fingerprints were taken. ( another short wait) I will get an email when the card is ready, I will have to come to Syros and pick it up, or nominate someone to do it for me.  Ideally I will want an appointment for a Monday,  to fit in with the ferry schedules. We  then went to a taverna that I knew and shared an omelette, Greek salad, beer and wine to celebrate. 

As Syros town (known as Ermoupoli ) is big, it has lots of shops, even a Lidl and a Jumbo, which is like, a home store.  So I bought some troughs for more plants,  some tulip bulbs and square tubs for Hora. We also go to a few food things you won’t get on Serifos. This evening we are going to another Taverna I went to when I was here, I wrote about it here. Syros has a Hora like Serifos and Sifnos, we have both been there and we know the town well, so decided to rest before we go out. It’s an early start tomorrow on the good ship Artemis which is meant to leave at seven am. But at least we will get back at  a decent time. 

Thanks to Mike and Hazel for helping me through this. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Last Post for now

Image
 Saturday 11th February 2023 I have been thinking about this blog for a while now, even after changing the time recently, that I send each post out there. The main problem is the amount of time it takes to produce each post. It’s not just the time it takes to write it, but during each day, as I have a bad memory, I am constantly having to make little memos of things that are happening, what I see, do, what experiences I share with the people on this island.  Other problems or effects on writing these blogs are many and I don’t want to list them one by one, because that’s a negative thing to do and not useful at all. The main thing I do want to say, is I don’t want people to read anything into this, I would, if I was the reader of this post, but that’s just the way I mind works! I am fine, all is well out here and I look forward to seeing many of my friends when I come back to the UK for two weeks in March and more of you in July and August, when o I will be pet sitting. I do w...
Read more

Reflections

Image
Apart from keeping friends up to date with my Greek goings on, I have realised that this blog has been a good record  of my time here in Greece. I am a bit of an over thinker and often will spend a lot of time coming up with lots of what ifs and also brooding on bad things that have happened to me. So the point was to record the good things that happened here, as my brain will be good enough to recall the bad! Not that there has been a lot of bad to dwell on, it has to be said. The rat in the house was the low point but  I have been blessed with lots of encouragement from people here and abroad, for which I will be forever grateful for. I have met so many people here, who are now my friends, and I feel very accepted here, with all my quirks like picking up litter and walking everywhere.  So many things have been amazing here, in no particular order here are a few of them. The Dog Palace. It is likely one or more of the dogs there won’t be alive in September when I  r...
Read more

Two patients

Image
 It seems that one patient gets better and another gets worse at the Dog Palace today. On the phone to them last night it seemed Mavro was not long for this world, and the folks at the Palace did not know what to do, stay with him or come down to their house. As I was heading to Livadi via the ferry, I got a take away and took it up there, as they had no dinner up in the Palace. Mavro was pleased to see me, I felt good to see him, for maybe the last time. After dinner I stayed with him a bit longer but I then decided to leave him to rest. Here is a rose up at the Palace, the fragrance is amazing. The next day, I decided to go back up there, the other helper was doing the walking, so there would be time to spend with the dogs relaxing. Mavro was there at the gate and looking a lot chipper. I spent several hours up there and drove down to do some chores. I went to the dentist, had a check up, I need a filling. I had some lunch and then drove to the new house, I had wire, to tie back ...
Read more