A Church and Windmill.
Saturday 16th October - Hora and Livadi
It’s a much cloudier day today, there is rain forecast. But annoyingly the weather might be getting worse and the Ferry Passengers public enemy number one, might be making an unwelcome appearance. Wind. It claims it could be very strong. I had a chat with one of my friends last night and we think my ferry last week had been cancelled by now. But I have not had a message from the ferry company, so I might be still travelling Sunday night. It’s a late arrival at Syros, half past midnight. That’s if it’s on time! Pity they don’t let you stay on the ferry and sleep on it overnight! It doesn’t go anywhere after it arrives at Syros. If I get there and then get stuck, I don’t mind, Syros is quite small but there is plenty to see.
Another thing I was talking to my friend about last night was friends back in the UK. It’s very easy to loose contact with people, but for sure with all the social media offerings, there are more ways than ever to try and keep contact. I can’t or do not expect everyone to read this blog avidly. So we came up with an idea, maybe send a text to people so they know I am ok, and a bit of what’s going on. It’s a bit like postcards, I remember saying when you send a card, there is no reason why you have to come up with a different paragraph for each person. Most friends don’t know each other, and they would want you to enjoy your holiday, and not be spending hours, writing postcards! So I came up with the idea of using a WhatsApp and Messenger group, people tend to gravitate or use one or the other. Then I can send a message to each group, giving a little update. So I did that that last night. I sent an initial message saying what the group was about, saying they could leave of course. I then crafted a message and sent it. Over the next few hours I got many replies, from people who I am sure have not been reading the blogs. If I know one of my friends are reading the blog, I have not added them to one of the groups. Perfect .
Photo interlude cloudy Livadi
Unfortunately this morning my little wifi router for the house is not working. I won’t go into what I have tried to do to coax it into life, but suffice to stay it’s stayed stubbornly silent. I am going to email the house owner to ask if if I can use his wifi and agree to pay him. Before the box failed I had been thinking if my little router failed, what would I do in the middle of winter and if I could not get to Syros to get another. I can use mobile hotspot for now. I will take it on Sunday to see if I can get it fixed, so it can be a backup.
I got a lovely message from someone who I know reads this blog. I think her first job, she got a posting to the Caribbean. She told me she was happy I was going out and meeting the locals and not just staying in the house all alone. When she was working in the Caribbean, she had friends at work, but she made the effort to meet the locals, go into the villages and so on.
There has news that several Desert Island Discs have been found and added to the collection on BBC Sounds, for example Bing Crosby and other ones undertaken by the first presenter, who I think came up with the idea that is Roy Plomley I think the thing I like about the early ones, is the interviews is more
like a fireside cosy chat. The current presenter is good, but the old style of interviewing is long gone. Shame. I am going to try and listen to an episode each day.
Photo interlude Kato Hora
I decided to go down a different way through Kato Hora on my way down to Livadi. There are so many different houses and each one is different of course. I saw some tomatoes being grown, there is hope for me yet! It was a very sheltered spot though! When I got about half way down to Livadi a kitten ran in front of me. As I went down the steps, it followed me. I fancy it was hoping I was going to go into house and it was going to try and follow me. I think it must be a natural instinct. Eventually it gave up and sat still. I could hear it mewing behind me, another natural instinct. You might thinking I am cruel, but I don’t want a cat in my house. What would happen to it in July and August? I know a couple who had this happen to them and they took the cat in, but it disappeared one day…
I am walking in my boots now, even though I might not be going on tracks, these steps will be slippery in the wet. Syros is worse, the main centre, the roads and pavements are marble, that’s not an ideal surface! Once the path ended and I joined the road I decided to take a new side track. It would come out on the beach. It passed through several houses, that might have been small holdings years ago, not much is growing in the ground now. I saw what I think is a donkey.
There was this plant that looked like a rambling courgette or squash. I could not see any fruit on it to identify it. There were fruit trees including pomegranate and a Quince tree too. There were the usual canes as well. Once we got close to the beach, buildings were being used for rooms. I then followed the beach to my usual bakers. I had my mini pizza, as they had run out of my favourite ham, tomato and cheese pies. I had heard a ferry come in when I was walking through the farm area, two holiday hopefuls perhaps, walked past me with their mini cases. I walked to the ferry passenger building and did my Greek course. As I was doing this it suddenly threw it down for twenty minutes. But by the time I was ready to go it had stopped. I walked along to the beach area, a guy on a cycle came towards me, he was in his diving suit and had his snorkel on too. It was a bit James Bondish, he could have cycled out of the sea! I then turned left down another track I had never been down before. As before there were small farms, then the countryside took over, with hills and uncultivated ground. I knew there was a windmill and I also wanted to try and find a church I had not found before.
The windmill was a ruin, there was just a circle of stones, it would be great, if it could be rebuilt. It had a lovely view.
Hora behind me, had this brooding black cloud above it which contrasted with its lovely white buildings. The track winded along, I passed a chicken with its brood of chicks.
I then retraced my steps to where I turned off and carried onto the end of the track. Here was an indistinct path across to Panagia Flevariatisa, the path was a lot of guesswork, but I got there in the end. It was a simple matter of then going up the usual track to Hora. When I got back there was an email from the landlord with the Wi-Fi password and saying he would turn it on Monday. Meanwhile I have added the windmill and church to Google maps, they are back on the map!
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