A day in the life of a Christmas Tourist

 Tuesday 27th December 

Another nice meal with my friends and their dog last night, using left overs from Christmas Day. A bit of UK TV, then a gentle amble home and sleep.

In the morning, I went out before we were all to meet on the beach,  and on the way, I went to the bakers and got one of my favourite pies. Before litter picking in the sun, I ate all but one piece of it  and popped that in my pocket in its paper bag. I then went litterpicking on the dunes behind the beach. If you are lucky you will often find a carrier bag, cast aside, which you can use to put the rubbish in. Mine was super sized, the type you buy for those big kitchen bins. I managed to get rid of most of the big stuff, there are just those annoying bottle tops left. Near the end I found three full bags of rubbish and some old fishing net just left lying about. Luckily there was one of those dumpsters nearby. 

I then took this photo, which I thought was quite nice, the shower only stayed on for a few seconds. (a bit overexposed however)

When I met my friends, the dog was enjoying his freedom on the beach running around. But when we started the loop walk, he went back on his lead. My friends picked some Thyme and Oregano from the sides of the path, to be dried out later on. We had the sun on us, and there were a few farmers working the small fields. 

My friends go round the loop walk differently to me, they go back on the road, which is fine as it’s not busy. A lot of people wave and say hello to them. On my island I am known as the litter picker, they, the English couple with a dog! As we headed nearer the port, we saw the Artemis coming in, not many passengers or cars today. ( that’s not the Artemis!)

Back at the port we saw one of the people who work at Cameron  opening it up, we still don’t know if they will be open on New Years s eve. We carried along the road to the port and had a coffee at the only place open at this time of day. Here Ronnie got the bit of my favourite pie, he hassled a cat that was nearby, we managed to get him a bowl of water. I then walked back with one of my friends and the dog to their house.  Back at their house, we had some lunch, then we heard the Dionisios Solomos turn up. Later on I  left my friends and walked back to the harbour, to the opposite side of the bay, where the sun is shining still, but not for long. I finished another revision chapter of the Greek, then had a wander about on that side.

 This is the place I was sitting down doing the Greek today, it’s probably a taverna, but clearly it’s closed for winter.

I spotted what is almost certainly a holiday rent, but it looks like it is probably quite old, it’s small, has a look about it, would be at home in Hora on Serifos. 

Some of the other differences here, there are a lot more cats. They are roaming about the rubbish bins, and my recent experience of them ripping my rubbish bag outside the house, has made me more cautious. There doesn’t seem many cats with the identification mark of being neutered, and even now there seems a lot of kittens about and small cats, which haven’t grown to the full size because of a lack of proper nourishment? There are quite a lot of feeding stations however. The other difference is no narcissi flowers.  The beach here is quite small compared to Livadi which is huge. Neither of them are very wide however. The Livadi beach does not have tavernas and bars along its full length, with a football pitch alongside it. 

Footnote. Near where my friends live, there is a plot of land. Over the last year or so, it’s had a property erected on it. Not surprisingly a lot of litter has come from this building onto the still unoccupied patch beside the path to my friends house. The other day, I packed all the rubbish into bags and boxes to carry to the dumpsters. I carried the last lot of it away last night on my way home. I found a bit more lunchtime including an old moped tyre, that’s all gone now. There is probably still  some more hidden in the bushes growing there, but the visible rubbish is gone now. It’s a small way of doing something to repay their kindness towards me.