At least two acts of kindness from locals

 

At the Coffee shop, I showed them my photos of yesterdays walks, in particular the church photos. I have sort of mastered the word for drive and walk, so I could explain I drove and walked yesterday. I told them I was going start a walk from the Monastery today. I was told and showed an announcement on the Shop window about a service at the church you can see from my house, at the end of the miners track. It starts at seven thirty, I will go but not to the whole service I think.

I drove to the Monastery and the church opposite had flags out. Odd, as Easter has passed. But they were having a service. I decided to stay a bit and I was rewarded, one of the guys from the Coffee Shop came out with a basket of bread. It just turned out I was offered it last, and was told to take it all.

Todays walk was a new one for me, a sort of triangular shaped walk, the first part a bit of a zig zag, with a gap in the track ... There was a series of different paths to join the two ends up, so I was confident… one thing I don’t like is being followed and pestered by flies. They certainly were showing their presence today! Near the start of the walk, I walked past a sunken area, where the Serifos frogs, were giving it in volumes. I was in a huge valley, walking along two sides of it. I saw three villages, Galani, Panagia and Kallitsos during the walk. 

The zig zag part of the walk, had me see new churches, which means next time I do this walk, I will probably do the route differently to avoid the part where the track and path are not there to use. There were lots of a bush, that has big yellow flowers now, the flowers  are incredibly pretty and intricate in their shape. 

The other two sides of the walk triangle, were high up where the communication aerials are, on the first part, I could see both coastlines of the island as I was so high up. I could see the Solomos ferry come in from my vantage point. Near the end of the walk, my track was closed off with a fence. I could see no reason why, so I clambered over it. A voice in English, but spoke by a Greek guy told me the track was closed, could I please go this way? Turns out the alternative path took me through his garden. The path was blocked off by his neighbour, with building aspirations he thought? What followed was a very typical thing on this island. I was shown his garden, with a Roman building in it, and a stone wheel shape in the ground, used or grinding corn, before they used windmills. He then showed me the house, the original was minute, smaller than most kitchens here! He had joined the animal barn to this microscopic house with a tasteful new section. He showed me the roof from the inside, with perfectly joined stones on top of wooden rafters. It also has a dovecote. He was so kind and told me so much. I hope I can remember it all. I thanked him for his hospitality and said I hoped to see him again. I rejoined my track and walked past two more churches before seeing the Monastery from the track which also leads to the island’s well known Winery.