San Francisco

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell. From our perch at the top of Nob hill those are the most consistent sounds emanating from San Francisco. That and the loud sirens that Joop has timed to be hourly. It is a busy city. The most densely populated after New York. You don’t think that because from our perch you can see ocean on several sides and the buildings don’t seem too imposing because a lot of them are old and their ornateness seems to preclude lots of inhabitants, they simply seem to exist by themselves, as if they too are inhabitants and personalities.
There is only going to be this one blog from San Francisco. I seem to have taken too much time to adapt to be able to write. At first it was musing on the whole urban experience. That is almost too much to dissect and write about. It is just there. You don’t realize how it affects you until you are out of it. The guy that sold Joop shoes from Macy’s had just moved back here from Seattle. I asked him how he finds the two cities. He said that San Francisco is an adjustment because it is so urban. I was shocked by that. In a way Seattle seemed more urban to me.
The Fairmont we are staying in is the first Fairmont – the eponymous Fairmont. Built by a Fair on the mount in San Fran. How do you like that? As it goes, it is not the caliber of the others we have stayed at – no coffee makers, no kettles, no little café for takeout coffee. Very bare bones. And the attitude of most of the workers is impatience. Too many tourists tire people out. And if you don’t have to try and they still come it seems to make you irritable. A simple question like how many ounces in your martinis – causes quite the kerfuffle. It ranges from just raised eyebrows to complete insouciance – how could they possibly know they simply free pour – as if to quantify one waitress added “for 12 seconds” as if that was a measure. No body really seems to care. Don’t even get Joop started on his experience trying to get me a takeout Americano. We have had to move 3 times within the hotel. The first time because the window was blocked by a cement balustrade. I felt we would end up like the polar bears at the Calgary zoo – pacing with an obsessiveness that is barely touched by SSRIs. It is difficult to function if you can’t see out for a week. The second suite was nice but paper thin walls. We were privy to too much information about all the neighboring inhabitants. This last suite is in the newer (1960’s) tower on the 17th floor and afforded us a beautiful view of presidential hopeful Rudi Gulliani as he entertained at the $5300 per night penthouse. There is not a lack of renters for this suite – every night a party with strobe lights etc. Lots of corporate Christmas parties I imagine. But all in all I have like the hotel. It has a lovely ornate lobby and I like the perch in the city. To go anywhere is a massive hike down and then back up. The steepness the likes we wouldn’t see at home because any ice and it would be over – completely over. As Joop likes to say at night the paratroopers(tourists) descend from their point on Nob hill and fan out over the city to all of the restaurants. It does feel like that. I imagined all of their parachutes strings webbing the streets in streams.
We have taken in a couple of museums. (musea?) The first was the modern art. Quite the ruse. A fan oscillating on a cord above your head as you enter, followed by this photographer from Vancouver who was almost convincing as he expounded on his method in a video. Apparently he is a photographer who walks the city in search of beautiful images without a camera. He then photographs it in his mind and then maybe years later recreates the image with actors, sets etc. And apparently the poignancy of the initial moment is even more intensified by this method. Enough to garner tons of notoriety, money etc. An interesting Danish artist with a frozen car. We went to the fine arts museum today. A huge walk followed by a long bus ride and then another huge walk. Unbelievable paintings. I nearly collapsed with toe pain on the way home. I am becoming exhausted from all of this walking around SF. What if I didn’t have a car? Life is so much more difficult. Your whole life would be spent finding shoes that don’t hurt. Not that my life isn’t already spent that way but the imperative is so much greater when you have to descend death defying slopes. We are attending our favorite restaurant tonight as a farewell dinner. The type that makes foam out of flavors etc. Joop is quite insistent that we go to this restaurant one more time. Frankly I am surprised. I thought it would be something that I would demand not him. I am sad that I have not bought anything uniquely SF. In truth we have not shopped much. I have wept in the Britex fabric store. The same store in which the metrosex satchel got wild acclaim. How many other fabric stores have a list of famous patrons I wonder? I thought how unjust that a fabric lover such as myself is denied exposure to such beautiful fabrics and accoutrements. I hustled up the four flights of stairs holding my two huge Old Navy bags in my hand and bought the four pieces of fabric that I had been coveting. Dripping with sweat, the whole transaction took 10 minutes, enough time for Joop to frequent the Macy’s mens store again. I think the saleswomen at the fabric store were a bit in awe with my speed and decisiveness. The things that I wanted to buy are actually quite stupid – a metal post card holder that is too long for my suitcase, a 10” LCD tv in the shape of a race car. What has come over me? My only purchases of significance for me have been two red coats from Sausalito.
We rented a car one day, a tremendous respite from all of the walking. We drove to a beach – Stinton just north of Sausalito. It was so relaxing being away from the city. It made me realize the insidious stress you are under and don’t realize it until you are away. We happened upon a dear little costal town Bolinas. It is the only old car graveyard in California. What I mean is that for the first time we saw cars that were older than 5 years. It does make you wonder where all the wealth comes from.
I will be sad to leave. While we were here the sky was bright blue everyday and the temp was around 13. It was lovely. Despite my complaints I loved the freedom to walk and my lungs were very clear here. I think because there is no molding deciduous leaves. For me mold is a big allergen, bigger I guess than urban pollution. Who would have thought. Now back to Christmas preps. I hope I get in the spirit soon. I am excited to see my boy and all of the animals.

Last epistle from Greece

It rained here last night. If I’m to believe the locals, there has been no rain for 2 mths. I don’t know that this will be a significant downfall because I see patchy blue sky around me and just a grey, glowering cloud above my head. But it means that my little veranda is all wet and I have had to spend time drying off all of the seats so that I can sit and type.
The power is off and so I am not able to make my tea.
This is going to be my last blog from Greece. I feel tremendously sad about it. It is so wonderful here. Very hard to leave. I said to Kyr yesterday as we were coming up from the pool, where he had been teaching me to dive deep, in two days this will seem like a dream. Tomorrow we leave at the crack of dawn because we have to return the rental car from where we originally got it about an hour away, and catch the bus @ 6:50 from the original hotel. We will probably leave here at 5:30. We will arrive in Amsterdam at noon and then probably rent a car and drive to Bas’s. Bas lives somewhere just outside of Amsterdam. We will spend the next 5 days exploring and visiting Joop’s relatives, while using Bas’ house as a base. Hopefully the Bas’ girls and Kyr will get along and there won’t be too much shyness.
We had originally planned to do all our favourite activities here with just more intensity today. Since that is the pool and snorkeling and going into town to email, I’m not sure if we’ll stick to that plan because of the weather. Yesterday Joop and I went snorkeling, luckily Kyr didn’t feel like it. We snorkeled far around the point and then a wind came up and created quite a current to swim against on our way home. It was a serious struggle. I kept lifting my head and saw that I was making no headway along the bank. My underwater world kept changing so I persevered but it was quite a workout.

I had my first semi-altercation with a Greek shopkeeper yesterday. Because I have never been away from home this long I was not too clever in packing all of my trusted medication and have run out of Tylenol and Chlortripilon. I thought I would approach the pharmacies and try to communicate what I was needing. At least at the first pharmacy, after quite a struggle I was able to get some Tylenol, panadol outside of North America, and even then I was giving the medical name of the panadol but they simply did not understand me. At the next pharmacy I went in and explained that I was looking for an old antihistamine and we called it Chlortripilon and I was having a hard time remembering the medical name but perhaps if they could show me some I would remember it and recognize it. The pharmacist practically leaned across the counter and rang my neck she was so incensed. “What is wrong with you?” She kept yelling, her hands wildly gesticulating in the air. I said that I was sorry and I realized that it was my difficulty in communicating but that no other antihistamine worked for me. She was so angry she just paced around the pharmacy behind the counter refusing to look at me. I just lowered my head in concentration – trying desperately to come up with the medical name. I don’t think she knew what to make of me, standing there with my head bowed, refusing to be run out of her store. Finally after a few minutes it came to me, or at least a tentative version so I wrote out on a piece of paper ‘Chlorphenamarate’. I called her over, and she reluctantly slunk back. I said in a very apologetic voice that I thought that this might be the name and did she recognize it? And that I was very sorry that I had not thought to bring the DIN number with me. Her attitude changed somewhat and she became nervous. All of her earlier bellowing that SHE was a pharmacist was in order to cow me, and I think she was surprised that I knew some pharmacy terms. She looked at the writing and then threw a book at me; it was a list of generic drug names. When I finally found it – Chlorphenamarine – she snatched the book from me and ran to her computer. She said reluctantly that it was an antihistamine, but that it was so old, there was simply no way she would ever have a drug that old. I smiled and thanked her and left. I was proud of myself because despite her aggression I only felt peaceful, not defensive or upset, just resigned to the fact it might be more difficult than I had anticipated. So a word of advice to everyone traveling – make sure you take the DIN numbers with you of all the drugs you may need. I never understood the necessity of putting that number on every label before.

There is a long band of ants beside our veranda, that is about 6cm wide and stretches for several meters into the pasture beside us. Kyr has tried to find the source but was unable. These ants are coming to the hole beside us, each carrying some crustaceous looking larvae, that are at least 4 times their size. They have to fling the larvae about trying to force it in the hole. There are equal number of ants going out. This goes on all day and resumes early in the morning. It must be a motherload of some type of larvae they have found. From a distance it is just a long black band several meters long that appears to be laid on the flagstones, only when you get closer do you realize that it is a moving ant train.

With this power outage, I wonder if we’ll be able to have our breakfast? One of the things that has become apparent is that most guests at this hotel are return visitors. For anyone ever contemplating coming here you must ask for suite #20. It is by far the best perched for privacy and ocean views.

Hopefully Bas will have wireless internet access so that blogging from the Netherlands will not be difficult.

Tour to the South part of the Island

Warm sunny morning, as usual not a cloud in the sky, despite the rains in Northern Greece. We ventured to the south tip of the island yesterday - an hour and a half journey by the little three cylinder car Joop is now quite fond of, despite the grinding of the gears and the whining when you corner too severely. Half way down the island there are significant pine forests and they even seem to be replanting some. We went to a resort town called Plomari, which the guidebooks term a “crumbling” resort town. It does have that decrepit Havana feel to it: lots of palm trees, activity and the occasional building just crumbling. It seemed like an interesting place, we didn’t stay long enough to find out. I was determined to incorporate another activity, and I had read about walks through olive groves just 6 km beyond the town. It was supposed to be a series of old roads connecting a few old villages – one even had 50 buildings and just 3 inhabitants still. I figured we were immune enough to the heat by now to attempt it. It wasn’t as promised. Very poorly marked and in order to ascend to one of the villages you had to be a mountain goat. Probably not exactly true, Kyr and Joop could have done it but I was unable. Instead we persevered along a river bed (all so called rivers are just dry gulches) and upset a donkey and nearly expired from the heat. Joop got covered on his torso by the ink off a grocery bag he was carrying so he looked brightly tattooed.

We were relieved to plunge into the sea at Melinda beach – an old fishing village where the trailhead was. Joop claims to like the southern beaches the best. He said it was the same on Crete. It was a nice pebble beach with a gigantic rock projecting off the beach which some foolish teenage boys were jumping off, and the waters were clear but it didn’t move me as much as the northern beaches. They are far rougher in terms of beach boulder size but they seem to offer much more interesting snorkeling.

I finally got to sample fried zuchinni blossoms at the taverna in Melinda. They were very tastey. We have given up on sight seeing and have resigned ourselves to just the beach and the pool. Those activities seem to satisfy the most. The rest is just too hot and not exciting enough. We have pretty much circumnavigate the island which is important in order to get an all over feel. We have pretty much avoided the main city – Mytillini – I’m not much of a city person myself and the other two haven’t mentioned it.

We are taking our dirty clothes to a laundry today. We haven’t spotted any Laundromats and the Laundry appears to be doing everything. I’m going to do most of mine by hand because I know that my greek will fail me as I try to explain how everything must be done in a netted bag and then it has to dry on the line – way too complicated. Joop says to mention that the crows here are very interesting because they are grey and black. Their sound isn’t caw like either, they do cackle a lot and Joop says a sort of rattling sound. They are large birds and behave like our crows. There is a group of them that is always foraging at this strange mound just beyond our hotel. They fly with their beaks always open – the heat?

My subconscious must already be aimed at home coming because I am starting to fret about defectors from the clinic. I went even so far this morning to classify them geographically in my mind. Total waste of time I consciously know. I have to keep reminding myself that most people aren’t terribly loyal and I shouldn’t focus on what was but what is. That is the thing that I like about thinking about Greek people – not as individuals but as a conciousness of culture. No matter how many times they have been conquered they have persevered and our still themselves. That in itself is very interesting. So bearing that in mind I will not wasted time on trivialities and just be thankful that Canada doesn’t seem in immediate danger of being conquered.

Castle at Molyvos

We tried to see the castle above Molyvos yesterday. It was built in the 1400s just before the Turks took over. I say tried, because the innards were closed for renovation. But from the outside it looks less like a castle than a fortress made of huge square cut stones. Which leads to the question how did they cut the stones? It was a great vantage point to be sure. It would be hard to approach stealthily by sea anyway.

Almost all of the buildings in Molyvos are built of stone. It makes for a beautiful town with all of the clay tile roofs, which Joop says are unusual for Greece because they are pointed and not flat. The rest of the buildings in the surrounding area are made of concrete. Only the occasional rural building is made of stone and these are usually in the fields collapsing. All of the buildings have shutters which Kyran covets. He maintains he simply adores shutters. They do help to keep things cool. I adore all of the marble. Marble floors everywhere. It seems so luxurious. Several of the rural buildings still have the rebar projecting from their tops. Joop says that this is to be able to maintain that the building isn’t finished and then the taxes are lower.
When I look around and see the pastures that the sheep and goats live in, I cannot believe that creatures can live on so little. The only plant left that is not an olive tree, is a thistley type low creeping bush. To see a pasture you see just these yellowed tufts scattered everywhere which upon examination are those thistle bushes. I can see a goat maybe eating that stuff but a sheep? I read that the thistle is the ecological dead end – when everything else is gone. The sheep have an interesting afternoon habit of gathering in a huddle with all of their heads in the centre and all along the perimeter are hindquarters. They are probably planning a rebellion.

We decided to eat in the harbor last night. It is death defying to walk down these narrow cobble stone lanes which are meant for cars or people, not both. Even though there is tons of people milling about, whenever a car passes you have to press yourself into a wall or building. Scooters are not so bad. You just worry when you see a nervous wobbly driver, who is probably a tourist. The greeks drive their scooters very assertively as if they could not comprehend anything might get in their way.

I asked our waiter a question that had been plaguing us. Why were there so many cats that are missing the top portion of one ear? He maintained that it is from fighting. I disagree. The only ear missing I ever see is from frostbite. I see a lot of fight wounds but never just a portion of ear. Maybe it is a genetic trait Kyr suggested. I felt a bit sad for the Tom cats down along the pier. Where ever there is a small post that offers a tiny bit of shade, a big Tom will be lying. One had found a post with a tiny patch of fresh water. He lay there drinking, nursing his eye which was caked with pus. What a hard life for a cat. So lonely. I saw a Tom leap gracefully off the pier into a fishing boat that was headed out. So I guess when they are healthy there are moments of excitement to be had.

We might attempt to see a portion of the south island today. There is a museum with some unusual fossils – a sea turtle as big a a Volkswagen bug, and some olive groves to walk through. It is difficult to pry ourselves away from this little enclave where you can snorkel all day. I seem to be coping with the heat almost too successfully as I now experience moments of being cold and relish being able to sit in the sun to warm up.

Tours of Molyvos

Our only diversion yesterday was some shopping for little things to bring home. We were already overweight with our luggage on the way here and we had to pay extra, so that curtails too much trinket accumulation. In one shop where I went to buy an old photograph of Molyvos, the shopkeeper announced that he must educate my son. So he hauled us in to look at trilobite fossils and insisted on writing the dates down on shopping bags. He proudly showed us his protection against the evil eye and insisted that it was not for sale not $100, not $200, not $300… we got the point. I was all for buying all of the things to protect you – being of a superstitious nature myself.
Kyr was most pleased with his purchase of a primitive slingshot. He has all sorts of plans for the thing to aid in his movies, and my limits are not dissuading him in the least. Joop has fulfilled his fantasy and finally has a shirt made in Greece that he can use for all of his dancing.

The sea was too rough for snorkeling, just the pool. I felt too tired all day to do much. The thing about the second week is a looming sense of your departure. It is funny, the first week it seems almost limitless the trip, and then you hit the cusp and you realize, this is the last Saturday here etc. It is a lot of pressure to see it all and do it all in the second week.

Hardly any word from home except intrepid Sandra. It makes writing a blog not as communicative. I send words out into the void and don’t get much back. Oh well it is not wasted because I will have a good journal of our adventures when I get back.

Windswept at Hotel Elpis

There were violent winds last night. I had to get up in the middle of the night and retrieve our clothes off the line for fear they would be blown away and I would be without a bathing suit.

Yesterday was initially disappointing in the acquisition front. We returned to the black sand beach, one of Kyr’s favorites although I am terrified of the jellyfish there. At one moment Kyr and I were just rounding the point when he grabbed me and pointed to a beautiful cerulean pie plate sized jellyfish just ahead of us. We frantically swam away and paused to get our bearings when he yelled that there was one right beside me. I barely knew which way to move. I’m too nervous a person to have to be on the lookout like that. I think we managed to find only 1 abalone ½ shell. So it hardly seemed worth it. When we got back to the hotel some guy was hogging the inflatable inner tube Kyr likes to use to jump through in the pool. He has constructed quite the challenges for himself. So we were forced to snorkel in our own little bit of the sea. Of course it turns out to be the best snorkeling so far. Teams of fish. Lots of abalone ½ shells. Up until now you really had the sense of the doom of the ocean – so few fish, and you wonder how you can morally harvest any. But just where we were last night, there was a tiny sense of how the ocean used to be. It is all quite sad. And those jellyfish are just pointing out how dramatically things have changed – they are one of the species that moves in when the fish go.

The other thing that I have noticed is how interminably long it takes to break up volcanic soil. I used to look at Hawaii and marvel just how permanent some of the lava fields seemed with their historic walking trails right through the lava. Now it is a whole island that is eeking along in soil development. It is just mesmerizing to me the number of rocks everywhere. It makes those piles of rock obscuring some prairie fields seem like a sprinkling of salt. These people must have been heroic to move some of the rocks aside and tentatively plant the olive trees. The trees themselves must be eternal optimists to have grown without soil. The whole thing is shocking. How does anything make it?

Last night when we were having a bit of ouzo on our own terrace (Yanna was out and her husband was in charge so there was no procuring any type of beverage other than greek beer as he speaks no English) we heard a voice in the distance that was coming from a megaphone. Although the words were greek the cadence was that of an auctioneer. I maintained up and down it had to be an auction, Joop said no way it was a watermelon salesman. They drive around with a truck of watermelons announcing their wares through a megaphone. He must have been right because the voice did move around.

Our nighttime taverna had live music last night and lots of greek dancing. Joop really got into the spirit of the thing and as we went to the kitchen to pick out our meals he waltzed in and nearly took out the waiter with his zorba the greek hand movements.

Despite the aggressive winds that will probably prevent swimming, the heat is unchanged. How fair is that? Yesterday I had to go on an exploration to find waterproof sunscreen. A very rare beast. If you can believe it the majority of the products are tan enhancers. A person would die using that stuff. I finally found a precious bottle of the waterproof SPF 30 for a minor $25. I am really glad I brought some stuff with us initially. It is just too bad we went through it so fast. Right now Kyr is sitting in the car playing his Nintendo DS. He only has a car charger left because he blew out his adapter the day we arrived. Joop is enjoying my Penelpe Lively novel; he even occasionally laughs outloud. It is quite amusing. I am rushing through Willa Cather and devouring all of the prairie homesteading novels. They are very good. I might leave the itinerary up to the boys today to spare me anxiety because everymorning I have to spend time recovering from my nightmares.

September in Molyvos

Last night we had a drink on the main terrace overlooking the pool. Joop had spotted the proprietess sitting there looking lonely and so we diligently went to engage her and be entertaining. It turns out ( she speaks very good English after 10 mths at an American school for English in Athens) that she inherited the hotel from her father. She grew up in Molyvos, the lovely town just 2km away and they spent ½ the year in town and ½ at the hotel. She was away in Athens doing a sociology masters when he died and she came back to run the hotel. Her mother has a difficult time being here as the emotions are too great. Yanna runs the place singlehandedly with the assistance of a rather terse ukranian woman named Victoria. They close down in the winter at the end of October. The gardens are very lovely and require Yannas devotion in the closed months. On the whole she does very well. I don’t see how anyone could keep up with gardens in this desicating heat. There was an unusual heat wave in May and a persistant one that has lasted all summer. Normally the temperatures are in the mid 20’s at this time of year. Her occupants are 30%Austrian and 70% dutch. I have looked everywhere we have gone and there is simply not a more lovely hotel to be had. The perch on the ocean with the steps leading initially to the pool and then to the sea is very marvelous. There are outdoor showers at both the beach and the pool with fresh water. Kyr just adores the constant swimming; snorkeling most of the early afternoon with frolicking in the pool in late afternoon. It is just one big convenient water vacation. So for anyone going to Levos you must stay at the Hotel Elpis just outside of Molyvos(Mythimna).

The hugest grasshopper in the world just jumped onto Kyr’s veranda and now the boys are diligently photographing it.

Our snorkeling journeys are very successful in abalone ½ shell acquisition. I am surprised the depth to which Kyran can dive. I try valiantly but I always feel that there is a big hand pushing me up just as I almost get to my desired object. I tried valiantly 4 times to get an orange sea urchin shell that was most unusual – the other ones are all green. Finally the mean hand relented and let me grab it. The beach we went to yesterday was a seaglass mecca. Green is the most common colour with brown a rare beast. We tried to eat at a taverna right on the empty beach, the chairs practically in the ocean. But the waitress was so rude and delighted in saying no to everything we requested. Kyr eventually got a slab of cheese and Joop a bowl of beans. Outside of greek salad it was slim pickings. All you end up wanting – and are even willing to pay extra for, is a pleasant server since most food is the same. The stress level here is minimal. It affords great long sleeps. The only time I feel anxiety is in the morning thinking up an excursion that won’t exhaust us. I think it is vestigal anxiety that just needs a home because I’m sure if I didn’t worry about it our days would end up the same. The only other thing that prompts anxiety is contemplation of my vet association. I made the mistake of reading an email from some independent vets and now I am very worried for the future of the association. They seem to have all gone crazy and are demanding more and more money just to perpetuate a feud. It makes me understand how wars start – just an escalation of what initially seemed to be a finite problem. It is hard to attend meetings- the expense and inconvenient times. I must send my vote proxy. How do you do that? It is quite hard to have much say as a rural vet. I’m going to try and put the vet association out of my mind. It is unlikely they even have vets on this island. I think everyone believes nature must take its course. A bit difficult to swallow but it’s a different world and I am made obsolete. But never fear my surgical skills are not disintigrating, they are being honed daily trying to extract seaurchin spikes from Joop's fingers.

End of August in Greece

Yesterday we managed to find a completely secluded beach with black sand. It was as small slog with a windy dirt road but we were rewarded by this stretch of empty sand. It is on the north end of the island and the waves are more vigorous there. Although according to the wave strength expert Kyran, too puny for boogie boarding. That Hawaii experience serves to make a lot come up short. At the end of the beach was a church with a bell. For most of the morning we were there alone and then a greek family arrived. They initially began their stay with prayer and bell ringing then it progressed to what I term a meal gathering excursion. The two men initially busied themselves digging into the sand right at the interface of sand and sea. They only seemed to be a foot down and were loading a jar up with tons of tiny creatures. We were curious and Joop did a tentative dig to see what we could find. He only found some colourful worm like things with legs. Kyr suggested perhaps they were looking for cockles – gleaned from reading Gerald Durrell’s book. Then as the old woman lay right at the edge of the beach so that the waves would break over her, another woman snorkeled around with a plastic bag. She was in the ocean for along time. I snorkeled up to her to see her harvesting sea urchins and then some grey thing she had to cut off rocks – maybe abalone. After the digging the men then worked with a small line and hook catching tiny fish(almost ensnaring my boy in the process). All in all they were very industrious. As we were leaving they excitedly approached Kyr and Joop and asked if they had a gun to shoot a ½ meter fish they had just seen. Kyr has turned into an expert abalone shell seeker and now has enough for a necklace. He is curious as to why he only finds the same side in all of his shells. I practice diving for things but am not that good at it.
Greek appears visually to be a country without immigrants. Apparently this is not true – 10% are Albanian immigrants mostly illegal, and they do the menial jobs. Greeks supposedly hate the Albanians. The chances of a waiter being Albanian are pretty good. So now I am traumatized that our lovely waiter at the internet café who is always so smartly dressed and pleasant may be Albanian. The Greek proprietor is always glowering in the background while this guy does everything. I hope his work environment is not as upsetting as it looks and maybe that greek guy only looks cross.
This weekend most of the tourist children will be gone as they head back to school. I wonder how it will affect the boy – realizing everyone is back at school while he lolls about. I would like to do more exploring – see more evidence of the history but it is too hot to do this comfortably. It’s a long and complex history anyway. It is hard to keep it all straight. Maybe it is sufficient to see these olive grooves stepped up in small terraces on all of the hills – some trees 500 years old. Who could have done all of that stone gathering work in this heat?
Joop is going to attempt to make us some egg breakfast on the hot plate. I guess he is tired of the hotel bun with one slice of cheese, one slice of ham, some jam and a brownie.

Thursday in Molyvos

Firstly I have to brag about my purse. It is really withstanding the rigors of travel very well – staying clean, maintaining its beautiful streamlined shape. In fact when they rudely reduced us to one carryon I was able to stuff my laptop, 5 books, water bottles and all the other paraphernalia and it still looked sleek and trim. Talk about a beautiful purse. I am sure that everyone is eagerly awaiting theirs. Remember to be on the lookout for an industrial machine.
Despite our intended avoidance of windy mountain roads, it really is impossible to avoid them so we just went on a short trip along the northeast coastline to a raved about beach. Joop took it very gingerly, I hope for my sake but probably more to indulge his primal passion for looking for available fruit trees. It is quite an obsession, especially for ripe figs which even Kyr has enjoyed (though only in a bowl, not off the tree, funny that). Joop will determinedly try to manouver the car skillfully to occasionally allow picking out the windows.
The beach was initially disappointing because it was mostly medium sized boulders covered with slippery algae. It was almost impossible to walk in but if you sat down you could get in that way. Once in, it was like being in a giant aquarium. The water was so clear and the most beautiful blue. The light radiating in from above was other worldly. Under water or in the cockpit you can see the most unbelievable light. There were quite a few fish, some pretty colours, mostly tiny. Joop found Kyr a lovely abalone shell.
Then to a taverna Vafios “which is famous all over the world for its unique local traditional recipes and is recognized as the paradise of Lesbian gastronomy.” Talk about self promotion. The food was of course the same as all the rest. They had more stuffed blossoms on the menu than other places which I was eager to try, but I accommodated Joop by sharing a plate that seemed to have more seafood on it – pickled octopus, anchovies the like, and a very good pink mashed potatoe thing with lots of vinegar.
After the taverna its resting and reading at the pool and then another taverna and then to bed. It sounds quite boring but its not. We enlivened our experience at the night time taverna by playing many games of thumb wars which were quite hilarious. I worry that my blogs are too long but then I console myself that it is optional reading – its not like an email where you feel compelled to try and slog through it, it just sits there in a void unread unless someone feels like it. So I will not apologize about its length anymore.
If there are any world news highlights please let me know. We have very limited access to news – its all greek to me. The flags all over the island were at half mast yesterday and so we are trying to figure it out. Do you think it could be the deaths associated with the fires? Even that seems worlds away. Maybe the greeks talk about them but how would we know? I hope all of my pets are not being too neurotic for their caregivers. It is quite embarrassing to know that I have raised such an obscenely needy dog and cats that won’t shut up.

fire free Lesvos

Last night we invited an Austrian couple – Elizabeth and her son Phillip (12) to have supper with us as it was their last night here. I for one will be sad that they have gone
because I drew inordinant comfort from the sight of them at the pool everyday, Phillip frolicking in the water and their routine soujourns down the stairs to the sea. They were a constant in an unfamiliar place. They were good dinner companions despite Phillips scant English, Joop made up for it by frequently chatting with Phillip in German. Elizabeth and her husband are theatre actors in Vienna and she is excited to return and start directing a play. I found them quite a romantic pair simply because Elizabeth confided in me early on in our trip that she was there because Phillip had Angina pectoris which I took to mean chronic tonsillitis because of her constant stroking of her throat to demonstrate his affliction. Apparently his doctor had decreed that he must have at least 2 trips per year to the sea to keep this at bay. Since she has started on this regime he has not been sick. It must be the vitamin D, I offered helpfully. She shook her head and said the sun yes, but the sea is important also. I am seduced by the absoluteness of her belief and the necessity of taking such instruction. I need someone to decree it to me and follow it so religiously and feel perfectly vindicated doing so.
Our potential engagement with Elizabeth put pressure on the rest of the day. We set out what we thought was early enough to see the Lesbian town 60k away. The road there was filled with such switchbacks that I nearly expired on the way back due to carsickness and having to clutch the handle on the ceiling to stay centred. The landscape changed from the olive groves and small bush covered terrain, to a sort of moonscape with nothing clutching the hills. It was sort of beautiful but somewhat sad when you realized that this was once a densely forested island. Of course it was over 1000 years ago but deforestation that long ago permanently changed the ecosystem. And now of course we have adapted and think that this desert like island with the olive groves, sea and sky is so beautiful and it is but it is also scary to see how we change things even so long ago and then we happily keep going and actually even aspire to such a landscape. I always cling to the faint hope clause that everything will eventually recover, but it doesn’t always.
The purported Lesbian mecca was a small town on the sea. It had a fabulous beach completely lined with tavernas. Lesbians are drawn there from all over the world to pay homage to the birthplace of the poet Sappho. I failed to see any lesbians. Kyr claimed he did and that I couldn’t identify them because they didn’t look like Nelson lesbians.
We ate last night with Phillip and Elizabeth in a taverna recommended in the guidebooks. It was a most beguiling location – up a steeply cobbled street with the tables on the street against a ledge looking out onto the sea. It was very beautiful with the full moon lighting the sea and the occasion was marred only by the craziness of the proprietor. He insisted on coming over to our table every few minutes to rant on and on about his experience the night before. Apparently two women with baby carriages stopped just outside the door to his kitchen to talk. He couldn’t go in and out with the plates and so “politely’ asked them to move down abit. The one woman said “Don’t you know who I am?’ The guy said he didn’t care whereupon her husband showed up on the scene and threatened him. They were from Athens and apparently that explains everything. But let me tell you after the 5th retelling, the story was getting pretty stale as it didn’t seem to go anywhere else. I even tried to console him with tales of mean clients at the clinic – how they loom large but really very few in number. Nothing worked with this guy and we were eager to get out of there so we didn’t have to hear it again. It reminded me of the time in Nelson when Gord at café Kas came to our table and would quit telling us how horrible business was, how ungrateful Nelson was and how he couldn’t go on. Initially you feel compassion and empathy but then as the barrage never ends you start to feel panicked – how are you going to eat and get out of there fast enough. Restaurant proprietors – same the world over.
Kyr seems to have picked up a little cold so we might have to keep our activities more low key – no zooming wildly around the hills. My voracious reader boy has already finished his reading material so I am frantically trying to pawn my books off on him. Hopefully he likes them. P.S. Don't worry Carl - no fires on Lesvos. Miranda I love the food and am enamoured. We have been into Molyvos lots thats the place to set up. Kyr's blog address is http://MyTwoDollars-kitty.blogspot.com/ You would love it Melissa.

greece calm

The sun is rising in a clear sky today. Yesterday we had a moment of hope for persistent cloud cover and so set out happily thinking we could achieve some sights. We valiantly set out to see some old water baths or hot pools on the ocean. By the time we got there the heat was bad again and kyr was expiring in his black t shirt. So we abandoned that plan and parked ourselves at a taverna for lunch – not being necessarily hungry but fearful that they would close for their abominable mid afternoon 4 hour stint. It is a bit of a race to keep everyone’s blood sugar tickety boo. Joop proudly informed us that the greek cuisine is the oldest in Europe – 2500 years old. Unchanged in all of that time. Its not bad – just tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, cucumber and a bit of yogurt and meat and fish for good measure. We’ll see how I feel after two weeks of it. Not much fruit to speak of just watermelon which is has seeds and is quite sweet. I am trying to encourage Kyr to be a bit braver. Who doesn’t love domaldes? The highlight of any taverna is the cats. At least 5 young beasts frolicking around, very friendly. Very few older cats which makes me pause. Where do they go? It worries me a tiny bit. I suppose all of that procreation does them in. How many litters can you have before expiring. All in all they seem moderately healthy with the feline greek physique – very slim. One of our cats at the hotel that graces us with her presence at breakfast, has dreadful pus in the anterior chamber of her eye. Pretty difficult for me to deal with. In fact I have a hard time looking at her but she seems quite happy. The dogs (obligatory one per taverna) are hilarious looking – some with sort of beardy faces on dwarf like bodies. Kyr likes to say a cross between Sam and Toby.
I am more and more impressed by the placement of our hotel. It is very islolated – perched on the windswept coast facing Turkey with very few people in sight. Your only sense of people is to gather at the pool and be caught up in dutch and german. People definitely oblige by answering in English but it is a bit lonely. Not too many north Americans.
Kyr was regaling me last night with read aloud passages from My Family and Other Animals, about Gerald Durells’ years of living in Corfu with his family. The book was a highlight of my youth and it is so neat to be able to correspond his descriptions to our physical reality. I’m enjoying that part. It is probably one of the highlights of travel for me – that correspondence of joining all your imagined things – gleaned from novels, movies and history to the real thing. Its like bringing a bit of your past forward to greet you later. We picked our way along a moonlit beach last night to find a place to eat in a neighboring hotel. The only night creature seems to be bats. There doesn’t seem to be too many things to be afraid of. Crime doesn’t appear to be a problem, the sea doesn’t seem to be prone to rages, and I doubt if there are any large predators. In fact I’m wondering is there any mammalian wildlife at all to go to their wild animal hospital that they are very proud of. Lots of birds though and despite the sparseness of the sea life – one very weird looking sea centipede thing – bright orange and yellow with a segmented 1.5foot body. I tried valiantly to convince myself that it wasn’t poisonous as I snorkeled away rapidly.
The people at the internet place are quite friendly so it is not an onerous job to go in and work away – luckily. It is very empty as well except for a young greek boy perhaps 10 yrs(proprietors son?) who seems to be there no matter what time. I worry for these children addicted to the internet. Kyr is even able to talk to his friend Trevor on MSN when it is 2:30am at home. What is that? I’ve tried to imagine the pets eeking out a living here. Imagine Obelix as a taverna cat. Maybe he’d last one day. He’d make himself hoarse complaining. Little Archie would be a wreck. Too many things to worry about, not enough opportunity to be pressed against people. My pets are just not laid back enough to make the transition. Maybe that is like their owner. I hope not.

greece so far

I am sitting on the veranda watching the sunrise over the mountain and listening to the waves and all of the birds. Lesvos is an island of birds. It attracts many birder tourists in the spring to witness all of the hundreds of migrations.
This is a hard won moment of serenity in Greece.
The rest of the hotel is quiet. There are maybe 12 other units. And the rest of the guests are going for the greek tradition of very late to bed, also quite late to breakfast and then the onerous job begins of managing the heat. All of the day is spent accommodating the heat.
There were several moments in the last four days when I wondered if this was too far to come. I could understand the Europeans – maximally a 3 and a ½ hour flight. But perhaps this was too far for North Americans. After 4 days I am starting to let that go.
That initial 10 hour flight to Amsterdam was horrid. A person barely survives that type of thing. Kyran and I slept intermittently, Joop not at all. My memory of the 7 hour sojourn in Holland – airport and airport hotel was one of supreme exhaustion punctuated by delighted horror of how the hotel was decorated - ruffles galore on the chairs and miniscule vases placed everywhere, and then complete admiration for this sandwich shop in the airport: churning out hundreds of delicious looking sandwiches in impeccable orderliness. We had to order a taxi to the airport at 2am if it gives you some idea of the sleep deprivation that is starting to ensue.
The only redemptive thing in the first several days of this journey was the flight to Lesvos. Luckily Bas, Joop’s nephew had secured the piloting of the flight. It was with pleased surprise that we saw him navigating the isle just prior to takeoff. He invited Kyr up to the cockpit for takeoff. I regret my admonishment to Kyr to be impressive. All it served to do was to strangle him and prevent him delighting the cockpit crew with his repertoire of Farside jokes. It was either my ridiculous demand or the presence of Bas’ 13 year old daughter Pam also in the cockpit along for the ride that drove my boy to an episode of unusual shyness. Luckily his shyness did not prevent him from finding the whole thing very exciting.
I was the supremely lucky one though and got to be in the cockpit for landing. It made me really understand the draw of flying, of being a pilot. As we approached the island at dawn, the entire Aegean sea was lit was an ethereal light that bathed all of the Greek islands and the coast of Turkey in a beautiful pink glow. It felt as though we were descending into another world where time had stopped and all of history had culminated in a moment. The vista from the front of the plane is unparalleled. You can see everything at once. The only downside is appreciating just how short that runway really is. And what skill and bravery are needed to navigate that. It made surgery seem like a cakewalk.
I started to feel terribly ill on the bus ride to our hotel with an incapacitating headache. That probably added to the sense of disappointment on arrival. Our hotel was located in the region of the salt marshes at the tip of a bay. All the guidebooks say how amazingly there are package tourist hotels placed in the middle of nothing to see. How true those guidebooks were. Our room was miniscule – 3 beds jammed in a room the size of my dining room and no airconditioning which we had been promised. Joop had prepared me for some travails – like hard small beds and showers that spill water from the surround all over the bathroom, but he had failed to mention things like not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet. There was nothing redemptive about the room and there were nothing but flies, flies everywhere. In my incapacitating illness I had to lie there for hours with flies landing on my face all of the time. I wondered if I would ever get better. While I lay there Kyr and Joop struggled to find something to enjoy as the island was completely booked and alternative accommodation could not be found for love or money. Joop managed to rustle up a rental car so we could at least escape the salt marshes. The next morning when attempting to shower the entire hotel room flooded with water backing up the central drain in the middle of the room. A person can live with water spillage but not central drain backups. The horror of all that bacteria was pushing me over the edge. Joop heroically managed to convince the Dutch tour operator that it was untenable for us to remain there. Luckily she agreed and managed to find us an opening at a hotel on the open ocean on the other side of the island. It is just down the road from a beautiful village on the coast filled with steep cobblestone streets below a castle. We were rapturous about the move until the next morning when the central drain overflow happened again. Luckily at this place they go through the motions of agreeing that is a problem and have attempted to fix it. So far so good.
All in all the Greeks are interesting people. They live to socalize and so every evening there is a mass influx of people into town to walk and eat at all of the outdoor tavernas. The days appear to be spent with the mornings in the ocean, the afternoons hiding to escape the heat and the evenings fraternizing with the masses. One gets a very real sense that they distain tourists and it is almost beneath them to have to interact at all. This island is filled with horse lovers and horse ownership is prized greatly. Most people are on scooters, but the occasional one is on a horse. Olive groves cover the island. Some are located so far from roads they have to have the olives brought out by donkeys. Internet is a rare beast.
Luckily I love Greek food, Kyr not so much. The ocean is not as lively as good old Hawaii but it is very warm and nice. Now that we are somewhat settled we can get into the feel of things. The only thing stopping us is the heat, which a dissipated former English man who sold us the use of a beach umbrella for 5 euros for a day, told us was 46 degrees. I can believe it. Kyr is horrified by the prevalence of speedos. Though luckily at our new place the beach is almost completely empty. It is hard to explore when the temperatures are so high but maybe I’ll just accept the way the europeans vacation – just water and food. Nothing else seems to matter.
We have managed to lay in some provisions so that as soon as Kyr wakes up and I can go into his room I will be able to make myself some tea. You have no idea how excited that makes me.
As I lay there at the beginning of our stay, covered with flies and feeling dreadful I wondered what were the basic things I needed to able to enjoy a vacation. Now my list is plumbing that works, room to open a suitcase and ability to procure tea. I used to think internet access but now I am thinking that even to be able to access it every few days is tolerable. Hopefully this is not the longest, most boring blog in history.