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.