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.
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