Headed home

Last night we went out for dinner with friends to celebrate the completion of the Katsalos part of the project. It has been worked on intermittently for at least a decade, and it is finally finished! It was also our last night on the island, so it was a great finish to our time in Astypalaia.

So this morning we set out on our return to Los Angeles. We took a rather harrowing taxi ride to the airport, crammed into a sedan with two other ladies who had tons of luggage. The road is only one lane wide, so you creep out onto the cliff in order to pass oncoming traffic. Hairpin turns, slow moving garbage trucks and tourists on motorcycles add to the adventure. I kept checking the trunk to make sure our luggage was still there, as is was creatively bungee corded to the back of the vehicle. Taxis are always crammed full like this on the island, you have a reservation for the taxi, but so do a couple of other people.

The flight from Asty to Athens was as expected, a short turbulent ride on a small prop plane. High winds are pesky with these little planes flying at low altitudes. Thought about going into the city, but I didn't have the ambition, a howling dog kept me awake half the night.

Tomorrow it is an early flight to Paris and then finally on to Los Angeles. It will be a long trying day.
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Library

The building in this shot is the local library and information center. Happenings or important info is posted on the board on the right hand side of the picture. There are two maps on the left, one in Greek and one in English. All of the churches, and there are hundreds, are noted in case you wanted to visits all of them. Beaches are also noted, even the smallest ones are named.

I think that the lady that works in the library owns that fancy red scooter with the wooden box on the back. I will admit that I covet here bike and would put it to very good use if she would lend it to me.

Motorcycles are the preferred method of transportation here there are sometimes dozens parked in this area. Things seem a bit slow this year, maybe there are fewer tourists out on vacation. Locals tell us that the next couple of weeks will be the height of the season and then it drops off dramatically. There are only about 600 to 700 residents out here in the winter.

More soon

The Bazaar

Here is a photo of our favorite local grocery store, it's called Bazaar. As you can see it is not ADA compliant, but you can find almost anything you need in here. You do need to go to a separate store for fruits and veggies, but as luck would have it the shop is next door.

We get almost everything here, from giant six packs of water to feta cheese. I even found a water spritzer that I use to keep the black sand we use for photography looking its best.

The store is on three different levels, it is kind of terraced up the hill. Frozen food and dairy is on the lowest level, dry goods in the middle and the cashier is at the top.

We see everybody in here, even our landlord shops here. Most days when we go in we are greeted warmly by someone that we have come to know in Astypalaia.

So stop in at the Bazaar if you need something. Oh, by the way they have the best prices in town.

More soon.

Codgers

As I have mentioned before, the coffee house is the domain of Greek men, mostly codgers like the ones pictured here. They sit around out front and shoot the breeze, I don't think that they ever go home to sleep. They check out everyone that goes by, they don't miss anything. They can probably tell you everything that goes on up in the Chora.

This alleyway is about the only way to get up into the main area of the town. Cars, trucks, motorcycles by the dozen and pedestrians all have to get through this narrow passageway. In order to get up the hill you have to pass these sentinels, day or night. Notice how they have both sides of the road covered. Sometimes there are eight or so guys out there.

This cafe is also one of the few places open in the morning where you can get Greek coffee. I like mine medium sweet. You can order black, medium sweet or very sweet.

FYI, Greek coffee is really Turkish coffee. However, unless you are looking for a fight, order Greek coffee in Greece. I saw two Greek archaeologists having a heated conversation about this very subject. The patriotism of one of the people was being questioned because they dared to ask for Turkish coffee. Animosity between Turks and Greeks goes way back, and is still alive and well today.

More soon.

Asbestos

As some of you may know, I have attempted to learn some modern Greek. I am now very easily entertained by trying to sound out and figure out the meaning of Greek words.

Every day, on the way up to school, we pass this construction site. So, naturally I am interested in what is in those gigantic bags. I actually saw a crane delivering them to the work site. I begin to sound out the first word on the bag, and it seems to be asbestos. I am surprised, because I did not think you would want new construction full of asbestos!

The locals tell me not to worry, because the word really means cement. However, I thought I read another word that approximated cement. Hmmm...

It is fun to see how many of our English words come from the Greek, for example exodus is the Greek for exit. All of the signs above the emergency exits on Olympic Air are marked exodus. Consider that your Greek lesson of the day. My Greek has improved a bit by being here. Simon and the Greek archaeologist on site give me little tests throughout the day.

More soon.

Wild goose chase

Sunday we went on a wild goose chase looking for some random isolated beach. We could see the beach in question from the comfort of our patio, but Andrea has been itching to walk there for a couple of years.

There are no roads to these beaches, and to reach them you either arrive by boat, or you slide down a ravine through fiercely thorny plants. We do not have a boat, so we walk. I was skeptical from the start. I hike often in California, so just by looking I figure it is a good five miles. The terrain is mountainous, lots of switchbacks on the paved road.

So we start out walking from about where the white buildings start on the left side of the photo. We go down the mountain, around peaceful Livadi bay and start going up the other side of the mountain. We take a trail to a nearby beach, but it is not the one Andrea is dreaming of. We then decide to take a shortcut by not backtracking but just walking straight up the hill instead. We need to use a rusted goat fence for support, because the grade is so steep and the wind is blowing at gale force. Oh, I'm carrying my camera bag with about 10 lbs. of assorted stuff.

We finally reach the paved road and continue to walk higher and higher into the mountains. The road ends at a T stop and then becomes dirt, so we take the left fork, toward the sea. We keep walking and all I see are mountains, the water has vanished. There are tons of bee boxes, as the island is famous for honey.

Suddenly a nice Greek man with a map walks up and tells us that we will reach the beach if we walk 2.3 kilometers more!

I vote no, as we have little water and no food.

When we describe where we walked to locals they laugh and tell us we must be crazy.

You can see I took this shot in the middle of nowhere and still have to walk back to the white buildings far in the distance. Aahhh!

More soon.

The butcher

Several times a week we visit Tony the butcher. He is a native Astypalaian, but he speaks great English since he spent some of his childhood in Australia. It was a bit surprising to hear his Australian accent at first, but we are very glad to be able to communicate with him.

He makes some really fabulous hand made sausages, nicely seasoned and then smoked. We asked if he could make them spicier, but he says that local people don't like spicy food. We have also noticed this to be the case, the flavors are much more subdued than in Southern California. He doesn't always have sausages, because he has to get up the ambition to make them. So if we show up on Friday and ask for sausages, he will say maybe on Tues, but on Tues he says maybe on Friday. The sausages eventually show up in the meat case on Sunday.

He tells us about all kinds of things when we visit his shop. The other day he educated me about the types of motorcycles available on the island. I learned which were better for street vs. dirt riding, which ones had power to go uphill and which were put-puts. He advised me NOT to try to ride one, as local drivers are hazardous. My dreams of skimming over the mountain on a bike are dashed.

Stop in and visit him if you are up in Chora. He has the white butcher shop with red trim.

More soon.