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Greece Chapter 2
Tue. June 6
It seems Norma missed the notice to pay her connection and has been cut off. L spoke (? he has no English L has no Greek) to the manager on her way in this afternoon. He is now saying that it will be another 10 days or there about for a phone line. S--t! We're going to be moved out before it happens at this rate. Oh well, sit back and sip the iced coffee, L....that seems to be the answer to lots of things here.
Before J left for work, we visited the old walled city of Ioannina. It's on a piece of land that juts out into the lake and is now surrounded by the rest of Ioannina. Within the walls is a small town in its own right. The streets are all cobbled. Mind you many of the streets in the rest of town are also cobbled. The palace of Ali Pasha is also within the walls. He was the Turk who ruled Ioannina during the Turkish occupation.
L standing by atop the walls, Ali Pasha's mosque behind the houses of the
old walled town, battlements and barracks.
Mon. June 12
L has survived her first full week of being completely on her own. Norma is rapidly becoming a fast friend. There are many other English speaking people in town, most are Aussie but one from Boston (my was that accent a surprise!). L has settled into a routine of sorts. Get up sometime after the sheep go to pasture, shower, dress, have her breakfast of fruit and yogurt, and go out for the morning. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are "go into town days", and the others are walking around the village and lake. Have coffee somewhere, or with someone, (more people are starting to invite her in for coffee) and decide whether it is lunch or supper that will be her major (purchased) meal of the day. Back to the room for the afternoon nap and some time on the lap-top, out again as the day starts to cool. L usually takes her book down to a bench by the lake for a couple of hours most evenings. Others are spent playing cribbage with Norma. They have decided that they are going to teach this game to the village. Should be fun....the Greek major pastime is backgammon. L hasn't played it in years, so she'll let them re-introduce her to it.
Wed. June 15
Did we tell you that there are gypsies here? First, forget the romantic horse drawn caravan and fancy clothes that happens on TV and in books. Reality is a 1/2 ton truck with the bed full of oranges (now melons) with a scale hanging from a tail hook. The better off ones have a 1 1/2 to 3 ton truck with plastic garden/balcony furniture, or Turkish carpets. All of them have a loud speaker to announce what they are selling, (in Greek, of course, L has to rely on peering in the back). Her method was particularly effective the day that it was 3 day old chicks, the loud speaker drowned out the cheeping of the birds. L was almost tempted to find out how much a handful of chicks would have cost her, but no yard no chicks......and she's sure her partner is very happy about that one.
The other thing here is the payphones. You have to buy a phone card (available at every corner store and kiosk) for about 1,000 drachmas (250 drachmas to the Canadian dollar). None of the phones accept money, although some will take your visa card. L got a recorded message yesterday, in Greek then English. You can manage in English, you just have to try harder......and wave your hands a lot (never been a problem for Linda as her former co-workers would attest!).
Sat. June 17
It has rained the last couple of days, so Linda was just a little behind in getting in to town to gather messages. It was sunny today however, so in to town she went. It was a good mail day, messages from both of our families and our friend Sheldon. We were especially happy to hear from him, his computer died just before we left and nothing Jacques did would get it working for him. Today was also phone Jacques day. The usual call is made more interesting by the use of the 1,000. drachma phone card. That is good for about 4 minutes. L has yet to figure out how to change the cards in the middle of the conversation without cutting J off. She will just have to get one of Norma's kids to show her, as in most places if you want to know who, what, where, or how ask a kid. You are not instantly branded as a molester either. There is a real difference between village and big city attitudes, Norma has said there are no "senseless crimes" here, there is always a reason.
Mon. June 19
Well, the locals know L is crazy. They had suspicions before, but now they are sure. It all started innocently enough.....L took the camera out with her for her walk. She had seen a tortoise the other day and she thought she'd see if she could find it again, she even picked up a piece of windfall fruit to encourage a photogenic pose. No luck with the tortoise, but she got lots of the roadside weeds (none of the local gardens which is what the locals thought she should be photographing). L will keep looking for the tortoise!
The Bottle-Brush plant was a potted plant in a cafe at the Cave exit,
the others, we found an the road-sides and in the fields.
Tue. June 27
Hardly seems possible but L has been here for a month now. Today she moved in with Dimitris' parents "for a few days".
Our month was up at the hotel and just as well. There was still no phone in the room and the place tended to be noisy in the mornings. We have noticed that doors do not have normal (by our standards) turning-type door knobs on the outside. To open a door from the outside, you must use the key to retract the latch, the handle or knob does not turn. To close the door from the outside, you either use the key and close it gently or, as seems to be more common, you slam the door shut. Often, repeated slams are required. Oh, and apparently it must be 5:30 AM when you do it too.
Now Dimitris' parents' place is just two floors up and right on the edge of a rather busy street (if you jumped out the window, you'd probably miss the sidewalk entirely). Bobby (Dimitris' father) says that they will someday build a new road further outside of town and route the heavier traffic that way. Right now though, this is a major route through the area and it is a narrow street surrounded, canyon-style, by shops and apartments (though nothing over 6 floors, of course). The worst noise is from motorbikes and scooters. Scooters are very common here since the roads are never icy. Dimitris' sister, Viki has a scooter. The brakes need work. We'll leave it at that.
Fri. June 30
"Mama", who runs the restaurant down the street from the hotel in Perama and who speaks a fair bit of German, is asking L for a favor. She wants us to pick up a Gold detector. Not a regular type metal detector but one that specifically detects gold. It seems that during the war (WWII) an uncle of hers buried some money and no one is quite sure where. The currency of the time was Gold Sovereigns hence the Gold Detector. And, if she finds them, they will probably be worth a lot of money today.
She doesn't want to get the detector through any of the local people because she doesn't want them to know she's looking (so don't say anything, OK?). There are too many relatives around (not to mention long-lost relatives) for her to be advertising it. We've promised to look into it and get back to her. In the mean time, we really enjoy her cooking and her hospitality.