Out to see a Friend

Instead of staying home we've been out and about quite a bit.  Our friends are all like us and have been 'hibernating' away from the hoi polloi.  Now we are finally all socialising a little.  

We took the car ferry across to the mainland and the little town of Galatas.  Masks are no longer required on the ferry boat unless you want to sit inside the upstairs lounge.  No-one ever does unless it's midwinter and there's a freezing wind.  So we sat in our cars this time mask free.

Our friend lives just out of the town with a view looking back towards the island

From her balcony you can see the small island with the Venetian fortress and it's other more ancient relics.  We had many glasses of cold water, without the lemon juice and as the evening cooled down we sat on her balcony, enjoying the breeze called the meltemi and having a small glass of very chilled wine.

The meltemi is a strong northerly and it comes with fire warnings.  There is a fire now just north of us which is being whipped up by the high winds and is threatening several small villages.  

It's at this time of the year that if I think I can smell smoke I'll be out scanning the horizon  making sure we are safe.  Flames move so quickly and can change direction in an instant.

On our way back we had a half hour wait for the return ferry so decided to sit and have another glass of wine and a plate of kalamari while we waited.  We ended up waiting through quite a few departures and got the last boat at 10.30.  We had an evening off the island.  That doesn't happen very often

Our view

A large lorry disembarks

Looking over the waters to Poros