Poros Photos

 Kalimera

Good morning....... 

From our neighbourhood 

This is a photo taken by a neighbour of ours and posted on Facebook

She lives higher than us.  From our house, on the far left, we have a restricted view of the sea blocked by olive and cypress trees. They need a severe pruning.  At night we can only just see the far lights on the coast of Athens. 

  

My front garden covered in the green of clover and nasturtiums. I'm happy to survey this sea of green every morning when I open the shutters. 

Hidden in there are pots of celery and the wheelbarrow is full of rocket 

And in the back yard the green and yellow of the clover covers all of Ks 'treasures' . 

Two car ferries cross the wintery harbour from the island to the mainland

Photo by Christo, local photographer

Sailors at the Navy Base have a free Sunday with family and friends

I met these 500, 700, 900 ?, sailors on a walkabout with shouldered rifles. A police  car, our one and only, headed the parade with flashing lights. They waved at me to slow down and make way for the military column. 

Bringing up the rear was an ambulance and a Navy pick-up truck (ute) with it's bed full of casualties. Or that's what it looked like. 10 Ks on a country road in brand new heavy boots probably caused a few blisters. 

I had my phone hanging on a cord round my neck and was itching to take a photo. I did not. 

I didn't want to end up in the back of that police car. 

Soko-late

 Dubai chocolate.......

What the hell is this new fad

A chocolate bar made from milk chocolate filled with a sweet cream made from pistachios, finely chopped katayfi pastry and tahini.

Dreamt up by a chocolatier in Dubai in 2021.

Thanks to TikTok everyone's suddenly talking about it.  So I had to google, didn't I!!

Now I want to eat it

This is the Greek brand of Dubai chocolate. Now available in every supermarket and small grocery.

There is a catch. Other chocolate bars this size cost around 2 euro. This one sells for over 4 euros.

How long can I last without buying it and eating it?

Hopefully the price will stop me from reaching out to grab it from the shelf!

I've just found out that granddaughter Nels has made this chocolate!! She'll be back this weekend for the big Lenten celebration. 

She will be making some for us... Or else. 

Wait for the next episode..... 

 

Meat, Meat. Lots of Meat

 A Winter's Bbq..Thursday last

Tsiknopempti. Smokey Thursday.

Round 1.........

One of the most important days of the Greek carnival season. It's the 2nd to last Thursday before Lent. The tradition is to eat mounds of lamb chops, grilled or roasted, pork pancetta, sausage and chicken pieces. 

With Greek salad, Pitta bread and bowls of tzatziki.  And litres of wine, fine and not-so fine.

After the food and wine there may be singing and dancing.

Our Chief Bbq-er 

Me and Jan enjoying the finer wine

Beside a roaring fire

It was a freezing day. Around 7oC

Far too cold for greek island dwellers

K with a wee dram of the 'other' wine

This is 'meat eating week'.

 Next week it will be cheese, dairy and eggs. And then along comes the 6 week fast.

Round 2

In the evening family, a couple of grandchildren, came for more meat. Lots of meat. Far too much. 

They took home a baking dish piled high. We are still finishing off our share. 

It's the tradition says the traditional part of the family. 

And granddaughter Luli made a big dish of what the Greeks call 'mosaiko', chocolate and crushed biscuits.

Boy was it good. I ate a big piece. And I shouldn't have. Especially after all that meat

Meanwhile back in Athens... 

The rest of the grandchildren were grilling out on their balcony

Tall grandson is the one in the middle

I Saw the Light

 I had my eyes lasered. 2 minutes of brightly coloured lights directed at my eyeballs and I had perfect eyesight again.

It was an amazing difference. Suddenly everything was bright and clear. 

What I hadn't realised was how much my eyesight had deteriorated.  It had been getting worse for months. Everything was blurry but I could still see. 

Then the light returned and I suddenly saw the world as it really is. 

I can see my fingernails. They need a manicure. I can see my toenails. They need a trim. 

I can probably see that chin hair as well.

I looked in the mirror and realised I badly needed to put some colour in. My hair is dark grey with streaks of silver and blonde ends from the last dye job. That must have been months ago.

I thought I had an elegant white mane. No!

That was the first shock. 

Colours are suddenly so bright. I've had to turn down the brightness on my phone. It was dazzling me.

But this morning I got the biggest shock when I saw how filthy my house is.

There's a layer of crumbs under the table. Door handles, appliances are grimy and greasy.  I couldn't see any of this a few days ago. Obviously it has been building up over the months.

The rugs need beating and deep cleaning. Furniture is covered in dust. Floors just plain mucky. Thank goodness we have a dishwasher so I know plates and cutlery are clean. 

It appalls me and it's overwhelming to see what needs to be done.

I'm never over enthusiastic about cleaning but this makes me want to cry.

But let's be positive. I have perfect eyesight. I can see clearly without glasses. I can read small print with my reading glasses. It's wonderful.

Head Honcho

 Mid winter is pruning time. Roses and grapevines .

Poppi has been chief pruner for at least 5 years now.  In the beginning it was 'the blind leading the blind'. I showed her where to cut, having watched our next door neighbour doing it once. 

The roses and vines grew back strong and healthy. 

It needs someone young with strong hands to do the work.

A champion rower perhaps.

 Some of the vines are thick and gnarled and growing over walls and fences. The roses are old fashioned varieties covered in fierce  thorns.

And there's Poppi

Climbing, secateurs in hand trimming all the vines down to stumps.

The wee Elf-who-helps .

Her Mum collected all the vines, branches, pruned them down to a usable size and gave them to her father to use later on the BBQ

Poppi found a frog in the nasturtiums. 

It was remarkably tame and sat on her hand till she put it back in the green tangle

A Popp-y

And a

2 colour bougainvillia 

White and purple 

This white and purple one doesn't bloom till late September . I'll prune it myself when the flowers drop.

The stumpz

Report-age

This week in Greece.

- Ex Prince Nikolas of the long deposed Greek royal family was married in Athens, to the daughter of a ship-owner. Wealth and titles go together.

The family name was Glucksberg. Doesn't sound very Greek.  They are related to the Danish, Spanish and English royal families. None of the 'greek' royals were ethnically Greek. 

They were exiled in 1974 and  stripped of Greek citizenship in 1994.  

To regain their Greek citizenship they recently renounced their titles and changed the name to De Grèce, of the Greeks.  Very clever. It sounds grand, Nikolas De Grèce, but he's just an ordinary Greek citizen. 

-  Politics

The usual. Party differences.

Strikes, protest marches

It's been a while since  there's been rioting, Molotov cocktails, the ripping up and throwing of marble paving stones. Maybe the anarchists are waiting for spring. 

- Turkish threats.  Dear old Erdogan, President of Turkey, has been redefining his borders once again. This time he's including Greece's northern capital of Thessaloniki.

Erdogan is dreaming of a 2nd Ottoman Empire which he calls the Blue Homeland.  He fantasizes a great and powerful  Turkey stretching from Crimea to Samarkand (a city now  in Uzbekistan). With him as all powerful Sultan.  In your dreams mate 

- A month ago churches in the Cycladic islands were holding liturgies for some rain. Now they're holding services for the end to the still constant earthquakes.

'Experts' are monitoring the quakes. The ones I listen to on YouTube are waiting to see what happens during the full moon on Wednesday.

A full moon supposedly puts more stress on the earth's crust and could cause the shift of tectonic plates. 

The other night when I couldn't sleep I started listening to a live stream covering a 7.5 earthquake around Honduras and the Cayman islands. They were sending out warnings about a tsunami.

The next morning there was no mention of earthquakes or tsunamis down there.  I haven't googled but I presume there was no tsunami, not much damage and no deaths. No drama so no news.

🎶....my boomerang won't come back.

Don't worry, we've got 5 more of them. 

Thank you nephew Panayioti. He's captain of a merchant navy ship, lately in Australian waters. He didn't forget his foreign aunt. Thanks Pano! 

The first sign of spring up at the ancient ruins. An almond  tree in blossom

An Anemone

A meeting of the

Local-kiwi-alien

Fan Club 

Welcome Ada, my latest follower. Here flanked by no. 1 fans Elli and Danae. 

Poppi is in Athens.  More about her later. 

Cold Winter Days

 Baby it's cold outside.

7oC and an icy wind.

We went out for the first time this week to go shopping and have a coffee in a warm café.

K was getting cabin fever. He needed urgently to see a few  different faces and exchange some frivolous banter.

Not me but I did need some frivolous shopping 

It certainly made for a cheap week. We should stay at home more often.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead-s

Junior was cuddled up on the couch next to Elli and Luli

And Rusty was curled up on his couch next to Danae's wood stove

Back at our homestead there was baking going on

Yesterday it was apple pies

Today it was meat pies

And tomorrow it will be spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese pie).

I made the the apple and meat pies myself and cooked them on the wood stove.

Enough. Tomorrow's pie was  made and flash frozen by Mr Kanaki.

It will enjoyed by another Mr K while watching his favourite football team . With a few glasses of wine.  The more goals, the more wine!

Checking on those pies

Piles of wood all over the place. 

Cataracts....Again

 2 years ago I had the cataracts in both eyes repaired. The operations were a success and for the first time in 60 years I could see without glasses.

How happy I was. I bought sunglasses at a fraction of the price of prescription ones. The only glasses I needed were for reading and very close-up work, like threading a needle. I was slightly annoyed about that. I had prided myself on my close sight.  This is normal so I can't complain 

In the last few months I've noticed my eye sight deteriorating. It began with a blur around the edges as though my lens were dirty. Now it's a mist and it's spreading. 

Threading a needle? Forget it, even with glasses. Never mind removing chin hairs. They're rampaging happily in the stratosphere.

I finally had my eyes tested and it seems I have secondary cataracts. Not serious said the doc. Easily fixed. You sit in front of machine.  There's a series of clicks. And 'Bob's your Uncle '. 

You walk out with perfect eyesight again.

It's all to do with the plastic case that goes over the eye for cataracts. In 50% of cases it starts to break up after 2-5 years 

All very well. First find out which hospital has this machine, called YAK. Then get an appointment.

The rural hospital where I originally had the op is very busy and I couldn't get an appointment till the end of June. Que c'era c'era.

But even after phoning all over the hospital K, who is telephone central, couldn't discover whether they had the YAK.

We have 4 rural hospitals within a 2 hour distance. Neither of us wanted to go into Athens. 

Eventually he phoned the hospital in Tripoli (Greek Tripoli), the one furthest away. They couldn't have been nicer.

You're coming from Poros?

We'll fit you in as soon as possible!

So I have an appointment for next Friday. It's late morning so we have plenty of time to get there , find parking, pick up the entrance papers and find the 6th floor.

Only thing we need is a covid test. No problem there. Though it did surprise me. No one asks for those anymore.

I'll be very happy to see the world clearly again 

Shaky Isle

Santorini is still being shaken by hundreds of quakes a day. 90% of residents have left. 

Santorini Animal Welfare is thanking everyone for taking their domestic cats and dogs with them. However there are dozens of donkeys used for transporting tourists. Shepherds with herds of goats I'm sure have stayed behind to look after their animals. The Animal Welfare Society is doing their best to make sure all the beasties are fed, watered and in a safe place, well away from rock slides and falling buildings.

The PM declared a state of emergency in the area till March 3.

The Army has moved in to set up in preparation for disaster and help keep people distant from landslides and falling masonry.  They also patrol the deserted streets to stop looting. Wherever there's a catastrophe there's  low life ready to further the misery. 

If you've ever visited the island you'll know that the landing places, harbours, ports are at the bottom of steep cliffs. 

Cruise ships off-load at the bottom and you can walk up a steep winding path, ride a donkey, or take the cable car.

I've never been there but all my non Greek family have. I'm glad they all saw it in its heyday.

It is known for its picturesque blue and white cliff top villages, narrow streets, cliff-hanging hotels and rich ancient history. However, it's  crowded with daily visits from dozens of cruise ships. Beaches are mainly black sand or volcanic pebble.

It is, was, a popular wedding and honeymoon island.  Thousands of tourists gazed nightly at its spectacular sunsets.

It's volcanic soil grows excellent tomatoes. My father remembered them from his visit, searching out German troops, during WW11.

It is also known for its split peas and it's white wine made from unique varieties grown only on its wind blown vineyards .

Santorini and all the nearby Cycladic Islands Amorgos, Ios, Naxos and Paros would have been booked out for the upcoming Western and Orthodox Easters.

Even if the emergency is over by April there will be clean-up to be done and people will not be hurrying back to stay in an uncertain clime.

Turkey and Israel are both preparing for an aftermath tsunami if a big earthquake does occur. Turkey says they'll have one hour to evacuate coastal towns.

This quake phenomenon is called a seismic swarm . It happened before in 2011 and was a series of moderate quakes which  lasted 15 months. I can't remember that happening. 

Experts are divided on whether there will be a stronger earthquake, 6 and over. However they do think an eruption unlikely.

Seismic Santorini

 The Greek island of Santorini. Renowned for its amazing sunsets*, besieged by thousands of tourists and cruise ships all year long

Over half of it's residents and all tourists have been evacuated as continuous seismic tremors shake the island.  The nearby islands of Amorgos, Ios and Anafyi are also along the same fault line  

Schools are closed and people are being warned to keep away from cliffs faces, especially on Santorini as rock falls and landslides occur.

The tremors are continual since Saturday, increasing to over 5 on the richter scale.

Experts naturally are monitoring the situation. But really, who knows. They wait for the worst.

Emergency services are in position on all these islands and residents given instruction on how to protect themselves.

The last big earthquake was 7.7 in 1956. They're used to earthquakes but not these constant tremors.

Santorini is an extinct volcano.

The volcano erupted in 1600BC. It was one of the largest volcanic explosions in human history. It is thought that the volcanic cloud and tsunami wiped out Minoan civilisation on Crete. Was this when the island state of Atlantis was destroyed?

These earthquakes are not thought to be linked to volcanic activity.  By some experts.

*Poros too has awesome sunsets over the harbour and mountain known as 'The Sleeping Lady'.

Battle of Salamina

 When we travel, not often now, I like to take photos for the blog. Stopping for photos is not on Ks to-do list.

This time I had allies. The 2 little Greek girls.  We passed this memorial to the Battle of Salamis a couple of times . Elli made him slow down so she could photo the memorial and the area overlooking the Straits. This was where 370 Greek ships  beat 700 ships of the Persian Navy in 480BC.

Persian King Xerxes set up his throne on a hilltop overlooking the Straits of Salamis expecting to watch his triremes annihilate the much smaller Greek Navy.

Themistocles, the Greek commander lured the Persians into a trap and achieved a massive victory, forcing Xerxes to retreat to Asia.

It is described as the most important sea battle of the ancient world.

The now peaceful landscape overlooking Greek shipyards

Commemorating the Liberation of the Greek Fatherland, it's women and children and their future Autonomy.

Or words to that effect. 

I've posted this short clip before . Gerard Butler as King Leonidas from the film 'The 300'. He kicks a Persian envoy, demanding  Sparta's surrender, down a well. 

Spartans Never surrender. 

In a desperate fight to the death Leonidas, King of Sparta, with his 300 warriors held the pass of Thermopylae against the Persians long enough for Greek forces to retreat. 

Described as one of the 'most historically inaccurate movies ever produced' . 

It's still an epic show.

Salamina Get-Away

 One Saturday past we packed a small suitcase, picked up the 2 daughters and headed back to the island of Salamina.

It's 3 hours by road from Poros. Half an hour from Athens. 

 We lived there in the late 80s when the girls were very young. K was serving aboard a minesweeper which when in port docked at the big Naval Base on the island. We had just finished a 3 year stay on Crete 

That was 34 years ago.

We were going back for a memorial service and looking forward to a road trip with our  two girls.

They're good fun, a load of laughs.

And a lot of the time that's the way it was. Some of the time it wasn't .

Our chauffeur was a little bit on the short-fused side. There were roadworks and a detour near the Korinth Canal. 

All he had to do was follow the yellow signs but he wouldn't, couldn't, see them and he had the three of us yelling, straight ahead, turn left, turn left. The lorry driver on his tail was not amused by his indecision and gave a long loud toot as he passed us.

That was just the beginning. We had to leave the national road and find our way to the car ferry across to the far tip of the island. 

Who can remember a route after 34 years. So Danae and I had google maps up on our phones and were getting different directions. We managed to get there and in good time but you could have cut the tension in the car with a knife.

The last few kilometres were down a narrow back road past a line of  *Apache helicopters. Just before it reached boiling point we emerged onto a quay with a line of cars ready to load on the ferry. 

*Probably weren't Apache but they were big army helicopters with a few sets of blades

Driving off the car ferry on Salamina we knew we had to turn left and that was it.

We discovered Salamina has no Sign Posts at all to tell us where we were going. The bloody Google Maps girl, Siri, Georgia, Alexa, whoever she is, kept on telling us to turn right or left but didn't make it clear whether it was simply that the road swerved to the right or that we actually had to make make a right hand turn onto a different road.

We wanted to see the house we lived in. No chance of that! K and I didn't recognise anything. 

By this time anyway the chauffeur didn't believe a word we said and was yelling at us at every turn 'are you sure' No of course we weren't bloody sure!

This was the beginning of our tours around the island. We would think we were almost at our destination and suddenly we'd realise we were going round in circles. At some stage we reached the coast road and eventually found the hotel. Just before dark.

The Straits between Salamina and the mainland .  About the same distance as Poros and the mainland. The tickets however were half the price.

We made the car ferry right on time.

The evening view from our balcony . 

The hotel Votsalakia and Suites was rather nice. We had booked 2 double rooms but they put us in a 2 bedroomed suite with jacuzzi. For the first time in 25 years I could tuck my 'babies' into bed and sing them their wake-up song in the morning. 

Grumble, grumble. 

'Leave us alone mother. We need coffee'. 

We arranged to meet our nephew in the evening to eat together. He told us there was a souvlaki shop 2 minutes down the road. Literally. We piled into the car just as he arrived and followed his car. 20 metres down the road. At least we all had something to laugh about. It was more or less next door. Really good souvlaki. 

The next morning early we set out for the Naval Base. The Memorial service, 5 minutes at the end of the long Sunday liturgy, was being held at the Navy church on base. 

🎵🎶 Here we go looby loo

Here we go looby light 🎵🎶

One minute into the 5 minute journey we were lost again. I think we went 3 times around that part of the island before K pulled up beside a taxi driver and asked the way. 

Follow me to the traffic lights at the end of this road he said. 

We did. 

At the traffic lights the taxi driver put his hand out the window and pointed to the left. 

Our driver however was in a panic and didn't see the signal. 

Once again he had the 3 of us yelling

Turn left

Didn't you see his hand

Turn left. 

Very reluctantly he did. 

And 'Lo', there was the harbour and the base entrance. 

And poor Nels who had been waiting for us for half an hour.

 

Granddaughter Nels with the other 'little Greek girls' as they were once known.

We almost got lost in the Navy Base as well. It's huge.

We passed a line of frigates

Then a line of submarines.

Even our Navy veteran wasn't sure where to go but we did find the church, St Nikolas, patron saint of sailors, in plenty of time.

Memorial over, Greek coffee drunk, sweet bread consumed we got directions to a cafeteria for a decent cappuccino. 

'Go straight' they said.

And we did. We found the row of waterfront cafés quite quickly. A miracle! 

Cappuccino consumed, cigarettes smoked and supplies of cheese and spinach pies obtained from the bakery, we all got into the car again to go home to Poros.

By this time we had worked out that Alexa wasn't much help but without signposts we didn't have much choice.

After a few more circles

🎶🎵 Looby-loo and shake it all about 🎶🎵

We all breathed a huge sigh of relief when we actually  found the car ferry.

The rest of the trip was not uneventful but we got home without any more major blow-ups.

The now grown-up Kiwi-Greek girls.  

They acted just like the naughty little Greek girls they're known as.

They annoyed each other yelling out

'Mummy, she's hurting me, tell her to stop'.

Oh boy, did that bring back memories.

They made grimaces behind our backs and held their breath going through the tunnels trying to scare me or themselves. I had to scold them severely and tell them to behave themselves . Or else

I'm not sure I want to do all that again. It was quite an.............um, experience.