Cafenion

Typical greek provincial cafenion.  Not an island or big city cafeteria.

  The village cafenion is the gathering place for greek men with no place to go and a matriarch at home. The men are Patriarchs with a capitol P, outside the home.  However the 
wife rules the roosting box 
and men are encouraged to  join  male friends in the mornings for coffee and 'whatever'.





Smoking is still an accepted practice in places like this.  There are plumes of smoke above the head of this gent.  He sat there with his coffee and his cigarettes puffing away unaware of causing any pollution



Most of the chairs are slanted towards the big television tuned either to news or sport.  

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Gathered around the big round table in the corner are the card players.  The most popular card  game is called 'prefa', not unlike 'Bridge'.  It seems to be the preferred  card game in many of these northern European country.   K plays with his friends, not for money but those who lose must pay for the next ouzo



Greek coffee is what is served most in these cafenions.  At 1 euro a cup the men can sit for hours and pass the time with friends very cheaply.  Nowadays they probably serve capuccino but it was unknown in a small cafenion 10 years ago.  I would order nescafe, hot or cold, made with instant coffee.  The hot nescafe was often 'beaten' and I sometimes do this for K.  I put  a couple of teaspoons of instant coffee and a spoon of sugar in a cup along with a bare tsp of water and beat the mix till it comes to a pale beige colour.  Boiling water is added and the coffee comes out with a thick froth on top.

This little gathering place always smells of roast or boiling meat. We've never eaten here but seen others eating a plate of food. It looks as though they have a different dish every day, just one, served with a plate of feta cheese and a jug of wine.

An enterprising idea. A simple, cheap and tasty meal in comfortable surroundings for widowers, workers and a couple like us looking for a bit of nourishment before returning home after a day of doctor's visits.

No fatty pig here. The meat usually seems/smells to be mutton.  Just as popular as pork.

Therapy ....

Public hospital visits are free but sometimes they can take time and sometimes you have to go private

K had a problem with an aching hand and arm from shoulder to palm.  First step was a visit to a neurosurgeon at Tripoli hospital.  Now that's one hospital we haven't been to .  I'm familiar with most of them around here and now Tripoli is on the list.  

Neurosurgeons don't turn up at every corner so we were lucky to find this one at a hospital only 2 hours drive away.  Never been into Tripoli before.  It's a city up near the mountains and there's a big army base here too.  The GPS actually worked for us this time and we found the hospital quite easily.  

We only had an hour wait.  The surgeon was friendly, answered questions and told us what the next step would be.  

Next step, an appointment at a private neurologist for an electromyography.  40 euros.  Reasonable.  He has some nerve blockage  called daktylo-something or rather.  Daktylo means finger in greek.  All caused by swinging a tennis racket or a hammer or in his case overuse of a screwdriver .  This now entailed a trip to the Orthopedic surgeon.

A few phone calls and a few weeks later we trooped off to the hospital at Argos, one of the closer hospitals but very, very busy.

We did have an appointment but the usual wait here is 1-2 hours. On this day we had hardly arrived when his name was called.  A 5 minute consultation and he was on the list for some minor surgery 3 days later.  

An impressive record for a greek hospital.  So far these rural hospitals have been fast and efficient.

What to do next on a cold wet winter's day when you're away from home 

Eat roast pig of course

We found a new eating place.  It serves pork by the kilo, fried potatoes, a feta cheese sauce and kilos of wine.  There are a few tables to sit and eat but most people seemed to be buying a kilo or two and taking it away with them.  We found a table for 2 alongside two other tables of  chatty old men passing their time with pork and wine

Of course we ordered too much - so we took away a wee parcel of leftover pork 

Great carcases of meat were in a warming case and the waiter got out his hatchet and swung it at the roast with every order.  There was a constant loud banging from inside the shop

Three days later we were back at the hospital after a very eventful journey.  It was raining table legs and we could hardly see through the deluge which poured over the windscreen.  7am we were on the car ferry.  Visibility nil. K wound down the window to back on and the electric window-winder would not wind the window back up again. 

Oh boy was that a disaster.  You cannot drive for an hour with torrential rain pouring in through an open window.  4 lettered words  were uttered.  Maybe not uttered, but spat out with vehemence.

We had to reach the hospital.  A piece of plastic was discovered in the boot, jammed over the door and window and we sailed along with flapping plastic.  Flapping plastic at high speed makes a tremendous racket but I did not say a word.  I hardly took a breath till we arrived on the outskirts of the city and found a car fixer place.  Thank goodness.   They couldn't repair the window-winder but  did manage to get the window up.  I took some deep breaths.

We got to the hospital in time and half an hour later, a tendon had been cut, a few stitches made, a bandage stuck on and it was all over.  Almost.

Then began my 2 week Golgothas.  Golgothas is the place where Christ was crucified and the Greeks use the word to describe hardships.  You too (me too) must suffer your (my) Golgotha.

I cut his meat for him, broke his bread and filled his wine glass, ran errands and kept my mouth shut. The boy was 'suffering'.

I had to drive him everywhere.  No trouble except for the comments

'You're driving too far to the right

Don't drive in the middle of the road 

Don't give way to 'him', he's a wanker

You can get through, go, go before someone else does

  The stitches were taken out at the health centre last Friday.

It's over now.  More deep breaths

Detour

There was a trench across the road for the installation of a new water pipe and the road up the mountain was closed.  The police car was there to stop anyone crazy enough to charge the water brigade.  One of our neighbours waved us down and told us to take the long way home.  Thank goodness we live in a small community.  It would have meant a 3 kilometre ride up the mountain to discover a hole in the road, 3 ks back again and then 6 ks around the back road.

So it was just 6 ks along the beach, up towards the monastery and then the climb through the pine forest to the top the hill, past the remains of Poesidon's Temple and evenutally home.  On a quad bike its a long slow trek with plenty of time to think and plot.  

The road through the pine trees with a fresh heady scent of resin after a recent rainfall.   I climbed up here at about 5kms an hour, chug chug chug, as slow/fast as a driveable lawnmower

Quite a few little shrines on these roads, most of the victims were young and male

Emerging on the other side

This is our home turf.

The beach way down below, mainland Greece in the background and Athens on the far horizon  

City slickers stop here to admire the view and take a few photos.  The municipality lately have installed benches at all these pitcuresque points.  Very good for business

Driving along outside the few remaining walls of the temple, the anemones are in bloom

Wintery Wonderland

No, we're not Egypt or the Middle East.  I remember an advertisement for Egypt's Red Sea Riviera 

'360 days of Sunshine every year'

I always wondered what the other 5 days were like.  

Nope, that's not Greece.  Even I was surprised at the extremes of temperatures after my first winter here, way back in the 70's, before global warming.  I was not prepared for the cold and had to buy some warm clothes and a jacket

My m-in-law would crow now and again of Greece's wonderful climate, the best in the world, not that she knew much about the world outside her small yard.  I did not agree but didn't tell her so.  Summers are often scorching with temperatures in the 40's (celsius) and winters with freezing temperatures, -10 or more up north.  Around 5oC is normally the coldest we get here.

Greece has 23 ski resorts. The season is from December to March.

A greek winter is perfect  for hiking, exploring, roaming around ruins and eating at the few tavernas which remain open.  They'll be full of local greeks with more time to talk and you'll taste real greek food.  You could even pay for the privilege of picking olives, getting filthy dirty, freezing your extremities and having picnics amongst the goats and wild dogs.  Sucker.

If you're not adventurous then there'll be plenty of cafes open where you can still people watch, enjoy a hot chocolate, drink fiery local spirits and eat hearty goat soup.

In this area there are acres and acres of orange, mandarine and lemon trees.  Dark green leafy trees full of yellow and orange fruit.  The fields are full of wild greens just waiting for a housewife with a sharp knife and a plastic bag to fill.  Our garden has massive lettuces, spindly spinach and another similar green leafy vegetable called seskoula (lambs lettuce?).....and a flourishing crop of clover with bright yellow flowers. 

 I cooked spinach and cuttle fish yesterday.

The sun does shine.  Just not so much this winter

  So this is a country of blue and white summer resorts, greek salads, octopus and ouzo in the summer and skiing down the slopes of Mount Olympus, home of the greek gods in the winter.

Heavy rain does not stop the car ferry

Now and again high winds will stop the ferry crossing the narrow strait but not for more than a few hours

The Flying Cat (Catamaran) travels in quite heavy seas but often they too will be forbidden to sail, sometimes for a day or two

Road works at one end of the harbour means all heavy traffic has to go through the centre of town,  This harbour road is quite narrow, certainly not wide enough for two of these trucks to pass.  I wonder what happens when two meet midway.  I presume there is a mad rush to remove parked motorbikes and one truck drives up on the footpath, though even that is not possible at some of the narrowest points.

New sewage pipes are being laid and the quay is finally getting repaired where it fell into the harbour about five years ago

You can't really tell from this photo but the fire truck has lost the window on the drivers side and it covered in a piece of plastic.

One little fishing boat had ventured out in this bad weather and was selling its catch on the quay

Hail Storm

Mid Winter Coffee

Looking through the plastic-surround of the coffee shop to storm clouds coming down very low over the hills opposite

Thunder and lightening, heavy rain and then suddenly large pieces of ice fell out of the sky

Outside and inside

I grabbed coffee cups, the cushions on our chairs and made a hasty retreat.  The rain and hail was so fierce it came in through every opening it could find in the awning above and the plastic surrounds

Action stations

The awning quickly became weighted down with water and ice

The long ladders were used to push the awnings up so the ice slid down to the street but still there were splits and holes

That's the Green Chair cafe down the other end of town

Everything covered in a thick layer of hail

Main Street Poros

School is out

Happy kids playing in the 'snow'

We were all excited by this rare, for us, phenomenon

Viber, WhatsAp and Instagram were inundated  as photos were sent from one end of the earth to the other

Oh such fun.  It wasn't only the school kids who were excited.  We had to retire indoors for a red wine and some strong spirits

Pay back time

End of the month.

Pensions are paid into the bank account and then returned bill by bill to the government.

It is announced on TV towards the end of the month the exact day when pensions are paid out and lines start forming at ATMs and in the bank.

Not only have most of us not got enough money to pay all our bills till money goes in but also the thinking here is why pay earlier and give authorities the use of our money one minute, one hour before we really have to.  Every bill is paid almost on the last day before the deadline.  Usually deadlines for house and car taxes are extended for a week because of the length of lines and chaos at banks and government offices.

I paid our bills three days before the end of the month and avoided a two or three hour wait.  We do have e-banking set-up but need someone to give us a lesson.  We've got to get into the e-world.  Bank lines are ridiculous although you can now, if you're savvy, get an electronic number and sit at a local cafe till your phone beeps letting you know its your turn and you'd better get a move on.

Most of our banking is done at the National Bank of Greece and this is the only branch for miles around. People come from villages an hour away to get paid and pay out

Pensioners (those real Old Agers) don't trust banks and will go in and withdraw all their pension as soon as it arrives.  Mind you, that's not such a bad idea.  Banks and Municipalities can now take any money owed to them from your bank account without even a warning.  It is simply withdrawn electronically and you're left scratching your head and wondering what the hell has happened.

I went to use the ATM yesterday and there was a queue waiting for a white haired 'Pappou' to withdraw his pension. Even though the person in line behind him was helping it took him 5 goes before he got his money. He announced to us all he was withdrawing all his pension , 650 euros, and then sat on the steps and counted it. You wouldn't do that in Athens, and survive.

Wood

We chain ganged the family to help us haul our fire wood into the yard.

The truck dumped a ton of olive wood ready cut into pieces just right for the stove.  After our olive trees were 'ravaged' for their timber and Vaso's chickens were 'rustled' we decided we had better get this inside the yard as soon as possible.  Such a pity that life is changing here and we can't trust our fellow islanders

Stacking the wood at the rear of the house.  That trolley had to be pushed through our living room but I wasn't complaining.  The girls even gave the carpets a vaccum before they left

Bottoms up and down to work

Jamie throws the wood into the front yard

Half of it 'we' (they) stacked in the front and half was carted to the back yard

A rising pile

Those big blue IKEA bags come in handy for all sorts of jobs from the laundry to wood carrying

It was stacked and not just dumped.

Girls and boys did a damn good job!

Hopefully it will get us through to the end of February

Then it's Spring...maybe

You know what they say about March ... in like a lamb, out like a lion

We've had a few weeks (seems like months) of heavy rain, a little sunshine, winds and freezing temperatures.  The halcyon days of January are late.  Temperatures are due to rise this weekend so maybe sunny days are on their way

Halcyon days ...

seven days when Aeolus, keeper of the winds, kept the air calm and storms at bay