Moving on 3

Church in the hills

Once again we are moving on, which seems a silly thing to say as the whole point of travelling is that you move on!

Where were we?  In or near Sparta or as the locals call it Sparti, with Phil and Shema, we had a great time with those guys.  Meg did a variety of jobs from sewing again (!), varnishing a floor, sorting toys, helping with the cooking etc.  I helped with the removal of their stored furniture from a cellar in Sparti to various locations in the village of Varassi, up in the hills to the north of the city. I also laid a new floor in one of their two houses (not the one Megan varnished) but another. After 2pm it was just too hot to work 35 - 38°C, so we had to have a cold beer and eat the main meal of the day, then a snooze, and then more beer!  We talked and laughed our way through the whole 10 days.

Mystras

Megan in the citadel

Inside a Mystras church

We visited Mystras, up in the mountains the other side of the city, on our ‘day off’ it was good, walked all the way to the citadel at the top and back down via different route, we had cats as guides – one for each level hoping for payment – we had nothing to give except euros and they didn’t want them, I wonder why?

Working hard

View of Varassi

Megan, Lola and Meli

Waiting for a train

Ancient Edessa

 

So back through Athens – picked up our India visas, stayed with Lena again, we went with her to a name day celebration, more important than a birthday, up a hill opposite the Acropolis at night all lit up and joined in the celebrations which included some of the guests playing and singing along to a guitar. Magic.

So now we are in Edessa for a few days on the way to the Helpx placement (the seed bank) at Parasnesti.

This our third blog in a few days, sorry, but time just concertinaed up on us.

Couch Surfing

Dad

Couch surfing is what it says on the tin, we couch surf!

All around the world people, who enjoy the company and conversation with others of different nationality and or culture, belong to a website and offer a couch to sleep on for free, in return for the above conversation.

Sometimes it might not be sleep, it could be a coffee or drink and the chance for the local to show the surfer around the area.  Lena did for us in Athens, a comfortable couch to sleep on for three nights on two separate occasions and the walk up a hill opposite the Acropolis at night (all lit up) for a party; we had a great time.

Maria

Handfull of kittens

3 weeks old!

Whilst we were there we saw 5 cats, a mum and dad and 3, 3 week old kittens.  Also we met Maria, also surfing at Lena's.  She was from Columbia, presently living in France with her husband who is studying music, she was volunteering at the special Olympics in Athens, as was Lena.  I hope you followed all that!

Mum feeding kittens

Lena and us at the celebration

10 days older

Island Life

Our island life is over for a while; we are back on mainland Greece getting back to work.  The wind blew all the time we were on Mykonos, putting paid to one of the things we wanted to, which was going to the isle Delos to see the ancient site.

We went to the beach when we could, walked through Mykonos Old Town and looked at the shops.  One thing we both liked was a house still with all the furniture in as it would have been in the C19th it was very interesting, when the family travelled through Europe they came back with furniture as there wasn’t any wood on the island.

Petros the pelican

Old Town

One calm bay

Evening Drinks

Passed through Athens and couch surfed (Google it) and arranged visas for India, and then managed to get an extra Helpx place in the Peloponnese near Sparta (the 300 are long gone) and it seems everyone has long gone, the tourists are not arriving and the locals cannot afford to holiday so the downward spiral seems to be on the move!!

Admiring the future!

Too rough to swim

Our new hosts are great, Phil & Shema, He is from Essex and Shema is form Brisbane her parents were both Croation , they are renovating a couple of houses and need a lift, literally, as I helped move all their furniture out of storage, whilst Megan sanded and varnished a floor amongst other jobs.

Next for us is back through Athens to pick up the Indian visas and then head north to the Helpx seed bank.

Santorini

Oia

 Our time in Greece has been paralleled with the troubles they are having with their monetary deficit, the Prime minister has been seen with ever increasing frequency on the televisions we have passed and seen when we have gone into shops.  If we didn’t know what he looked like before we do now, the same can be said for how much we knew about Greek politics, but talking to the people there is a lot of anger and resignation.  Anger for the predicament and the people who have put them there and lots of others like the UK in the first world, resignation because most see there is not a quick fix to the problem. 

Megan in Amoudi taverna

Room with a view

When on Crete this was never far from daily life, whether seeing the ‘Old Men’ arguing in the park and in the cafes, politics the hot topic of the day, or of talking to Michali and Susanne on the same subject.  In contrast Santorini is bright and almost carefree, a real holiday isle, tourism is the main income for most of the natives plus workers from all over, mainland Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Bulgaria etc all working hard – 14/15 hours a day, 7 days a week for seven months then 5 months off back home.

Oia street

Oia churchyard

 

 

The streets are packed with shoppers, some staying on the island others day visitors from the 2 or 3 cruise ships ‘parked’ in the Caldera, a constant buzz of small ferry boats out and back dropping off picking up, depositing at the bottom of the cliff, up the cable car or on the donkey trains up the steps. Hordes of Russians, Chinese, Japanese being led through the streets by their guides holding up signs, taking posed photo,s, the Russian girls draped in front of the view like models or film stars.

Amoudi harbour

View from hotel

The island is a big volcano, which blew its top a couple of thousand years ago, leaving a crator, the Caldera, the steep sides of which form one side of the island, the other is gently sloping down to the beaches of black sand.  Perched on the edge of the caldera are houses, shops and hotels giving breathtaking views and superb sunsets.

Megalochori

Our move now is to Mykanos, ‘party isle’ for 5 nights, then back to Athens and work – maybe.

Sunset

Moving On Again

Old Town Street

As we posted the last blog, disaster struck!!  I lost my camera – a whole wasteland of non-photo travelling stretched before me, could I carry on, would there be any meaning to it, is there life on earth?  If there was, I couldn’t photograph it!  Disaster is too light a word for it, just as I was contemplating ending it all (coming back to the UK that is, not committing suicide) three angels came to my rescue, the first and best was Megan who had witnessed my dilemma and said we could get another camera, the second was ebay (what a great idea) and the third was our number three son Andy who co-ordinated the UK end of the operation.

Relaxing with our hosts and fellow helpers

Faster than the speed of light a replacement was purchased, a good camera for a very reasonable price, it was delivered to Mount Ave, checked by the maestro and dispatched to Crete – life could return to normal.

Knossos

So our life on Crete has come to an end, we have left the nature park behind and are having a holiday with Mark (my brother from Oz) his other half Raewyn plus her father John.  The nature park was a good experience, following a daily routine with the animals and helping Susanne and Michali prepare for the summer when some of the local children, on holiday, come to attend a summer school/playscheme.  Susanne and Michali are great; he has a good sense of humour and is teasing Susanne all the time.

Mark and Raewyn at the top of the gorge

John & Chris  two Mythos!

Ferry Destination

Ferry arriving with Mark & Raewyn onboard

Mark,  Raewyn and John arrived on 14 June and we are visiting some of the Greek Isles.  First they stayed with us in the Old Town and now we are ‘Moving On’.

We are visiting Santorini, in fact we are on the ferry as I write this, Mykonos and then back to Athens, we are due at our next Helpx place on 16 July in northern Greece at the seed bank, so we have time to see some of the old sites.

Crete South Coast

Rethymno Old Town

Megan, Mara And Natalie making welsh cakes

 The caravan did not become our home for the whole time here, we exchanged homes with our Helpx hosts, they moved into the caravan and we moved into their town house, on the edge of the ‘Old Town’ of Rethymno, the dogs have left behind lots of the ‘friends’ to keep us company – oh joy!  Each place is good, the caravan was peaceful but the house gives us taste of living with the Cretens.

Our ‘work’ has been much the same – finished the snake pit and the Creten snakes moved in and are still there, result!  Fixed up another and one of the large pythons had to move in after not sharing the food, bad lad or lass I can’t tell the difference, must be getting old, do snakes have hips?  Anyway he (?) had two small chickens not just the one allotted and was moving for more apparently – this all happened when we weren’t there, another negative for living in the town – but we can see the movie.  Also been putting up the shades Megan has been repairing, all ropes knots and pulleys and long discussions with Michali about tension etc.

Old Town Doorway

Rethymno Sunset from the nature park

On one of our days off we walked the famous Samaria gorge with our fellow helpx helpers Natalie and Mara, 12.8km all downhill, hell on the calf muscles, but it was stunning, beautiful, amazing, the company was great we all had a fantastic day.  We have also enjoyed meeting other helpers 

 

Enough of that, only one week with our hosts then my brother, Mark arrives with Raewyn and her father, John, from Oz and we have a holiday, fours days on Crete, seven on Santorini and a few on Mykonos, with temp going up, currently about 30̊C, we are looking forward to it.  Then where – we’ll let you know.

Samaria Gorge near the end

How much weight have we lost

Samaria Gorge near the start

Kastelakia 1

Zena II Warrior Princess

We arrived here in Rethymno at 6.30am at the end of the long journey.  The bus ride was ok and we were deposited in the centre of Athens at nearly 9.00pm after 12 hours, eventually found the hostel, a very nice taxi driver said it was too close to drive, only if you know where it is!  We had half a day looking around the next morning, after breakfast, or a coffee, with a nice Kiwi couple – similar age to us doing ‘The World’ the other way round. 

Athens was cool, definitely worth another look, after Mark & Raewyn have gone back to Oz.  Caught the overnight ferry to Chania or Hania and after little sleep fell on the quayside, 5.30am, and onto a bus to Rethymno.

Dragonflies

Little Red Rooster

So for the next three weeks (we have already been here a week!!) this caravan is our new home.  Our home is on an Eco park, we can here the frogs calling as I write this. 

 

In the Snake Pit

Sewing Lady II

Our day starts at 7.30am when we feed the rabbits, chickens (two eggs a day), Iguanas, chameleons and the white mice, the mice are dinner for the cretin snakes and the rabbits and small chickens are dinner for the pythons and boa constrictors some of whom only eat twice a year.  So as you know rabbits breed like rabbits so there are more than enough to go round, in fact they could be human fodder before the snakes get out of bed.

The Flopsy Bunnies

Cocktodoo and his harem