Our last day on Andros

The frogs croak their delight as a heavy rain refills their playground. Salad greens in the garden glisten as the sun returns to soak up the moisture. It is a changeable day on Andros.

This morning we walked into Chora again and sat with a coffee, watching the islanders go about their business. There are not many smiling faces these days. A 24 hour transportation strike was called by the Union to protest the possibility of losing bargaining powers. No ferries, no rail and disruptions to air travel until tomorrow.

We hope that the ferry service returns to normal tomorrow as we plan to leave Andros on a marathon trip to Amorgos that will take us about 17-18 hours from the time we leave Kalliroi's house until we arrive at our little apartment in Chora on Amorgos.  The first leg of the journey takes us to the island of Tinos where we will park our bums at a cafe and wait 3 hours for the next ferry to take us to the island of Syros. Hopefully Konstandinos will meet us there and share dinner with us before we board the third ferry to Amorgos, arriving at 1:30am. With luck a small rental car will be waiting for us in the port for the 1/2 hour drive to Chora and Maria will leave a key in the door of the apartment.

We are well rested after an 8 day visit with Kalliroi so we should survive tomorrow's marathon.

Driggling on Andros

Last night we visited a local bar and entertained ourselves with a Greek version of a "write-around"! Entitled "driggling", we passed a piece of paper around and added sentences, sometimes folding the top of the paper over to hide the previous sentence, sometimes not. This is an example of our creativity, under the influence of vino!

 He painted his pants 

 With colors on his hands 

 And his hands in his rants 

 Then, he stopped and looked around 

 At the waitress with greedy eyes 

 Looking down on her thighs 

 And so, missed her pool deep eyes 

 Gone away, he found ice 

 Forming in the dark blue pools 

Of the wild countryside 

 Man, did he ever miss the love's light

 Kept walking 

 Into the depths of another dimension 

Out of space, out of logic 

Beyond all of our comprehension

In never ending circles 

Until the cat blinked 

And the mouse winked

 So I turned my back and raised my collar to the wind 

And all the songs have been singed.

On Andros

Unfortunately I have not been able to figure out how to bring my recent photos into the blog so this will have to be a narrative until I find a way to add images.

We are staying on the island of Andros with our friend Kalliroi. She lives on the upper floor of a house near Chora and cultivates a small garden at the back. It has been a joy to eat freshly harvested lettuces, spinach, arugula, onion and radish salads at the end of March.

The weather has not been balmy...rainy yesterday but sunny today. We are still wearing long sleeved shirts and jackets. Still, it is much warmer than the temperature in London where we spent our first night...2 degrees!

As well as jetlag we have to adjust to the Greek eating habits...our main meal in the late afternoon or late at night. The first two nights we shared our dinner at 10pm and needless to say, I was starving!

Today we explored Chora, the island's capital city where all of the civic business takes place. It was really bustling, street cafes were full, groups of students were on outings, the narrow main road was impassable. Green peace was in the harbor and some of the crew were talking to the students about overfishing in the Aegean and Mediterranean.

Later we shared a late afternoon meal at a small taverna. The table was loaded, in typical Greek fashion, with plates of octopus, goat, baked cheese, wild greens, local sausage, wine, raki and finally sweet cheese pastries.

Ater a long day of walking, climbing, eating, discussing, beach combing ...John was in bed at 7pm. Our young friends expect that we will reemerge around 10pm for more merriment but it is doubtful.

Across the Atlantic

Arrived at Heathrow after a smooth flight in a British Air 747! Not fond of that size! As usual the food was less than stellar. The attendants feel overworked but were quite friendly. Deboarding assistance was sparse for those who weren't capable of walking endless miles to Customs.

It was 2 degrees outside where we went in search of a Hotel bus. The driver of No. 51 thought that he could take us to the "right" Holiday Inn. If not, we could take another bus back to Heathrow and find the "right" bus????! Fortunately he dropped us at the "right" Hotel where we were upgraded to a room with a king size bed and given coupons for free drinks at the bar!

It is our goal to keep ourselves awake until around 8-9pm in order to transition to this time zone! Of course tomorrow we add another two hours to our distance from home.

Wanderings

As our days in Vancouver are coming to an end we have found ourselves wandering everywhere! This morning we drove over to "Bean Around the World" on Main Street for morning coffee. Unfortunately, the place was packed, no seats available.

Back in the car we decided to try the Willow Cafe again. Last time we were serenaded by Dean Martin and Farsi music. This time they played an entire retrospective of Elvis songs!! When the young man behind the counter saw our backgammon game he called to one of the owners who told John that after John had practiced with me, he would challenge John. It wasn't John's day! He lost all three games to me! As the winner, I had to play against an extremely experienced Persian guy who had been playing since he was three years old!! Of course I lost but he gave me some valuable tips along the way. John promised to have a game with him when we return from two months of practice in Greece.

The sun was threatening to shine so we walked down to Granville Island, touring around the perimeter in order to avoid the spring break crowds. Crowds of families were visiting the island.

The Federation Gallery had some wonderful pastel paintings by Joan Larson alongside ethereal oils by Michael Abraham.  Also of interest were several large watercolours by Jennifer Olsen that had been drymounted on board rather than framed behind glass.

Taking a roundabout route back to the apartment, we discovered "Chocolate Arts" on West 3rd Avenue. Unable to resist taking a peek inside, we inhaled the heady aroma of chocolate and stayed for lunch. They offer sandwiches, coffees and a selection of baked goodies as well as an incredible array of sweets that are created onsite using top quality chocolate. I can still taste the sample that was offered to us before leaving, a creamy champagne flavoured filling coated in dark chocolate.

The sun was still struggling to shine as we left. There was fresh snow on the mountains and a chill wind blew from the northwest. We are definitely looking forward to warmer temperatures!

Reflections of a sunny day

Reflections

of a sunny day

in Vancouver.

When was that?

March 18, 1952

My sister would have celebrated her 61st birthday today.

I miss her.