Patras: A town on the edge

Posted on June 3, 2012 by BarryH

Patras, more or less the same population as Cardiff, is one of the major transport interchanges in Greece and is necessary as a stop-over but I would not choose to come to here for a holiday.  Sunday, the day I spent here wandering the streets, was not very enjoyable and frankly left me somewhat saddened.

It is very much a contrast between two very different life experiences, two environments cheek by jowl but worlds apart. There are glitzy new glass and stainless steel buildings and very run-down, dilapidated older buildings in close proximity.  There are people sleeping in the parks opposite very grand churches. There are many examples of development work on stop because the plug has been pulled on funding.  Many businesses have closed down.  Others have opened up.  A fish restaurant recommended in the Rough Guide has been turned into a couple of upmarket bars selling very overpriced drinks – €5 for a  330ml bottle of Amstell.  I mustered my best Greek when I paid and told the waitress that it was ‘para poli akrivos’ – ‘beyond very expensive’.  It’s normally €2.

Strangely it’s very difficult to find anywhere to eat anything other than fast food here.  Dozens of pizza places and the like but not a single traditional Greek menu could I find in the town centre.  Perhaps traditional Greek food is now only provided in estiatoria catering for tourists, of which there seemed to be only one in Patras today ….. me.  I must admit though that I did find a bakery smack in the middle of town which sold the best spinach pie I have ever had.  That plus a frappé came to only €2.70 …. astonishingly good value for money.  And it’s open 24/7 !!!!!

In the evening in particular it seems like the entire population of Patras congregates in the vast number of very nice bars and coffees shops in the centre of town and chat and smoke and drink coffee.  At the same time street vendors, many of African origin, wander the tables selling all manner of counterfeit branded products.  Both immigrants and Greeks beg as you walk the streets or sit in a coffee shop. Take a ,look at:

http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2012/03/29/friday-photos-30-03-2012/

I had a coffee at the end of the afternoon and downloading the photos from my cameras to the computer.  I was there about 30 minutes and in that time was approached by 3 people begging for money or cigarettes. While I was distracted by the third, a very young girl, the second, a bloke in his twenties wanting cigarettes, pinched my small Canon camera from the seat beside me.  That didn’t go down well with me.  I love that camera.

Is this what Patras is like?  I can’t believe that the whole country is sinking like this.

It wasn’t all bad.  The old fortress at the top of the town is a breath of fresh air.  It’s personned at the entrance but free to go in and wander around way up above the bustle and traffic of the town 350 feet below.  Enough of it is intact to be worth climbing the enormous flight of steps to get there.  But don’t attempt it if you have a weak heart.  Or at least tell someone where the insurance policies are first.

I move on again tomorrow to Kalamata, another 4 hours on a bus leaving at 08.30.With no breakfast in the hotel I’ll be calling in the bakery as I pass en route to the bus station.

Much street art seems to go hand in glove with dilapidated buildings, poverty and artistic protest

But some is clearly commissioned. Note the reflected trees and photographer in shorts

The Peloponnese Railway in the centre of town next to the harbour

Looking straight down Agios Nikolaos Street and into the harbour from the top of the steps to the castle

The highest point of the castle

Looking down from there across the town

With Agios Andreas church rising above its surroundings

A very grand church with poverty begging and living rough outside its doors

Church of Agios Augustus: how complicated does a roof get ???

Very colourful and artistic children’s play area on the seafront. Unfinished and used by the homeless for sleeping in judging by the rolled up mattress

x

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Corfu to Patras: 12 hours on the road and taxi driver wisdom

Posted on June 3, 2012 by BarryH

Saturday and it was once again a day for moving on.  This time to Patras on the Gulf of Corinth and a major transport hub in Greece, a stopping-off point for me en route to Kalamata, itself a staging point for Kardamili where I plan to spend some time.

I had done a search on GTP (Greek Travel Pages) for ferries and had turned up a result which was very convenient, a ferry from Venice calling at Corfu at 12.15 before going to Igoumenitsa and then on to Patras arriving at 20.00.  Not wanting to arrive late in a strange and sizeable town I had sussed out on the internet a reasonably priced and conveniently located hotel and booked ahead …. just in case it might be full.

The plan was to take a taxi from Boukari to the nearest town where I could catch a bus t0 Kerkyra (Corfu Town).  It turned up promptly at 09.30 and began the slow winding journey along the narrow coast road.  The driver, Leonidis, was more than happy to chat in Greek even though his English was obviously pretty good and by the time we reached the bus stop he offered to take me all the way to the harbour for a ‘special price’.  Given the uncertainties of public transport and the need to be at the harbour in plenty of time to suss out the shipping office and the berthing place for the ferry I accepted.  A very enjoyable chat in Greek the whole way. Perhaps taxi drivers have a good ear for the stumbling of foreigners speaking Greek.  One issue which we discussed was Albania, Corfu being opposite the Albanian coast, and he hesitantly advanced the opinion that the number of Albanians in Greece is a bit of a problem because there are ‘para poli’ .  Greek doesn’t have the concept of ‘too many’, instead the phrase he used strictly translates as ‘beyond many’.  I had already picked up that about 10 or 12% of the population are now incomers, most of whom are Albanian.  Corfu and Paxos being so close to Albania the numbers are particularly high.

We parted almost lifelong friends.  Greeks do have a knack for that.

I won’t bore you with the saga of touring the harbour front being misdirected from pillar to 300-metre-away-post for half an hour.  Eventually I located the shipping office of Minoan Lines immediately opposite where the taxi had dropped me off and the cafe at the Domestic Ferry Terminal where they have free WiFi.  Enquiry showed very quickly that I had been misled by the internet, the Saturday ferry to Patras doesn’t begin running until 16 June.

There was an alternative.  Take the bus.  Yes, despite the fact that Corfu is an island there is a bus which goes to Athens stopping off at Patras.  Or nearly so.  The only bus available left at 14.45 and stopped at  a place called Rio from where I was assured that I could get to Patras.

I had 4 hours to kill so I had a long WiFix and meandered a bit around the town, very difficult with Big Bag in tow so I only saw the edges of the apparently very attractive town.

The edge of the old town, very grand old buildings seemingly empty on the upper floors

Picturesque locations furnished liberally with tavernas and restaurants

Working harbour and major ferry port

Eventually went to the bus station and boarded the Athens bus along with 20 or so others. It drove to the harbour about 100 metres away and then we all got off and boarded the ferry to Igoumenitsa for the 1½ hour crossing.  Once on the mainland we got back on the bus and sat back for the onward journey, in my case about 4 hours worth.

Passing the old town and its fort on the way out of the harbour

…. and approaching Igoumenitsa

Normally I find journeys very boring and nod off to sleep as a way of escape but that proved impossible.  The bus lurched its way the entire time over rough roads and around sweeping bend after sweeping bend.

An aside here: there is an extensive programme of road improvement underway with extensive lengths of partly prepared road but all work seems to have stopped because of the economic crisis.  However, because the new roads are, in theory at least, being built no maintenance is being carried out on the existing road network.  The result is an extreme version of what the Tories are inflicting on the UK, deteriorating infrastructure, less money being paid in wages so less money going into the economy and a continuing downward economic spiral.  And in Greece a pretty dire road system and discomfort for passengers.  Just put up and bear it.

The bus first stopped to let someone off at a road junction in the middle of nowhere and my heart sank at the thought of another situation like my journey to Metsovo but his time with no friendly policeman.

The landscapes we passed through were amazingly varied, far more variety than I had ever associated with Greece.  Many would have been very interesting to explore with the camera, especially in the evening light.  After 2½ hours we stopped at a roadside café again in the middle of nowhere, presumably for the driver to have his official rest …. and a couple of fags.  And then we carried on, eastwards towards the gathering dusk and an uncertain dropping-off point.

Roadside caf

We crossed the Gulf of Corinth on the new and very splendid bridge and then pulled into what looked like a commercial lorry park at the southern end of it.  I nearly ran to the taxi which was waiting there, so pleased was I to see it.

It was a 20 minute journey into Patras with a driver who spoke very good English, had no intention of listening to me stumbling on in Greek because he wanted to unleash his bile about the current economic crisis.  He had worked in Italy for 10 years and come back to Greece and seemed to bitterly regret what he found.  He was adamant that Greece should never have gone into the EuroZone though ventured no opinion  as to whether it should now leave, which I think is the irresolvable dilemma the country now faces and cannot agree on.  They want to stay with the Euro because it has raised their standard of living but don’t want the austerity measures associated with it. He further ventured the opinion that Greece is a beautiful country but it’s problem is the Greek people.  He was also depressed about the prospect of the election on 17 June, reckoning that if the Communists get into power the country will have a a civil war.

I arrived 21.30 at the hotel, which I would have struggled to find on foot from the bus station in the dark.  Tired and pleased to have stopped travelling.

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Corfu: coast to coast, different prespectives

Posted on June 2, 2012 by BarryH

Again cloudless, warm start to the Friday. Wished the couple from Llanelli ‘Bore da’ at the WiFix taverna and had a another good chat with them before ambling back to the supermarket to buy water and had a long chat with an English girl who married a local guy and settled here nearly a quarter of a century ago.  A very sociable and enjoyable start to the day but it meant I didn’t set out for a walk until turned 11.00.  Not a problem.

On the way back from the WiFix taverna (me, not the beasties)

The plan for the day was a coast-to-coast walk.  Not quite Wainwright but my modest alternative.  It seemed a good idea because it used the only footpath I have found near Boukaris and went to Chlomos, the attractive historic hilltop village I walked to on Wednesday, and then down to the west coast for a swim before walking back via an alternative route.  And indeed it was very enjoyable.

The walk to Chlomos was just as enjoyable as the last time as was the sandwich and bottle of cold water in the taverna at the top.  The only way down to the west coast from there seemed to be via the very windy road and in fact the rest of the walk was on roads of different kinds.

It was hard going on the feet and there was little breeze but nonetheless enjoyable because of the different perspectives which it offered.

For a start it looked northwards up the long narrow ‘lake’ viewed from the top of the mountain on Thursday.  It is separated from the sea only by a low, very narrow hillock which seemed to be composed mainly of sand.

On the way down the windy road from Chlomos the lake comes into view

The road also passed an olive grove which seemed to have been set on fire with blackened stumps left behind.  I wondered if this was an attempt to prepare the land for building development.  The olive groves on the mainland around Parga, on Paxos and here on Corfu are not viable on a commercial scale because the trees are so big that the harvest is necessarily very labour intensive.  Apparently there has also been a disease which has attacked the trees and rendered the olives of poor quality for making into oil.  Both of these factors could explain the large number of olive groves which have ‘For Sale’ signs on them, some of them on sale by English language development companies.

One of the burnt out stumps: a bit of an eyesore

Then a little further on, a natural, very pleasing composition

I headed for a place called Alissos Beach which was a good decision.  It turned out to be a sunbed-and-umbrella beach  but actually very pleasant.  The beach taverna at the back of the sunbeds was very civilised with armchairs, sofas and hammocks under shade or partial shade to suit, and it was very reasonably priced.  The beach is a few miles long and the alternative to Alissos further to the south looked far too overdeveloped for my taste.  Again a different perspective on the Greece I know.

I swam a long way straight out from the beach as there was no headland or point to aim for and as the shore receded thought to myself that if I kept swimming I would finish up in Italy.  In fact I was only a few hundred metres offshore but the red T-shirt I had put on the back of my sunbed as a marker was a small dot.  Maybe it just seemed small because I didn’t have my specs on and my astigmatism makes everything in the vertical plane shrink.  But a sense of satisfaction.

Then a climb up the low hillock which is in fact made up of slabs of very friable sedimentary rock with sand drifted up onto it so that from a distance it looks like dunes.  Once again a very different perspective on the island.

Looking north along the lake to the mountain from where it was viewed on Thursday

Looking across the end of the lake

… and looking the other way over the very pleasant Allisos Beach sunbeds and umbrellas

A caffeine fix with a frappé on one of the sofas outside the taverna and then back along the road, this time trudging the main road to Agriades, an inland village which was more traditional than tourist.   The turning I was looking for seemed a long time in coming once I was in the village so I asked a guy outside a garage who was more than pleased to help with directions and chat about where I was from and what I was doing.  I was in fact only a short distance from my turning and then it was 40 minutes back to Boukari and the hotel.

The main road through Agriades. The step ladders cost €45

I haven’t banged on about it because I don’t want to do the country down but there are many examples of a very slack attitude towards what might be called municipal cleanliness.  One such presented itself very vividly as I reached the top of a hill before dropping down to the attractive Neohoraki (New Small Village) o the final leg of the route to Boukari.  There are no door-to-door rubbish collections around here.  Instead there are large communal skips  many of which are overflowing and stinking.  Judge for yourself.

View over Neohoraki from the road

… and panning back from exactly the same point

Just a few hundred metres away, a truly amazing entrance to the house

… and a little further on again.

A great day.  Some 22 kms and 7 hours altogether including half an hour in the taverna at Chlomos and 2 hours on the beach.  Very enjoyable.

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Corfu: a Ryan Giggs Moment, lacerated flesh and some snapshots

Posted on June 1, 2012 by BarryH

Very short blog post for Thursday, to the relief of some I’m sure.

Simply a few visual impressions of a day and another part of the island.

Walk to the taverna where I sip espresso and have my morning WiFix was by a glassy calm sea.  It was as if another, more stable weather system had taken control.  Which is basically what has happened.  Very enjoyable chat with a couple at the next table who were from Llanelli, from where my mother’s side of the family come.

Looking across the glassy smooth harbour at Boukari

Reflection: the village on the hill behind is Chlomos to which I walked on Wednesday

Reflection at the WiFix taverna

Went by car to an inland village called Agios Mattheos and walked up the 450 metre mountain to the monastery of Pantokratos on the top.  The monastery was locked, only open on its saints day, 6 August, which was a long time to wait. The views from the top, particularly over the southern part of the West coast were very dramatic. Had a ‘Ryan Giggs’ moment on top.  Met 3 lads from Serbia who asked where I was from in their pretty fluent English.  When I said   “Wales but you probably haven’t heard it.” One immediately responded “Ah!  Ryan Giggs”.

The alternative footpath down was a nightmare, picking its way first through scrubby olive and other woodland then into maquis, a path overgrown with very prickly holly-oak and other low shrubs whose sole intent was to lacerate passing flesh as much as possible.

Pantokratos minastery

View of the southern part of the west coast and its ‘lake’

‘Path’ through maquis

Having survived that, a slow and tortuous drive further north on the west coast to Mirtiotissa  a very attractive beach at the foot of dramatic cliffs.  It was a mixed beach in that there were a lot of people there who clearly couldn’t afford swimsuits.  No point in trying to pose in your Armani there.  It was a sandy beach which I’m not too keen on as the sand gets to places I would rather not have it.  I resolved the sand problem by perching indecorously on a rock to dry off at the end of my swim, trying not to stare at the poor people who couldn’t afford swimwear.

The rugged west coast

Very many very good examples of street art on retaining walls in this area. This was one small example of dozens

Tomorrow have to make arrangements for moving on on Saturday.  Have sussed out on the internet that there is a ferry which goes from Corfu to Patras, my next port of call, on Saturdays so need to work out the logistics for getting to that given that there is no bus service to Boukari where I’m staying.

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Corfu: path finding, bird spotting and providence

Posted on May 31, 2012 by BarryH

Wednesday morning followed a similar pattern to Tuesday, early cloud clearing to leave a near cloudless sky by the time I finished breakfast.   Posting the blog and the usual WiFix at the taverna along the coast road took a little longer so I wasn’t ready to set out for a walk until close to 11.00.

I was walking on my own today and had bought the only map available in the only local shop.  It was pretty useless even at showing roads but it did show villages and approximate locations.  The plan was to simply follow promising looking directions of travel.

On my own I moved fairly quickly on the lightly trafficked road and soon got to the top of the ridge behind the hotel but unlike Tuesday  I turned uphill along the ridge and soon found myself in the small village of Kouspathes which was obviously considerably older than Boukaris on the coast which seems to consist only of newish hotels, restaurants and a few modern houses. I continued higher up through the village, deciding to keep always going up just to see where it led to.

Turned out to be a very good decision indeed.  I soon got onto a narrow dirt track lead gently upwards along the ridge.  As I ambled ever higher through olive groves festooned with rolled-up black netting the only two vehicles coming towards me were agricultural with loads of olive wood cut for the fire.

Nets neatly folded and ready to deploy

…. or rolled up and ready to drop down in place

Higher up the hill and further from the village there were dozens of tiny huts set in the olive groves

One guy had whitewashed his plot

To cut a long but very pleasant story short, the narrow dirt track became a footpath and led into the village of Chlomos at the highest point on the ridge with great views all around.  I sat outside a taverna basking in the sun, soaking in the view, had a  sandwich and bottle of water and chatted to an English couple who were cycling around the area.  Then I climbed up to the church at the top of the village and looked down over it to the coast 200 metres below.

Looking down to the tiny Boukari on the coast from Chlomos, 200 metres above

Looking down over the roofs of Chlomos

I dropped back down into the village which turned was the best place to be because for 15 minutes it then rained.  The streets in the village are very narrow and winding, typical of many parts of Greece but now confined to tourist honey-pots in the UK like Mousehole in Cornwall.  Standing in one of the little ‘squares’ (‘plateia’ in Greek so not implying a geometric shape) only about 20 feet at its widest and sheltering underneath a canopy I was amazed at the number of swallows swooping around.  I’m used to seeing them round here along the road and on open hillside but this was in a narrow street.  I soon spotted why.  There were nests under the balconies on some of the buildings.  Fascinating.  If it hadn’t rained any I hadn’t sheltered I wouldn’t have seen them. Serendipity certainly but as I see it as Providence as well.

The setting

We want food …. NOW!!!

I told you I was coming , now keep quiet.

I just want the food, you don’t have to stick your head down my throat!

Posing with the kids

And finally I’ll just do a quick bit of tidying before I go for some more food

Still buzzing from that, and long after it had stopped raining, from the village I walked back down the path which the English couple had suggested might be the southern end of the ‘Corfu Way’ which I hadn’t heard of but determined to find out more.  At occasional points the path was marked.  I spotted one red arrow and half a dozen red spots which served as confirmation that at the last junction I had made the right choice rather than helping to make the choice.  It led me back to the ridge-top track I had followed earlier and then into Kouspathes again.

A new use for olive trees

Spot the spot

In amongst the many narrow streets and alleys of the village I lost the path but having determined to go down to the coast at Notos (South) Beach and the Panorama  taverna with its magnificent gardens I simply followed the road.  A bit boring but the sun was shining and it got me there trouble free.

Another good swim, drying off in the sun, a baklava and espresso on the terrace  and I walked back to the hotel along the coast.

Been getting lazy recently and only using the small camera. Put the polarising filter on the SLR camera to bring out the colour in this one.

A thoroughly enjoyable day.

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Corfu: the exotic, the gnarly and the past it

Posted on May 30, 2012 by BarryH

I was a tad disappointed when I got up on Tuesday.  It was dry but grey and overcast.  I thought to myself, indeed I groaned to myself, “Oh no!  Not again!!!”

But when I sat down on the covered terrace for breakfast blue sky could be seen approaching from the North.  Breakfast was very good indeed, not least because there was fresh wholemeal bread.  And this was good quality stuff not the over-priced bricks the bakeries produce on some islands as punishment or penance for those Brits with weird taste in foods.

By the time I finished my extra serving of wholemeal ….. it really was very good ….. the sky had cleared and the morning sun was very pleasant indeed.  So I sauntered along the lightly trafficked coast road to a taverna which looked like it might have WiFi, enquired and it had.  I sat on the edge of the sea, sipped an espresso, checked e-mails, posted a blog and just luxuriated in the sunshine and the view.  I think it’s the best place I have ever accessed the internet.  What a place to have a WiFix.

The tiny fishing harbour at Boukaris en route to the WiFix taverna

The wooden ‘jetty’ which I sat alongside at the WiFix taverna. Amazingly picturesque and laid back place.

WiFix finished I sauntered back to find our friend Elisabeth and we set out to do a circular walk from the hotel, severely hampered by the inadequacy of the maps we had but determined to make the best of what we did have.

The walk was less than strenuous but surprisingly interesting for a generally low-level part of the island.

We went inland first, hoping to find footpaths to take us to the low ridge down the spine of the south of Corfu.  Elisabeth had a very different approach to me.  In the absence of information on the map she simply asked local people, mostly elderly blokes working on market garden/allotment plots, where were the ‘monopati’ (footpaths) to Argirades.  Two things of interest emerged from this novel approach.  First was the fact that of the people she asked very few could speak any English but most had a reasonable grasp of German.  This is quite unusual in my experience of the Greek islands and I guess reflects a different modern history. The second was the view voiced by one guy, who added by way of explanation of the fact that he could not provide the information we sought, that monopati’ are only for animals.  That chimes with the view expressed by the Greek author of ‘The Footpaths of Meteora’  that Greeks have no concept of walking for pleasure.  When roads were built in rural areas and the internal combustion engine became generally available people stopped walking anywhere and instead zoomed around in dilapidated cars, pick-ups and scooters.

In view of the lack of footpaths we kept to minor roads and meandered back to the coast road which we followed.

The landscape was much more varied that on Paxos, only 8 miles to the south but one thing the two areas did have in common was old olive groves, some of them very ancient and gnarly.  As around Parga and on Paxos the olive groves were productive rather than abandoned, with netting rolled up and ready to deploy at the right time. But some things were abandoned including many old houses which had obviously been replaced by newer ones to modern standards.

Many of the olive trees are obviously quite ‘mature’

Some are beyond gnarly, positively ancient

So are some of the cars, this one abandoned to the wild flowers

As are many small boats, this one left lying on it’s keel still in the shallows

We passed quite a number of restaurants and tavernas most of which had no customers at all and an air of forlorn, gloomy emptiness.  This may be early in the season when visitor numbers are bound to be below what they are in July/August but I couldn’t help thinking that with all the negative publicity on TV and in the papers that this could very well be an extremely tough Summer for small establishments in Greece.

But we eventually we came to a restaurant which was buzzing. It had an amazing garden going down to a tiny beach provided with sun beds for which there was no charge.  We sat on the edge of the terrace at the top looking down over the garden and the sea.  An amazing oasis of colour and life.

This was the view as I sipped my freshly squeezed lemon juice

… and turning round to look down the garden, including statue and the stuesque

I used to have one of these in a pot!

The garden extends into the sea as evidenced by a couple of apposite sculptures

The restaurant has its own little ‘jetty’ where boats bringing customers tie up

After a very refreshing freshly squeezed lemon juice it was time to take to the water.  A short scramble down the rocks from a sunbed perched on a narrow strip of shingle and my fist swim of 2012.  I can’t say that the water was warm, it wasn’t , but it was by no means as cold as I expected it to be this early in the summer. I think this is probably because the sea around this bit of coast is very shallow and because it is in a large bay there is not the mixing action with colder water in winter storms.  I was also very pleased that I was not as unfit as I thought I would be, maybe because of the heavy duty reconstruction I had been doing in the garden before I left.  I remember my first couple of swims last year when I was very tired coming out of the water.  Today I hopped back up the rocks to the sunbed and basked in the sun like a be-whiskered walrus (I really must  trim my beard!!) until I dried off.

Then a very relaxed amble further along the coast to another of the tiny fishing harbours before turning round and ambling back to the hotel.

Tranquil coast in the evening sun

Another of the tiny fishing harbours, this one at Petriti

The whole atmosphere of this bit of coast is laid back and bucolic, these birds just wandering around the unfenced olive grove

 

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Paxos to Corfu: biting the bullet

Posted on May 29, 2012 by BarryH

The weather on Monday couldn’t have been more of a contrast to Sunday.  Usual 07.30 start but this time cloudless blue sky and warm in the early morning sun.  Brisk walk down to the harbour to use the restaurant WiFi before breakfast but this time including a wander around with the camera.

The now disused factory at Logos where waste from olive oil production was reprocessed to produce more olive oil for the manufacture of soap.

Main entrance to the factory on the harbourside

Over the entrance, a terracotta young lady who has seen better days

Looking across the small bay, the medieval windmill just visible above the olive trees

Across to the mainland, still wreathed in cloud

I tried to find the path up to the old medieval windmill on the headland but completely failed. I tried a few likely looking paths but they all terminated by gates at the entrance to houses.  I followed one good path but as it gained height it simply led further away from the mill.  Having said I would be back by 10.00 for breakfast I knocked it on the head and gave up.  My rambling led nowhere.

Leisurely breakfast in the sun, packing and a bit of reading, then dinner in the sun and it was time to catch the dolphin (hydrofoil) to Corfu.  The last time I travelled on a dolphin was from Symi to Rhodes to catch a flight home and it broke down in the middle of the sea in a swell.  Not a pleasant experience at all.  The air-conditioning didn’t work because there was no power with the engine malfunctioning so the long, thin, metal cigar-tube shaped craft not only got oppressively hot but wallowed like a sick whale.  Many if not all of that generation of dolphins have now been taken out of service in Greece and probably sold on to the Philippines where the old cross channel ferries ended up when Greek shipping companies had had them written off as unsafe.  This was a brand new craft, though superficially it looked identical in every respect.

The main difference seemed to be in the loading and unloading procedure.  For a start there was no physical contact between the stubby fin on the side which serves as a ‘gangplank’ and the quayside.  Many overweight, middle-aged Brits seemed to find this a problem and so clung onto the helping arm proffered by the beefcake matelot or the young blonde matelette (I may claim origination of this term which as far as I know is unheard of in English or any other language) depending upon gender and orientation.

Anything bigger than a handbag or small rucksack was taken from you and stacked neatly by the staff rather than the previous system of leaving it to the devices of passengers all of whom sought to place their lumbering Big Bags in the entrance way on the basis of ease of access at the other end.  This management technique had simply produced untidy and unstable piles which collapsed if any rough seas were encountered en route and caused delays at the disembarkation points as passengers scrambled over a mountain of cases trying to rescue their own irrespective of where it was in the tangled mass.  Under the new system, when the destination is reached staff simply manhandled all the bags on to the quayside for passengers, all of whom had already gone ashore, to reclaim.   It didn’t need a brain the size of planet to work out what the system was and to conclude that last-on would be first to reclaim their bags.  Worked a charm.  My bag was third off.

Though the sea was pretty calm there was enough wave activity to render the dolphin liable to skit around once it achieved maximum speed so arm grabbing and other intimate contact was more pronounced from disoriented dodderers getting off than there had been getting on.

But the journey had only taken an hour and I was out of the harbour before anyone else.  There was an immediate contrast with anywhere else I had been with all the bustle and chaos of a large town.  Quite disorienting.

And that was when things fell apart.  I had been unable to make phone contact with the friend I was to meet and so the offer of being picked up came to nothing.  I used the taverna WiFi at the passenger terminal to e-mail the hotel where we were to stay but got no reply.  After hanging around an hour, by which time it was 18.30 I set out to find the bus station only to be told that there wasn’t a bus service going closer than 8 kms to the village I was heading for and that anyway the next one was tomorrow.

So nothing for it but to bite the bullet.  Find a hotel or take a taxi.  Enquiry indicated that the taxi fare was €45 which would have been more or less the same as a hotel nevermind the cost of a bus and a taxi the next day.  On top of that my arrival on Corfu had already been delayed 3 days because of the enforced change of plan so I went for it and took a taxi the 32 kms to the village of Boukaris on the East coast in the South of the island.

The taxi dropped me at the hotel where I had a sort of reservation and I met up with Elisabeth, the friend from Munich we met on Nisyros many years ago.

Tuesday we start exploring Corfu ….. and trying to find a WiFi connection I don’t have to pay for!!

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Paxos: Sunday, a day for R+R

Posted on May 28, 2012 by BarryH

Sunday dawned grey.  At least I assume it did. As it had dawned a few hours before I emerged into it I had no way of knowing for certain.  The view to the mountains and the area around Parga on the mainland, visible from the upper terrace of the house, had disappeared completely in a dark grey murk and thunder was rumbling around in the distance.

I set off jauntily to walk down to the harbour to have my morning WiFix, thinking smugly to myself that if I was still in Parga I would be getting very wet.  Yesterday I had passed a house being rebuilt at the side of the rough track down and as I passed I greeted and was greeted by the two guys working on it.  This morning they were driving up the road in a  car and as they saw me started to snigger to each other.  Having checked that my fly wasn’t undone I carried on down thinking no more of it, simply locals laughing at tourists.

In a few moments I passed the house in question, now with no work going on, rounded a bend and realised why they were laughing.  There was red-and-white plastic tape stretched across the road between the high garden wall on the right and the high dry-stone retaining wall of an olive grove terrace on the left, and the entire width of the road was filled with freshly poured concrete.  I dismissed the idea of going back up the hill to find another road as that would take up too much time. I dismissed the idea of climbing the wall up onto the terrace because it looked in a pretty dilapidated and loose state.  I dismissed the idea of going into the garden on the right and sneaking down that way as being too cheeky even for me.

On the islands it is common to see the mains water pipes draped across the surface of the ground rather than buried.  They are normally made out of thick polypropylene and pretty robust, the diameter varying according to the amount of flow required of them.  There was  one such, 4 inches in diameter and a nice shade of blue, draped along the bottom edge of the terrace wall, so I walked along that, thankful that it wasn’t wet as that would have made it even more slippery.  Balancing act completed successfully I continued nonchalantly on my way, hoping that I would meet the two guys again so that I could smile and look triumphant.  Sadly not.

A brief aside here about olive cultivation.  The Venetians conquered the island in 1636 and ruled it until 1797 when control passed to Napoleon’s France.  During that long period of stable rule the Venetians encouraged the planting of olives by the payment of 1 Taler (however much that was worth) per tree.  A book by the Florentine aristocratic scientist, artist and author Archduke Ludwig Salvator, recently published in an English translation, documents his visit to the island in 1884-85 and records 440,000 cultivated olive trees and 100,000 others ‘not cultivated’.  The latter grew naturally in cliffs and the like where farmers couldn’t hoe or prune them. The island was thus turned into one massive olive grove and it is obvious from the girth of many of the trees today that they date back to those earlier centuries.  It seems that to this day land on Paxos is bought and sold not in terms of acres or hectares or other unit of area but in terms of number of olive trees and trees have red markings with initials and a number to indicate ownership. The land itself is divided not by field boundaries but by a line drawn half way between trees.

The harbourside was even more deserted on Sunday than it had been on Saturday.  The Municipal WiFi still wasn’t working.  Many Greek islands have a free municipal WiFi system but not all work. I think the islands got money from the EU to set up the equipment but when they fail there is no money for maintenance.  So I sat outside the restaurant we ate in on Friday evening, closed in the mornings, and pirated their WiFi.

But not for long.  The sky had become progressively more overcast and after half an hour it began to leak.  I had said that I would get back to the house by 09.30 in time for breakfast so I had no choice but to make a 20 minute dash for it … 135 metres uphill.  I made it back to the house, once again successfully balancing across the now wet water pipe, before the rain became torrential.  Home and relatively dry

During the course of the morning the rain stopped and it started to dry up so we went in the car down to Lakka at the north end of the island looking towards Corfu.  Had a drink on the attractive harbourside and then got caught in torrential rain on the way back to the car. And sadly that was the pattern for the rest f the day so no more walking or exploring. It was just too wet.

But it gave more time for reading and having a chat over copious amounts of coffee.  Not a bad thing for someone who by temperament and metabolism finds it difficult to sit still and relax.  And not bad to spend Sunday relaxing and reflecting.  Did a lot of  both yesterday.  Now all fired up and raring to go.  Weather forecast is for conditions much more conducive to that.  Sunny and warm for the rest of the week predicted by 3 web sites which I looked at.  Here’s hoping!  Apart from anything else I may be tempted to get the camera out again.

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Paxos: a guided tour around the island

Posted on May 27, 2012 by BarryH

Saturday, my first full day on Paxos and my first day on one of the Greek islands this year.  Apart from brief trips into and out of Athens and a few days in Nafplio in 2003 all my experience of Greece is of  the  islands.  They have a distinctly different feel to being on the mainland.   It’s something to do with the fact that, though not at the forefront of the mind, there is the knowledge in the background all the time that one’s boundaries of activity are circumscribed by the sea in all directions.  I prefer small islands, where this is particularly true, and Paxos very much fits the bill.

The day began at 07.30 as has become the norm and fairly soon thereafter a 20 minute walk down to Loggos.  Today I measured the height difference using the altimeter function on my watch and it’s 135 metres, a sustained pull back up to the house after my WiFix, a coffee and an amble around the harbour in the morning sun.  Very pleasant.

Looking across the small harbour at Loggos

Looking towards the mouth of the harbour with an old windmill crowing the low hill

Bright colours

PICSIt’s a more relaxed lifestyle being here as the guest of friends rather than a tourist in a hotel.  Rather than being on my own all day and active the whole time there is more opportunity to sit in the courtyard and chat over a coffee.

I was given a guided tour of part of the island and I was able to see more of it by car in a short time than on foot. We began by going down to Gaios, the main town, in order to book a ticket to get me to Corfu on Monday.  David said that Monday is the main changeover day so the hydrofoil which makes the trip gets booked up quickly.  That turned out to be the case.  There are four trips on Mondays compared to one every other day except Fridays when there are two but they were all fully booked except the 16.15 ferry …. which just happened to be the one that I want to take.

Ticket safely booked we headed off and covered a fair amount of ground, visiting various points of interest but not usually thought of  as tourist hotspots.  Much of Paxos is covered in olive groves similar to the area surrounding Parga. One slight difference on the island, however, is that many individual trees are contained in curved retaining walls to create terraces.  The island is nowhere near as high as the mainland, the highest point being about 230 metres, which probably explains in part why looking across the narrow stretch of sea towards Parga and Igoumenitsa, the mainland seems to be covered in cloud, a common occurrence I’m told, while Paxos is under more or less clear sky.

This is just an impression of some of the interesting points on the island, excluding the olive trees which blog readers are by now probably fed up of seeing photos of after my time in Parga.

The old harbour at Gaios with very grand Venetian building dominating

That Venetian building

Traditional kefenion at Magazia, said to be the only traditional kafenion left on the island.

View down the cliffs on the West coast

Old windmill on the ridge

Looking eastwards from the windmill. Note the line of cloud along the mainland

Windmill and hollyhocks

Hollyhocks and thunderclouds over the mainland

 

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Parga to Paxos: from hustle and bustle to peace and quiet

Posted on May 26, 2012 by BarryH

The dramatic change of plan on Thursday necessitated an uncomfortably early start to Friday.  Well. Uncomfortable by current standards anyway.  When I was in work I usually got out of bed about 06.00 and was in the office by 07.00.  Now an 07.20 alarm gets me up about 07.30, not ideal but fits with a lifestyle which rarely gets me into bed before 01.00.    Today, an 07.15 bus meant I had to be out of bed by 06.20 and it was …. uncomfortably early.    The 07.15 bus was the only option to get me to a ferry from Igoumenitsa at 12.45, the only option for getting to Paxos today.  Limited choices prescribe necessary action.

Parga was waking up and was busy even at that time in the morning.  Not many holiday makers in evidence but plenty of activity as locals went about their business and prepared for the onslaught of taverna loungers and window shoppers.

The bus arrived and left on time and ground its way back to Igoumenitsa via pick-up points for commuters in villages en route.  Most of the way was under grey skies with various levels of cloud blanketing the mountains.

Mountains shrouded in layers of mist

It dropped me off at the bus station before 09.00 by which time the cloud had dispersed and again the sun beat down hotly from a clear blue sky.  I fumbled my way down to a taverna on the main seafront drag where I was revived with a good strong caffeine fix.  Igoumenitsa was also coming alive and people dropped in to the taverns for a frappé or coffee to start the day.  It seems to be a Greek thing to stop off at a coffee shop on the way to work.

When I came-to I had 3 hours to kill before the ferry so I left the Big Bag in the taverna and ambled around town.  Two points of note.

First, despite the disparaging remarks in the Rough Guide to Greece, away from the ferry terminal the town is a pretty respectable modern place with a good early morning cafe-culture ambience.  Not at all unpleasant, particularly in the sunshine.

Clear, clean water despite Igoumenitsa being an international port

… and it is still a working fishing harbour

… with all the usual paraphernalia of a fishing harbour

…. and a wide sea-front eplanade and gardens lined with palm trees

Second, and on a purely practical matter, it has a wide range of shops including one where I could put credit on the Greek SIM card in my mobile.  In the UK it can be done very simply on-line.  Here it cannot be done on-line at all and is far more complex not least because the necessary on-phone instructions are in rapid-flowing Greek which I still can’t cope with.  The guy in the shop was not only unphased by the fact that I didn’t know my phone number but put the credit on the phone AND reset the phone so the on-phone instructions are now in English.  Brilliant!!

Ferry left only 15 minutes late and by 14.30 arrived in Paxos where my friends were waiting in their car to take me up to their place in the hills.  Amazing location.  I haven’t been in such a quiet, peaceful place for a long time.  Spent the rest of the day chewing the fat and then going down the 150 metres to the nearby village/harbour of Loggos for the evening.

Loggos is a very attractive place and not surprisingly attracts a great many English visitors.  It is also the closest place with internet connections so for the next few days communication with the world outset will be limited.

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