It’s Three Kings day here and this afternoon there is no noise of human activity at all. It’s as quiet as I have known it. In the morning there was a church service, followed by the throwing of a cross into the sea by a priest and one or more brave children diving in and retrieving it. I heard the service from my hotel room as it’s broadcast outside the tiny church in Livadi for all to hear. I have seen the throwing of the cross and the diving in before, so I did not go and see it. I am taking a bit of a gamble, there is no proper taverna open at night and the hotel room has no cooking facilities. An Airbnb might have been better, but the rate I got through a friend on the island was very good so.. The view from my room.
Twenty four hours earlier, I was getting on the Solomos ferry to Serifos. My friends on Sifnos did an amazing job looking after me, and their dog too. But it was time to move on and visit some friends on Serifos. The ferry journey is short, and a friend on that island island promised to take me to my hotel in Livadi from the port, although it wasn’t far. After checking into the room, we went to visit the lady who runs the Dog Palace, who was at home. Her dogs were all pleased to see me. Fritz loves a cuddle, but he is no match for the dog on Sifnos, from the point of view of being a cuddle monster! The ladies daughter now lives with her mother, and works for the winery on the island, that we visited before. Her daughter also has a garden in Livadi, which has a profusion of Oranges and Lemons. I had given some UK crumpets to the guy who picked me up at the port, I had some of my Christmas cake for the Dog lady, her friend and daughter who all enjoyed it last time. I then walked down the donkey track, back to Livadi, had some sandwiches my Sifnos friend had made me, then a shower and listened to the start of the Nelson story on the Rest is History.
In the morning, I hoped to pick up my hire car, and meet a friend who lives in Hora for a walk. We met up at Grans, after my first failed attempt to get the car. One of the girls in Grans I knew there, but I never saw her last time. My friend told me she is expecting a baby, so when I said hello to her, I did my best to ask her about it, by saying in Greek do you have a baby? I don’t know the word for pregnant in Greek. She replied yes and she is soon leaving Grans to have it. With my friend we went back to the car hire place and it turns out the owner is in Greece, the car was on the forecourt, keys in the ignition waiting for me! Just take it he said. I have had cars from him before. When I got in I had a bit of a shock, it’s an automatic. I have driven them before, so it wasn’t a problem. It also has a fabric sunroof, which must be nice in the summer, to let the heat out. We drove to near the beach Kalo Ambeli, and walked down to a promontory named Glaronisi I think. On our way we met some cats, my friend always has cat food in case they are hungry. One of the cats followed us all the way down, unfortunately they are building here and the path had been covered by a mound of rubble. There are little pools of water in the holes in the rocks that have been created by the wind over the years.
This is the area where there was the fire last year, when I was here in October it was blackened. But it’s growing back, the cactus, the strange bulbs that flower in the Spring and the annuals that flower then also. We soon got down to the sea and had a rest.
We then climbed back up to where we left our cars. Near the road was one of those circular stone constructions that you see occasionally here, I think they were used for grinding corn, but I might be wrong. I have bought some things from the only supermarket still open this afternoon and had some salad, meatballs in tomato sauce and taramasalata with crispy bread that they like over here.
Here is the little church they held the service in today.
Narcissi that are flowering a lot earlier than their UK counterparts!
And finally Crocus are showing their faces too.
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