Delicious Dinner in Ditropos

Last night (Monday) we had a great dinner out in the country, at Mourtero (near Ditropos on the south side of the island), where our hosts from 2006 live in a kalivia they are doing up (we stayed in their house – called Cypress House - in Skopelos Town). Kalivias are cute little two-level goat farmers’ huts (OK, what’s a two-level goat farmer you ask?); the goatherd would have lived upstairs in the low-ceilinged single-room dwelling, while the goats would be safely locked up at night in the winter in the even-lower-ceilinged downstairs bit. (This paragraph is being sponsored by the hyphen).

These days they are being done up and freshly whitewashed (mostly by British people, by the look of it), improved with electricity and running water, stone verandahs, swimming pools and modern plumbing to bathroom and kitchen and being rented out in the summer. No goats downstairs. Surrounded by small parcels of land, these lovely little country houses have fruit trees, olive groves and peace and quiet away from the bustle of town.

Robert and his partner Stephen have done up one kalivia and rented it out and are now doing a second one next door and living in it as they renovate. We met two Australians who are in Cypress House this year and a woman visiting from Dorset, and had a splendid meal comprising mostly produce from the boys’ garden. We talked about the possibility of house exchanges and minding their rental business for them sometime if they need to return to the UK. One way or another, we reckon this won’t be our last trip to Skopelos.

The longest day

THE LONGEST DAY

One of the early things we learnt on Sunday was that it was Fathers’ Day in Europe. We heard the Sunday 7am long and loud church bells (we lost count at 40) then dozed again. Then there was a church service. Not that we had to attend physically because the good priests of Skopelos broadcast the beautifully sung service from nearby Christos Church (which is quite famous but quite small) through the loudspeaker, next to the bells which are almost in bed with us. What a lovely Greek touch, you don’t have to attend church, but it will attend you.

We phoned Frank, Marj’s father, and had the bonus of brother Chris being with him. It was 3 degrees in Canberra overnight.

One of the things we learnt was that Giorgos (pictured above with us) was heading out fishing at 5am on Sunday to procure Fathers’ Day dinner. He is Zoe’s father (see photo of three year old Zoe below), Jill’s husband and Gloria’s son-in –law. We were invited for a fabulous fish feast on Sunday night (see photo of fabulous fish above).

We procured cakes from the bakery for dessert.

Another of the things we learnt is that Sunday was summer solstice- the longest day. We learnt this from a woman on the beach who had been on the beach last week too. She is very loud, very opinionated, very large, very brown, very tattooed, very bikinied, and travels with a small considerably less loud, less opinionated, less large, less brown, less tattooed, less bikinied group of friends but perhaps very embarrassed friends. There would only be two hours of darkness on Sunday in Inverness, the lucky place that she calls home.

One of the things we really like about Greek beaches (or the ones we gravitate towards) is that it does not matter about nationality, age, size or shape. People of all nationalities, ages, sizes and shapes come, wear what they want to (and it’s often very minimalist and on a non-minimalist body), soak up the sun, and the beach generally emits a broad hum of pleasure. Usually there isn’t just one loud voice dominating a small beach but, rather, a harmonious buzz of enjoyment. It was a bit different on Sunday with a loud voice that managed to clear most of the beach by 3pm.

The beach is a natural amphitheatre. Her conversation, laced with eff-ing this and eff-offs swept over all of us and up the steep rocky walls of the small piratical cove we were sunning ourselves in. She is probably in her mid-forties. We learnt that she had a mobile phone deal when she arrived in Greece two weeks ago which provided 600 free texts. She has sent 300 so far. She is happy with her legs (“my best feature”) and her feet. A companion mentions her hands, and she is happy with them too.

However, she was not happy on Sunday. In fact she announced that she was very grumpy. The pale, quiet boyfriend (with her) was apparently not attentive enough. (He is busy playing English music from a portable device; drowning out the Greek music emanating from the nearby taverna.) As well as that, the water was too cold, the day was too hot, the stones were too sharp, and said boyfriend would not share a Greek platter with her at the beach taverna. (By the way, the stone archway featured above which is at the entrance to the taverna was on the Mamma Mia set up the hill and reconstructed here as a permanent feature)

Between moans, she works loudly on the remaining 300 texts, telling those at home what a great place Skopelos is and what a great holiday she is having and how she is saving to come back next year. The day on the beach was long enough for us. We exited at 3pm.

IT’S NOT AS COLD AS BOURNMOUTH

The two photos above show Agnondas. As I lay on the beach there on Thursday with my eyes closed after swimming in the clear blue calm water on a warm, warm day a conversation floated my way. It was two rather strong female English voices.

Voice One (as she was entering the water): oohh….aahh….ooooohhhhh…...aaaaahhhhh….ooooooohhhhhhh…aaaaaaahhhhhhh…..

Voice Two (on land) : Come on, so how cold is it then?

Voice One: Well, it’s not as cold as Bournmouth.

I don’t know too much about Bournmouth water temperatures in summer or winter but I reckon Agnondas on Thursday would have been much warmer than Bournmouth!

Other conversations also float by. At about 5pm in the afternoon, words and conversations start rising up from the town below. It begins like an orchestra tuning with odd words from the houses to the left, then some from those on the right, then some from the middle group, and then some from behind. Sounds rise and fall from rows and rows of houses and alleyways below and above. The performance commences somewhat discordantly and then just like an orchestra it develops a beat and rhythm and life all of its own, and then a fusion of conversations which usually peak in our natural amphitheatre just before the evening bells start tolling loudly. We now know that the 6.15pm Wednesday bell is to celebrate being alive. It’s not a saint’s day or anything- just a rowdy reminder that we are lucky to be here. Our neighbour at the back Evangelia, a youthful seventy plus we surmise, is part of the Greek chorus- she has a circle of friends who sit on their steps in the early evening and chat and chat and chat. As part of our tenancy we were asked to water the geraniums and gardenias on our front balcony but mid-chorus the other evening Evangelia told me very forcefully (in Greek, with hand signs) to move them all to our little back verandah, which is sort of her front yard, where she will tend to them. We moved them and already she seems to have worked a plant miracle or two. (See two photos in the middle)

On Friday morning we headed to nearby Stafylos- Bas’ prints needed further drying so we let them have the morning to do that. Some photos at the top show the ‘through the toe’ Stafylos view and another view from the lunch taverna.

TWO VASILIS, TWO SWIMS, A POTTED BASIL, A FISH AND A DUCK

While the bad parrot has heightened our awareness of omens, the ‘potted basil’ featured was a central positive omen yesterday as we boarded the Oceania to head to Alonyssos a protected marine park. Not only did we have a basil in the pot but two Vasilis on board, as our skipper, next to our Vasili in the photo above, was also Vasili.

When we arrived on Skopelos this time, Steven (who met us at the port and was part of the landlord team-with Robert- at Cypress House last time) invited us to join 4 friends on the charter so we did.

Check out http://www.aegeo-sailing.gr/ukaegeo1.htm

So we were at the port on Wednesday morning at about 10ish to join the expedition with one other visitor, and 5 other (now) locals who have relocated to Skopelos from different parts of the world and from amazing and varied careers. Our group included a nuclear scientist/project manager; a former professional flutist (now based half the year in Vienna and half the year In Skopelos restoring an olive grove); and a 30 something oil rig trouble shooter.

It was a near perfect day for sailing (we used some motor) and the water was perfect for swimming. It was so salty and buoyant, you didn't really have to move your arms or legs.

The pictures tell a story- blue, blue clear water; spectacular swimming bays; another taverna and another lunch. We ate the fish (skorpina) and did not eat the duck.

Time for a shot of the chief blogger

Just realised we haven't shown you a pic of Marj for a while, so here she is at the back steps of our house (that's Evangelia's place with the green shutters behind). We are just setting off for the day you have just read about...swimmers on, art gear in back pack, geranium watered (no, not this one - that's Evangelia's responsibility- we water the one on the front verandah).

Beautiful Bougainvillea everywhere

This one's out of sequence, although we have to go back through Skiathos in a week (sniff!) on our way home. What a place! Marj has been doing such a great job on the blogs while I've been earning us a living up at the studio (a little dream of mine, sorry!) that you haven't heard from me much lately. I found this one amongst M's pics and thought it needed posting. I'm just finishing up after another day of hard work in the studio, so it's time to have a shower in the two foot by two foot curtainless cubicle using the hose- with- no- head (a little Greek plumbing problem we have, if anything here could be called a problem when you're having a nice time in paradise) and then it's off to another taverna for dinner.
Watch out for Marj's next report...all about our big day out on a sailing boat tomorrow!

IT'S ALL ABOUT GREAT PLATES

There are great plates all around really. The top one is the taverna plate at the Glisteri taverna on the beach welcoming us for lunch; then there is a plate of the best Skopelos goat in Skopleos and a plate of the best Skopelos egglant in Skopelos . Then there are the great plates (ready for more printing) in the current Skopelos edition.

We've survived another day of a slowish start, studio drop, me to beach, him to plates, me to studio to collect him for lunch and afternoon beach and then back to the studio.

Last night I also survived the very friendly and glamorous Russian hairdresser who came to Skopelos 14 years ago for a holiday and stayed. Her son now also works in the salon. It opens for typically Greek business hours-6pm-10pm weekdays and all day Saturday. The scene is no appointments, you just turn up, join the queue and watch with interest as everybody, men, women, young and old 'get done'. It's a small salon and there are no magazines so everyone seems to take a keen interest in whatever is happening at the hands of the hairdresser. My needs were translated from English into Greek and Russian and had a little international sign language thrown in for good measure. My Wella colour card from Darwin (provided by my hairdresser) has translated into a slightly bolder red as it did 3 years ago.

The road works to the beach have continued with no obvious pattern but plenty of emotion between the road gang and with road users.

THE ROAD TO GLISTERI

The weather is still great, so I dropped Bas at the studio and commenced the downhill drive to Glisteri. As you can see from the photo above it was not a smooth ride. The bob cat was broken; the bob cat driver convinced a car (two in front of me) to drive past on his left; that car got stuck; the young Greek woman in the car in front of me (blue one in photo) catapulted out of her car and gave the bob cat driver what for; he froze in some sort of paralysis at her words and didn't move; she then headed back up the hill behind me, found the road gang, gave them what for but rather than paralyse them, she galvanised them towards the bob cat and they attempted to start it via its rear motor. After about 10 attempts it chugged into life, was moved to the side of the road and everyone rejoiced and were friends again!

The hill view photo shows the beach at the bottom of the hill. The photo with my toes in it shows that it was worth the drive. I headed back up to the studio to collect Bas for the afternoon beach shift and as you can see he is beginning to look more Greek. We had lunch at the beach side taverna, and read and swam for a couple of hours. We're back at the studio now and I'm about to trust my hair to a Russian hairdresser who now has the salon I visited last time.

CAR GOOD

The bottom photo is of Kastani Beach (of Mamma Mia fame) but it was fabulously quiet today and the water was pretty perfect even for our tropical bodies. It's warm so we did not do too much sunning. The lunch taverna was at nearby Panormos, where we had a 3pm feed post-swim. It deserves another visit. The top photo is of the beach below the studio and taken today- it's one of those blue, blue days.

We are back at the studio, Bas is working on another colour. Art coming along nicely.

Hard at Work

You can see the artist at work in the studio. It's Sunday and our world started with 60 or so loud bell rings at 7am and a blackout akin to a Darwin outage. We deduced from the neighbours that "someone was working on it" and our power, hot water and coffee was soon flowing.

Our excitement today has been hiring a little car for the week, so I/we can get about a bit more particularly if we are lucky enough to keep this good beach weather. So, we have lurched up the steep hill on a narrow road to the studio and Bas will 'put a colour' down before we head to a beach.

We've spoken to Robbie and Jack and both seem in good spirits- it's really going to be a little by little journey for Robbie. My phone is not working as a phone in Greece but texting seems to be OK. Sorry, I have not responded to many blog comments- I just discovered that function this morning so will work on replying if any comments come through!

We found the donkey and a bad parrot

The top photo is the view from our bedroom. We went up, up, up the hill for an 8pm dinner at ‘the great view’. Gloria, Jill and 3 year old multilingual Zoe welcomed us and we were in the wonderful vegetable garden as Giogos plucked fresh items off the various vines for immediate cooking. He had also procured fresh whole fish which pretty much melted in the mouth and his fresh zucchinis did likewise.

We left at 10.30pmish to head down, down, down the hill. In the meantime we had posted the Bells’ Angels blog via wireless in the vegetable garden at the edge of ‘the great view’. We had also given some Aussie presents- for Gloria and Jill Geographic Shop Aussie soaps. For Giogos, a small stuffed Geographic Shop kookaburra, and for Zoe a small stuffed Geographic Shop parrot, which they loved and immediately named respectively Basil and Marj in our honour. Interestingly, while Zoe clung to the parrot she declared it to be a ‘bad’ parrot.

Next morning, Thursday 11 June, Bas headed up the hill to the studio and I noticed two missed calls from Jack on my mobile. My phone just cut out when I called him or he called me. We could text, however. I headed down to town to find better reception and/or a public phone. Whatever he wanted to tell me he did not want to do by text. About 2 hours later I gave up on my phone and sent a text to Bas (at the top of the hill) to ring Jack. The text back translated as ‘fire in Robbie’s flat, she’s in intensive care, lots of family in attendance’. So at about the same time on Wednesday night that we were in heaven on earth, Robbie in Australia was not.

At 3am-ish in Australia her room in her flat caught on fire. It was started by an electric heater. There is an article at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/80-people-evacuated-in-elizabeth-bay-apartment-block-fire-20090611-c3w3.html which was written at the time. It’s a very scary photo.

She and Joel were admitted to St. Vincent’s. They are both OK physically but will obviously need time to deal with the broader issues. Our sister-in-law Ruth received a 3am call (as Rob’s next of kin nominee while her parents are overseas) to allow anaesthetic to be administered and soon after other sisters/sisters in law, Libby and Janice, drove to Sydney from Canberra. Jack and his girlfriend Yvette hopped on a plane from Melbourne and Rob’s and Joel’s friend network in Sydney kicked in. Peter Hall and family, and extended others all rallied. Pretty wonderful response. Our studio friends here have also been great and we’ve been able to talk to Ruth, Robbie, bedside nurses and others through Skype.

We of course have been in a dilemma about whether to stay here or head back home. Robbie today said to stay here and we’ll take that advice for the moment. We can’t begin to thank our Australian family for their immediacy, action and love.

So, we reckon that Zoe might have been on to something that night with all her talk about a bad parrot- I’ve never heard the expression before but it will now enter our family lexicon as meaning an omen. Tonight we will yet again raise a glass to being alive and well and to having a wonderful extended family.

Thanks so much all of you from Bas too...

BELLS’ ANGELS

BELLS’ ANGELS

Sorry, I had not factored the 3pm internet café siesta into my previous note. So, about the donkey.

Yesterday on arrival we ventured forth on our new bit of the island to find the supermarket near the castro and provision for some breakfasts and lunches. We are at about the same height that we were on the island in 2006 but not as central, so slightly different navigational marks are needed. And this time we have a front door and a back door in different laneways at different levels.

Nevertheless, in geographical terms we headed left to the sea edge then up, up, up and we saw the supermarket down, down, down, so did that. We procured fabulously fresh tomatoes, cherries and peaches; some feta and yoghurt; some Skopelos honey; and, bread and beer. We have our coffee plunger and coffee, and the house also comes with a plunger so we are set for some lunches and breakfasts. It’s about 6pm on Wed 10 June and I’ve just had lunch, so the Greek breakfast this morning did well.

We had a slowish breakfast pretty-much just gazing through our windows to the blue harbour, feeling good to be alive and here, and listening to the conversations from below rising towards us. It’s as though the words and sentences float up on little wisps of wind. A bit like the smells wafting up when food starts being cooked in the morning.

I needed to complete a report or two from Leipzig to send back and Bas needed to check out the studio at the top of the hill. We both made a start. I headed down to the internet café to complete my work but was sent home at 3ish. Bas was welcomed effusively by the team at the studio and taken by Giogos to his ‘shed’ at the edge of ‘the great view’ for a boys’ lunch including three Tsipouro (ouzo based) with freshly picked garden produce. Tsipouro at lunch time can have immediate effects so he returned and is currently having his post-lunch-Tsipouro snooze before we head back up for dinner at 8pm.

Skopelos Island has 365 churches for its 6000 inhabitants. Skopelos town has 123 of these churches and seven of them are within about 100 metres of us. The previous tenants wrote in the guest book that while they loved the house they were a little ambivalent about the bell ringing. We couldn’t see what the fuss was about, as we tend to hear them gently from afar. However, it’s now 6.15pm and Bas has just been bolted out of his Tsipouro slumber by our closest bell- see photo from front step- the sounds of which were obviously carried to us on angels’ wings and work miracles as a post-Tsipouro agent. Not only was Bas woken but he has also declared that there will never ever again be Tsipouro at lunchtime.

And about the donkey. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday the donkey collects the rubbish from the hook that we have not yet found so this morning when we woke about 8am to the clomp, clomp, clomp on the cobbles we knew that we had missed the donkey. We will aim to have a better rubbish response by Friday.

MISSED THE DONKEY

We're on Skopelos and it feels great. It's about 30 degrees by day. Blue Shutters House is everything on its internet site plus washing machine and clothesline out the front off the balcony. We had a lovely night in Skiathos on the way, at Bibis Hotel- the manager collected us from the airport and drove us a far as she could before the many, many steps- training for Skopelos! The photo of the ferry is from our Bibis room, HIGH above the town. We reintroduced ourselves to Greek food that night and caught a new super ferry cat at 11.30am next morning- a big downhill trek with luggage.

Steven (from our previous Cypress House) met us and helped us with luggage up the many steps HIGH above the town. We chilled yesterday afternnoon, returned to Molos last night ( a frequent taverna points candidate in 2006).

Internet cafe is closing for siesta- so I will too and continue later.

These fabulous canoodling seats were set up throughout the courtyard of the cultural (museums) precinct in Vienna. They were all occupied, so instead we went in to see Cy Twombly (very famous and expensive US-based artist) in the Museum of Modern Art and lots of strange videos and installations. The Art gallery shops were the most fun, as they had the most wonderful range of great gifts and so on. Unfortunately all the books were in German and the gifts were too expensive, so you all got postcards instead. They are coming.

Anything that could be stuffed with something else...had been. Delicious and fresh, and open every day. What a market. Can't linger. Must see some galleries too. We only have two days in Vienna.

There's not as much call for dry stone walls these days, so some re-training in Austria has these skilled former stone-masons constructing dry walls of strawberries in the Nachmarkt in central Vienna. OK, I do go on a bit, but look how beautifully each strawberry has been placed in position in this colourful display we encountered on our first walk around in this classy city. Several kilometres of gorgeous food displays had us drooling and wishing we had a picnic basket, some plastic plates and somewhere we could lay out a rug for lunch.

Friday 6 June saw us with our bikes at Krems Railway Station waiting for the 9.50am ‘rad-friendly’ train to Stockerau. We had been provided with the train vouchers (which knocked 50 kms off the final day, and we decided to accept, assuming there was a reason for the generous gift). After a bit of indecision as to which carriage was the one on which to load the bikes, we settled back in comfort and watched the fields roll by for 50kms. The country turned out to be flat and the train's route meant we by-passed Tulln, the birthplace of one of my favourite artists, Egon Schiele, so we're not sure why they give you a freebie at this point of the trip. Anyway, we were soon back on our behinds and ready to make the short dash into Vienna.

The grand entry took us up a long narrow island in the Danube, right into the heart of Vienna. On the final leg we ran into an eccentric 65+ Englishman (with a handkerchief over his head) whom we'd met several times over the last week. Somehow, on a small-wheeled collapsible bicycle he had managed to beat us in to town! We found our smart hotel largely because Rob and Jenna had had a week in Vienna before the trip and had got to know "our" part of town. Our bikes had behaved impeccably on the trip. You know, we didn't even have to pump up a single tyre on the whole journey!

We celebrated our successful arrival at a Mexican restaurant that evening and had the beer pictured above.(I also had an Argentinian steak).

THE WINE TALE

I’m not sure whether it was the guilt brought on by gilt we saw at the Benedictine Monastery but we all felt pretty guilty, and under exercised by the mere 30 kms we rode between Melk and Krems on Thursday 4 June.

It was, however, one of the most beautiful cycles through postcard-gorgeous wine country. We started in a somewhat chilly morning on the south bank and headed to Hofansdorf. We caught the ferry over to the north to another cobbled village, Spitz. We lingered over particularly good coffee in a warm “Italian” cafe. There was a party of older folk celebrating one of their birthdays at 10amish with cold beers all around.

From Spitz we headed through a sea of Wachau region vineyards and picture perfect cobbled villages including Wosendorf, Weissenkirchen and Durstein. We indulged in some tasting (and a little buying, though only what could fit in the panniers) at Domian Wachau from where we had a free voucher and which is a large, modern co-operative winery for many of the region’s wine makers. We stopped for lunch at Unterloiben where we were promised the best duck in the world and reckon we had it. It was probably just as well it was a short ride then through Stein to Krems (and the particularly quirky Park Hotel). We had great fun exploring the Krems night markets and Bas and I settled in to watch a good ‘uni’ band well after dark.