Itisallgreek2me

Fox and I, Hotel Finiki View, Karpathos

My routine for the past 24 hours much the same as every day and night has been here in Finiki.  Finished working on the computer last evening then a walk down to the harbour and beach for dinner.  Chose Stifado – a meaty stew with beef and baby onions in a slightly sweet sauce containing herbs and spices.  With my usual bread and wine and watermelon to finish – delicious!  Today an early light lunch – toasted sandwich and vanilla milkshake, followed by some 4 hours at the beach – my fifth day in a row, therefore, requiring careful application of sunscreen.  My last evening meal at Restaurant Finiki View – Kalamari (far superior to those rings we eat at home) with fries, little salad and tzatziki, bread, wine and watermelon to finish.

Panayiotes and Maria operate the Hotel and the Restaurant assisted only by three Indonesians, 2 male and 1 female, whose duties include cleaning, room service, baggage handling, serving and helping out in the restaurant kitchen, in fact, all manner of works.  It is a pretty full on operation and Panayiotes and Maria are up and down the hill all night and day, he on his scooter, she in her car, between the hotel and the restaurant.

If you have travelled in Greece you will know what I’m talking about – if you have not, then you may well be surprised to learn something about the toilets and plumbing in this country.  Firstly, Greeks are fond of removing the plastic or wooden seat and lid, leaving one to sit directly on the cold porcelain bowl.  For some reason unknown to me, the plumbing consists of narrower pipes than those found elsewhere and the consequence of this, you must put your used toilet paper in a bin otherwise, flush it down the toilet possibly at your peril.  Occasionally, you still come across the squatter loos – porcelain tray with a hole to aim for and two large giant sized foot shapes either side, such as I found in the Samaria Gorge and which were particularly difficult for me to negotiate, bearing in mind the state of my knees and legs at that time. 

Thought I would share with you all an exert from an email I received today from Reinhard, the German I met in Kastelli on Crete.  I rather liked what he had to say.  “It was good to meet you at Petra and feel your true inspiration and love for Crete and the Greek myth.  I hope you will find many treasures and hidden sources of wisdom on your travels and that there will always be a warm wind from behind to help you up some stony tracks and a cold glass of water waiting for you when you are thirsty and weary from the heat.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 6:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.