GETTING BETTER BUT STILL ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT!
Dateline: Bellano, Lake Como, Northern Italy - 30 August 2015
On the one hand, the Prop is unjustifiably pleased with
himself for issuing his third post of the “Istanbul to Inverness Grand Tour”
within a mere ten days of its predecessor.
On the other hand, it remains the fact that the Prop is still
more than a month behind in bringing the reader news of what is happening out
here on the road.
On balance however, this third post represents a positive
development and, to the extent that it might be said that some sort of exponential
trend is developing, the next and fourth post may be expected in a little over
three days!
At that rate, it seems entirely possible that by about the
middle of next week the Prop will not only be completely up to date but will,
in fact, be reporting on destinations which he and Mrs P have not yet reached!
On reflection, the Prop thinks he may need to slow down the
pace of things!
CHIOS
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| The National Bank of Greece, Chios. Unfortunately not open for business while we were there. |
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| The port of Chios, Chios |
At 11.15 on Sunday July 19 we said farewell to Lesvos.
A man who saw us was kind enough to explain that there is no
point trying to talk to an island in English – especially a Greek island. In fact even speaking Greek to a Greek island
has its limitations. But unlike the
locals, at least Lesvos appeared to pretend to understand what we were saying.
The Prop and Mrs P struggled aboard the impressive MV “Nissos
Rhodos” bound for the neighbouring island of Chios (say: He-oss).
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| The Nissos Rhodos - every day is like a Boxing Day Sale |
The “struggle” involved many elements.
First, there are no discernible rules about who or when or
where passengers and vehicles may embark on a Greek ferry. This makes for a scene a like one sees on
telly on the day after Boxing Day, of people clamouring to get into department
stores to buy things they wanted for Christmas but apparently couldn’t afford
until after Christmas when the price went up – but with the added thrill of
some shoppers on motor bikes and others in four wheel drives and motorhomes. There were no deaths this day but the Prop believes that it is only a matter of time.
Second, as the reader will know, modern suitcases are
manufactured with two and sometimes four wheels on the bottom. This is supposed to assist the traveler who
is on a 5 month journey and schlepping
through Europe with 25 kg of luggage, to move his or her luggage from place to
place with relative ease and with fingertip control.
There are, however, two serious flaws in this supposition.
First, the little wheels are no match for the many stairs
and steel cleats one encounters on Greek ferries (not to mention the very uneven
– I use the word advisedly) quality, of much of the paving to be found on the
Greek islands.
Secondly, the Prop has it
on good authority that a dedicated unit of the KGB is responsible for the design and manufacture of
the little wheels and that it goes to great lengths to ensure that of those little
wheels destined for suitcases to sold to residents of the rest of the world,
at least one in every three will fail after no more than one kilometre and none
is capable of being repaired. The result
is that you cannot replace the one defective wheel on your suitcase which self-destructs
about four days after your journey begins so you must replace the whole
suitcase knowing that, statistically speaking, one of the little wheels on the
new case is also going to give up the ghost before the end of the following week.
(Note that the Prop has chosen to divide the second element
of the “struggle” into two sub-elements.
Of course, one might just as easily have treated the second sub-element
as a third element of the struggle – which perhaps, ought to have been done because
I did say the struggle had “many “ elements, which usually implies more than
two!)
On arrival at the capital of Chios, called Chios (Chios,
Chios – so good they named it twice; and did so quite a long time before New York!) we
chivvied out our accommodation at the quaintly-named “Pelineon Rooms” (The “n”
is apparently optional - see pic.)
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| Pelineo Rooms - or did the signwriter just run out of room? The Prop will have more to say about the quality of Greek signwriting in subsequent posts. |
The name was not the only thing that was quaint about the
place. Still, it had a small balcony
with an excellent view of the harbour and was nearly close enough to the water
to be able to touch the MV “Nissos Rhodos” as she turned and left town.
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| A vessel similar to the Nissos Rhodos does a U-Turn in the middle of town in the middle of the night. |
In truth the balcony, which measured about
two metres by 0.75 m was a good deal larger than the room itself!
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| The al fresco bedroom at the Pelineo(n) Rooms |
The balcony (or al
frecsco bedroom as Mrs P liked to call it) also had a very good view of
some of the many street-vendors’ kiosks which dot the footpaths of so many
European cities. At the risk of
correction (A Welsh reader whom the Prop regards as being much too enthusiastic
has, in private correspondence, pointed out that the English word “pier” comes
from the Latin “Pera” and not from the Greek Pyrgos, which may be so. But the Prop asks: From where did the Romans
get the word “Pera”? From the Greeks
perhaps?) the Prop has discovered that the word “kiosk” is one of only a
handful of Turkish words which are in common use in English. A thorough (and if the Prop may say so, very
learned) discussion of the topic can be found here: http://home.iprimus.com.au/glsealy/
On Chios may be found several run-of-the-mill kiosks - but also an “Executive Kiosk”!
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| The "Executive" kiosk, Chios, Chios. So good they [nearly] named it thrice! |
It turns out that the island of Chios is mainly famous for
the production of “mastic”. Prior to his
arrival on the island the Prop had only ever heard mention of the word “mastic”
from his late father who used the term to describe any of a variety of latex/bituminous
substances useful for plugging leaks in roofs, pipes etc. That a Greek island should claim to be famous
for producing sticky waterproof goo seemed to the Prop to be a claim that
should not be made lightly. In fact, it
seemed to be a claim hardly worth making at all!
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| A working mastic tree. Bowed but not broken. The white area is clay used to prevent the sap from seeping into the ground. |
It turns out that “mastic” is the sap of a particular tree
that grows on the island. The sap drops
from the trees and is collected by the locals after spreading a layer of
impervious clay beneath each tree, then picking up the dry drips and turning them
into an astonishing variety of things like chewing gum, soap, medicine, liqueurs
and other alcoholic beverages. When
sufficiently warm mastic could easily be used to plug leaks - but surprisingly the
natives don’t yet seem to have twigged to this further possible use.
The Prop and Mrs P paid a visit to the walled city of Mesta
and thence to Pyrgi (the Greek word for more than one tower – I think that’s
where the Latin word Pera comes from) where Christopher Columbus used to
live. But apparently he hasn’t lived
there for years. I suppose because it’s
well inland and quite a walk down to his boat from there.
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| Inside the walled city of Mesta. Maps are available on request |
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| Pyrgi - where all of the residents paint their houses with black and white geometric designs. It is thought that the residents of Do-Town on the Tasman Peninsula got the idea from here. |
To be honest, the Prop is a bit vague on the
Christopher Columbus detail mainly because, due to an administrative error we
ended up on a Turkish language guided tour and didn’t understand a word all
day!
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| The former residence of Christopher Columbus. The Prop thinks he must have got lost. No wonder he found America while looking for India! |
Maybe it was the fillum director of
the same name who used to live there.
Maybe
it was Magellan?
Who cares?
Let’s have another glass of mastic!
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| Toilet facilities on the Turkish tour bus were woefully inadequate! |
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| One of the most popular beaches on the island of Chios. Note the excellent coverage of gravel and shale instead of sand. The locals like to walk on these stones at the height of the midday sun in order to burn the soles of their feet. |
