The Prop's Perigrinations : GETTING BETTER BUT STILL ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT!

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

The National Bank of Greece, Chios. Unfortunately not open for business while we were there.

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).

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.)

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.

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!

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”!

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!

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.

Inside the walled city of Mesta. Maps are available on request

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!

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!

Toilet facilities on the Turkish tour bus were woefully inadequate!

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.