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| Sunrise from my balcony |
At
07:11 the sun comes through the v in the mountains of Fournoi Island to the east and an
owl begins hooting. White
caps out at sea – windy today - 22 knots from the north,
temperature 8 degrees Celsius.
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| Window with a view |
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| View of Samos and Fourni Islands |
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| Early morning visitor |
Men
gather at a cafe below my room, so it must be open. Also, someone is
living below to my left – laundry is hanging on the balcony.
It's
not an owl, it's a dove or a pigeon. It suddenly lands on my balcony railing.
At
eight, I see more people. A father takes his daughter and
son to school on a motorcycle: the boy behind, the girl in front. The
day has begun. Time to find a bakery.
And
there it is: a wood fired bakery just behind my
apartment.
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| The bakery with a wood fired oven. |
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Nikos taking the bread out of the wood fired oven
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During my morning walk, I also notice a serve-yourself laundromat (E3.50 for a huge
machine, E2.50 to dry), several grocery stores, three banks (and I
thought I wouldn't be able to access money here), numerous cafes and
tavernas, in other words, everything I might need within a one or two
minute walk from my room. Talk about convenient.
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| The grocery store |
|
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| The laundromat |
|
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| The book and stationary store |
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| Julia's shoe store |
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| Car rental office |
So,
the next challenge is to find a less expensive room to rent for a
month. I ask everywhere I go: at the bakery, at a cafe run by a
woman named Maria, who is not busy and full of information. She also directs me to a book
shop where I might find some books in English, so I go there. I find
one book to read: "Ikarian Tales, a collection of stories about a veryunusual island" by Topsy Douris, E16.00.
Of
course, I ask the man at the shop about a room for rent and he
directs me across the street to the shoe shop where a woman named
Julia tells me that she in fact has two studios available on the
floor below where I am now staying for E120 Euros per month (+30 227 502 2891/mob. 697 816 3666). Both look very
nice and I take unit #1 which is a corner unit and so has a bit more
light. No view of the sea, but the price and location are right and Julia promises to let me know when a sea view apartment becomes available. So,
that's taken care of before ten in the morning.
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| My studio in Agios Kirikos |
|
Next, I walk to Therma, where I had a room promised already, just to see and on the way, check out another place, Aktio,
which has tremendous views of the sea and a terrace, next to her
cafe, but Marsha (husband Stefanos), wants E250 per month. Having just scored what seems like the cheapest place in town, I'm not tempted.
I follow the coastal road north east
up and down some hills and finally about 20 minutes later, descend a
steep road to Therma. The view from the road is lovely but the village of Therma is a disappointment.
Located in a gully, it
looks deserted and under major renovation. Nothing is open, not even
one cafe or one shop. Yes, it's February, so no surprise. I'm sure it's busy in summer. Nevertheless, since I made the trip, I call
Nikos who says he's at work in another town and to ask the charter
captain who is staying at one of Nikos' rooms to show me the studio.
I climb up several serious steps among
the buildings to his property, but there is no sign of the captain,
just some big woman panties hanging on a line. So, there are people
living here, just not enough of them to warrant any shops being open.
Needless to say all the thermal baths are shut down as well,
except one in a cave which looks pretty rough for me to venture in
even if I had brought my bathing suit.
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| View of Samos Island from the coastal road to Therma. |
|
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| Therma harbour |
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| A thermal spring pool in a cave in Therma |
I
pray for a car or a scooter to be going my way back up the hill, so that I
can beg a ride but none do except a fuel truck which pulls away
before I get to it. Never mind, I manage to struggle up the hill and
slowly make my way back. There is a lovely church on the way and a
woman who is tending it, comes up as I am passing and we walk to the
village together, chatting about the other islands and how I should
go check them out or let her know if I want her husband who is a taxi
driver to take me around this island. I politely decline and make my
way back home.
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| View towards Agios Kirikos harbour from the coastal road to Therma. | |
Julia
and I make a deal, I get the key and she gets the 120 Euros. She
also notes the count on the electric meter. I had better keep that in
mind when turning the heater on. She did say about 20 Euros, but one
never knows. I will ask her for a count after a week, just to see how
I'm doing.
It's
now noon, so off I go to the grocery shop and then home for lunch of
bread and kefalotiri with more coffee. Laundry next and a walk around
town in search for a small electric heater for the bathroom.
