July 27 AMORGOS

As I mentioned in the previous entry, last night we walked to the unfinished Temple of Apollo. The sun was just setting and cast a beautiful amber glow on the marble. Like at Stonehenge, you can only admire the marble archway from a footpath 10m away. Still, it was a lovely bit of history and I didn’t mind admiring it from a distance.

The Temple of Apollo, with Naxos town in the background:

The restaurant was largely empty because the storm passing over the island was causing numerous waves to crash onto the walkway to the Temple of Apollo (and to the restaurant). We got a “front row” seat and enjoyed watching the boats come and go and the sun setting over the town.

The restaurant below the Temple of Apollo:

We ordered four appetizers - tzatziki, wild greens, calamari, and meatballs – with the intention of sharing them. The tzatziki and wild greens arrived right away. We expected the “wild greens” to be a mixed green salad. What we got was something similar to cooked spinach.

The calamari, when it arrived, was absolutely delicious. The meatballs were heavily spiced and more like mini hamburger patties. Mom tried the calamari and didn’t like it so she ate most of the meatballs while Simone and I finished off the calamari.

This morning we woke early to catch the ferry to Amorgos. Dmitrious drove us to the dock, where we lined up with about 100 other people. The ferry arrived a few minutes late, but the ferry crew made up for that by making sure that people boarded the ferry quickly. This involved the crew yelling “Hurry up! You are too slow!” and pushing people onto the ramp.

There was very little space for luggage so most people had to carry their luggage inside and stack it in the aisle next to their seats. This meant that we had to lift our luggage over other people’s luggage. Normally I wouldn’t mind that, but the crew had already cast off. So, we had to lift our luggage over other people’s luggage, but for added fun we had to do so while the ferry was heaving and lurching in heavy seas. We eventually found our seats and collapsed into them, glad to be sitting instead of staggering around in the aisles like drunks.

Exiting the ferry at the port of Katapola proved quite easy. Cousin Rita met us at the dock and whisked us down the causeway to a café for coffee and a brief chat. She then hired the local taxi (there’s only one on the island) to take us and our luggage to our pension. It’s actually a “room to let” in someone’s house, and over looks the port of Katapola. Rita arranged for us to stay in Katapola instead of Chora because she felt we would get bored in Chora.

Our pension:

After a brief stop at the pension we got back into the taxi and went to Chora. We said hello to aunt Susie, then Rita showed us the way to the kastro above Chora. The kastro is an ancient structure where women and children would hide when the town was invaded. All of the roofs in Chora are connected and they all lead up to the kastro, so the women and children would go from roof to roof until they reached the safety of the kastro.

The kastro is not normally open to tourists. However, since Rita is a local she arranged to borrow the key to the kastro so we could visit it. When we got to the kastro there were actually two young men there, who also had a key. I didn’t realize that there was more than one key!

The steps to the kastro (no rails!):

We climbed through the small doors and carefully made our way to the kastro wall where we had a magnificent view of the city. It was still blowing a gale so we had to be particularly careful about our footing and our belongings, which could easily fly off in the heavy wind.

The kastro door, all 4ft high of it:

A view of Chora from the kastro:

On our way down from the kastro Rita slipped on some loose gravel and hurt her knee. The two young men, who had probably finished their military service, checked her knee and helped her get down from the kastro wall to the kastro doors, which provided some relief from the wind. One of the men went down into Chora to get the doctor. Three men arrived about 30 minutes later with the nurse and a stretcher. Rita refused to be carried down the steep kastro steps in the stretcher and instead opted to go down the steps on her bum. At the bottom of the steps the men helped her into the stretcher and carried her out of the town (which only has footpaths) to a waiting ambulance.

The ambulance:

We thanked the two young men for helping Rita, then piled into the ambulance like a bunch of circus clowns. At least, that’s what it felt like. It was a short drive to the local hospital, where the doctor checked Rita’s knee and provided a temporary bandage so she could walk. He insisted that she go to Naxos the next day to get an x-ray of her knee.

One of the men who carried Rita on the stretcher drove us from the hospital back to town in the ambulance. When we got out all of the locals wanted to know what had happened to Rita. She didn’t want them to worry and explained that she’d just had a minor slip.

Aunt Susie had lunch ready for us and we enjoyed stewed beef with mashed potatoes and a pea and tomato salad. Susie noticed that Rita was limping and wanted to know why. Rita explained that she had slipped. Susie was upset, but became even more upset when she learned that Rita had to go to Naxos for an x-ray the next day. Mom volunteered to go with Rita to Naxos and Simone and I volunteered to stay with Susie until Rita and Mom got back from Naxos.

Aunt Susie, Simone, Mom, and cousin Rita:

After lunch we took the taxi back to Katapola. We were all feeling very sweaty and sticky so we had showers and changed clothes. Then we walked into town to check things out. We took a lot of pictures of the harbour and the whitewashed alleyways. When we got back to the pension I copied the photos from our cameras to my laptop and we enjoyed a little slideshow of the day’s best shots.

Katapola harbour:

A shop in Katapola:

Cat hunting a lizard in Katapola: