April 29: Amorgos: Tholaria

The storm eased overnight. It hasn't completely passed - it's still windy and cool - but it's sunnier.

I woke up hungry around 4:30am. I drank a bottle of water and managed to get back to sleep, but I woke up at 7:30am and got to the hotel restaurant around 8:00am to partake of the brekkie buffet.

There is an event this weekend called the "Amorgos Trail Challenge" and Hotel Vigla is full of extremely fit trail runners. They arrived on the Blue Star at 2:00am this morning and they were already up and at the hotel restaurant slamming brekkie when I got there. They all piled into minivans at 9:30am to drive down to Aegiali to get a fishing boat to Nikouria Island, where there is a race from the beach to a checkpoint at the peak of the island, then back down to the beach. I don't know how long it is, but the race description says there is no path - you have to find your own way up the hill to the checkpoint! Crazy.

Kit arrived around 8:30am and joined me at my table. We chatted until 11:00am, when she had to leave to go pack up, check out, and transfer to the other hotel. I decided to explore Tholaria and set off up the steps - because Tholaria is all steps!

I believe this is the Church of Agion Anargiron:

In the picture below you can see donkey saddles. They are not riding saddles, per se. Instead, the locals lash loads to them. They may ride atop the load.

Below is a picture of the cafe where I bought a couple of beers my first night at the hotel:

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at Choreftís Cafe / Pantopoleío Restaurant and bought snacks and beverages. It had a much larger selection to choose from, but was still set up like a living room, with a couple of old men smoking and drinking coffee and watching TV, while an old woman peeled vegetables in a kitchen in the back. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything. The owners noticed me squinting and the old woman came out and flicked a light switch. Voila! There was a whole mini market in the back that had not been visible in the darkness. I covertly took a picture.

I wish I could have taken a picture of the front, where the men were sitting and the old woman was preparing vegetables, but it seemed rude to try to Instragram their semi-private space.