Lazy day in Lesvos

Today was beautiful; the sun was out, no clouds and just a little haze. Yiannis and his family are painting, cleaning and fixing everything at the hotel in preparation for the opening on April 23. The initial opening coincides with the Greek Orthodox Easter; they provide a package that includes lodging food, and all the festivities associated with Easter, including transportation to the church in Vrissa for the Good Friday, Saturday and Sunday Easter services. On Sunday they provide a big feast with roast lamb that they cook on a spit, plus dancing, lots of Ouzo and all around great fun.

We took a nice long walk on the beach collecting small rocks to bring home. There are not many shells on the beach, maybe because of the tides, but lots of colorful rocks. I drove to Polichnitos for groceries and after arriving, remembered the stores close between 2:00 and 5:00, so I went to the little mini-market which has a minimal selection at higher prices.

Returning from Polichnitos, I stopped photograph an old double arch bridge that has been replaced with a shiny new concrete structure, the concrete bridge lacks any character, but apparently is safer. I tried to get Barb to drive across the old bridge with me, but she mentioned something about driving over the frozen St Croix River in Minnesota, and the imminent death and destruction awaiting anyone so foolish as to drive across either.

Next to the river were a small herd of sheep grazing, which is not unusual since just about anywhere you look here there are sheep grazing. In the higher elevations goats are everywhere, goat milk and cheese are abundant, but trying to decipher the Greek language when buying milk and cheese in the store is a challenge, sort of like buying mystery food.

Tomorrow we go to Mytillini to take care of our Turkey ferry tickets, and then we can shop at a larger grocery store. Saturday we are off to Santorini Island the jewel of Greek Islands. I have heard there are jewelry store in Santorini, plus lots of other shopping since it is a major tourist area, not much shopping here, everything is still closed except the mini mart. The owner is very nice since I gave him a US dollar, he had two on dollar bills under the glass on his counter, I gave him a dollar which is only about .63 of one Euro, we are now best friends and he gives me great deals on crusty bread. It is hard to find a soft bread here such as a baguette, most of the stores have dried chunks of bread, and small toast, we can’t figure out why, maybe it is for dipping in soup or something. Everything is so Greek here!