Double or nothing

There is nothing I like better than setting out to discover a new place. . .trying a new food. . .tackling a new language. . .charting a course to some new adventure.  

From Old Town Rhodes, Greece

Unless, that is, the new adventure takes me into the land of technology; that part of the world that still gives this notepad-and-pen-packing writer the chills.

Kastellorizo, Greece

I had planned this week to give you a look at that far-distant Greek island we recently visited, Kastellorizo. But that tale will need to wait a few weeks as the time has come for me to depart on a new adventure into the unknown: making changes in the way TravelnWrite is sent out to those who've signed up to receive it by email.

Adrift in the world of technology - Limeni, Greece

This new journey was forced upon me and the countless other writers who use Google blogs as their writing platform with a departure date of July 1st. So it is time to get packing!. Google is no longer providing a distribution service so to keep the posts coming to you we need to set up new systems of delivery.  

I certainly wouldn't have set off on this one by choice as I've long referred to The Scout and myself as those woefully behind-the-times 'techno-dino's' - whose technology skill set is pretty much limited to turning on and off the computer and signing in and out of applications as prompted.

While this post is meant to alert you to upcoming changes, I managed to find a real-life 'small world story' connected to this new adventure that you might find of interest. 

Searching for a 'Travel Guide', aka Technology Guru

Being a techno-dino approaching a frightening new adventure of changing email distribution, I turned to the most logical sources of help, technology! 

First, there was You Tube (for those do-it-yourself-tutorials and which in this case, became horror flicks when I saw what I needed to do), and then to FB pages specifically for blog problems (everyone there seemed searching for help as was I) and turning to friends who might have the skill set for tackling this adventure (but then how much can one ask of a friend, right?)

My Tech Guru on the other side of the world

It was while on one of those Facebook pages, a fellow blogger had posted a link to a web designer, located somewhere in the world.  I had nothing to lose so I opened the link. . .

 . . .And here comes the small world story: the business is located in Duvall, Washington. . .just 'up the road a ways' from where we used to live in the Seattle suburbs.  I've known the Duvall Mayor for years -- way back before she was Mayor -- so I wrote her asking about this company. I was hoping that she might have at least heard of  the company and might recommend it, as by then I had decided it was beyond my skill set and I needed serious help. 

Ann Marie Gill - Cascade Valley Designs

Mayor Amy's response was that I would 'love her' as she wrote of Ann Marie Gill the creative force/technology guru behind Cascade Valley Designs.  

Thanks to technology, Ann Marie and I communicated over the weekend and she is set to start work on the change over. The good news for my fellow Google bloggers still facing the task is that she is developing a tutorial as she does the work on the change over!  (And here, let me assure all of you who are 'subscribers' nothing used in the tutorial will give away any information about any of  you!! She is a pro and knows privacy issues!)

Double or Nothing

Greek islands from above

This idiom seemed fitting as a title of this blog post as when I was studying the tutorials there is a step where you must have the courage to delete the first distribution service and make the switch to the new service, otherwise readers for a time would get two emails for each new blog post.  I was thinking that with my skill set it could easily be double!

I doubt Ann Marie will let that happen as she knows what she is doing!  Hopefully she is going to teach me how to use the new email distribution once it gets set up, otherwise it will be nothing!

Kalamata, Greece

So until the switchover is complete I won't be writing any blogs as Google is real sensitive to sign in's coming some 8,000 miles apart and I don't want to lock us both out of the program.  When I do start it up again, I will post as usual to FB, my followers will still see the posts in their reader feeds and those of you getting it in the mail will continue to receive it -- it will just be coming in a new format -- one of which I have no idea what it will look like yet but it will come from Mailchimp instead of Feedburner.

Thank You!

Queen Anne's Lace - my Greek garden

As I was going through the subscriber list I found that many of you have been readers since back in 2010 when I first figured out how to add subscribers.  I can't tell you how empowering your continued readership has been!  And to all the new folks that have just signed on ~ thank you! I promise some interesting journeys in the future.

Heading into Techno Land - Greece

With that, it is time to set off on the Techno Land Adventure. . .hope to see you all back here in a few weeks! (If you haven't received an email from TravelnWrite by July, could you drop me an email and let me know? travelnwrite@msn.com  Many thanks!!

Our best,

The Scout and The Scribe

In Greece ~ The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Frightfully cold. Frightfully wet. And frightfully -- delightfully -- winter in Greece!

Mani olive groves and the Taygetos Mountains

Had I written last week, I would have been telling you that we were having an unseasonal heat wave with temperatures reaching near 70F or 21C degrees. I would have told you that some were swimming in the sea. Wild flowers, usually not seen in the groves until March had begun blooming. We were able to hike in shirtsleeves.

Hiking the Mani in our shirtsleeves

'Haven't had these temperatures in 50 years', reported one media. Another said 160 years since such a heat wave. . .so it wasn't climate change, just a climate cycle involving such a span of time we missed the first two!

Swimmer on the beach below our house last week

And then came winter! Real winter. 

Our Taygetos Mountains finally have a dusting of snow

I know, for those of you dreaming of basking on sun baked Greek beaches, it could be a shock to think of Greece as cold and wet, but it can be. And it is! This time Leandros is to blame. It is the name given the system that put an end to those sunny warm days. The system that will keep it wet and cold for at least a few more days.

Snow continues to fall on the peak behind us

Yesterday we took a short drive to get closer to the snowy mountain peaks. Today all the hillsides around us are dusted with snow - no need to drive anywhere. We can see them from our deck - that is, when the clouds lift enough to see them. Our high today is supposed to be 43F or 6C. The wind is rattling our shutters and doors. Rain falls in heavy bursts at our elevation. Just a bit higher and it is snow.  Thunder and lightening opened this Monday and blue sky and sunshine are predicted before the day is over. Such is winter in our slice of Greece.

Views of our valley in winter

At least we aren't alone as Facebook friends in Istanbul, Italy and Spain have all been posting photos of snowfall! 

Thessaloniki - drone photo; credit: Greek Reporter

It is our first full winter in the Greek Peloponnese. We normally leave about this time of year and don't return until sometime in February. Many of you who've been with us at TravelnWrite for a few years, know that for the last decade, we've made Hawaii our timeshare-home-away-from-home this time of year.  Covid-19 prevented that this year, so we are half-way through our first full January at our Stone House on the Hill. 

Like a cake dusted with powdered sugar

According to a variety of internet sources, the average weather in the Peloponnese during this first month of the year is a high of 47F or 9C and low of 37F or 3C. The average rainfall is about 129 mm or 5-inches and it rains on average 13 days in January. 

Kardamyli and the Messinian Gulf from a hiking trail

Our current Covid lockdown allows us time outside for exercise and on most days - even if bundled up in scarves and mittens, heavy coats and sweaters - we can get outside and enjoy the countryside. We shiver, though, when we see those folks for whom olive harvest continues - especially in those groves at higher elevations. We are most happy to have completed ours in October!

Olive harvest continues in January

Of course that same Covid lockdown is providing us a slightly skewed winter experience because what one might have done in a pre-Covid winter is certainly different than this year. Our second lockdown of 2020, which began November 7th, continues into 2021. Our destinations are limited, we text the government prior to leaving the house, we wear masks, we distance and we are home before the 9 pm curfew takes effect each day.

During a normal winter we could have gone to the big city - our nearby Kalamata or further to Athens - to shop and enjoy their restaurants and tavernas.  Since November retail stores and all entertainment outlets have been closed. 

Shopping in Kalamata - a treat these days

We aren't allowed inside any restaurant or bar, other than to pick up 'to go' orders of food and drink, nor are we allowed to sit outside at any of them. So in order to break up the sameness and routines of winter and lockdown, we indulge in a 'to go' coffee or wine, consumed along side the village street or in the parking lot. The inclement weather has made those outings rather short but we aren't complaining - they give us a change of scenery and sometimes that is all it takes.

Winter lockdown night out in the village parking lot

We hope you are finding a change of scenery, a new hobby, a good book, or a new Netflix series is providing you 'what it takes' as January marches on.  Believe it or not, we haven't given up on travel yet for 2021 and that will be a future topic. As we sign off today we send our wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year whatever the season it is where you are.  As always, thanks for the time you've spent with us ~

Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

In Greece ~ Six Years Later. . .

 Mid-December six years ago . .

Village and harbor from Notary's Office

The tiny cubicle overlooking the village of Agios Nikolaos had once served as a living room in the apartment-turned-Notary's Office.  Those of us gathered within it on that bright, but brisk, December afternoon, gave little mind to the view we had from it of the village and its harbor.

Notary's office in tall building in the distance

We sat shoulder-to-shoulder: the sellers, the buyers, the attorney representing us, the realtor representing all of us. We focused on another attorney only a few feet in front of us who, standing like a sentry,  was shouting out (to be sure we heard it) an English translation of a contract being read aloud in Greek by another attorney seated at a nearby desk.  There was no room for the Notary (here, considered a quasi-government official who oversees such legal transactions) so she supervised from the doorway.

We'd wanted another adventure, a 'final fling' before we got too old, and this was it, I told myself, as I looked about and thought how foreign - and absurd - everything felt at that moment.

Buyers, sellers, attorney and realtor in the taverna

When finally the reading was completed and the signatures of sellers and buyers, initials of buyers, official government stamps and more stamps and Notary signatures were in place on multiple pages of the document, it was time for the money to be paid (done by check and cash back then - no new fangled things like wire transfers).  

We'd bought a house in Greece!

Just like that we'd bought a home in Greece.  It was time for those gathered to move next door for a drink at the taverna. 

'We'll give it five years,' we'd said at the time, leaving ourselves wiggle room to close this new chapter and return to the rather predictable and routine (and, if truth be told, sometimes boring) life we had left behind in the United States.

Six years later. . . 

The Stone House on the Hill

I write this in my den overlooking the upper garden at our small stone house, The Stone House on the Hill. This spitaki, small house, became our full-time residence three year's after we purchased it. Had someone told us on that mid-December day as the purchase formalities were taking place, that we'd be selling our home of 30-years in a Seattle suburb and moving our citified selves some 8,000 miles away to a rural area of the Greek Peloponnese, we'd have laughed.

Messinian Gulf from the Mani

Our decision to buy a home in the Mani, in Greece was not done as result of a lifelong plan to live here in our retirement. It wasn't prompted by unhappiness with the country's politics where we lived. We weren't seeking to escape anything. We didn't spend years looking for the right place.  It just happened. I compare it to finding that one soulmate and partner with whom you want to spend your life:

It simply felt right. And it still does.  

Agios Nikolaos - our village

Moving to a foreign country isn't for everyone. But those who have done it - whether for an extended stay or even those who divide their lives between two countries -- understand that little niggle that makes people like us want to stretch their comfort zones by immersing themselves in a different culture and country. 

Road Repair one of The Scout's new skills

Now stretching that comfort zone has been, I will admit, difficult and downright frustrating at times.  Turning off  'life's remote control' and having to participate with your whole head, heart and soul to get even the most simple of tasks accomplished, to make yourself understood without a command of the language or to understand the events occurring around you is wearing.

The thrill of tasting our home grown olive oil 

On the flip side, each time you realize you have expanded your comfort zone a bit further it is most satisfying, sometimes downright exhilarating. 'It worked!' or 'It is done!' have never been said with as much enthusiasm as we say those phrases here. 

As most expats would agree, you can't help but be changed by the experience - hopefully for the better. There are things about the lifestyle that could drive you nuts, yet, its quirks are what make life interesting. An adventure. And that's exactly what we wanted.

Six Years Later - The Chapter Continues

The Stone House on the Hill

We know that someday, that nebulous date lurking somewhere down the road, this chapter will need to come to a close as all chapters do.  While we often say we came here to grow olives instead of old, we recognize that one does not escape aging by moving somewhere new. 

Our entry stairs - who needs a Stairmaster?

There will come a time our charming Stone House on the Hill with its comforting olive grove and drop-dead territorial views and massive amount of stairs will be too much for old hearts, knees and legs.  These days we've modified our original agreement to that of,  'we hope we have another five years' here'.  

A toast to adventures 

If we don't, we will still agree that our 'last big adventure' didn't disappoint. Sometimes, though, we have started speculating that, 'maybe there is a new adventure left in us yet?' You don't suppose there might be another chapter just waiting to be written do you?

Thanks for the time you spent with us today and to the many of you who have been with us since this adventure began, our thanks for your continued interest and support.  You have been a special part of our journey!   Our best wishes to you and yours ~ stay safe and healthy!

Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

We Live in the Land of Legends

'We live in the land of legends', is how I began the article recently published in The Mediterranean Lifestyle magazine. 

My article in The Mediterranean Lifestyle magazine 

It was my first published article in more than a year as I've become a bit relaxed about freelance writing since moving to Greece three years ago as a full-time expat. It is easy to get distracted from writing when busy learning how to live in a new culture, a new world. By last summer I'd decided it was time to get off my duff and start writing again. 

Discovering the Peloponnese - our new home

So a few months ago when I had 'pitched'  (freelancer slang for 'sending a query to')  the editors of this magazine, I had suggested a travel article focusing on the blending the archaeology and mythology in the Peloponnese. I wanted to take the armchair traveler on a trip through this vast peninsula that resembles an open hand stretching into the Mediterranean.    

The Peloponnese a Land of Legends

The editors liked my idea and I was given a deadline. I had 1,200 words in which to tell my story (that is about two sheets of  'letter-sized paper', or 'A4' on this side of the Atlantic, single spaced).

Because dozens of archaeological sites dot the countryside, I chose four  that could be reached within a two hour's drive from our home. 

The Mani - our slice of the Peloponnese

None of the four are not as hyped in the mass tourism world as are the likes of Olympia, Delphi and Epidaurus, but  you might be surprised at how well-known they are to those travelers who like to get  off the beaten path. 

Because this Greek peninsula we chose for our expat home is teeming with archaeological and other historical sites, I figured that such an article would be a slam-dunk.  What I hadn't - at that time given much thought to -- was that I would not only be taking the reader to the sites but back in time, way back in time, and my sources of information would be both fact and fiction. Now that is a whole new discomfort zone for someone used to talking to people with first-hand knowledge of a place.  

Homer, credited with writing The Iliad and The Odyssey, wasn't going to be available for interviews for this story! Nor could I talk with Helen of Troy or old King Nestor, both among the many of whom he wrote and both key to two of the sites I wrote about. 

Throne room Nestor's Palace - Messinias 

It was writing about one of the sites on TravelnWrite that gave rise to the idea for the magazine article. The dilemma I had with writing the blog post was amplified when I tackled the article: trying to write about a place when both fact and fiction play such intricate roles in its history. 'Nestor's Palace' is a good  example. That legendary old King Nestor, according to Homer, is thought to have occupied a palace on the westernmost point of the Peloponnese. 

Work continues at Nestor's Palace - Messinias

Yet, when visiting the archaeological site on the westernmost point of the Peloponnese, -- it is clearly very real, but Nestor is a legend. . .or was he? You can't help wondering if there was a Nestor or someone upon whom Nestor is based? And if not, who lived in that palace? The line between real and imagined blurs. 

Now not that I was questioning my 'source', but one day I found myself on the trail of Homer himself.  As any good reporter would do, I wanted to know a bit more about the guy on whom I was relying for the basis of information. Well, then the plot thickened!  Was there a Homer as I had always believed or were the writings of Homer a compilation of oral tales, handed down through the ages that had simply finally been written down by some man, possibly named Homer. 

Socrates was right!

Or was Homer given the credit and it was actually the work of several people written at different times?  (There are some sources that claim that possibility.) And if they were oral tales passed down through the ages, could they have begun as facts or were they fiction, I wondered. I was beginning to feel like Sheherazade must have when spinning her tales in One Thousand and One Nights. 

As an English major, I hate to admit I had not only never read the writings of Pausanias, I hadn't even heard of the guy until we moved to the Peloponnese. If you visit archaeological sites here you will often find signs and brochures about the place with information credited to him.  But as I wrote the article I found myself relying on him a lot, but then so do historians so I figured I was in good company.

Pausanias was the source of much of what we know

I certainly hadn't read his 'Guide to Greece' which he had researched and wrote in the 2nd century A.D.  But I 'know' the guy's writings now - as he became another valuable 'source'! 

Pausanias

Pausanias was a recorder of facts, he took what he saw and tried to merge the facts of what he was seeing with the stories he had been told about the place. His travels over a period of 20 years resulted in a 10 volume 'Guide to Greece'.

His volume 2, a copy of which we own now,  focuses on our area of Greece. In fact he was here! Right down at the harbor where the village now called Agios Dimitrios sits at the foot of the hill on which we live.  He had written about the islet  -- the one I wrote about here a few weeks ago -- the one where Helen of Troy and her brothers were born.  

Pefnos Islet Agios Dimitrios Mani Messinias

He referenced Pephnos, as the town of Agios Dimitrios was called back then with an islet of the same name. He referenced bronze statues that had been built there in honor of Helen's brothers the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux.  Today the islet's name is Pefnos.

Pausanias is also credited with providing historians and archaeologists with valuable information about Ancient Messene, another of the sites I featured in the article.

Old roads through history - Peloponnese Greece

In the end it wasn't the slam-dunk I had thought it would be. It taunted the journalist in me and teased my imagination. It made me want to see more sites and know more about the layers of history on which we live in this land of legends. Here is the link to the article. I hope it sparks your imagination  as well:  Land of Legends.

Greek pomegranates - the season is here

And for those of you who are taken with all things Mediterranean, I recommend you sign up to receive this quarterly e-magazine, published in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, as the subscription is free.  This last edition had fabulous articles on everything from pomegranates to olive oil soap. The recipes will make your mouth water. To access the winter edition, click this link: The Mediterranean Lifestyle magazine.

Again, thanks so much for the time you spend with us. We hope this post provides a little armchair travel for you while we wait for the world to return to normal.  Stay safe and well! 

Linking sometime soon with:

 Mosaic Monday

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

In Greece ~ The Gift of Time

'Five years', we agreed on that mid-December day -- the day we purchased our Stone House on the Hill in the Greek Peloponnese. 'We'll give it five years and if we don't like it or get too old, we'll move on to something else.'

The Stone House on the Hill

Can you believe we made that agreement five years ago!?

Five years. A rather safe and long distance away it had seemed on that pivotal week before Christmas when we took ownership of the house that would ultimately change the course of our lives.

Where did the time go? How did we cross the goal line so soon?

Five years. We hoped we would stay healthy and young enough in spirit to make it that long. Back then, moving here and becoming expats hadn't even been part of the discussion. Those were just life's dominoes waiting to be tipped as we made our way to today.

Buyers (us), sellers, attorney and realtor celebrate the sale of the house.

Time does change all things, as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure so aptly concluded. It certainly has changed us and our world.  Looking back on this last half decade those changes were so subtle that we didn't realize as time passed how substantial they were.

Agios Nikolaos fishing harbor - our village

Those first couple years, in retrospect, it seemed we were playing house here. It all was so different that it just didn't seem real.  Although we were living here, we were still feeling a bit like tourists who observe and enjoy and then take their leave.

The Scout joins the other 'old boys' in checking out the produce for sale 

Somewhere along the way we become part of the village and it a part of us.  We still chuckle at a houseguest's remark that she felt as if she were in a parade each time we drove through town with all the waving we did and calling out to those we know.  We're pleased that over time we've grasped enough of the language to be able to call out a greeting, inquire as to how the person is and respond when the question is asked of us. We are no longer the grinning bobble heads we were when we first arrived.

Even if we devoted the rest of our lives to learning Greek, however, we wouldn't live long enough to master it.  But as our cache of words increases so do our conversations and relationships. 

Bloody Hell! We've got some great British ex pat friends here

Speaking of language, one unexpected bonus of the last five years is that thanks to our fellow British expats we are becoming multi-lingual! We find ourselves interjecting proper English words into our conversations: 

"Crikey! We are speaking with proper English these days. Bloody Hell, who'd have thought we'd do that?"

Takis, our olive oil processor and the Amerikani

While feeling a part of the village we are still often called 'the Amerikani' just because it is easier to identify us that way.  Usually it is said, 'Amerikani' with a toss of the head in the direction of the hill on which we live as that further identifies which Amerikani we are. There are still so few Yanks in the area that 'Amerikani' works for the dozen or so of us who make our homes here on a full or part-time basis. And part of the reason for the label in our case is that while most get. Jackie, they have a difficult time with saying Joel.

One of my favorite 'name' stories comes from a recent first-time visit to a popular dry cleaning business in Kalamata. The young man asked my name and I said, 'Smith, . . pausing and adding, 'Jackie' for further identification. He laughed and replied, 'No need, I remember you.'

No claim ticket or receipt was given so I expected much confusion when I returned the following week. I shouldn't have worried because as I walked through the doorway he called out, 'Kalimera (good morning) Smith!' and had my items on the counter by the time I got to it.

Every day is a lesson in culture and history around here

We've been and are being culturally immersed here. No classes, no research papers. No assignments. We are learning of the world around us just by interacting with the many people who make up our village world. 

 Generally the tradesmen here are Greek or Albanian - and we've come to know many as they make repairs or improvements to our Stone House on the Hill. As the years have passed we've gotten to know them as friends as well and know their families. It has been enriching to learn more about their countries and cultures just from the one-to-one association we have with them.

The expat world itself  is made up of a delightful mixture of cultures.  We gathered for Christmas buffet lunch at our friend's home just down the road and we could have been a committee of the United Nations! Our small gathering of folks, who live within a two kilometer radius of us, represented nine countries!

Stoupa village - new shops and restaurants AND tourists

Our five years have given us an up-close look at Greece's economic struggles and the country's emergence from it. While we know there are those still struggling in the country we are seeing our slice of Greece come to life with new shops and restaurants opening each spring. The Airbnb craze has hit with signs offering accommodations sprouting up along every road we travel. We even have one next door now! New home construction is going wild with nearly a dozen construction sites within a two mile radius of our home.

No More Goals - Just a Gift of Time

The Scout, The Scribe and their Stone House on the Hill

In retrospect, we probably gave ourselves the best Christmas gift ever when we bought this home because we gave ourselves that 'final fling' and in doing so, we gave ourselves the gift of time ~

Time to explore a new lifestyle together.
Time with old friends who come to visit; real time that is; not a rushed dinner or drinks conversation but the kind that continues for hours long into the night kind of visits.
Time for basking in the best of new cultures.
Time for making new friends and expanding our world in ways we never could have imagined.
Time to explore the world that exists on this side of the pond.
Time to stargaze and time to watch ocean waves.
Time to step away from the routines of our old life and try something new. . . before time got away from us and we found we were too old to do it.

A table with village view

We didn't set a new goal of 'another five years', as we toasted the first five.  Instead we asked ourselves,  'Do you think we'll make it another five years?'

As boomers having a 'final fling' (as we call this adventure), we know our advancing ages and health will be a factor. Our four plus months of being 'held' in Greece awaiting our residency renewal earlier this year, was a clear reminder that we are but guests in this adopted land. Government rules, immigration changes - so many things beyond our control -- could easily dictate the time we have left in Greece.

Nowadays when we are told by friends that they plan to visit 'one of these days', we think, 'That's fine, IF we are still here.'

For now we'll continue living that daydream and enjoying this final fling of ours on the hillside overlooking our slice of Greece.  It isn't tough duty! And if the next five years go as fast as the first, well, who knows how long we might be here?

The Stone House on the Hill - far right, up from the harbor

With that, we will close with wishes for a Happy New Year and thanks for being here with us as we celebrate another year of this adventure.

Before I close, the problems with blog's email distribution continues and I continue to tweak the program trying to fix it..  Should you get this in your inbox, please drop a quick note (just hit reply on the email) and let me know. I am putting together a makeshift distribution system to get me to the real fix the end of January when the blog will undergo a major overhaul.  Thanks to those who've contacted us to see what has become of us!


Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday