Tilos

Cloudless sky in the morning. There was one cloud yesterday.
I'm alone at the breakfast table but it’s possible that no-one else is left in the hotel. I steal some sugar because it’s not sold in spoonfuls.
Only one lonely pie is laying on the bakery’s counter but there will be new ones coming out of the oven in 10 minutes. I wait and smell strongly of pie the first part of the day which is interesting for the cats.
There are a lot of people wearing shorts and sun glasses in the bus stop. It’s the last Sunday when Pavlos takes people up to Agios Panteleimon monastery. Mostly tourists and most of them intend to walk back down.
Football training starts in Megalo Horio or big village. That explains why a man in sports outfit was seen in Livadia. He is the coach.
Quiet and hot in the monastery. Pope exchanges news with the bus driver. I put a candle and start going. Path is clearly visible and circles around the highest peak of the island. Half way is a broken chapel. Nisyros is better visible today. In a lookout spot called Paradise a goat has died in the middle of the path. I discover it while eating an apple and following a cloud of flies. Yesterday Iain and Denis were annoyed because a goat had dared to die in the spring. Well, it’s not very nice to die in the middle of the road either.
It’s possible to get beer in Agios Antonis, not food. Beer has made a bunch of English-speaking people already rather noisy and the quiet sound of the waves is barely hearable. Marco Polo has reached India. Bus arrives on time to take me back to Livadia.
Livadia is quiet and houses glow on their own in the sun.
I spend some time with my homework and then go down to meet Lyn and Iain at Omonia. We’ve agreed that they’ll give me a map of Nisyros if their printer is working. Well, the delivery of the map takes a bit longer than absolutely needed for the delivery of a map. I get back to my room a little before midnight.
First we have some drinks and discuss Nisyros and the moon. Then comes Andrea and I get an excellent insight of expat life just listening and watching the trio. We move to Maria’s and Niko’s to eat something but don’t get further from the appetizers. The Greek style. Andrea is also originally from Scotland, studied law but then went to work as a replacement in a university of Ottawa. No more law but Greek philosophy instead. Stayed there for 30+ something years and is now retired in Turkey. In a village which is starting to be popular. He looks a bit two-dimensional in profile and in the age of 74 has started worrying about death. It’s surprising to hear high class English spoken in a ’remote’ Greek island. Lyn has a voice for telling fairytales and Iain looks like a retired rock star. The topics range from Leonard Cohen to Estonian history but circle mostly around funny or otherwise important memories like sailing around the Greek islands with Thomas (a German, long story) or local gossip. After an after-dinner-drink at the square we’ll say good night and the whole commitee promises to see me off tomorrow. How come that remote places are actually never so remote at all?
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