Day 31: Everyone loves a parade

A few days ago, Kate and the girls spotted groups of children marching around their school playground together and today we discovered why. The 28^th of October is Ochi Day, which commemorates the rejection, on October 28, 1940, by Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas of an ultimatum made by Benito Mussolini demanding that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified "strategic locations" or face war. The rejection triggered an attack by Italian forces on the Greek border, marking the beginning of Greece's participation in the Second World War. Later that morning, the Greek population took to the streets shouting, 'Ochi!' ('No').

There was to be a big parade for the commemorations in Ermoupolis this morning, so we drove in and parked by the port. The central square had been roped off, but it was still pretty quiet so we went for a quick coffee and then wandered back to stake out a good spot. People started to arrive in increasing numbers and by the time everyone was ready to get started, there was quite an impressive crowd. This was obviously a rare opportunity to be seen, and everyone was dressed to the nines.

Eventually, the Greek folk songs playing on repeat over the PA stopped and the parade began. First came groups of people wearing traditional dress, then schoolchildren from each of the schools on the island marching with varying degrees of enthusiasm and rhythm, and finally groups such as the sea cadets and scouts. 

It was fun checking out the schoolkids. It seems that the hairstyle of choice for girls is long and straight; for boys, it's definitely short. Interestingly, although the schoolchildren here can wear what they like to school, they obviously have a uniform for special occasions such as this. One of them must specify simply that the children wear denim – the girls were in denim skirts, the boys in jeans.

When the parade had finished, groups of schoolgirls got together in circles to perform traditional folk dances – followed by a group of adults wearing traditional dress. By then it was lunchtime, so we headed down to the port, where we got a gyros each and sat by the water. 

 

Although the day had started cool, by the time we started eating the sun was out and it was rather warm, so we got ice creams for the walk back to the car and then, somewhat crazily, headed down to the beach for a swim when we got back to the house. The hot water system in the house is solar, so you need a hot day to guarantee a hot shower, so I suspect that will probably be our last swim.

...and more cats

When we arrived, there were probably about 40 cats that were regularly being fed here at the house. Jacky took five of those cats back to the UK, which meant that we were down to about 35. I think we're probably well over 40 again now. The new cats have come from a variety of sources. Flora has pointed out a few that are toms that used to eat here but had at some point had a falling out with another tom and moved on, but now, as it has cooled down and the tavernas are shutting up, food is more difficult to find elsewhere, so they've returned. Some of them have just drifted in from who knows where. A couple of days ago, Kate spotted an enormous battle-scarred pale ginger tom lurking around and while we sat out having a cup of tea on the terrace yesterday, he returned to browse on the leftover cat biscuits and then slowly slink away. We haven't settled on a name yet – Yeti, Hagrid and Goliath are all in the running. (The average Syros cat is definitely on the small and delicate side, so when a big tom like this turns up, it's quite striking.)

 Others have been handed over to us – one of Jacky's friends, a Swedish woman, was returning to Sweden and asked us to look after her ginger kitten. And then there's Tom – a lovely little grey tabby kitten that just wandered in about a week ago. He appears to be litter trained and is completely fearless, so we think that he's probably a house cat that outstayed his welcome – the locals know that cats are looked after here, so they sometimes dump their unwanted pets nearby. He has become a firm favourite as he's cute, fluffy, settles easily on your lap and purrs like a buzzsaw.

As you can imagine, living with so many cats can create some difficulties. Dinner time – ours, not theirs - in particular is a bit of a chore as we have to try to coordinate getting food, drinks, plates and cutlery out of the kitchen while keeping the cats that are meant to be in the kitchen in the kitchen and the rest of the cats out of the kitchen while keeping watch on the food so the cats don't get into it while making sure the food doesn't burn on the barbecue. When we finally manage to sit down together at the table, we have to have our elbows at the ready to fend off any cats that jump up to try to join the meal.

Interestingly, there are only three cats that regularly join us for dinner: my mate Bruiser, a fluffy owl-faced tabby called Vicky and a funny, timid little black-and-white cat known as Wussy. Wussy has an endearing habit of holding one of her paws up and rhythmically opening and closing it when she wants to get your attention. Bruiser is by far the most insistent, jumping up on the couch with me and sitting on my lap, then slowly angling towards the table, looking for an opening. He will then dart in, grab a piece of meat off my plate and then leap to the ground. 

All of this did eventually get to be too much for us and a few nights ago, we moved inside to eat dinner. As it turns out, that roughly coincided with the drop in temperature and the clocks changing, so we probably would have moved in even without the cats.

The good news is that my cat lessons seem to have worked and Sarah is now much more relaxed around the animals. She's picking them up and patting them with ease, and the even better news is that she still hasn't really had an allergic reaction. 

Day 29: Taking it easy

We're starting to spend a bit more time just hanging around the house now – quick runs to the shops to stock up on fresh meat, fruit and veges, and a few hours at the School of Mum and Dad for the girls. This afternoon, we went for a leisurely afternoon constitutional in Kini for a bit of a change of scenery.

Day 27: Hurricane visit

Our impressive run of good weather came to an end today as the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo passed over the island. We didn't get the thunderstorms that we were promised, but a decent amount of rain fell, bringing all of the cats in under the verandah. Still, we got off lightly compared to Athens, which experienced torrential downpours and some pretty spectacular flooding.

It's quite a bit colder now, and our jumpers and fleeces are already well coated in cat hair. It's at times like these that you notice just how many dark clothes you wear.

Day 26: Hit the north!

Today, we put the last major piece into our island-exploration puzzle with a drive up to the northern end. Hillier, wilder and more barren than the south, this part of the island is quite sparsely populated. The hills are striated with dry-stone-wall-edged terraces, but there's little evidence of anything actually being cultivated.

The road out winds high along the island's spine before eventually reaching the tiny settlement of San Michaeli. There, we parked the car on the outskirts and headed for the old church on the other side of the village; I hung back to take some photos of sheep taking turns to climb over a stile in one of the ubiquitous dry stone walls. 

By the time we reached the church, the wind was properly howling, and as I wandered around trying to take brooding photos of dry stone walls, dramatic cliffs and hairy sheep, it was starting to get a bit crazy. We hurried back to the car park and as we got back to the car, Zoe very nearly got taken out by a huge piece of thistle-like vegetation that was hurtling through the car park.

On the way home, we stopped in at Ano Syros, but it was just as closed up as on our last visit and we were soon back in the car. We then went in search of a key cutter – this morning, I managed to snap the main house key off in the lock. Luckily, I was able to prise the broken end out of the lock and thankfully, Johannes had a spare, but getting a copy made wasn't so simple. We found a rudimentary hardware shop on the way back towards the Carrefour, but it was closed, so Kate asked for help in the adjacent greengrocer's. He suggested we tried the 'market' in Ermoupolis, so we parked at Carrefour and got the bus in. But of course the two key cutters we found were both closed for the afternoon, so we had a coffee, bought some wine and headed for home. 

Day 23: Life's a beach

The north wind that has blown in is cooling things down, so we figured that with the sun still out, we should make the most of the beach while we can. We've been swimming every day since we arrived, but it looks a lot like that's going to end soon.