I'm finally here!

Well, I'm here, it's VERY HOT (record highs this summer, wouldn't you know!) and my accomodations have no air conditioning. My 2nd floor bedroom was 100 degrees this morning and that's no exaggeration. I laid wet towels over me all night, slept in front of a small fan and finally fell asleep around 5 a.m.

Here are photos of the house where I'm staying (it's the stone one in the middle), the HOT room where I'm sleeping until my "hostess" departs for England and I move downstairs, and the harbor view from the roof (note the ladder in the bedroom photo.)







Oh well, c'est la vie. Maybe I'll lose some weight ;-) Then again, the local Skopelos cheese pies, filled with spinach, are VERY good. Greece is 7 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time, so I'm still a little dazed and confused.

Here's the dismal bus terminal in Athens after a long overnight flight...



and the town of Aghios Konstantinos where I spent 4 hours waiting for my ferry to Skopelos...



and the ferry itself (a 3 hour trip)....




Last night I joined the woman I'm house-sitting for and some of her friends (a British couple and two men from Copenhagen) for a very nice outdoor Greek meal at a local restaurant, Nastas. It included rounds of a chilled drink called tchipero (tsipero) and small plates of mezedes, or hearty tapas/snacks.... calamari, shrimp, fish, etc. Yummy, especially at $12 for 3 rounds!



Today, I finally got groceries, and we spent the day at a beach near town called Glyfoneri. Yesterday, we spent the day in the pool at Alkistis Hotel because the heat was so bad there wasn't anything else to do. Supposedly, it will be cooler by the end of the week and the northerly breezes will resume.