The Passing of Days...

Tuesday and Wednesday were nice slow days for me. The choirs did a lot of rehearsing, which left me free. I slept in...these late nights were taking their toll, did some needed errands and wandered the town. 

Our hotel had a nice breakfast and I enjoyed a poached egg each morning...(notice the plate is much less full then earlier and here you can see the interesting ribbon handle of the coffee cup--out of luck if you were left handed)

until I didn't. 😕 I didn't know I could get tired of poached eggs. We Americans are so spoiled by the variety of our diet. How I longed for American style bacon with my eggs. The little apple strudels were quite yummy and I had cheese and olives every morning--oops, must have eaten the olives before I took the photo. Olives were everywhere, of course, and I really liked these large green ones with a very free pit. They were called crushed olives...and indeed each one had a spot where it looked like it had been crushed...maybe in the curing process. I ate three each day with my breakfast! 

All of the juices and milk were lukewarm...the milked shelf boxed, not refrigerated. Jeshua found refrigerated milk at the little market we frequented for water, so kept a quart in our fridge. We filled a larger water glass with ice and then filled it with orange juice. Cold and delightful.

So I dropped the eggs (although I put a hard boiled one in my pocket for an afternoon protein snack) and my breakfast looked more like this...

I had taken along some cup of soup packets, but we did not have a coffeemaker or tea kettle in our room, so I reverted to soup for breakfast...(photo missing two already eaten olives) and a half slice of this pound cake, but not as sweet, which was really yummy spread with the ever present nutella, and a phyllo dough square that had chopped olives and I think maybe small chopped bits of eggplant--don't tell Jeshua--and cheese! He really liked it and I thought it was so-so. And, of course I kept eating the cheese! 

Feeling in desperate need of a familiar taste, Jeshua found a (hopefully) true hamburger cafe in a bit of an out of the way place.

Cold water...though no ice in sight...

And a glorious true hamburger!

Of course with French fries, plus a little salad and a sauce that was as close to mayo as I was going to get! Very yummy and look at the cute little paper lined, wooden box it came in!

So appreciated the familiar taste.

We found that the internet at the library worked much better than at our hotel. When I asked a local about the library, she had assured me that it was a BIG (arms spread wide ) library with internet, computers and a places to work. Having been completely spoiled by the downtown Modesto library, I was sure that her "big" and mine had different definitions and I was right. 😀

The library had two floors, with the downstairs being more an archival type library and the actual lending library upstairs. There were two rows of three tables each. On one row were a total of 6 computer stations. On the other row were three typewriters ready and waiting for use! But we appreciated the fast internet and cool place to work.

This was the children's corner.

A nice art project exhibit across the top and low tables with pillow seating. 

As I meandered around town, I kept track of the kitties...

These two were outside of this local sausage making shop.

And I eventually saw someone feeding them in an out of the way spot in an alley.

We kept trying out the various flavors of gelato...Jeshua trying the more exotic...I liked the variations of salted caramel.

...although this 2 scoop of a chocolate and a cherry was quite yummy.

As in other parts of Europe, I found the flavors of potato chips to be interesting. I skipped the ketchup ones and the pizza ones in favor of these, which turned out to be really good.

On Tuesday night, the combined choirs sang the Stabat Mater again and then Wednesday night, we attended a concert of a Schubert Mass No. 2 in G Major by the Presbyterian folks, a variety of pieces by the French children's choir and Vivaldi's Gloria by the Arizona High School kids. I sat by an couple from London who have been coming to the Festival in Syros for 4 or 5 summers. They love the hominess of the island and enjoy all the music. Some of the concerts require tickets and some are free. I did notice that the free ones are in churches. 

Since VOT did not sing that evening, Jeshua suggested they go down to the square and sing, which they did. They sang in two different locations. Emily held out a hat and they made 50 euros!! Cool! Gelato all around!!

 
We mostly found our own lunches and suppers choosing from all the cafes. Twice I had a slice of a Greek "pizza" type offering...a dough bottom and then finely chopped veggies, olives and feta...really good for 3,20 euros. I found that the little cafe just across the street from us had great gyros for 2,20 if you got them for take away--2,60 if you stayed at a table. I took the ever present French fries out to eat on the side, and it made a great inexpensive lunch--pork, tomatoes, red onions, and a very good tzatziki sauce. All on a nice fresh pita. Delicious!

I have never really had this kind of vacation before...where you just are somewhere with no agenda...or toddlers to take of or children to keep busy. I've been knitting one of the "knit for kids" sweaters. I have the front done and am now working on the back. I can imagine I'm in someone's vacation photos sitting on the bench along the square in the evening, with the black cat stretched out underneath, knitting away.