Adventures in Housesitting

  A rooster that won't shut up. Don't take a hot shower unless you turn off everything in the house that consumes more electricity than a light bulb first. It's not very warm outside... or inside. These experiences greeted us this morning upon awakening in Cyprus. But, I've skipped Athens so let me take you back there first.

  We arrived in Greece Wednesday evening during the coldest few days of the winter. Not cold as in Canada-cold but Athens-cold, about 5C. The hotel's driver picked us up from the airport and proceeded to quiz us on the cost of living in Toronto. He's had enough of Athens and is preparing to bolt for Germany. According to him and my quick Euro to Canadian dollar conversions, typical Athenians earn less than $20K CAD annually. Given gas prices are the equivalent of $2.75 CAD per liter and their grocery prices can be as high as ours, even mitigating costs with rents a third of what we experience it appears it's very tough for most people to manage in the city.

  Thursday was our first day sightseeing and we were within a short walk of everything we needed. Our first stop was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We turned around to take in our surroundings and were greeted with this:

As you enter the park you're confronted by Hadrian's Gate. Sure. Hadrian. Elephants. Oh, by the way, Hadrian was here. Like that.

  Ok, now you're warmed up so on to the big stuff. As impressive as it is with its many massive columns Zeus' temple would have been more so had it not been completely clad in scaffolding.

... this pillar fell during an earthquake 150 years ago...

We did get a good view of the restoration works so it was educational...

  We also had a discussion about which type of columns were used. Ionic? Doric? Corinthian? We've been married over forty years and this is a conversation we've never had. Greece.

  While we walked through the neighbourhood we were struck by how commonplace the  antiquities were. A statue of Alexander The Great:

A portion of sidewalk surrounding a hole where ruins were exposed during the subway construction:

A thousand year-old Byzantine church on a street corner:

A two thousand year old church devoted to pagan offerings sits surrounded by the modern hotel that bestrides it:

  We compared history here to "history" in North America where we struggle to maintain hundred year-old structures. Of course, we have ancient civilizations in N.A. but they constructed in wood and sand. Everything here is marble. Stone vs wood. Stone wins.

  Our next stop was the Ancient Agora, a thirty acre archeological site containing the Temple of Hephaestus

...the restored Stoa of Attalos and a veritable plethora of ruins and artifacts related to the first known democratic institutions. That is, until Athens was defeated by the Spartans... and the Romans... and the Persians... and the Byzantines... and the Hulians... and the Ottomans... someone was always defeating them. Democracy wasn't welcomed by any of the conquerors but, when Athens did manage to crawl out from underneath some king's or emperor's thumb they returned to it again and again.

  By the way, we discovered something interesting underlying most of the structures we encountered:

See it? Yep. Lego. It's a little known fact that much of ancient Greece was constructed with Lego. Also, Allen keys. Now you can say you learned something today. You're welcome.

  Also, you all know that joke about why the Earth cannot possibly be flat because cats would push everything off the edge?

Here you see an example of cats preparing to push this unassuming tourist off the edge. You've been warned.

  Friday, our last day, was filled with all things Acropolis. We climbed the hill on a cool, bright, sunny day devoid of the hordes of tourists that plague the site in summertime. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus:

the Propylaea

the Erechtheion

and the other temples all came as advertised. They were beautifully restored (or in the process of being so) and impressive in both engineering and appearance. We found out that the vision of the Parthenon we all have imprinted upon us with it's open colonnade of pillars

is not how it was originally constructed. There was another set of pillars inside that held walls, windows and doorways as well as helping support the roof. With that vision it all made more sense, I mean, I always wondered why the Greeks built all these open temples without walls. Shows you what I know about ancient history!

  As we toured the various temples and ruins we heard about the various incarnations of the goddess Athena. She is credited with being the goddess or patron of virtually all facets of life and warfare in Athens. Athena, goddess of souvlaki. Like that. One you don't hear is Athena, patron of real estate. What a view from atop the Acropolis:

  Our day was topped off by a visit to the new Acropolis Museum, which is built atop the ruins of a Bronze Age manor estate. We were able to wander around the ruins but what impressed me more was how they managed to erect this modern building above without destroying the site below.

  The fact that I was more impressed with the new construction than the old shows you how inured to "antiquities" Penny and I had become after two full days of looking at bits of marble. Pillars... Ionic, Doric or Corinthian? Pediments, friezes, statuary... it's all a bit overwhelming. Not to mention the last time I heard the word "Corinthian" it was being associated with the leather upholstery in a Chrysler Cordoba.

  As it had warmed up a bit by Friday we decided to wander the streets of Plaka once night fell, in search of dinner after eating takeout in our room Thursday. It's a rather spectacular scene with the narrow alleys lit up with all the shops full of essentials like fridge magnets, plastic Parthenons (Parthena?) and t-shirts screaming "Kiss Me I'm Greek". Of course, looking up above the rooftops at the Parthenon bathed in light fixes all that.

Dinner helped too.

  Saturday morning saw us jet off to Larnaca, Cyprus followed by a two hour drive in a rental car to Kallepia, our new home for the next month. We're a twenty minute drive to Paphos, a major town on the Mediterranean south coast. We're in charge of two cats this time so we have lots of freedom to explore Cyprus without worrying about walking and feeding dogs. The cats are very laid back and are happy to be fed in the morning before we leave and at night when we return.

  The owners are letting us use their car and have urged us to see as much of the country as we want, a wonderful offer and the reason for us coming here. Overseas house sits can be a problem for us due to a lack of transport as many of them are in rural areas or small towns without train service. When this listing came up we jumped at the opportunity and plan to take full advantage of it.

  After fetching us at the Paphos airport car rental return Penny (yes, another one) and George spent the rest of the afternoon showing us around their house and explaining all the peculiarities of life in Cyprus. As retired ex-pat Brits they clearly understand what works here and how to get around the things that don't. They also graciously invited us along to have dinner with all their retired ex-pat friends at a local taverna, a fun evening filled with good food and stimulating conversation.

  It's an interesting group. A few were teachers, one an ex-foreign service diplomat and wannabe Labour Party MP along with an 86 year-old retired colonel who served on the British Army General Staff and now writes books about British military history and his wife who is a Romany Gypsy accountant qualified as a competitive sharpshooter. Penny, our host, keeps herself busy by directing Shakespeare productions at the local community theatre and sometimes acting in them. Since we were the new kids they made a great effort to make us feel at home and I expect we'll see many of them on a semi-regular basis while we're here.

  With the homeowners winging their way to Ireland right now we've also been invited out tonight by some of last night's group for another meal at another taverna. We've been here less than twenty-four hours and our social calendar is already filling up.

  Now, back to this morning's eye-openers. First, last night's temp was around 5C which, in an unheated house, is a bit cool. We have a small electric heater that runs on a timer for a couple of hours before bed and again when you wake up. It helps... a bit. The rest of the house has a fireplace which we'll make good use of as well as a couple of gas heaters so we don't turn to ice. It's not luxurious but it's comfortable and mostly warm.

  I'm sure some of you are asking why the electric heaters aren't on all the time in the winter. The answer, my friends, is the high cost of electricity in Cyprus. Penny was telling us about the electricity bill that a previous housesitter rang up using the A/C last summer when it was in the high 40's. When they got the bill it was over 600 Euros ($900 CAD)! Everything runs on electricity or small propane tanks. There's no natural gas supply so those are the only choices... along with the wood fire. It's not bad. It's different.

  That brings me to the hot water supply. There is a tank on the roof which catches rainwater and is heated by the sun. There's a small immersion heater for cloudy days. That water supplies the kitchen sink and dishwasher. For showers there's not enough so each of the two showers has an on-demand water heater. Sounds like a great solution, right? Sort of. This house only has a 50 amp main service, compared to Canadian homes, most of which are supplied with at least 100. The water heater uses 40 amps by itself. Heaters use a lot. So does the kettle. And the oven. And the washer. And the dryer. You get the picture. Penny (the other one) turned on the shower this morning without thinking that our heater was running. The other Penny (mine) turned on the kettle to boil water for coffee and poof! The entire house went dark. This should be interesting.

  Finally, the rooster. We have neighbours that grow vegetables much like Penny and George but there's also a neighbour that keeps chickens. That means, occasionally, we'll be offered fresh eggs. Bonus. I guess that's payment for listening to the damn rooster crowing incessantly from sunrise until now, as I write this at 2:30 pm. Welcome to Cyprus!