I wonder what percentage of day trippers to the island get to visit the village? Maybe 5% per day? I have no idea. I wonder how many of that, let’s say, 5% do more than sit in the village square, and how many actually find the museum? Fewer will see sights like this:
A classic upper-village ‘tunnel’, built, I was told, mainly for stability during earthquakes, but also to give more room above. The first house we lived in here was right up at Ag Triada and the back terrace was laid over just such a tunnel as that one. We didn’t use it much, but when we did, we’d sit out there at night and watch the bats and owls doing their thing overhead.
The houses in the upper village tend to be built close to each other with narrow lanes in between, but now and then, you come across a square. Some are bigger than others, some are quite grand, and they hark back to the busy days when 25,000 to 30,000 people lived on the island, mainly in the village. There were (forgive me if this is wrong) something like 13 parishes churches in the village, and more or less each one would serve a part of the wider community, thereby making the smaller and larger squares a meeting place, or simply a place to escape the narrow tunnels and on-top-of-one-another living. In Alamina Square, for example, just below Ag Athanasios, where the millstone is, you can still see the kafeneion, and the ruins of a couple of tavernas, with a shop at the bottom of the steps, and another over the lane, still with its wooden frontage, though now badly painted.
Anyway, I don’t know why I am rambling through these lanes, it’s just my way of waking up, I expect. I want to get on with chapter whatever, before we head down to Yialos for lunch with my piano pupil, whose final lesson will now be on Monday and will be more of a recital than a lesson. Before then, there are watery things to do such as showers, washing and watering the garden, and all that has to be done while the mains water is on, so that we start the weekend with a full tank, and keep our fingers crossed that it’s enough.
So, happy weekend to you and happy Independence Day if you’re into all that.
