R and R on Samos Island

Mon, April 12, 2010
Pythagoria, Samos

We are taking a break. Today is down time, a chance to catch our breath and rest our bones before heading back to Athens for the last push before the long journey home. Jeff found us a very nice little hotel at a good rate, and we’ve burrowed in. We are just on the cusp of the travel season, so a lot of hotels, restaurants, shops, etc have not yet opened for the summer. This hotel, in fact, was not officially open, but the manager said to give her a couple of hours and she would get a room ready for us. I think she may have given us the best room in the house. It’s cozy and there is a little balcony with a view of the sea.

The hotel has a paperback swap, as so many of them do, so Jeff selected a few books and we sat up late last night reading. And then we slept in. He has just gone to the bakery around the corner to fetch us some fresh croissants and I have the kettle on for coffee. We have no cream, so it’ll have to be Bailey’s, which I picked up several days ago when I realized I could buy a jar of Nescafe and a bottle of Bailey’s for what it would cost to have two after-dinner coffees in the restaurants.

And he’s back… with a chocolate croissant. Mmmm, my favorite. The sun is shining and the birds are singing outside our window, and we’re ignoring it. I imagine we’ll venture outside at some point today, but for now it’s enough to just sit and relax.

It’s been about an hour since that coffee and croissant, and I’ve just washed what I hope will be my last load of laundry in the sink. Our balcony has a clothesline strung across it, so our clothes are hung in the sun and blowing in the breeze. They will be dry by this afternoon. We have been doing sink laundry from Thailand to Africa to Greece, and we have never felt like we’ve had to hide the fact that we’ve got clothes to dry. We just find a spot for our clothesline and get them out there. Everyone else has laundry hanging from their balcony or strung on lines between buildings or thrown over fences. It is, apparently, only the United States that thinks laundry on a line is unacceptable. Strange. It always smells so good when it’s been hanging in the breeze.