The past week I have mostly been............
Avoiding rain.
Finishing Breaking Bad....Wow. Wasn't it awesome!!!! A good ending I think.
House of Cards is next. Probably not so much 'bitch' in that......? Ah Jesse.... :)
Getting used to not having to rush.
Exploring.
At the annual parade in Pothia to mark the start of the revolution against Turkish rule. It was dry but rained later.
Helping to celebrate Christina's 25th birthday party in Nadir. It was dry but had rained all day.
Had a cracking meal at Meltos restaurant. Paid 4 euros for a half litre of good house red. It was raining.
Visited the new art gallery wine bar 'Azul' in Armeos and paid 10 euros for 2 glasses of good red wine plus a bowl of nuts and raisins!! 10 feckin euros!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck for a long and prosperous future there then! Glorious sunset. No rain.
The view from Azul. Free :)
Just for a change it rained this morning. Turned out good though.
I saw an Osteopath today. A visiting German lady called Karin.
Not only did I see her, but I lay on her table and paid for pain. I'm feeling sore and tender in all sorts of unexpected places now! I'm hopeful that maybe she can unlock things and good quick healing of the elbow can begin. The body is an amazing thing. Obviously everything is connected and my old neck and back injuries are playing their respective parts in slowing down the elbow's recovery.. Straight away she spotted my misaligned hips and knackered neck and began by pulling my head this way and that.
I've realised (at least I'm admitting it now) that I've been a little down about the whole thing and also that I've been eating far too much since I got here. It's an easy thing to do but now I feel heavy and very unfit. All this affects my confidence, which means the 5 routes Themi and I did together yesterday, in my head, felt hard.... At least too hard for the grade when they should have been easy. I was wearing a pair of baggy 'all-day-comfy' shoes which made things worse on the tiny flakey edges but I swear this 5c+ (yes Tsarouhis....5c+), felt steep and hard.
It was a lovely couple of hours in the sun at Kastelli and Themi was entertained at my expense by the expanding midriff and cellulite bulging over the top of my harness when I took of my T-shirt in the wonderful warm sun. Before we went to the store, we snoozed for an hour on the steps to the chapel, well, at least Themi did, I just lay topless, exposing my flab to the late spring sun and watched the action across the road at North Cape as a climber tried the new 7c I did in January, resting at all the places I did on my first attempt. I reckon I'd struggle with 6c just now :(
Angry clouds above the crags.
As an interesting aside, and a little personal admission, I see on Facebook the friends I met in Chullila having the sort of trip that I'd hoped to have. I find this a bit hard sometimes. It feels like jealousy and I hate myself for feeling this way. I am really and truly pleased for them all, genuinely, even though I admit to these strange feelings.
I'm hoping that admitting them, by writing them down here, I will let them out and purge the system. I hate Facebook sometimes. I've mentioned before, its amazing how quickly this thing we call social media has taken over our lives in one way or another. At times its such good fun, bloody useful too, and it is great to get in touch with old friends and keep in touch with new ones, but it can be so evil at times. I let it get to me once before, a few years back, like a bad addiction. Back then it took me a couple of weeks to realise the harm I was doing to myself and managed to erase the problem once and for all. This is different, its just my state of mind at the moment and I still hope to get to these places and climb as hard as I can.
It was nice to see Carl and Ruth Dawson this afternoon, we stood and talked in the evening sun above Masouri beach, very welcome warm sun after all the rain overnight and this morning. We chatted about Carl's new book on the walks and scrambles around Kalymnos, featuring Ruth on the front and rear covers. There's some great walking here as well as the well known world class rock climbing.
Injuries featured too, funnily enough! We mentioned W.O.R.K. I think.......?
Strange things are happening here at the moment with some of the climbers arriving over the past few days...... It seems that some are booking rooms by email weeks in advance, as usual, then when they arrive, they take a walk and try to find a cheaper place. They are breaking the trust of the Kalymnians who rarely if ever ask for a deposit. Don't they realise that when they book a room for 2 weeks, that room is then theirs, it's reserved for YOU and the owner subsequently refuses other bookings because you have it, so if you then decide to go elsewhere and haggle the price down at another studio, that costs the owner 2 weeks rent!!
As far as I'm aware the only reason you walk away from a booked room is because its crap and not fit for purpose (as I have done here in the past), not because you fancy trying to get somewhere cheaper!!! Very cheeky. Assholes! If you don't like the view or something then you pay your dues before looking for other rooms right?!?!? These days you can pretty much see everything on line so there's no excuse for not being happy with your choice, assuming its quiet enough to actually have one. Try this trick in October and you'll probably find yourself sleeping on the beach, and out of pocket.
Yes perhaps the Studio owners could organise themselves a little better, maybe cooperate and have an agreed rate for rooms of similar size and quality without caving in so bloody easily, but since when has this behaviour by tourists been acceptable? If this continues to happen this season then things will change for sure. You will have to pay a deposit with your booking, and if you choose to leave for no other reason than you fancy something cheaper, then you will lose your deposit, or pay the going rate for cancelling, which is about a third I believe.
It's true the Greeks have been suffering over the past while and times have been hard, surely all the more reason to stick to your booking and help the climbing tourist trade rather than trying to hammer another nail into its coffin and take advantage of some perceived need. Its really weird, those owners that we've talked to have never had this happen before and are worried that it may be the start of a nasty trend.
The weather has been very hit and miss so far, one day sunny and warm, then 2 or 3 days of variable cloudy rainy days, still pretty chilly then too. At the weekend the taxi fleet began arriving from Pothia and lots of climbers disembarked to start the now usual Easter climbing season. There's been few complaints about conditions other than it being a touch cold, plus of course a few dripping tufas and wet pockets, otherwise its all good and there are many happy faces already. It's good to see, now the clocks have gone forward, people out strolling in the late evening sunshine.
Avoiding rain.
Finishing Breaking Bad....Wow. Wasn't it awesome!!!! A good ending I think.
House of Cards is next. Probably not so much 'bitch' in that......? Ah Jesse.... :)
Getting used to not having to rush.
Exploring.
At the annual parade in Pothia to mark the start of the revolution against Turkish rule. It was dry but rained later.
Helping to celebrate Christina's 25th birthday party in Nadir. It was dry but had rained all day.
Had a cracking meal at Meltos restaurant. Paid 4 euros for a half litre of good house red. It was raining.
Visited the new art gallery wine bar 'Azul' in Armeos and paid 10 euros for 2 glasses of good red wine plus a bowl of nuts and raisins!! 10 feckin euros!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck for a long and prosperous future there then! Glorious sunset. No rain.
Just for a change it rained this morning. Turned out good though.
I saw an Osteopath today. A visiting German lady called Karin.
Not only did I see her, but I lay on her table and paid for pain. I'm feeling sore and tender in all sorts of unexpected places now! I'm hopeful that maybe she can unlock things and good quick healing of the elbow can begin. The body is an amazing thing. Obviously everything is connected and my old neck and back injuries are playing their respective parts in slowing down the elbow's recovery.. Straight away she spotted my misaligned hips and knackered neck and began by pulling my head this way and that.
I've realised (at least I'm admitting it now) that I've been a little down about the whole thing and also that I've been eating far too much since I got here. It's an easy thing to do but now I feel heavy and very unfit. All this affects my confidence, which means the 5 routes Themi and I did together yesterday, in my head, felt hard.... At least too hard for the grade when they should have been easy. I was wearing a pair of baggy 'all-day-comfy' shoes which made things worse on the tiny flakey edges but I swear this 5c+ (yes Tsarouhis....5c+), felt steep and hard.
It was a lovely couple of hours in the sun at Kastelli and Themi was entertained at my expense by the expanding midriff and cellulite bulging over the top of my harness when I took of my T-shirt in the wonderful warm sun. Before we went to the store, we snoozed for an hour on the steps to the chapel, well, at least Themi did, I just lay topless, exposing my flab to the late spring sun and watched the action across the road at North Cape as a climber tried the new 7c I did in January, resting at all the places I did on my first attempt. I reckon I'd struggle with 6c just now :(
As an interesting aside, and a little personal admission, I see on Facebook the friends I met in Chullila having the sort of trip that I'd hoped to have. I find this a bit hard sometimes. It feels like jealousy and I hate myself for feeling this way. I am really and truly pleased for them all, genuinely, even though I admit to these strange feelings.
I'm hoping that admitting them, by writing them down here, I will let them out and purge the system. I hate Facebook sometimes. I've mentioned before, its amazing how quickly this thing we call social media has taken over our lives in one way or another. At times its such good fun, bloody useful too, and it is great to get in touch with old friends and keep in touch with new ones, but it can be so evil at times. I let it get to me once before, a few years back, like a bad addiction. Back then it took me a couple of weeks to realise the harm I was doing to myself and managed to erase the problem once and for all. This is different, its just my state of mind at the moment and I still hope to get to these places and climb as hard as I can.
It was nice to see Carl and Ruth Dawson this afternoon, we stood and talked in the evening sun above Masouri beach, very welcome warm sun after all the rain overnight and this morning. We chatted about Carl's new book on the walks and scrambles around Kalymnos, featuring Ruth on the front and rear covers. There's some great walking here as well as the well known world class rock climbing.
Injuries featured too, funnily enough! We mentioned W.O.R.K. I think.......?
Strange things are happening here at the moment with some of the climbers arriving over the past few days...... It seems that some are booking rooms by email weeks in advance, as usual, then when they arrive, they take a walk and try to find a cheaper place. They are breaking the trust of the Kalymnians who rarely if ever ask for a deposit. Don't they realise that when they book a room for 2 weeks, that room is then theirs, it's reserved for YOU and the owner subsequently refuses other bookings because you have it, so if you then decide to go elsewhere and haggle the price down at another studio, that costs the owner 2 weeks rent!!
As far as I'm aware the only reason you walk away from a booked room is because its crap and not fit for purpose (as I have done here in the past), not because you fancy trying to get somewhere cheaper!!! Very cheeky. Assholes! If you don't like the view or something then you pay your dues before looking for other rooms right?!?!? These days you can pretty much see everything on line so there's no excuse for not being happy with your choice, assuming its quiet enough to actually have one. Try this trick in October and you'll probably find yourself sleeping on the beach, and out of pocket.
Yes perhaps the Studio owners could organise themselves a little better, maybe cooperate and have an agreed rate for rooms of similar size and quality without caving in so bloody easily, but since when has this behaviour by tourists been acceptable? If this continues to happen this season then things will change for sure. You will have to pay a deposit with your booking, and if you choose to leave for no other reason than you fancy something cheaper, then you will lose your deposit, or pay the going rate for cancelling, which is about a third I believe.
It's true the Greeks have been suffering over the past while and times have been hard, surely all the more reason to stick to your booking and help the climbing tourist trade rather than trying to hammer another nail into its coffin and take advantage of some perceived need. Its really weird, those owners that we've talked to have never had this happen before and are worried that it may be the start of a nasty trend.
The weather has been very hit and miss so far, one day sunny and warm, then 2 or 3 days of variable cloudy rainy days, still pretty chilly then too. At the weekend the taxi fleet began arriving from Pothia and lots of climbers disembarked to start the now usual Easter climbing season. There's been few complaints about conditions other than it being a touch cold, plus of course a few dripping tufas and wet pockets, otherwise its all good and there are many happy faces already. It's good to see, now the clocks have gone forward, people out strolling in the late evening sunshine.
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