Life continues on the hard...

This week continues to be extremely hard work for David, and enjoyable work for me. David gets to do all the physical stuff that makes the boat look nice and I get to do all the creative stuff such as writing blogs, books and making jewellery.

 

Last weekend proved to be a weekend of late nights; firstly in the marina bar on Friday night, secondly in town with friends on Saturday night and finally some ‘local’ colour in the form of the ‘The Monastery of Agios Symeon Festival’ which started on Saturday night and continued through to Wednesday morning. With help from the Internet I found out the following:

 

The monastery of Agio Symeon is 8km from Messolonghi, was established in 1740 during the Ottoman rule, and has great historical importance locally. Messolonghi played a very important role during the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire. In 1822, the Turks tried to take it but were unsuccessful. Four years later the inhabitants of Messolonghi unfortunately succumbed to the Turks who surrounded and besieged the town, and on 10 April 1826 they decided on the mass Exodus of Messolonghi. However, the Exodus was unsuccessful, most people were killed and only few managed to get to the monastery and then escape in the mountains. To revenge for this, the Turks burnt down the monastery, which was rebuilt 10 years later, by a local bishop.

 

The Monastery of Agios Simeon celebrates twice a year, on February 2nd and on the weekend of the Holy Spirit (movable festival, usually in June). The Festival starts in the evening of Saturday, when two types of groups are formed. The first are dressed as the former soldiers (armatomenos), also called kleftes. The other groups are riding on horses, the cavalry.

 

After the parade, everyone goes to the historical monastery of Agios Symeon in the mountains. This is the actual start for the festival. Gypsies playing music, people throw their money in air, and everybody is dancing, singing, drinking and eating all night and day. The festival goes on for four days and nights and lasts until Wednesday morning.

 

We ventured into town to see the parade, which we had been warned about. The horses are allegedly given ouzo or beer, and by the look in their eyes I would not have at all surprised. Although they are healthy looking animals, and most are dressed for the occasion, the route they take through the town is on marble cobblestones. The restaurants all take in their tables and chairs and the streets are lined with hundreds of people. A friend pointed out that it was strange that no-one stood in front of us, as in the norm in most parades. We were soon to find out why.

 

The horses have riders, some are saddled up, some bareback, all with someone on the ground walking them through by their reins. But the horses are unable to cope with the marble stones and as they round the first corner their hoofs start to slip and slide, one very nearly performed a re-enactment of Bambi on the ice; one leg in all four directions. This of course in turn scares the horses who then rise up on their hind legs, all within the confines of the narrow streets where we are all standing. At the same time, the gypsy bands are playing their whistles and banging their drums, all at a different rhythm and tune. The horses were dripping with sweat and frothing at their mouths, as they had to wait while the procession moved slowly through the streets.

 

We did not continue up to the Monastery, although free buses are provided both there and back, but you have to wait for everyone to be ready to leave before they come back to town, which is normally around 4am.  All in all it was one of those festivals which I am glad I have witnessed, but do not believe I would wish to see again as I found it quite daunting being that close to some very agitated, and very big horses. (I do have photos, but have not uploaded them from my phone yet - modern technology confusing me...)

 

And so back to real life. David is well on his way to finishing the teak work, the final caulking was squished in this morning, before breakfast, and is now drying before the final sanding down. Progress so far...

 

  

 Two coats of anti-foul have been applied to the  bottom of the boat and, although I look particularly attractive in my white smurf outfit, it appears 
 that my anti-fouling technique was not up the exacting Perrett standards:-) It seems that I do not have the strength to apply the paint sufficiently, and it would have been a rubbish finish, or it would have taken double the amount of anti-foul to complete and would have cost twice the money...so I made some more jewellery (see below) and wrote some more of my book, Island of Youth.

 

Our new bicycles have proved to be much more useful than first envisaged – popping into town now only takes five minutes, whereas before it took 15 minutes to walk there before you even got to the shops. However, they come into their own around the marina, especially as the bathroom block is some distance away and they can be a life saver for getting there as quickly as you need to, if you get my drift...

 

We are currently booked in to be ‘launched’ on Monday mid-day, so all going well we should be able to have our first night back on the water to see if everything else is still in order. Weather permitting, as always, we plan to make our way north on Thursday where we will stop off at one of two little bays before hopefully getting back to Nidri on Friday.