Holy Days (Part I)

Rebecca´s spirit Sanatorium Chios End of April. My housemate left early Saturday morning and I was alone in our big house. Well, it's actually not so big but if it is just you alone everything appears much bigger. But well, I wasn't alone all the time, my boss and his beloved wife took care of me. Hehe. They're so cute. They invited me to eat with them, we went to a café, spoke a bit Greek and my boss took me on his motorbike for a little sunday ride. Amazing. He took me to an old Sanatorium close to the city and showed me around. The sanatorium is more than 100 years old and now not anymore in use. I did the most awesome pictures and it felt so great walking through rooms where everything was really old and morbid but so rich of history and so valuable!

I thank my boss a lot for taking me there. Its seemed more like an arts museum than an old sanatorium. And again, I felt reminded of my beloved Rta´s in B... if they would just all be here with me and Rebecca Horn's ghost following me. Chairs hanging on the wall, old beds and mattresses, ancient books, remains of the patients' life in the sanatorium. I also discovered a box from the Red Cross CANADA for the island of Samos (as labelled) but they must have made some mistake cause it got to the island of Chios. Anyway, my boss told me that the founders were some rich (Greek?) people from London so a lot of stuff was shipped from the UK, really interesting. We left after some time but please: I wanna go there again!

Back home, as I was cleaning our patio I wondered about the red dust on our white gardening chairs and later I was told that it was sand from the Sahara flying more then 3000 metre up in the air. (I wish that would happen to me too.) Yeah, holidays... so I packed my baggage, cleaned the house, emptied the fridge, triple checked if I locked all doors and windows, turned off the stove (!) and then later that eve my boss picked me up to bring me to the harbour...

Remains from the last century

Yes, my kind boss and his family brought me to the harbour and in the last second he gave me some money. I can't believe it! "No, I have enough, don't you worry but he insisted that I took his money. Alright, thank you.

Ferry at night Stupid regulations for garbage disposal at sea On the ferry (Theofilos) I went straight up to the upper deck which was totally empty and very dark. I stood there for a while, thought about sleeping there under the clear night sky but when the ferry started the wind was simply too cold so I went downstairs and walked for a bit on the other decks and discovered a sign for the ´regulations for garbage disposal at sea saying that the disposal of garbage like paper, racks, glass, etc. is only permitted if the distance from the nearest land is more than 25 nautical miles´. Pretty shocking! And how stupid by the way! I don't care if it's 25 nautical miles or 100 people shouldn't throw anything from board! Hello? The Greek awareness of environmental pollution needs an upgrade. Do you think the fish will simply EAT our garbage? More likely they'll come out with three eyes like in Springfield. How sad.

The male population on the ferry decks was similar to the population in Chios island (one woman among 50 men) and this time I was the single woman to be on the ferry deck (again). So finally, all those poor hungry men let me come to the wise decision to go into my cabin and rest. I believe my cabin was right next to the ship's engine cause it was SO INCREDIBLY HOT OMYGODIWASABOUTTODIEHALLELUJAH. I couldn’t find the air conditioning and didn't want to look for the light switch either cause the other women in my cabin were already sleeping. So I crawled silently (sweating) into my upper bunk bed and took off my socks, shirt... while the other Greek women (I could make that out, in the darkness of the cabin) were sleeping neatly wrapped into their blankets. HOW?! Just tell me how the Greeks do that.

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