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By Fred Hart, 11/07/2014 20:54

While I am in Leivadia (Λειβαδιά) I really am living like a true Greek. It is a very Greek town – no tourists (any that are here are Greek)… the kiosks don’t sell postcards, or, annoyingly, stamps. The post office closes before I finish work!

As in Athens, I am generally getting up around 7 in the morning – the difference here is that breakfast is almost straight away, not at 8. By 8 I am starting my day’s work: mostly work in the garden, such as collecting dead leaves, cutting the grass, cutting wood for the fire etc. I finish my day’s work at 1.

After 1 I have an hour to get ready for the main meal of the day – the food here is quite good, and always home cooked. It feels strange sitting round a dining room table eating lunch in Greece; I’m normally used to sitting in a taverna for these sorts of meals.

After lunch the family go for their siesta, and I go to explore: I’ve walked up in to the mountains overlooking Leivadia for some wonderful views, I’ve sat by the springs and read my book, each evening I’ve gone in to one of the cafes by the springs for a drink and an ice cream (the banana ice cream is particularly nice).

Yesterday was a good chance to get out of the town for a bit: Dimitris and his sister took me to the beach – we went to Aspra Spitia (Άσπρα Σπίτια) beach – pictured above. It is  just along the coast from the town of Antikyra (Αντίκυρα), which also has a nice beach. Next week I might take the bus and go to the beach on my own. There aren’t many busses to there, but there is one at around 5, and one back at about 8.

In the evenings, a light meal around 9: yoghurt, feta cheese, bread etc. Sometimes leftovers from the main meal if there are any.

Today’s big achievements: Having encountered a problem on my laptop leaving me unable to access my e-mails, I took my laptop today to a computer repair place in Leivadia, and (bearing in mind all my Greek tech-vocab is entirely self taught) I successfully explained in Greek what the problem was, and they were able to fix it for me: I was out of the shop after less than 5 minutes.

Also today I used a cashpoint in Greece for the first time. I’ve never been here long enough to need to use one before!  On the ‘select language’ screen I selected Greek. It’s quite fun using the cashpoints and Athens Metro ticket machines without needing to put it to English! The money I withdrew today is the money I’ll need in Levadia for the next week, and for my return to Athens in a couple of weeks: I don’t trust the cashpoints in Athens, there are all sorts of dodgy looking people lurking nearby!!

Normally at this point in my holidays in Greece – I’d be just 3 days away from flying home. Not this year! Tuesday is not the day I return to the UK: It marks instead one third of the way through my Grand Tour of Greece. By Wednesday, I will have been in Greece for 15 days: Longer than I have ever been in this country before.

Off downstairs in a minute for some dinner, and then I’ll head to bed.

Bye for now,

FH.