Part two of trip to Syros ... Are you still with me?

After deciding that the Oracle of Delphi was probably not as accurate as Paul the Psychic Octopus, we got off the bus in the middle of Athens in 40deg heat and found our way to the port of Piraeus using the metro. Very cheap only 1.70euro for any distance, we were on the train for about half an hour. We then walked to the port, bought a ferry ticket, had lunch near the fascinating Piraeus market. ( luckily the stall selling sheep's innards had closed for the day - on a previous visit the butchers sold a fine array of sheeps heads complete with tongue and eyeballs, and the entire digestive and respiratory system of several sheep were hung up, displaying lungs, stomach and intestines, plus other biological parts I couldn't recognise). Imagine those little old Darth Vader Greek ladies dressed in black carrying some of those home in a carrier bag on the bus! Delightful!

Syros was delightful too. I had booked a room for a couple of nights and phoned ahead to let them know when we would be arriving, and the owner, a terrific guy called Yiannis, or John as he called himself, insisted on picking us up from the ferry even though it was a short walk and we hardly had any luggage. He couldn't have been more helpful, giving us maps, recommending restaurants, day trips etc, none of which we needed.

The next morning we started our mission early, with a walk along the harbour visiting the boatyards we had identified. I don't know much about boatyards, these seemed rather dusty, with piles of wooden planks, rusty bits of metal and tyres everywhere, but husband Tim seemed enthralled. We also walked to the marina, quite a way out of town. Greek marinas are very strange - I don't mean that they keep cars there instead of boats, or that they are built underground, far from it. But apparently, the good old European Union in its wisdom, some years ago handed over exorbitant amounts of cash to many waterside towns and even small villages in Greece, and other parts of Europe, to enable them to build marinas to attract yachts, flotillas, charters etc.

So the greeks used the money to built the infrastructure - harbour walls, pontoons, facilities for boats to tie up, car park, electric points, water taps, offices, sometimes even a laundry, showers etc. These were intended to be wonderful, and attract visitors to the towns. Then I think the town or village is told, when the marina is finished and once people start coming, you must manage and organise the marina yourself, you are responsible for its upkeep, all the bills, collecting income, paying taxes etc. So what do the Greeks do? They can't be bothered to maintain the facilities, or go round and inspect it, or get a man to run it and charge fees, and heaven forbid pay any taxes to the higher authorities in Athens, so they let the marina go ruin, they don't connect the water or electric, things aren't repaired, lots of potholes, rusting pipes etc etc. Showers and offices are locked up etc. but yachts still come here as many people like us are prepared to go without a water tap or electricity for a day or two, and some of these unkept marinas are in good locations. We have found marinas such as these in many places, such as Benitses on Corfu, Trizonia and Itea. Apparently Pilos is the same. And also some places on the south coast of Italy like Rocella. It's a scandal!
Its the same when greeks build new houses, they can get some grants or loans, but are exempt from paying any back and exempt from paying stuff like council tax until the building is finished, so the family just lives in the ground floor rooms and the top floor remains unfinished! Does the European union know about this? No wonder greece is in a monetary crisis! They are never going to get any of their money back! If something isn't done these marinas will get worse and worse and eventually decay and die ....

Goodness I haven't even told you everything about Syros yet ....