Palio

It was a hectic day with lots of errands to run. First I went down to Loutraki, the Port of Glossa, to exchange Spousie's ferry tickets because his sailings had been cancelled due to bad weather. Then I went to Skop town to pick up two new pairs of glasses for him which have now arrived from the mainland on a boat after the weather improved. Meanwhile he stayed at home doing things I would rather not look at or think about.

I photographed a couple of buildings, one of which I have known about for years and this, which I have only recently spotted. I'm not sure if it is newly built or whether it has only recently become visible from the road. Perhaps I have just been unobservant and Blip is opening my eyes. Anyway, what is surprising about this huge vernacular shed is that it is within the hamlet of Palio Klima.

There used to be a hamlet called Klima which was first damaged by an earthquake about 50 or 60 years ago and then a year or so later by landslides. The inhabitants moved out to some hastily built houses close to the beach at Elios. Since then the village of Elios-Neo Klima has developed and become really rather lovely, with a marina and wide level boulevards that are navigable by mobility scooter. It has all the sorts of shops and services one would expect from a thriving community.

The original village of Klima with its stone buildings and steeply stepped streets has been largely purchased and renovated by North Western Europeans as holiday homes and renamed Palio Klima. During the summertime, shutters are open and pots of geraniums are out on display. The community come and go waving cheerily at one another. In October it changes. Geraniums are brought indoors and shutters closed, the summer residents leave and hungry cats roam the streets and alley-ways. We are told that the local Greeks call it 'ChinaTown' because of its lack of Greek residents.

And that is why I am surprised by a vernacular shed.