Christmas in Greece

Merry Christmas morning!

Last year on this day, we were getting ready for Christmas Day eye surgery in Turkey. Of course Turkey is a Muslim country, so they don't celebrate Christmas, and Christmas Day is just another day.. But here in Greece, the day before Christmas is when children sing carols in the streets, families gather together to play games, go to midnight mass, and end their advent fast.

Yesterday was also the day that our 10 days of unlimited cellular internet came to an end. We needed to do something to fix that, so we drove to the small city of Pyrgos (pop 30,000), parked on the outskirts, and walked into the central area to the Vodafone store. 

Everyone was in the Christmas spirit. We saw several children with their triangles, and a couple came into the Vodafone store and sang a Christmas carol while we were there. They give them candies and treats... almost like Halloween. The store workers taught us how to say Merry Christmas in Greek... Kalá Christoúgenna!

And, they set us up with another 10 days of unlimited internet. Because the last SIM card was in my name, they were able to give us another one in Ruth's name. And this time, the price was down to €12 ($17.50 CAD, $13.50 USD) instead of the €15 we paid last time. 

We picked up some more supplies, and then drove Max to the beach for a couple of days. I also stopped at a gas station and picked up a 10 liter jug of AdBlue (DEF) for Max. Cost was €14 ($20.25 CAD, $15.75 USD).

They need to trim back the bamboo soon!

This road leads to the beach. At least it's paved!

Peppers.

Cotton.

Scenery along the way.

There were three other vans here when we arrived. There's loads of space, but it's not easy to get space that actually has a view of the sea. We did manage to find one fairly solid spot where I didn't think Max was at risk of getting stuck in the sand, and we can still see the sea from the front windshield.

Max, parked at GPS37.576301, 21.52079

Three other motorhomes in the distance.

View in front of us.

Scenery around us.

We left Max and went for a walk on the beach.

There are a whole bunch of abandoned houses.

Wonder what the story is.

Lots of pretty shells.

Beach walk.

Scenery along the way.

Christmas Eve at the beach.

Nice picture.

Not so nice picture.

It's not really the prettiest beach we've ever been to, but it's isolated and very quiet. 

Ruth, enjoying a beautiful sunset.

We are having a bit of an overcast start to the day, with some showers. Then it's supposed to rain on and off for the next four days before the sun reappears on Thursday. We'll hang out here another day, then head further south and find somewhere to wait out the rain again.

Hope you all have a great Christmas Day! We are looking forward to doing a Zoom call with our families later on. 

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