Welcome To Nafplion To Do List

The tiny island of Bourtzi at night. 

After a week crossing Italy by car, we arrived in Greece. Anytime we get to Nafplion, we arrive to some new issues that need to be fixed.

The last few times (and years), among other things, it’s been the roof which leaked in various places. For a while, rainwater crept down the bedroom wall whenever a squall sailed its way across the Old Town. Once that was patched, water migrated to the kitchen where we could just perch a bucket precariously between the windowsill and the kitchen counter.

Bougainvillea still blooming in Greece

After finally replacing the roof, at nearly twice the cost of replacing our roof in the States, last year it was replacing the living room windows which had lost their seal and made the view of Palamidi, the 1700’s Venetian fortress just next to us, difficult to see, along with the hillside, the rooftops, and stairways. 

Palamidi

 I call it our Greek Money Pit. Ed, in response, says that it is our ‘Investment Property’ and please don’t call it that thing you call it. 

This time it’s the stairway lights not working (even though Ed climbed up on the ladder, replaced the bulbs, cleaned the sconces, etc.) Still not working. And we’re on the 4^th floor. So, we have to call an electrician back in (after being here last time to fix a few light fixtures that simply would no longer work among other electrical issues.)

One of the things we awoke to the first morning (besides the sunrise over the bay at 7:30am and the smell of the peanut factory’s exhaust across the bay toward Argos) was what sounded like someone on the ceiling opening and closing something heavy. Ed said he could also hear it during the night so guessing we have an animal in the space between our ceiling and roof. Not sure how it could sound like it’s opening and closing a sliding door or window since there’s not one up there. Now we need to call the roofer back in to see if he can get up there, find out what it is and get it out. 

Walk around Akronafplia

We can’t drink the water in the Old Town (where our place is located) so we spend a lot of time either hauling bottled water up all the stairs (there are 3 flights of stairs up to our pedestrian street from the street below and then the four flights up in our building) or filtering, boiling, cooling and refiltering the tap water to use for coffee/tea and drinking water. We realized last time, after boiling it for coffee/tea water, just how much plastic is in bottled water (it sticks to the side of the pot after boiling like a white film and is frankly shocking) so sometimes we now even filter the bottled water. 

But the last two days have been sunny and crystal clear (the latter sometimes being few and far between here with the nearby factories), making the bay its otherwise indescribable Mediterranean blue just past the Old Town buildings in their varying shades of tan and pink, and the rolling waves of ochre rooftops with rounded clay tiles.

My To Do List includes cleaning windows, washing linens, replacing damaged things, and buying household items including a few pieces of furniture to make the downstairs apartment more livable. With guests coming in the spring, it still needs much work. Besides that, trying to get a few workouts in at a close-by gym along with writing time and submissions done. This does not include Ed's To Do List which is another ball game completely involving the attorney, tax payments, the engineer, roofer, electrician, water and electrical bills, repainting the terrace furniture and sanding and re-staining the terrace railing, which needs to be done nearly every other visit. 

 The list of things to do here keeps my mind occupied from the unspeakable things in the news that are too horrific to describe or hold in one’s mind for too long. I know that we cannot look away and yet, I cannot look for long. I will make a point of watching more in-depth discussions to understand better and more deeply rather than the horrendous clips of unspeakable violence. They are meant to be watched with horror and fear and I won’t be a part of that aspect or help them fulfill that goal.

            Wishing you peace in your way of dealing with all you are seeing right now. May peace prevail at some point in the near future of our humanity.