Covid Pass

 On Wednesday I had my third Covid shot. A bit of pain that night and the next morning, but it faded fast. Today I went out to pay my electricity bill in Downtown Patras. KEP (social security office) is close by the Protergia office where I pay the electricity bill so I decided to take my 3rd Covid appointment paper with me, just in case the government had already updated my vaccination status.

I took the train to the last stop, Agios Andreas, and walked along the ocean towards the KEP office.
New cat houses!

At the KEP office there was no line of people waiting outside. I went in.
10 minutes later I had a printout with the new QR code.
I walked on the main shopping street to the Protergia office.
Busy on the street, no lockdown!

From the downtown station I took the train back home.

Covid Booster shot

Yesterday was my Covid booster shot appointment, at 16.00hr. I took the train at 13.10 and got off at the downtown station.
The main shopping street was very busy, as there is no lockdown, a check at the entrance of stores of proof of vaccination, recovery or test result.

I walked Agios Nikolaos street, and up the stair case to the top.

From the top I walked to the Agio Andreas Hospital. I got there at 14.15. Early, but I figured, that like in June, when I was there for my second shot, that there would not be a long wait. 

I was helped right away. From the hospital I walked down Smirnis street to the Agios Andreas train stop, to go back home. 

Merry Christmas & Best Wishes for New Year

 

Rain in Greece

It has been raining a lot the last 3 weeks. I have spent the winters in Athens since Jan 2013.
Here a blog post from 2013: https://bigfoottravels.blogspot.com/2013/01/jan-10-2012-diary-greece.html  
I don't remember it raining so may days...... 

I do remember it raining every day when I spent a winter in the south of Crete....

Olives harvesting

Last year it was November 22-25 that olives were harvested in the garden. Below my Blog post of that harvest. 

This year the harvest was Dec 02-05 and yield was smaller:810 kg > 112 liter olive oil. 

The gardener and the house each get 50%.

Olives harvesting in Greece. With chainsaws branches are cut from the olive trees and from the cut branches the olives are stripped. The bags way about 220 lbs each. 

The garden has 20 olive trees and produced 11,000 pounds. 

about 6 kg of olives are needed to produce 1 liter of olive oil. 

Olives trees can have yearly high or low yield. This year is a low yield.

Dec 03, 2021: Patras, storm damage on Nov 29

There was a big storm, all along the coast, on Nov 29.
On my run this morning I noticed a lot of storm waves damage to the road.

Around the curve is most of the damage.

Along the boardwalk, and further North where it becomes one road with a pedestrians/runners lane on the ocean side of the asphalt road. The waves had taken big chunks of the road. Where there is a double line I had to get of the main road because of debris, ranging from rocks anywhere between 5-20 centimeter and plates of asphalt 1x2 meters. Also a construction crew clearing the debris away.

The storm waves got on the road a distance of 3-10 meters from the shoreline (the road is between 1-3 meters high than the shoreline!)

Corona Virus

Here in Greece my Corona vaccination would expire on Jan 10 (7 months after the second shot on Jun 10) and, as I am over 60, I would get fined 100 euros per month.

So, my third (the booster) shot appointment is on December 22.....

Nov 29, 2021: Patra

 Today was a perfectly balanced day: 
I got up at 06.30, went on the internet to look at stuff, all the while it was raining pretty heavily.
It got light enough at 07.30 to go outside, it was cloudy but dry. Fed the dogs and did stretch exercises on the terrasse.
I walked to the Rio train stop and  took the 08.10 train to the Agya train stop.

I started running from there, going North, at the end I turned around, now having a strong head wind.
I tested my new Garmin GPS watch navigation: Fenix 6x Pro.
This watch has maps! https://youtu.be/iMxErs1SAPA

After 5 km (3 miles) I stopped and walked up the street to the Lidl supermarket, getting groceries.
At 09.45 I took the train from there, back to Kastellokampos.

It started raining again. Read in my easy chair in front of the North side picture window. 
At 12.30 I was getting sleepy. Siesta time! I slept for 2 hours. Still raining on and off.
Fed the dogs again at 16.00.
Now it is getting dark. I will watch some Netflix tonight and go to bed around 22.00-22.30.

And that is it, for today.....

One more thing:

I used to run every second day, until a year ago. Muscle and tendon injuries stopped that schedule.
I switched to every third day. That worked out well.
Except, mentally it is easier to run every second day, opposed every third. 
So, I am trying the second day schedule again, keeping a close watch for calf tightness  and upper thigh muscles.

Nov 24, 2021: Patra

I went to bed at 19.30 and slept until 06.30: 10 1/2 hours at least. Big city tiredness and also waking up too early last night.

I bought a package of tomato seeds about 2 months ago, I put some seeds in a grow container first, and then put the grown plants when they were about 3 centimeter, in pots.

This is their size now.
Maybe they will grow tomatoes? If not, I will do it again in April....

Nov 20 - 23, 2021: Athens

Nov 20
I took the train this morning from Patras to Athens: a Tour bus from Patra to Kitaro (about half way), a ten minute wait and from there a train to Athens. I left Patras at 10.15 and arrived in Athens at 13.45. Walked 15 minutes to Hara's apartment. 

I had promised Hara that I would cook on Sunday and Monday,

 so I took the the metro from Victoria Square to Monastiraki. From there I walked to the Agora market to buy some meat.

from the market I walked back to Victoria Square. 

Enough walking for today. Tomorrow morning I am running: my behind the Akropolis route.

Nov 21
Hara had a birthday party last night. I did not last the whole evening, I went to sleep around 22.30.
This morning I woke up at 06.00 and when it got light enough, I went out to go for my run.

I counted 21 runner along the way.

From Thission metro station I walked through the Flea Market, where shops and restaurants just started to open up. 

At Monastiraki I took the metro back to Victoria Square

I went to the National Archeological Museum (10 minute walk from Hara's apartment) This time to the Egyptian exhibit.

Nov 22
I went to the Dutch Embassy this morning. I had some questions. Which did they could not answer.

I walked back to Monastiraki by way of the National Gardens,

Syntagma and Ermou Street. 

Near Syntagma is my favorite tea store: Madras

I bought 5 one pound bags of green tea to take with me to Patras.

From Monastiraki I took the metro back to the apartment.

Nov 23

Woke up way to early.
13.45 I left for the train station, a 15 minute walk.
Waited on the track 7 platform for the train to arrive.

14.36 On the train to Patras.
17.30 Arrived at the Patras train station.

17.38 the local Patras train to Kastellokampos.

Walked in the rain to the house.

Corona Virus

Greek PM: Unvaccinated banned from closed venues; Covid-Pass expires for all over 60: Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Thursday evening that unvaccinated citizens are banned from indoor venues and that all above 60 years old will be obliged to receive a…

Nov 17, 2021: Patra

 The rosemary bush in the garden is blooming, Orpheus is looking at me...

Below is Darius.

The dogs, also Hector, (not pictured) like eating olives. They sniff out the ripe ones on the ground and eat 15 or so in one sitting......

Nov 13, 2021: Patra

 Took the train this morning to the last stop: Aegia Andreas 

and walked back to Downtown along the ocean.

There are always people fishing, mostly men, but also some women. They never catch anything but it is a excuse to get out of the house or set a goal for the day.

I did the same when I was a kid in Gouda: fishing at the Reeuwijkse plassen.

Cat shelters were put in place in a year ago.

I needed to make copies at a Copy Place. I found one, but it was closed......

Nov 08, 2021

 New Covid restrictions from Nov 06 to Nov 21.

I went to the Cosmote store today to pay the internet/phone bill, where I had to show a valid PCR/rapid test ot a Covid certificate and show an ID. I did not know about this, luckily I had my passport with me and the Covid certificate on my phone...

I went to a sporting good store, same thing.
Exceptions are, among others, supermarkets.

Nov 05. 2021: Train Patras-Athens

 I am taking the train to Athens on Nov 20 and staying there until leaving again on Nov 23, back to Patras.
I went to the Train OE website to book, but  paying (senior: 25.80 euro, round trip) could only be done by train voucher which you can only get at the train station.

I have a Train OE App on my phone, tried that this morning. Easy to use and cheaper (23 euros). For payment I was able to use my Piraeus debit card.

Oct 29, 2021: Patra

 Lots of wind from the east where I live and no wind 2 stops west from here, towards Patras...

Oct 27, 2021: Fall is here

Strong wind from the North, lots of clouds. Fall has arrived. Not cold, but cooler. The driveway is littered with fallen olives. A month from now it will be harvesting time.

Oct 18, 2021: Patras

 It started raining 9 days ago, on Saturday. On and off clouds and rain until and including last Saturday. On Sunday it was cloudy but no rain. Today sunshine!
Back to shorts and T-shirts.

Oct 13, 2021: Running

 It started raining on Saturday and it is still raining, every day on and off,as I am writing this on Monday morning.
I own 2 smartwatches from Garmin: the Forerunner 245 and the Instinct Solar. I created a course on my computer in Garmin Connect, downloaded it in my Forerunner watch and yesterday I ran a 3 mile course in my neighborhood.

While running, a breadcrumb trail view showed me where to turn right, left or go straight. Worked perfectly.

This is a picture of my VO2 (Oxygen) blood saturation. I am officially 36 years old.....