Kalo Taxidi - Coffee - trying to make coffee in an old-fashioned hotel

Coffee - trying to make coffee in an old-fashioned hotel
I put water in my mug to heat water for coffee. I had already noticed the burn marks round the socket so I was a little hesitant. It is a socket for a narrow pin plug - it will not take the broader prongs of my heater plug. I did not like to push too hard, as the burn marks must show that the electrics are none too healthy. So I toasted the newly risen sun in a tin of evap. milk - Nou Nou - that I would have had in my coffee. When I am dressed, I will see if I can see a bigger socket on the landing. I have already scoured the walls in my room in vain - unless a socket is lurking on the wall side of the bed or behind the wardrobe. In England, hotels of different grades are supposed to have a minimum standard of facilities. I wondered if Greek hotels are supposed to meet such standards and if the provision of a full size electric socket is one of them. Is this a single bed or double? More like ¾ size. Not a small room - could have fitted a bigger bed in. Only 2 coat hangers - so a single (in Athens I had the same size of bed and no coat hangers)

7.40. This balcony is beautifully sunny and will be sunny until the suns gets to about 10 or 11 (position) in the sky not time when it will go behind the canopy (concrete) above. Oh for a mug of coffee. Looked around bathroom and landing for socket - none. There is a tube sticking out of the wall on the landing near my door with thickish wires coming out of it - a potential socket? Are these wires sticking out of the wall live wires? There was a tube next to my bed on Milos with thinner wires sticking out. I chose that bed, as next to it was a socket that I could plug my bedside light into. That gave enough light to read by, but only if you put your eyes right by it. The socket for the other bed in Milos was too far from the pillow position.

The church (one of the many churches) bells ringing - at times the "ding dong bell pussy's in the well” tune. Oh for a coffee. Another prowl. Odd, I thought I had seen two rows of balconies at the front. I cannot have. There is no second floor. Went up stairs - to look for a socket - at the top a door that seems to lead to the roof. On the steps a number of fans, heaters and hoovers - where are they plugged in? Did the larger rooms have full size sockets? Near the light switch in my room (the twist sort that I saw in Andros) there is a bell - for room service? Perhaps I should ring and order coffee? I did not use the bell, but suspected it was not operational! On the landing is an old fashioned looking electric box. I was thinking that there would be a second bathroom upstairs. Wrong! There must be a bathroom on main corridor at an angle to my room - I can see two "bathroom" sized windows - and there is that sort of door on the landing.

I was going to treat myself to breakfast out, but everywhere is shut. It is Sunday, but what about the visiting Athenians? Don't they like to eat breakfast out? As nothing else was available, I went to the bakery and bought a cheese pie and orange juice.

I had been intrigued by a wooden box on landing at the hotel, covered with a cloth (noticed on my search for a full size electric socket. There was glass in front – covering just a small part of the front of the box, about 6" x 6". The glass was broken. Is it a very early TV? (No, I looked closer later - it was a not so old heater – although I am still not sure why it had a glass panel in that position. It is often difficult to tell at first glance what more modern electric items are at first glance. A microwave or a hi-fi?) Do not like to poke too closely in case I am caught and thought nosy. Is there a socket behind it? A socket. Oh, a full sized electric socket. What a thing to yearn for!

In the museum, there was a socket (unused) by many of the exhibits. If the "guard" had not followed me so closely, I might have thought of coming back with my water heater! (With hindsight, thinking how closely the guard trailed me on my second visit, I am glad I did not try that ploy!)

I cannot go a day without coffee. I am thinking of a way to introduce instant coffee to evap. milk. (One day I did make a milky luke-warm frappe. It cannot have been that successful as I did not repeat the experiment!)

On the same island I saw an outdoor socket in a street by a taverna table - the taverna was closed. [2011 update. Staying in my favourite room on my favourite island, with fully functioning kitchen equipment, and coffee whenever I want it, I realise some of the hardships of my earlier "island hopping" days.]


An extract from my book about Greece, "Kalo Taxidi".