I accidentally hit publish on this post before it was ready so now I’m playing catch-up.

These are some of my door, window and other texture pics from our walks around town. You know me and colours and textures… so enjoy.

And sorry for the pic heavy posts of late!

We even found a shop we loved the name of. Hard to explain… its a very cycladic way of saying ‘look’ or ‘look here’… my mom and Zefi’ mom both use it a lot and we love it. So ‘parian’.

I love the inscription on the tiny Vamvakaris Square in Ano Syros. Here is a link to explain what it means and the words to the famous song.

And here is the song itself by the man who wrote it. A sort of greek version of the nasally country music of the 40’s… (which I love btw! The nasally country music of the 40’s as well as this particular song.)

The Hasapiko can be danced as a slow dance but also as a fast dance and originated in Constantinople in the middle ages. The dance originated in the Middle Ages as a battle mime with swords performed by the butchers guild, which adopted it from the military.

Here is a Youtube link to a good hasapiko. I used to dance this with the boys when it was fashionable to do dance displays for the tourists way back…

Vamvakaris was a famous writer of rembetika songs from Syros.

Rembetika music is the music of the Greek Underground. It originated in the hashish dens of Pireaus and Thessaloniki around the turn of the 20th century and was influenced by oriental elements that came with the forced immigration of 2 million Greek refugees from Asia Minor.

Rembetika are basically songs for those from the ‘wrong side’ of the tracks, hence the grafitti…

z

Syros is famous for a few things, least not of which is their loukoumia (turkish delight) and their nougat. So, with Zefi pushing me to actually do some touristy stuff, we visited a factory to see how they’re made.

A nice man showed us around and explained the steps…. first the mix is boiled in these vats for a certain amount of time (ok, so I wasn’t paying that much attention!.

They still have a row of the old ones there which they rarely use any more, but since I love old things…

Once the goo is ready they pour it into flat trays are lined with flour to stop it from sticking. When it cools down they cut it into four in preparation for chopping into individual pieces.

Once the pieces are cut, a lady tosses them in flour and puts them in boxes.

The nougat is a whole other section but I didn’t get more than this one photo of the boiling mix. They were’t concentrating on making nougat at the time so there weren’t any in production.

It was interesting and smelled pretty nice in there. They gave us a taste of the turkish delight (which I’m not all that fussed about) and nougat (which I adore) before we left. It was a nice visit.

z

Ag. Nicholaos (St Nick to his friends) is the biggest orthodox church on the island. In the Balkans too apparently according to a local.

Gotta love the church door with the lion head knocker.

Gorgeous colours in the church and lots of silver ornate icons.

More places to go, more sights to see.

Later.

z

This morning after dropping Lainee at the vet, Zefi and I did some more sight seeing. We walked around the Asteria and Vaporia areas of Ermouplis. It is the perfect day to sight-see, not too hot, not cold, not too windy.

Tons of beautiful buildings and picturesque streets. Syros is so different to most of the Cyclades because of its neoclassical and Venetian style.

Lots of narrow streets but I think we found the narrowest…

Good for that drunk walk home – staggering from one wall to another, no room to fall. Although, if you did fall, it might be a challenge getting up again…

Lots of pretty cats.

And a cat feeding station. I saw quite a few of them around town..

Plus more requisite window and door pics.

I just love these crumbling old buildings… though I really wish I had the money to buy and restore one or five.

Different shutters here too. These one hinge in the middle so you can open only part. Pretty handy.

Tons more to come in the explore Syros series.

z