F's a bit of an eco-warrier. We always seem to be cleaning the beach or the street in front of our apartment. There are several bins for sorting waste in our kitchen. She makes her own re-usable bags for going to the laiki (fresh-produce market). She is always turning off lights in unused rooms and doesn't run the heating. She walks or rides a bike most of the year, but she really lets the side down when Mr B arrives home in the winter time and brings our little camper van - that's when we all go travelling together.
It probably undoes every bit of good F might have tried to do the rest of the year but the travelling and sightseeing is her idea so she can't claim to be a particularly dedicated environmentalist.
Travelling gives me the material to add a few feline travel tips and recommendations to my blog. You know, of course, that I'm not a travel blogger and you won't get my recommendations on best restaurants, most instagramable views, or the raving-est nightclubs, but I can comment on 'pet-friendly' hotels and cafes, feline feel good factor, and a few sight-seeing stopovers that break up road trips.
Just before Christmas we went to Monemvasia Castle.
My abiding impression of Monemvasia was formulated by the enormous clan of cats that occupied the sun-terrace at the first floor level of our apartment. The door from the living area to the terrace was top-half window, and cats would balance on a narrow ledge on the outside of the door to peer in.
Orange cats.
F lifted me up so I could see out. Stone the crows! There must have been at least a dozen of them all clamouring for attention (F's note: 14 at my count) - tortoiseshells and marmalade mostly, but on our last morning 2 small kittens with Tigger stripes turned up.
And NO, I won't let them take one home.
Fortunately the terrace door stayed shut; they would surely have all rushed in. NOT GOOD!
One day we went for a walkabout in the lower town. It does look like a cat heaven (if you are a cat living in town). There are definitely plenty of personal (?) spaces for cats - gaps, ledges, niches, windowsills, unshuttered abandoned buildings, stairs, high places, basements.... rocks to sun yourself on and so on.
We had coffee in a nice cafe. Well I had the milk froth off F's coffee, and it was very nice; good consistency, whole milk. Nice. And no one was concerned about a cat in a back pack.
I even visited a big church. "No pets in the icon room" the lady said. So my backpack was set on the floor while F&Mr B went into a little room to look at a very old picture in a special glass case. It was a picture of a human with lots of light and gold bits - I could see it through my windows. I did study it even though the lady tried to engage me in conversation while they were looking at it. I ignored her, and it didn't strike me dead or blind or anything for looking - so there!
Everywhere we went there were cats. Unlike the Piraeus cats, the Monemvasia cats appear to have worked out that ingratiating themselves to humans wins more food treats. They all looked well fed, clean and well groomed compared to some of my bin-diving feral neighbours back home in Piraeus.
Just like the humans in Monemvasia, they've worked out what the tourists are good for.
It probably undoes every bit of good F might have tried to do the rest of the year but the travelling and sightseeing is her idea so she can't claim to be a particularly dedicated environmentalist.
Travelling gives me the material to add a few feline travel tips and recommendations to my blog. You know, of course, that I'm not a travel blogger and you won't get my recommendations on best restaurants, most instagramable views, or the raving-est nightclubs, but I can comment on 'pet-friendly' hotels and cafes, feline feel good factor, and a few sight-seeing stopovers that break up road trips.
Just before Christmas we went to Monemvasia Castle.
 |
| Casa Palma upper left. |
Orange cats.
F lifted me up so I could see out. Stone the crows! There must have been at least a dozen of them all clamouring for attention (F's note: 14 at my count) - tortoiseshells and marmalade mostly, but on our last morning 2 small kittens with Tigger stripes turned up.
And NO, I won't let them take one home.
Fortunately the terrace door stayed shut; they would surely have all rushed in. NOT GOOD!
One day we went for a walkabout in the lower town. It does look like a cat heaven (if you are a cat living in town). There are definitely plenty of personal (?) spaces for cats - gaps, ledges, niches, windowsills, unshuttered abandoned buildings, stairs, high places, basements.... rocks to sun yourself on and so on.
We had coffee in a nice cafe. Well I had the milk froth off F's coffee, and it was very nice; good consistency, whole milk. Nice. And no one was concerned about a cat in a back pack.
I even visited a big church. "No pets in the icon room" the lady said. So my backpack was set on the floor while F&Mr B went into a little room to look at a very old picture in a special glass case. It was a picture of a human with lots of light and gold bits - I could see it through my windows. I did study it even though the lady tried to engage me in conversation while they were looking at it. I ignored her, and it didn't strike me dead or blind or anything for looking - so there!
Everywhere we went there were cats. Unlike the Piraeus cats, the Monemvasia cats appear to have worked out that ingratiating themselves to humans wins more food treats. They all looked well fed, clean and well groomed compared to some of my bin-diving feral neighbours back home in Piraeus.
Just like the humans in Monemvasia, they've worked out what the tourists are good for.
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