Next morning very early we left Merihas and after a short trip we came to the Chora, also called Messaria, still on Kythnos.I did not sleep well as my poor  half cooked body made it impossible to find a comfy position. Messaria is just beautiful, looking fresh against the harshness of the plateau it was built on. I was given the morning off to explore the village, and was absolutely thrown by the beautiful churches with the most wonderful paintings and also some lovely woodcarvings. The little houses with their pots of geraniums and daisies of many hybrids was also a delight, and I was very happy to just stroll around. Later I found a small taverna with tables on a shady verandah, and ordered a breakfast of tiri [cheese] and bread. The bread on the islands is delicious, round and heavy and crusty!  With the bread you usually get some olive oil to dip the bread in, but I just loved the cheese, as every island's had a very distinctive flavour and taste. Delicious!!!
Next to me a group of old men with long beards were playing tavli, a board game that is said to be Greece's national board game. It looked to be an intently serious match, heads bent and shoulders taught, but  they were all taking long puffs on their pipes, blowing thick clouds of smoke into each others faces, which didn't seem to bother them at all!
A little way from the verandah a group of women were having a nice get together, their voices sometimes low and earnest, then suddenly someone would say something in a louder tone, and all of them would try and talk together, their voices rising to an earsplitting crescendo. I was wondering if some absent fellow villager were being discussed, or maybe the faults of their husbands! It was all so strange to me coming from South Africa, as people at home were much more inhibited.
I sat musing about the joyfulness of this people that could not be leading an easy life until it was time to go back to my duties. Dorah had bought me an ointment for the sunburn, and boy, did that made a difference to my welbeing!! Of course Nikos was intent on going for a swim, And I just sighed and and tried to reach the water as unobserved as possible! Kept the shorts on until almost at the water's edge! Oh well!!!!!