Last weekend we went out for dinner in one of the local restaurants right in the centre of Messologghi. The table next to us was occupied by Rosa (and her husband), a lovely lady who runs the local Lord Byron Centre and museum.
She started talking to us and soon invited the whole marina for a tour of the museum and centre. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, we immediately made a rendezvous for this morning.
For an explanation about the centre please visit its website where I copied and pasted the following text from:

The Messolonghi Byron Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 in Messolonghi, Greece. We are devoted to promoting scholarly and general understanding of Lord Byron’s life and poetry as well as cultivating appreciation for other historical figures in the 19th-century international Philhellenic movement, idealists who, like Byron, gave their fortunes, talents, and lives for the cause of Greek Independence.
With gracious cooperation from the local people and Authorities, the Greek and the International Byron Societies and individual Byronists from around the world, the Messolonghi Byron Society has grown in size and prominence by organizing many local, national and international activities dedicated to the memory of the poet. Among these activities have been International Conferences, lectures, one-day sessions, staging of plays inside and outside Greece, participation in British and Greek festivals, competitions, cultural events involving speakers and groups from England and America, exchanges, hospitality to Byronists from around the world, and twinning of Messolonghi and Nottinghamshire schools.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit where we admired over 2000 books in its library, the many paraphernalia about Lord Byron and the history of Lord Byron in Messologghi. Thank you Rosa and Voula for the fantastic visit!

 
 
 

Everyone in the marina has been excited about tonight’s event: Burn’s night. Could it be because they knew lots of Whiskey would be involved?
We contributed a dessert and left the cooking of the Haggis to those in the know.
The evening was celebrated according to the century’s old tradition. The only thing missing was bagpipes!
I can now say that Haggis is not my favourite meal!
The meal was followed by several musical performances and lots of Scottish dancing.

    

 
 

Burn’s night according to Wikipedia

A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet’s birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.
Burns suppers are most common in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but occur wherever there are Burns Clubs, Scottish Societies, expatriate Scots, or lovers of Burns’ poetry.
The first suppers were held in Ayrshire at the end of the 18th century by Robert Burns’ friends on the anniversary of his death, 21 July, In Memoriam and they have been a regular occurrence ever since. The first Burns club, known as The Mother Club, was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known Burns. They held the first Burns Supper on what they thought was his birthday on 29 January 1802, but in 1803 discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was 25 January 1759,^[1] and since then suppers have been held to 25 January, Burns’ birthday.
Burns suppers may be either formal or informal. Informal suppers typically include haggis (a traditional Scottish dish), Scotch whisky and the recitation of Burns’ poetry.

Chris on Ginny started a photo club a few weeks ago here in the marina. It has been fun finding nice sites for the weekly themes. This week’s theme was architecture which took me out on the streets in between rain storms. Since I did not get many interesting photos I dug some of my favourites out from different countries we have been to in the last few years. But here are some of the ones I took in Messologghi.

I have been busy making my jewellery, and am happy to have orders to fill. It keeps me off the streets so to say although it did send me to the streets of Patras to get some more supplies. It was not difficult to find some ladies to join me and Francoise was happy to drive us. We set off early, took the ferry across the gulf of Patras, next to the beautiful Rio bridge.
We shopped till we dropped, admired the carnival decorations, ate a great kebab lunch, got a trunk full of groceries at the grand AB supermarket before returning to Messologghi tired but satisfied after all this retail therapy!

 

  

 

Did you notice the snow on top of the mountain? Told you it has been cold here!

A dry day for a change and we took advantage of it by visiting the nearby island of Etoliko. No need to take a ferry as a bridge connects it to land. It is a lovely little island, used entirely for the town. On Friday mornings there is market so we were in luck! Many of the stalls were the same as the ones that show up in Messologghi but the setting here is much much nicer along the waterfront.

 
   
  
(I made the last photo in black and white as the picture could have been taken 50 years ago, so typical in many places in Greece)

   

The boys soon found a café while we strolled some more. All together we explored the island and its boatyard.
We found a nice local taverna where we met a real sea captain who translated the menu for us and later sent over wine, beer and a plate of the local delicacy, fried eel over as a gift which went perfect with the sardines and salad we had ordered. The kindness of the Greeks never stops surprising us!

   

 


 
 
   

The cold and wet weather has kept us inside for a while. Our little fan heater is working over hours but is keeping us nice and warm. We have added and extra blanket on our bed and sometimes get extra heating from our friendly neighbourhood cat Mister Freddie.
Most mornings I go into town and twice a week to the market where the lady of our favourite honey stall told us of another nice market town not far from here which we hope to visit soon.
Most of our left-overs and lots of our kind words go to our dog friends outside the gate who are so grateful, especially now that it is so cold and wet.

    

 

Epiphany is celebrated today all over Greece.
Here in Messologghi it started with a 4 hour church service (which we skipped). From the church there was a procession to the port where several eager men were waiting in their bathing suits. Special church dignitaries led the procession, and were surrounded by the army. Many of the locals followed the procession. The Priest tossed the cross in the water, the eager men jumped after it, caught it and brought it back to shore. The whole town cheered and followed the procession back to the church. So did we, only because we thought a nice coffee and cake in a cafe close to the church would be an ideal way to celebrate all this excitement!

 
 
 

   

Epiphany as explained in Wikipedia

The Orthodox Churches perform the Great Blessing of Waters on Theophany. The blessing is normally done twice: once on the Eve of the Feast—usually at a Baptismal font inside the church—and then again on the day of the feast, outdoors at a body of water. Following the Divine Liturgy, the clergy and people go in a Crucession (procession with the cross) to the nearest body of water, be it a beach, harbor, quay, river, lake, swimming pool, water depot, etc. (ideally, it should be a body of "living water"). At the end of the ceremony the priest will bless the waters. In the Greek practice, he does this by casting a cross into the water. If swimming is feasible on the spot, any number of volunteers may try to recover the cross. The person who gets the cross first swims back and returns it to the priest, who then delivers a special blessing to the swimmer and their household.

Very early today we took a flight back to Greece. We said bye to Henrik and Myriam, the cats, our comfortable room with views over the Mont Blanc, the washing machine, central heating and loads of running hot hot water.
Thank you so much Henrik and Myriam, we loved staying with you in the Hotel de la Pièce!

We returned our car to its garage in Verbier and got to see the town covered in snow.

Mats, Elisabeth, Per and I drove into Geneva to see the circus act Cirque d’Elize performing their show Rain. We all loved it! Go to their website to see a clip.
Later we returned to Mats & Elisabeth’s home for a later supper with champagne while we waited for the New Year to ring in. We did not see any fireworks but did admire the blue moon!

A happy and healthy 2010 to you all!