Kardamili Town Hall (Not The Post Office!)
My first vlogging camera arrived at Katerina’s Supermarket – you can watch me unboxing it here if you are into that – and it was totally wrong which makes the video quite funny. I ordered a second camera immediately expecting it to take the full three weeks the first took to arrive but it came within two weeks so the delay must have been sheer weight of packages before Christmas. The second Unboxing video is here – along with a lot of laughter and double entendres around alternative uses for my brand new teeny tiny Dead Cat MicroMuff, a present from my son Nelson.
In order to get the first camera sent back, I had a fun day out to Kardamili Post Office as to return the first camera to Amazon I needed recorded delivery, which involved an actual Post Office. With Greek postal clerks. This place is legendary among the ex-pat Brits here, who warned me to think about making a morning of it, if not a day.
I wasn’t absolutely sure which building it was, being fairly convinced it was the imposing building with the flags, which turned out to be the Town Hall…I think.
I could have gone on the bus, there is one to Kardamili (en route from here to Kalamata) at 7.45am and 9.45am, and I think there’s one around lunchtime (but then you can’t get back so it’s one of the early ones or nothing. Both of which early one’s get you there but you can’t come back till 2pm as that’s how it works round here. Kalamata to Itilo twice a day, ditto Itilo to Kalamata three times a day. stopping at Stoupa on the way.
However, I didn’t fancy getting up in the freezing cold (it’s been between 5-10 degrees but remember we have no central heating out here!) so I called a very nice local ex-pat called Steve who will drive folks around and we set off at a very respectable 10am.
The threatened several hours wait in the post office didn’t materialise but my position 1 in the empty post office queue was completely cancelled out by my filling out the form wrong.
In my defence, it was in Greek and the writing was just a bit too tiny for my contact lenses to decipher without reading glasses too.
The man had pointed at me and then at two places on the form, so naturally I filled in my details in both. He then took my money, put the transaction through on the computer and stuck the barcode to the parcel, before realising I was effectively sending it back to myself.
Much loud discussion with someone out the back ensued (man #2) while the queue rather alarmingly piled up behind me. A glamorous middle age greek lady, a granny, several postmen and various other locals. I could have sworn the word “idiot” was being bandied about but that could be just me being paranoid.
After a bit of waiting, while man #1 served some others, man #2 came out from the back, to show me that he’s written the new Amazon address over the rest of the form and signed it to say he was verifying it. I think that’s what he was telling me.
Much smiling and good nature accompanied the whole affair.
After a very short walk around to film some footage for my first Vzine, I tottered off to find Steve as instructed in the local kafenaion, where I found it had been turned into a very trendy mezze place. Complete with some cheeky little budgies. I love budgies almost as much as chickens. Nice frothy Nescafe soothed my rather frazzled nerves.
Here’s a very badly edited version of that video footage, Phoebe is much better at editing than me! Gives you a sense of the place on an admittedly rainy day! Shots of the budgies at the end and I’ve speeded up the boring bits and put some music by my son Nelson (aka DJ Nelzen) over the top. Gotta promote your kids where you can, eh?
Ultimately, when the refund of several hundred pounds arrives back in my bank account, I will count my trip to Kardamili a complete success. I love going there, with it’s cobbled streets, it’s so pretty!
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