Festive days

It is a national holiday in Greece tomorrow which means that our (very touristic) town is packed with visitors for the festive three-day. The lovely weather is making things even more crowded. So for the morning walk I had to resort to routes off the beaten track!

Above our scenic town there is a castle. Actually there are two of them, a lower and a higher one. Both built to protect the town and its people from the invasion of pirates and other enemies. Nowadays there no vicious pirates coveting the town's wealth but the "invasion" of tourists can be quite overwhelming too.

Although those modern "invaders" bring wealth to the town instead of looting it :)

Nevertheless I followed the example of our ancestors and turned to the safety of the castle. And while most of the visitors were having their morning coffee at the countless coffee shops of the town or roaming the scenic roads of the old town, I passed the beach with the early swimmers and took the uphill road to the castle.

Marcos (the dog) totally approved this change in our daily routine. He had to walk a bit longer than usual next to me without sniffing and peeing around but once we arrived he was off leash to do his thing undisturbed :)

Usually his walk is with a 5 meters long leash and I can see in his eyes how much he enjoys the occasions that he has the space to run freely!

The prickly pears are struggling to survive with the extended drought that has hit our part of the world. I have never seen them so wrinkled before but hopefully we'll have some rain soon and they'll return to their normal looks.

I don't want to think though, how stressed the rest of the flora must be if the cactuses that are meant to survive in arid climates are in such poor condition.

As I was enjoying the view of the old town, the extremely loud music from a parked car near by, reminded me that festive days are meant to be loud and occasionally tacky and annoying :)