Santorini, Day Six: Jummah

Today was all about Jummah. As with most holiday of this type, my biggest concern was always how to offer Jummah (and I've written elsewhere why this would be so important to me) on an island with no mosques. Internet research came up with nothing, and our host at the villa equally dismissed the idea of any organised congregation on Santorini. Our only hope was to see if we could tap into a hidden local Muslim community and to either join their congregation or make our own.

Our Afghani friend turned out to be a useful and enthusiastic contact to have on the island. As I wrote before he confirmed that although there were Muslims on the island they weren't organised to establish a regular Jummah, but he said he would try to get as many people to join our initiative as he could.

Unfortunately despite his best efforts our small adhoc Jummah turned out to consist of only him, a Muslim friend who was staying at the villa and myself. Nevertheless it was a decent Jummah and well worth doing.

After prayers our friend cooked us the best lunch I had in Santorini yet; fried masala beans with crusty bread. Honestly it was pretty amazing and my mouth waters just thinking about it now. Oh and as aside amazingly enough the local supermarket sells halal chicken. Yes, I was shocked too.

After saying our goodbyes I then headed home for... that's right, some more chilling by the pool. After only six days I have to admit that I was starting to feel a little homesick; a feeling compounded by the realisation that Santorini may have been a little wasted on a single guy like myself.