Hot, hot, hot!

Well my only excuse for not updating our goings on is that it's been too hot to think!  We've had some lovely days and nights out including a pool party at Pete and Jill's house which was fabulous apart from the two wasps who decided to sting me....!

Pete & Jills pad

That day was followed by the postponed 1st Alonissos Dance Festival.  It had been due to be a four day affair with over a dozen different dance groups from all over Greece in attendance...unfortunately it coincided with the date for the referendum and being Greece they have some very strange voting rules, the main one being that you can only vote from the place where you live!!  As this would have meant none of the dancers etc could take part in the vote, the festival was cancelled.

 

Now that the festival was re-arranged we were treated to some very different dances from 7 dance troupes from around the country.....there was everything from the traditional dances with pretty costumes and hanky waving to war dances from the Pondos region in the Black Sea.  It was spread over 2 days and a good time was had by all, especially the dancers who frequented the bars dancing until the early hours....ie 6am!!! They all agreed they'd had such a great time they would be back for more next year.


We then had a couple of weeks with the usual music nights and a rather large turn out for an ouzo meze evening of 28 people.....I'm not sure the taverna knew what hit it! This coincided with the island name day but due to the current financial situation in Greece it was rather a subdued affair....the procession took place as usual on the Saturday but there was no music or dancing on the Sunday .... we managed to make up for it in our own way by getting through approx. 100 mini bottles of tsipouro (not just us you understand!).

Alonissos has got Talent ran into it's second year with plenty of musicianship on show along with poetry readings and sketches.....all ably assisted by a donation bar and a barman with a rather heavy hand! 

Stelios and Chester

The next main event for the island is the Greek Saints day, Aghia Paraskevi which takes place on August 15th....that should be a night to remember with free flowing wine, food and dancing after procession through the old village.....in the meantime it's more sun, sun, sun with the odd quiz night thrown in!!