Quiet....ish!

So, following my hectic week I've managed to slow the pace down .... a little anyway!  That's not to say the past 2 weeks have been without incident!! 

There is an amazing 'spit' of land at the other end of the island to Patitiri called 'Agios Dimitrios'.  It has stunning views from the beach and I have been meaning to visit all summer!  There is a bus that has been making the 40 minute journey twice a week so I hopped aboard on Sun last and soon wished I hadn't!!!  The bus was far too big for the 90 degree hairpin bends that had sheer drops each side.  One particular bend was just too much and we had to stop on the edge of the bend.  The driver put the bus in reverse and forward it went,,,to large intakes of breath from all the passengers (especially me as I was in the front seat!).  After another attempt at reverse in which it went forward again, a couple of girls asked to get off the bus so the doors were duly opened and off they got....quickly followed by the rest of us!!!!  Poor bus driver, if that thing was going over the edge then he was the only one going with it.  He finally managed to get it in reverse and back onto the safety of the tarmac to a round of applause from his cowardly passengers.




               Agios Dimitrios





It obviously wasn't my week with regard to buses as on Thurs the same week we waited and waited for the bus to pick everyone up from Leftos Yialos until eventually 2 cars pulled up.  It transpired that the bus had broken down and they had sent the cars to ferry us to another bus that was waiting half way back to Patitiri.  Why they didn't just send that bus I will never know...Greek male logic for you!!!
Karen invited me to a BBQ on the roof on Saturday night where a couple of local bouzouki players were going to entertain us.  I purposely didn't eat much that day as I had seen the kind of spread that Karen lays on.....the party started, ie the drinking, at 8.30 but men being men, the bbq wasn't fired up until 9.30 and wasn't ready to be cooked on until 10pm.   We finally got fed around 10.30 by which time I was starving hungry and half cut!!  It was a lovely evening though and I got to bed around 2am!  Tuesday night the same muscians played a the Black Cat in Patitiri so I popped along to listen for an hour or two.
The island is very busy apparently although I don't think it is that bad.  Although you can still get a table in the taverna's in Patitiri without too much trouble there is not a car or moped to be had for hire!! The poor people who have arrived without booking ahead are having to use the local bus or horror of horrors, walk everywhere....just like me!!
So, it's now 4 1/2 weeks until I leave the island for the UK.  I am making the most of the sunshine and will carry on enjoying the island until I leave.  It's quiz night tonight and will be my last as a participant as I will be hosting the next one!  That's it for now....if I get my pics button to work I'll update the post at a later date. Until next time x

All wined out!

Wow, what a week....I'm absolutely shattered having spent far too many late nights out drinking too much wine....so much so that I went to bed at 10pm last night!!!  Sunday had been that wonderful trip out on the boat so Monday was a day on the beach, Tuesday the same group from the boat went to Leftos Yialos to a taverna called Elionas to watch Akis and Yorgos play.  We had a great time and managed to get home around 1am.


me and the ladies at Elionas

Wednesday was Quiz Night so I walked over to the taverna at Roussoum beach and our team came in second, only 1.5 points behind the winners...pah! There is one more quiz and then it is my turn to host the one I have written!!  After the quiz (and half a litre of wine) I went to the Black Cat to hear Akis play but it was pretty empty so I gave it a miss.  Unfortunately I bumped into Nikki which led to a couple more glasses of wine and another late night!  I also managed to frighten the life out of Paul as he got a rather sloshed phone call which inferred I wanted to stay for winter and that I wouldn't be coming back with him in Sept! I assured him via email the next morning that I would be coming back and that it was just the wine talking.  I had a night off the wine on Thursday and then it was THE festival.  Panagia is the festival of the Assumption of Mary and there is a re-creation of a traditional wedding, lots of dancing and free wedding sweets, ouzo and wine along with goat spaghetti cooked in huge stainless steel vats over charcoal fires.  It seemed as though every tourist on the island, along with most of the locals, turned up for this event and there were huge swathes of people following the procession of the wedding party.

Panagia crowd

The Wedding Party





Once the 'wedding' had finished it was back to Panselinos taverna for dancing, food and wine and more wine and a bit more wine for luck!!  I went to catch the bus at midnight but the queues were ridiculous to I decided to walk home.  I went via the donkey track (very dark and very slippery with the cobbles) which was obviously not the best way but that's what happens when there is wine involved! Luckily I ended up sharing the flashlight of a lovely young couple from Athens and we chatted all the way back (45 mins walk).  There were hugs and kisses all round on our return to Patitiri and I staggered to bed at around 1am...again!

Saturday was another music night at Milia Bay and by this time I couldn't face any more wine so I smuggled in some vodka disguised as orange squash and just added Sprite.....much better! Yesterday there was a crowd of us invited to a BBQ at a lovely house near Leftos Yialos so I spent the day by and in a pool, eating lovely food, chatting to lots of people and drinking the odd glass of wine.  I managed to slope off around 7pm with Dave and Gerry and by 10pm I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and went to bed! 

 

Gorgeous place for a BBQ

So that was my week, I'm attempting to stay in and off the wine, although Karen is back from Bulgaria tomorrow so god help me!! At this rate I'm going to need a full detox and another holiday to get over this one!

 

 
 

 

 





Unexpected pleasures

Over the past couple of weeks I've been out and about to various music events and have discovered a great taverna with fantastic views.  It's rather off the beaten track but well worth finding for the view alone. 

As you can see by the next photo, the people I have met are as daft as me which is probably why we get on!  This was an attempt at getting a nice photo of me during the evening.....I got photo bombed by Dave!!!!

 

A couple of days after this beautiful clear day we had an almighty storm which caused a rather interesting cascade of water down the steps across from my studio ... anyone got a canoe??

 

 

 

I went out with the same group the other night and was invited to join a few of them on a Caique (pronounced kyeekee) that a couple of them owned, Chris & Kate.  I gratefully accepted, thank you Kate)  and we had a fantastic day on the boat travelling up the coast to a little bay for a swim. I was very proud of myself as I was persuaded to swim from the boat in deep water, which I have always been afraid of (and no, I hadn't had a drink at this point!). We then sailed on to a village called Kalamakia for lunch and then back up the coast stopping along the way for more swimming....a gorgeous day and totally out of the blue.  I'm not sure life gets much better than this:)

 

Kalamakia bay

 

 

 

Alonissos has got Talent!

Last Tuesday saw the first ever evening showcasing the talented people of Alonissos.  There were some fabulous acts including Dave playing classical guitar and Anthony on ukulele:

 

Dave on classical guitar

Anthony on ukulele

 

As well as various other singers, dancers, comedy sketches, plays and poems...conducted in both English and Greek.

Netty & Annie 'There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza, dear Liza'

A greek (and English) tragedy !



The 'Illusion' Dance

Chester & Stelios














Everyone had a great time and money was raised for the local GITs (Greek Island Thespians).  It was a first time performance in front of a crowd for a lot of the performers so a lot of wine was consumed, both by the audience and the actors!!!
Well done to all.

Good things and Bad things!

Last week was a mixture of good things (2 celebrations) and bad...(a black eye!)
First the bad. I'd been to Helios Bar at the top of the hill from my studio


view from Helios Bar



and had enjoyed a meal that was rather large so I had plenty left over for one of the cats that lives around there.  It hopped up onto a low table and as I leant forward to shoo it off, it swiped at me and got me above and below my eye, ungrateful little bugger!  It bled like mad and the following day I had some interesting swelling and bruising.  With a view to staving off any infection I doused an eyeshadow applicator in boiling water and then in Vodka, which seemed to do the trick as the cuts never went nasty like most cat scratches do.  (see, I knew liking a drink would come in handy!!).


my black eye!

Now the good.....Friday night saw the procession of the icon of Agia Paraskevi  for the "name day" of the patron saint of the island. There was a full marching band, the priest and choirboys (or whatever the greek equivalent is) and lots of chanting and incense during the blessing of the icon.

In Greece, everyone celebrates the "Name Day" of the saint that bears the same name. They celebrate this day instead of their birthday.  Saturday was a night of celebration for Agia Paraskevi, it also happened to be a new friends "name day", so there was a table of 22 of us for a meal in our favourite taverna, Archipeligos. There was live greek music and professional dancers which included our dance instructor, Yorgos and Aubrey (previously mentioned as he bought me some lovely earrings for my birthday!).  I'm very glad that when I go to my dance classes that I don't have to get kitted out in what they have to wear for a performance!!

Aubrey in full greek dancing getup!

People from our table gradually started drifting away at around 1am but I met another group of people that I knew and I was grabbed to come and join them for another drink.  A few of us then joined in with the dancing and I eventually got to bed around 3am, which would have been all very well if I hadn't then woken up at what seems to be my usual time of 6.30!!!!  Sunday was spent quietly trying to recover but by 3pm my hangover was demanding something heavy in the food line so I went in search of a burger.  It came in the form of a burger with mushrooms, bacon & cheese and homemade chips....much better, although I'm definitely getting too old for this lark and will make sure I'm on the last bus back to Patitiri at 00:50 when the BIG celebration happens on August 15th for the Assumption of Mary, otherwise things might get slightly out of hand as there is music and dancing, goat spaghetti and free wine!!!!



An interesting man

Well it's back in the old routine since Paul left so I've been back to the dance classes and to aquafit, although lazing on the beach seems to be a big part of life at the moment!!  I've lost track of the amount of people who tell me I'm looking awfully red...think I'll get a T.Shirt printed that says 'Red?' on the front and 'Yes I know' on the back!                      I met an interesting man last week, Alexis (he is French & 85 years old before eyebrows start being raised!!) . I'd popped down to the Aloni Bar on the harbour front and in the space of 10 mins 5 or 6 people came by that I knew so they'd all stopped and we'd exchanged hello's etc, There was an older gent sat at the table next to me and he turned to me and said "do you know everyone on the island?" to which I laughed and said "No, it just feels like it sometimes" and we got chatting from there.  He told me the story of the abandoned hotel at the top of the ill overlooking the harbour, The Galaxy Hotel.  He used to be the manager there for 15 years until the 4 partners fell out over whether to sell or not.  None of them could agree so it was just abandoned and is still there today, complete with with glassware and cutlery etc filling it's cupboards....strange people!!  He was also the first Concierge at the New York Plaza hotel so has met many famous people including Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and our Queen.  He left last Thursday and invited me to dine with him, which I did.  The subject of my pink skin came up...again, and the conversation went something like this. "Amanda you are very red, look at me, I am brown and I have only been here 1 week.  Yes, Alexis but you have olive skin, mine is very fair and damaged from eczema.  What do you use on your skin Amanda.  Factor 30 sunscreen.  No, you should try my recipe, I guarantee you will go brown.  What is that Alexis? Olive oil, lemon juice and water" . At which point I fell about laughing and said "Alexis, I would fry if I used that and would end up in the hospital with 3rd degree burns"  but he kept insisting it would be fine....but No, I'm not going to try it!

Paul has left the island :(

Well that's it, hubby has gone back home.   His second week seemed to fly by even though we slowed it down a bit and just had plenty of 'us' time.  He still visited lots of new places, came to aquafit at the Yalis pool where we stayed for the day.  Karen kindly took us to a beach that we couldn't get to on the local bus and we had an ouzo meze evening with 15 others which was a great chance for him to try lots of different things. We both went to Skiathos on Thursday and had a great night sipping champagne cocktails in the Rock 'n Roll bar (for those who know Skiathos) and then for the best pizza in town at Mary's which as well as having fantastic pizza, has an amazing mural covered restaurant depicting various fairy tale characters.

Mary's pizzeria

We ended the night in a very rowdy bar full of English holiday makers enjoying their last night....loudly!  Great fun though.  Friday morning was spent trying to find the fitflop shop!  Several of the ladies here had given me an order for new Fitflops and we spend a couple of hours going up and down Papiadiamantis street (the main street) looking for these blasted things.  After several texts and better directions we eventually found it and purchased 7 pairs of fitflops for the ladies.....hallelujah! What do people see in these things anyway??
Paul then waved me off back to Alonissos and I waved him off to his taxi for the flight home....sigh.

Blowing kisses from the harbour in Skiathos

So, back to life as a solo traveller.  I bumped into one of the musicians that plays at the beach nights and he invited me to one the next day so it was back to Milia bay for food, wine and music.  There was a full moon that night so the bay was lit up spectacularly by the end of the evening.


Moonlight across Mila Bay

Sunday was aqua at the Milia Bay hotel which led in turn to a rather boozy lunch with Netty and Theresa, a friend of Netty's who was staying with her. I had been lying in the sun for about half and hour when a lady who had been sitting on the opposite side of the pool came over to say how worried her and her friends were as I was looking very red....cheek!  I told her not to worry as I had been here 9 weeks now and this seems to be my new colour!!! Although actually now that the pink has calmed down, I have actually got what I call a tan! Best colour I've ever been.

Check out the tan line!!!

When I got back to my studio I fell into an alcohol fuelled slumber and woke up just in time to Skype my mum at 7!!  Karen chose this point to stick her head round the door and announce "Wine on the roof at 8" which turned into a little drinks and nibbles party with another 2 of her friends, a bottle of Prosecco and 2 bottles of Lanson champagne!  We also had the spectacular sight of 5 hawks circling the rooftop and diving between the building hunting bats....how they didn't crash into anything I will never know!
Monday was the start of my 'lose the weight that I put on when Paul was here' regime.  So 7.30 saw me in trainers, bikini bottoms and a vest top working out to Davina Intense....phew!!! This was followed at 9.30 with greek dancing with a couple of new dances with some pretty fast footwork....Yorgos must think we've all improved enough to cope! 
This morning dawned sunny and bright and I was all set to go to the beach when the clouds rolled in.  We had a huge rain storm with thunder and lightning, the works. So this gave me plenty of time for another exercise session...Pilates today.  Normal service has now been resumed and the sun is shining once again.  There is a family bbq on the roof tonight so I'll have to make myself scarce.  That's me, Game of Thrones and a glass of wine or two on my balcony then!
I gather things aren't going to well workwise back home, so to all those affected I hope things work out how you want them to...if not, I can recommend 5 months on a Greek island xxx