Off to Greece!

On 5th May, Paul and I set off once again for summer in Greece. We spent a couple of lovely days in Skiathos re-visiting old haunts and getting a surprise siting of an octopus in Skiathos harbour!  I must say it put on quite a show changing colours and letting out little puffs of ink.  We didn't dare take any pictures as several of the local children were nearby and we had visions of nets and buckets and the demise of the poor octopus (even though they are rather tasty grilled 😊).

Then it was off to Skopelos for what was supposed to be 9 days, however, this being Greece it didn't quiet go as planned!  We had a lovely ferry trip from Skiathos to Skopelos as we had not one but TWO dolphin encounters.  There was a pod of 6 that were playing in the waves beside the boat for several minutes and then later, 2 dolphins playing in the bow wave....a perfect start.
We were met at the port by our hostess, Evagglia from Traditional House which turned out to be along the waterfront and then up a couple of cobbled streets...an interesting journey as we have 2 rather large suitcases which were pushed, pulled and carried up the various streets and steps!  The little house was lovely though with terraces and a courtyard in a peaceful spot just back from the main port.  (although the beds had the hardest mattresses in the world and the church next door chimed the hours every hr 24/7!!)

Within a couple of days we received emails from a few of our friends on Alonissos asking if we knew about the planned ferry strikes!! No, we didn't and as we had planned to got to Alonissos on the second day of the strike, we had to bring our dates forward so only 7 days on Skopelos.  We had a lovely week exploring the island, visiting the beaches of Staphylos and Agnondas which had a very nice taverna!  We hired a car and crossed to the other coast to visit the church made famous in the film, Mamma Mia. We had planned to climb the infamous steps that Meryl Streep ran up whilst singing 'The Winner takes it All' but I hadn't figured on my acrophobia!  I got about 20 steps up and froze!  Paul had to coax me down, practically on my bum before leaving me safely on terra ferma and making the way up himself.  Apparently the church is actually tiny and not where they filmed the interior shots as you could only fit about 6 people in in!!

Mamma Mia church perched at the top

Inside the church

The climb!!

Having already changed our leaving date we were then asked to change it again by another day as we actually have a couple of  'jobs' to do this summer!! We have been asked to look after 2 dogs and 5 cats at their home in Steni Vala, a small village on Alonissos along from the main port of Patitiri.  Their owners had obviously also been affected by the strike and they were having to leave early to get their flight from Skiathos, so now down to 6 days on Skopelos,  hey ho. Never mind, we had a lovely time, with some great food and even live music on several nights at the fish tavernas on the waterfront. Molos in particular stands out as it had very different food on offer and 2 sometimes 3 or, as happened this evening, 4 musicians playing and singing every night!

So, on 13th May we set off for Alonissos, our home for the rest of the summer.  We were picked up by Doug and Sara and driven to their house which would be ours for 2 weeks while they headed back to the UK for a family wedding.  We were introduced to our charges for the duration, Diego & Ruby the dogs and TC, Frank, Rita, Felix and Phantom the cats.  We have beautiful views of the village and look forward to many hours sitting on the terrace watching the sailors try and moor their yachts....with varying degrees of success 😁.

Steni Vala, Alonissos

Due to the strikes, Doug and Sara had decided to sail themselves from Alonissos to Skiathos as they own their own yacht and two friends, Tony & Val went with them in order to sail it back.  Although they had a lovely sailing day there, getting back turned into a bit of an ocean saga!!  The weather turned and Val and Tony ended up having to moor up on a neighbouring island for a couple of days as they couldn't get back to the harbour due to high winds!  They ended up coming back on Friday rather than Wednesday and still had to moor in the next bay at Agios Petros as Steni Vala was full due to a flotilla from Sailing Holidays!!

No not the caribbean! Dougs' yacht at Agios Petros, Alonissos 

Now, we were told that we would hardly see the cats and that the dogs had only really ever walked to the near by village of Kalamakia which is 30 mins walk away.  We had inclement weather for the first couple of days and were fighting the cats for a chair!!  We ended up sharing the sofa with both of the dogs and big Frank, who is a rather large ginger and white cat with all the other cats taking up each of the four dining chairs!

As the weather improved we do see a couple of the cats only at feeding time but 3 of them are regular 'house' cats.  

Big Frank & Ruby

Diego

 We have also been expanding on the dogs repertoire with regards to the places they have been walking 😀. So far we have done their usual walks to Kalamakia and down to the beach and back but we have now taken them to an inland (ish) village of Isomata which was 1 hr walk away and today, as we awoke to cloudy skies and cooler temperatures, we decided today was the day to walk to Agios Dimitrios which is a spit of land with a large beach and a couple of tavernas which is approx 1.5 hrs walk!
Everything started in it's usual fashion with Ruby 'killing' her lead and getting terribly excited about the whole thing and Diego getting as excited as Diego gets, trotting along with his little tail up and waving in the breeze.  Luckily it stayed cloudy as there were a few hills to negotiate and plenty of hair pin bends along the way.  We all made it unscathed and to our delight, one of the tavernas was open so we had a glass of ouzo (Paul), a glass of rose wine (me), water (for the dogs) and a plate of fried sardines (shared between us all !). After a nice break we set off home and we were all flagging by our return.  As I write, Ruby is asleep on the sofa and Diego is spark out on his favourite chair....I don't think we'll be needing a second walk today!

We decided to give the local bar a try regarding their cocktail menu last night!  As our friends will tell you, we are both rather partial to a cocktail or two but finding a decent one in Greece has proven a challenge so far!  However, this time we struck gold....I had the perfect Capirinha and Paul had a cocktail invented by the barman....Gin, Ginger & Lychee, which was excellent.  There was also a rather large flotilla in again. One of the yachts was hosted by a couple of ladies of a certain age who obviously decided the place needed livening up ..... the beers came out and the sound system was turned up to 11 and everyone in a 5 mile radius was treated firstly to AC/DC and then to Led Zepplin and the Rolling Stones!  The waiters were rocking out and luckily so were the patrons of the tavernas.....great music but not really the right setting, although everyone enjoyed themselves for the 20 mins of serious rock before the music was turned down 😎. 

So that's the first couple of weeks of our summer.  We have another week at Steni Vala and then we have a week in our usual studio in Patitiri before more house/dog sitting in the Old Village at the top of the island!  It's a hard job but someone had to do it!!!