2018 - Alonissos - July

While we were in Naxos the island had another fire, much bigger this time but in the same area around Marpunta.  Many people were evacuated including Debbie and Chris and it came very close to their house.  Arson is believed to have been the cause yet again!

Back to Alonissos from Naxos and moved into the house next to Lyn.  It's nice enough but no balcony on the lower floor, only one off the bedroom.  Not much to use cooking wise either but it will be ok for a couple of months.
We'd heard that a lot of people had seen and been swimming with a seal called Bill that was previously rehabilitated on the island.  We took a walk down to the beach where he was last seen and lo and behold, there he was....sunning himself on the beach.  We sat a couple of feet away so that we didn't disturb him too much (unlike other idiots who even picked him up for a photo....morons at the Drunk Seal bar in Patitiri)

Bill

Bill with divers in background

We had an interesting hour at the Sunset bar on the island one night.  They had advertised a Rock and Blues duo so as we had use of the car we went along.  It turned out to be an instrumental duo, keyboard and guitar and it was background lounge music, definitely not rock or blues!  Fabulous sunset though.

 

The bus is still not running and it's the first week of July! We had planned to walk to Roussoum every now and then and get the bus down to Patitiri in an evening but that isn't happening any time soon.  We are keeping fit by walking down to Megalos Mourtia most days and back up the hill again.  Its a 30 minute slog back up so we are both dripping by the time we get to the house.
It was the 4th Alonissos dance festival the first weekend of July so we booked a table at Helios bar in Patitiri which has a great view over the harbour.  When we got there a table wasn't available and they tried to seat us in the middle where we wouldn't have been able to see anything!  There was table at the front so we sat there but they told us that was reserved for someone else but I put my foot down and stayed put....the waitress then ignored us for half an hour, not a good start.  The dancers had just started coming ashore when huge black clouds came over and the heavens opened.....we had torrential rain and the whole evening was cancelled 😞
All was fine for a week and then disaster struck...again! We had decided to walk down the donkey path to Patitiri and have a swim on the town beach and then go for ouzo meze and walk back up again, however!  I managed to catch my toe on a rock and stumbled before falling heavily. I skinned both hands but really hurt my right hand and my left knee slammed into a rock,....ouch. Once I had stopped feeling like I was going to be sick we managed to get down to Patitiri where luckily someone we knew saw us and fetched their car and took us home.  I then spent the next couple of days house bound as my knee swelled up and I couldn't put any weight on it.  My wrist is very sore and I have it in a wrist brace borrowed from Julie...not my summer so far!
As my wrist still hurt a week later I was persuaded to go to the medical centre to make sure I haven't broken anything.  We got there at 8.45 and left around 11.30!  There were only 3 people in front of me but one man was in the consulting room for 45 mins and it just looked like he was getting print outs for his medicines....crazy!  Everyone was getting very tetchy by this time. When I was finally seen they took xrays and nothing is broken just ligament damage in my wrist.

Since we are in the old village it has been very much out sight out of mind and we hadn't been invited out anywhere until  we received an email inviting us to a BBQ at Pete and Jills, it was the first night that we were looking after the dogs again so we had the car and it was nice to catch up with everyone, however briefly.  Unfortunately we didn't eat until 10 and left at midnight so it was all a bit rushed.  The following night we were invited down town to a surprise birthday drinks get together with Jill and John as John had turned 80 years old. 

We have eaten out a few times in the village and thought we would bump into a few people for drinks etc but no-one who lives here seems to go out in an evening!!  I have discovered a new cocktail, a Caipiraki..basically a caipirinia made with cretan raki. It gets me very drunk very fast....maybe not such a good thing 😉

Dressed up for a night out

2017 -The rest of summer

So August saw plenty of hot hot sunshine, a music night at Rizzos in tribute to Nick, Panagia and another kitten rescue who we have christened Domino in honour of a much loved cat who is no longer with us.

Paul at Rizzos

Sunset in the old village

Panagia celebrations

Domino

We had lots of nights out with friends visiting for the season.  One memorable evening was with Paddy & Lesley and Colin and Jilly, we had almost finished our meal when the heavens opened!  We were sat on the outer side of the taverna so promptly started getting rather wet!  We hastily moved and waited for the rain to subside, ably assisted by a glass of Mastic from the taverna.  There was a brief lull so we all hot footed it to the Aloni bar where once we had our drinks the heavens opened yet again, accompanied by a massive storm which immediately cut the power to Patitiri!!  We eventually made it home around 2am after a couple more drinks...Colin and Jilly were flying home the next day and were up at 6am, I don't know how they do it as they are both in their 70's!

September has been lovely with unseasonably hot weather continuing throughout the month.  We had a fabulous boat trip at the beginning of the month, without the thunder and lightning this time. I even swam off the boat although only once as at the next cove we were sharing the water with rather a lot of jellyfish.

We were very lucky to have the use of a friends car for a few weeks so we headed off to the other end of the island to Aghios Dimitrius where we had a lovely day watching the yachts come and go.  A couple of  days later we had driven to Steni Vala and had a morning on the beach and had headed to Kalamakia for a late lunch....unfortunately we got back in the car and found the battery dead as a doornail!  It turned out to be an alternator problem which was going to be investigated but hadn't been got around to just yet!  Never mind, a day in the local garage and all was well so we were able to get out and about visiting those places just a bit too far to walk to.

A friend had her 50th birthday in September and had a huge party in the local bar. Plenty of food and drink and a fabulous cake ... a great night had by all.

We are still managing to hit the beach at the end of Sept and were entertained by a little grebe who was herding fish onto the shore for his lunch!

So that was the summer.  We have our flight home booked for the winter and then we'll be planning our excursions to our upcoming cruise in February....can't wait.

2018 - Alonissos and Naxos - May/June

Only flight out from Manchester airport so like a ghost airport....Into Athens at 5.45 so spent the day going to the Acropolis and the museum before heading back to the airport for our evening flight to Skiathos.
Well here we are again.  Dog sitting for Philippa and Nigel.
New tavernas are opening...Skippers in Patitiri (expensive wine but food not too bad), Thea in the Old Village opposite Spencers house and stealing his land! Nikki going to sit in bra and knickers to put off the customers!
Angelos and Nikos have a new bar called Marabu (used to be Boheme) so w went to opening night for a free drink.
Everything changed on the front as no fixed pergolas are allowed so everywhere looks smaller.
Young swift got into the house
Zoe got attacked by Marley (Ivan and Sophias dog) which came out of nowhere. It was horrific and I thought he was going to kill her. We rushed her to the vet and once he'd sedated her and shaved her he found a massive tear and 3 other bite wounds that he stitched and put drains in, We now have to do daily massages with hot towels to make sure the blood flows and give painkillers and antibiotics.  We've stayed in most of the time as we didn't want to leave her and the other dogs keep worrying at her.

Julie and Nigels car is in Switzerland awaiting repair
Fire at Marpounta....probably arson. Slept through the whole thing
Managed to book the ferry back to skiathos twice so hoping to get a refund
No luck so far with the refund as Hellenic appear to be useless.  They keep asking me for a booking number that doesn't exist!!

And so to Naxos.  Flew Sky Express for a change as they had better flight times, ok but nothing served on the flight.
Waiting on the bus from the plane, one of the staff vans came past hotly pursued by the staff....someone had left the handbrake off and it was heading for the runway!
Purse was stolen at Athens bus stop outside terminal. Only 30 euro but my caxton card and keys to the suitcase were also in the purse. Bolt cutters were used to get into the cases at our accommodation
We have the tiniest bathroom. The shower is next to the loo and both occupy a space of around 1.5 ft. I'm not sure you could swing a mouse, let alone a cat.
Days spent at the beach so far and nights out in town
Evening meal at a beach taverna, Kavouri, was friendly to a cat who promptly leapt onto my knee, curled up and went to sleep!

Planning a boat trip and a bus trip to the beaches/villages further along the coast

Spent a day wandering around the town and falling over bits we hadn't yet discovered.  Some fantastic views of the island from the kastro area

After a week and a bit lazing around we've started exploring our surroundings! We caught the local bus and went down the coast to Plaka and then walked back to Agia Anna and Agia Prokopios where I caught the bus back and Paul walked home after an hour on the beach,  Had a lovely lunch at a taverna on the beach with ouzo at €1.50!!

 

We had a lovely day on Weds 13th on a coach trip taking in various villages around the island.  We visited Melanes where there is a Kouros then to Kinidaros where apparently the children learn to dance before they can walk.  Then onto one of the oldest churches of Byzantine balkans, Drosiani Mary.  Onto Filoti where we had a glass of wine, Raki and a snack followed by walnut cake!  We then went to an old olive press and a current pottery workshop where I bought a pottery bird that sings if you put water into it and blow :)
Our last stop was Pyrgaki which has to be the most barren beach resort I have ever seen! We plonked ourselves on a nice little pebbled corner and were just settling down when a mighty wave swept in and got us and all our things extremely wet!!  Hey ho, luckily the camera and the kindle were fine and the euro notes are just slightly crinkled 😅

Filoti

Kouros at Melanes

Drisiani Mary

We have planned a trip to Amorgos so leave Naxos for a couple of days on Friday.  Then we have booked the ferry to go to Iraklia on the Tuesday and then Koufanissia on Saturday.  There were day trips but you didn't get much time at the islands and it was much more expensive. This way we get to enjoy a bit more time on each of them.

We set off for Amorgos on Friday and were met at the port by Theo and taken to our studios Amorgia 2.  We had a lovely studio on the top floor with our own terrace with fabulous views across the bay.  We also had a church next door whose bells were pulled intermittenly (including at 7am on sunday morning!!)

We had an ok meal at Captain something on the waterfront and a drink at the cafe. My first impressions are ok but it doesn't have the right feel for me....Paul likes it though.
The following day we got on the bus to the monastery. It was a hefty climb with spectacular views but a bit of a let down when we got there.  The public are only allowed access to 3 rooms and you can't take pictures in any of them.  A cute family of cats and kittens though so I was happy!

Panagia Hozoviotissa

Kitten at monastery

Kitten at monastery

We walked up to the Chora from the monastery and had a well deserved cup of tea (raki for Paul) and had a good stroll around. We found a little shop that had all the local products and insisted we try all the different rakomelo!  Not good really as I don't like it but luckily the measures were tiny.
We had a final drink in a taverna before eventually finding the footpath back down to the harbour.  It was a lovely walk but over very uneven ground so by the evening my back and hips were protesting.  We had a meal in the Corner taverna which again was ok but nothing special and took 2 hours to complete....it was only an oven dish so no excuse really.  The following day we went to drop off our bags at the cafe (as Theo had said we could) but were told no as they couldn't guarantee their safety!!!! We took the bags back to the studio and put them in a corner of the rooftop patio and went exploring.
Such a shame R & A hadn't told us about the other side of the harbour....there were several bars and tavernas right on the waterfront and having walked to the beach at the end we walked back and had a lovely lunch of smoked salmon bruschetta, spicy cheese and half kilo of wine.  We then headed to the beach for a couple of hours before collecting our bags and waiting for the ferry back to Naxos.

Back to Naxos and a day by the pool (or so we thought), unfortunately some kids and the barman decided to have music wars and as they were both playing dance crap we left.  Paul went to the beach and I headed back to the studio....why are people so damn selfish? We got chatting to the guys at our favourite cocktail bar in town, Diogenes.  They are brothers, Gregory and Kyriakos and from Naxos.  There are some trees opposite where all the sparrows come to roost.  They make one heck of a racket but are a fun spectacle when they all start arriving just before sunset.

Sparrows roosting

Naxos sunset

We have a bunch of american girls in the accommodation at the moment who seem to think its fine to slam doors and talk at the top of their voices until gone 3am....great.
Another island today as we're off to Iraklia....we caught the 12pm ferry and were walking the island by 2pm.  We set off to find a cave and the only other village on the island but having been walking for an hour or so we gave up on the idea and just walked back.  Stunning views across the island which is lovely and typically greek.  We had a couple of hours on the beach and then had a nice meal before catching the ferry back to Naxos.  We were home by 10.45 and then tried to go to bed but the girls were up again so another sleepless night. I'm starting to look forward to going back to the sleepy little island of Alonissos!

Views across to Ios

Views from Iraklia

Iraklia beach

Sunset over Iraklia

The rest of the month was an endless round of going to the beach and out in the evening.  We had planned to eat out at lunchtime on my birthday and then go out drinking in the evening but the day before I started with an upset stomach.  By that evening I was doubled up in pain and in and out of the loo every 10 minutes.  My birthday was spent in the loo with Paul on the hunt for antibiotics!  I appeared to have contracted Giardiasis from infected water as had many other people as one chemist sold over 60 packets of Imodium in one day.  Luckily we were able to get the tablets and took them for the recommended 3 days which sorted it out (although I didn't eat for 4 days and couldn't drink on the tablets....happy birthday to me!)

We managed to have a few more lovely lunches and evenings out with some spectacular sunsets and even managed to find a David Bowie cat.