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.