{"id":4129,"date":"2013-06-25T17:50:18","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T17:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2013-12-03T17:01:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T17:01:59","slug":"last-words-posted-from-athens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4129","title":{"rendered":"Last Words Posted From Athens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Moon<\/a>

Moon In My Hand<\/p><\/div>\n

23 June 2013 – It is a regular thing for Ray and Heather, together with friends, to head to Paradise Bar at Agia\u00a0Marina beach on a Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 Knowing these outings can become very rowdy and it is never their intention to drink in moderation, \u00a0generally I try to avoid them.\u00a0 However, being my last Sunday for this trip and with the anticipated supermoon, I decided it might just be worthwhile going down.\u00a0 Left the house just after 1900 hours to make the 20 minute\u00a0walk down …\u00a0more akin to a stroll\u00a0as the intense\u00a0heat of the day was still very\u00a0noticeable.\u00a0 On this night, a full moon … the closest and largest of the year.\u00a0 In other words, it was not just a supermoon, it was the closest supermoon of 2013 and really quite amazing.<\/p>\n

Finding it somewhat difficult to keep up with the continuing arrival of yet another round of shots at our table and the loudness of the music, together with whistle blowers all around, I quietly left after a couple of hours to walk back to the Bar to see Costas.\u00a0 Went the longer more scenic route\u00a0via the Old Harbour, with an amazing number of luxury boats moored there.\u00a0 The hot night had everyone out\u00a0walking, dining, drinking, buggy riding …\u00a0near the Bar I met Helen and later she came there – our third night in a row keeping company until leaving together around 0200 – 0300 hours to head home.<\/p>\n

The anticipated explosion\u00a0of numbers on the island\u00a0for the Pentecost weekend never really happened … a sign that there just is not the money around.\u00a0 Disappointing for the businesses who rely so much on the holiday weekend numbers, however, nice for me with the beach uncrowded\u00a0… had my last visit to Agios\u00a0Mammas\u00a0yesterday –\u00a0Monday.\u00a0 With Costas\u00a0spending long\u00a0tiring hours in the Bar, on Saturday we had lunch out at Spetsiotiko, on Sunday it was to Bouboulina, once again for me I was happy to have their Moussaka … it truly is the best I have tasted anywhere.\u00a0Yesterday we settled for a takeaway burger and pizza.<\/p>\n

After avoiding taking out the dreaded suitcase from the storeroom for as long as I was able, finally it had to happen\u00a0on Monday.\u00a0 Did as much of my packing as I could before heading to the Bar around 2230 hours.\u00a0 Ray and Heather, John, Pantelis, Stratos\u00a0and Sotiris were all there … said my farewells before\u00a00200 hours, then home for what was, thankfully,\u00a0a better than average night’s sleep for this girl.\u00a0 Up this morning at 1030 hours … John called by the house with a map to help me locate Triton Hotel in Piraeus.<\/p>\n

Around 1230 hours, I said my goodbyes to three of the\u00a0cats – Bob, Oliver and Sydney, all sleeping in the garden on top of the wall and\u00a0with my suitcase atop Costas’ bicycle, we walked down to Filippos\u00a0in the Dapia.\u00a0 Had an omelette and a coffee … Ray and Heather and also Penny came\u00a0to say their farewells – “Kiwi” Alex passed by with her son and I met Niki who is originally from Wellington.\u00a0 With my inevitable departure hour approaching, Costas\u00a0and I walked down to the jetty to await the Flying Cat 6.\u00a0 As it approached, I knew we had to say our goodbyes so I said to him, there was no need to wait … a last embrace and he walked off, eventually disappearing out of sight just as I was about to board.\u00a0 How I hated leaving … the journey to Piraeus seemed like an eternity, eventually disembarking at 1800 hours.\u00a0 Within 20 minutes I was here in my room at the Triton Hotel … at 39 Euro, excellent value, a more than adequate room, clean and comfortable with free wi-fi, plus things I was not expecting like a refrigerator and a hairdryer.<\/p>\n

My plans are to stay in this evening and rest.\u00a0 Tomorrow I will probably not hurry to leave here before the deadline check out time of noon.\u00a0 The bus stop for the Airport is very close by and I have checked in online for my 1610 hours flight from Athens to Dubai.\u00a0\u00a0My usual compliments of Emirates hotel room\u00a0for\u00a0the 12 hour stopover there, then the following day, the long haul to Auckland via Melbourne.\u00a0 An Air New Zealand flight to Wanganui should see me arriving back at 1625 hours on Friday.\u00a0 The weekend to recover, catch up with family\u00a0and organise myself at home, then back to work on Monday.\u00a0 If everything goes to plan, I will arrive back in Greece on 25 October, head straight for Spetses\u00a0and then sometime in November after the Bar has closed for the season, Costas and I hope to visit Crete together, when I will have the opportunity to introduce him to my wonderful family there.\u00a0 As always, a\u00a0worthwhile goal to aim for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 June 2013 – It is a regular thing for Ray and Heather, together with friends, to head to Paradise Bar at Agia\u00a0Marina beach on a Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 Knowing these outings can become very rowdy and it is never their intention to drink in moderation, \u00a0generally I try to avoid them.\u00a0 However, being my last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4621,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/4621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}