{"id":4178,"date":"2013-10-27T18:55:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-27T18:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2014-04-16T01:44:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T01:44:56","slug":"autumnal-ellada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4178","title":{"rendered":"Autumnal Ellada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Viv<\/a>

Viv and I at De Fontein<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday 27 October 2013 – These are glory days.\u00a0 The intensifying, uncomfortable heat of summer has gone.\u00a0 The evenings are cool but by no means cold.\u00a0 By day it is certainly possible to spend a couple of hours at the beach, sunbathing but not burning and the aquamarine waters are invitingly warm, that is once your body recovers from the initial shock of entry.\u00a0 This past week the island has been dead although we\u00a0now have an influx of visitors for the long weekend, mainly Athenians.<\/p>\n

Each year on 28 October, Ohi\u00a0Day is celebrated throughout Greece.\u00a0 This was the day in 1940 when the then Greek Prime Minister Ioannis\u00a0Metaxas rejected the ultimatum made by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory, signalling the beginning of Greece’s participation in World War II.<\/p>\n

My journey here this time\u00a0from New Zealand was lengthy, 47+ hours door-to-door, however,\u00a0pretty uneventful.\u00a0 Left Wanganui on the 0930 hours flight in order to spend a few hours with my dear friend Vivienne in Auckland.\u00a0 Shared a lovely lunch at De Fontein, a Belgian Beer Cafe in Mission Bay, departing Auckland on the 1830 hours flight to Dubai, via Brisbane.\u00a0 A slightly nerve-racking\u00a0time there … on the runway, gaining speed and about to takeoff when suddenly –\u00a0brakes on and takeoff aborted.\u00a0 Apparently, there had been a surge and sparking in one of the engines which needed to be checked out.\u00a0 A cockpit meeting followed with controllers in Dubai who incredibly, via satellite, knew exactly what was going on and eventually gave their okay for us\u00a0to go.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, there was a spare seat between myself sitting by the window and a lady with a bad cough in the aisle seat so for the long haul, I was able to have my feet up for much of the time … not exactly comfortable but certainly preferable to another bum right there.\u00a0 The usual shopping at Dubai Airport, a couple of beers in the Heineken Lounge then onwards to Athens, this time with 3 seats all to myself and\u00a0a wonderful opportunity to lie down.<\/p>\n

Greeted\u00a0by a beautiful day in Athens,\u00a0sunshine and clear skies.\u00a0\u00a0Hopped on a very full\u00a0bus, bound for the Port of Piraeus where as expected, my hydrofoil ticket was awaiting me, arranged by Costas.\u00a0 A long wait sitting in the sun until 1830 hours and at last I was on the\u00a0final leg of my journey.\u00a0 The usual stops at Poros, Hydra and Ermioni\u00a0before reaching Spetses, disembarking with a handful of passengers to a reception committee – Costas, of course, along with Ray and Heather.\u00a0 There being no one at the Bar, Costas and Ray returned there, while Heather and I walked to the house.\u00a0 Understandably enough, I was\u00a0shattered … unpacked only what was needed, had a shower then into a very welcome bed.<\/p>\n

Spent my first 24 hours at home recuperating before showing my face in Bar Spetsa\u00a0on Tuesday night.\u00a0 \u00a0Stopped in at Delfinia for a couple of drinks on our way home … what a lovely night.\u00a0 Wednesday arrived and I was ready for my first taste of beach … current weather conditions may only last for another week to 10 days and so I am determined to make the most of the opportunity.<\/p>\n

For several hours on Thursday we had no power, on Friday it was\u00a0no water.\u00a0 Forced to brush teeth, wash face and hands and shampoo hair with bottled water as we needed to be at Agia\u00a0Marina beach at 1500 hours to farewell our good friend Mike who died in Bristol on 8 October.\u00a0 Mike had lived on Spetses\u00a0for at least 25 years … a musician (great harmonica player) by night and a painter\/decorator by day, he had many friends on the island, of whom some 40-50 turned out on Friday for his memorial service held at the same time as his funeral was taking place in England.\u00a0 He wanted no tears, no black and for everyone to wear something red, his favourite colour.\u00a0 He also wanted us to play some of his favourite music tracks,\u00a0in particular,\u00a0from the Rolling Stones and\u00a0the Beatles and to enjoy a wine or two.\u00a0 Especially nice was a 2003 wine made by a friend’s grandfather on the island of Naxos from grapes grown near Marathon … sweet, golden, almost like a sherry or cognac, chemical free and potent, only to be sipped slowly.\u00a0 In the last group to leave, I then\u00a0hitched a ride on the back of a motorbike, on to the Bar until closing.\u00a0 Two stops on the way home … first Boggi\u00a0where we always enjoy the Greek music and atmosphere, then to the bakery for two pieces of freshly made Spanakopita (spinach pie) for an early 0400 hours breakfast.<\/p>\n

A quiet day yesterday … after Costas\u00a0had finished his daily chores, we met for coffee at Roumani\u00a0in the Dapia, overlooking the water – all very civilized.\u00a0 Of course, for me it was back to the beach in the afternoon then a quiet night at home.\u00a0 Today we enjoyed our favourite lunch of babounakia\u00a0(small red mullet) with\u00a0fasolakia\u00a0(green beans in red sauce), patates\u00a0tiganetes\u00a0(fries) and a shared Amstel\u00a0beer at Spetsiotiko.\u00a0 I had gone prepared to head straight down to the beach – it was wonderful.\u00a0\u00a0Having now rested, soon it will be time for me to get ready and go into the Bar to spend time with Costas.\u00a0 Yes, it is an enviable lifestyle I am once again enjoying, however, not without much thought for my family back in New Zealand with my dear mum quite unwell.\u00a0 She is especially in my thoughts at this time … I love her and miss her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday 27 October 2013 – These are glory days.\u00a0 The intensifying, uncomfortable heat of summer has gone.\u00a0 The evenings are cool but by no means cold.\u00a0 By day it is certainly possible to spend a couple of hours at the beach, sunbathing but not burning and the aquamarine waters are invitingly warm, that is once […]<\/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-4178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178","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=4178"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4685,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions\/4685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}