Night out with Costas in Pellion, Greece

It was the Saturday 25th of July, we went out with Costas for dinner to one of the mountain village called "Kissos". He wanted to take us out for a while. We felt he wanted us to go round his hotel bar and drink.... we did tell him we didn't drink at all, but i didn't think he got the message just right.

 He was supposed to pick us up 7pm that evening on his jeep, but he had a little problem with car parking down the village where he lived. So, we ended up driving our little hire car to pick him up and went to Kissos.

 His English wasn't very good, quite often I didn't understand what he said in the car. Then I wondered...."Does Marcus understand whet he says???, well he's having conversation with him...so must be..." All I could understand was "government is shit, roads are shit, everything's shit" He did say well the word "shit". Then I thought " swear words are universal, everyone knows and understand!" I was pleased. Of course, I love my swear words sometimes, my friends laugh when I seriously swear. Never mind, they don't take me very seriously anyway, and I like it that way.

Costas was very kind and generous... He showed us the quick way to Volos, taking us for dinner, and he told us we were friends... How lovely. When we got to the car park in Kissos, he told Marcus to wait to get out from the car...He looked very serious. Then, he gave us O.K to get out.... When I looked out of the window, it was a woman just getting out of her car.....That was all.........O.K, Costas, it wasn't serious problem at all... Bless.

 The taverna we went wasn't open when we arrived. Due to electric people having strike again, the whole village didn't have electric, unless they had their own generator...So, we popped into the church in the village. "No photos" he said. It was very very old church. It was built in 1200. and opened until 9pm in evening. Outside the church, Costas knew everyone (almost!) there.

 He introduced us to his mates! He seemed to like women, he was friendly to the lady in the taverna. ( but not in a funny sexual way!!) In the taverna, she brought us decant of red wine and strong Pellion spirits on arrival. Told him we didn't drink... he didn't believe us. He really wanted us to drink! It was tempting, to be honest. But I didn't want to sabotage my clean time, I didn't want to drink.

 To have Marcus around really helped me from the temptation. Thank you! Anyway, eventually he understood we weren't drinkers. Taverna looked very Greek and had lots of pretty flowers.

Vegetarian foods we had there were delicious. Greek salad, beans in tomato sauce, rice wrapped in vine leaves, okra in tomato sauce and olive bread.

 Every time I took photos of foods, Costa went, "Norris(that's what he called me), why are you taking photos????" He thought I was funny Japanese tourist perhaps... He was very chatty and friendly.

He asked us if we (especially Marcus) would like to come to Greece next November to help him picking olives. Of course, we said yes to that! So, this is Costas. 

He looks like a character doesn't he? He was. He was funny, quaky, warm-hearted, genuine, traditional Greek man.

 After the dinner, we drove back to Ag Loannis (where his hotel was) for a drink. We went in to a cafe bar by the beach. There were quite a lot of young people were drinking.

 Marcus and I had freshly squeezed orange juice, and Costas had.... Ice cream! He looked pleased when his ice cream turned up in front of him! Bless.

It had 3 different flavours. Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Looked yummy though. We had Greek yogurt and honey earlier, so we didn't have any sweets....there was a guy in the bar making french crepes...smelt gorgeous.

 A young couple next to us were having crepes with banana and chocolate sauce. Looked very naughty.....

.Anyway, Costas turned up on Monday morning just before we were leaving with 1½ litter of his extra virgin olive oil. It was tightly wrapped and sealed for us to take home. Thank you Costas. He said he was sad seeing us going. We were too. Good bye till next year Costas!

See you next year, we'll be back!

Holiday in Greece - Beach

From 19th July onwards untill we came back to England (we were in Greece from 17th to 27th), more or less, we went to the beach near by everyday.

 On Sunday 19th, we went to the beach / village called " Damachuri". It was about 15mins driving from where we were. And it was the place a part of  Manma mia was filmed.( only last bit though). Very pretty and quiet beach, If it was high season, I can imagine there would be busy with tourist. That was where we had our first Greek salad(see my other blog).  Of course, there were only Greek people and guess who else? Germans! They were everywhere. They know where to go and good places!

On the 20th Monday, we found path to the beach called the Plaka beach. it was also popular with Greek people, and it was lovely beach! The path we walked was going through someone's garden( no one lived there, it was empty space) , then climb down to the rocks below us, kept walking (climbing) on big rocks!

There, we found some cool rocks, they had some patterns, different colours, fossilised corrals, and water falls!!! I felt very ancient through those rocks, sometimes, it was challenging to up and down on those rocks, but i enjoyed very much! These were the "path", we walked.

We spend a couple of hours down the Plaka beach, then we were on our way to Ag Loannis(only 5-10mins walk) , I twisted my ankle! Ouch!. I thought. It was only my 3rd day in Greece and I twisted my ankle already! I wanted to cry, but i couldn't. Tears didn't come out, I convinced I broke it!

 Then, I slowly moved round my ankle, here it was. I just twisted! Thank God for that I thought.Still, I walked round the beach and somehow we walked back to the house.

 Following day, we had chilling out day round the house. We explored and off to adventure see what out there! We were told by this German lady who popped by on Tuesday evening, there was a pretty cute church by the sea.

  Oh, this German lady was funny, she turned up with a walking stick in one hand and secretire on the other hand. Perhaps, she was in the middle of gardening????

So, on Wednesday morning, before going to the beach, we set off to the church. It was cute. it was tiny. Inside, there were only 7 chairs to sit down. Incense, candles, religious paintings on old style, and donations people left.

 We loved Greek churches, they weren't locked, opened freely to public. And different from English style. Guess what what was there??? Water falls! Magic water again! yummy beautiful water.

 Apparently, till a few years ago, local people had little festival there, but funding run out, government didn't fund it anymore. so sadly, festival was closed. Sad....The view from this church is this! How beautiful is that?!

On that afternoon, about lunch time-ish, when we got home, tried to turn the light on the kitchen, but didn't work. We really thought light tripped. I thought of Costas.... "I need his help!!!" then, we heard "Marcos! Marcos!" there, Costas was climbing down steps to the house!

Told him what was happening, then eventually he told us electric people were having strike for a couple of hours. Anyway, we felt relieved, then we were off to the beach again.

On the 24th Friday, Marcus told there was beautiful and peaceful beach about an hour walk from Damachuri beach.( Greek says 45mins. Everything 30mins or 45mins for them). O.K, " I can walk" I thought. So, we set off quite early that day. About 9am. Otherwise too hot to walk.

 First 30mins, I was excited and cheerful. after 1hour passed, started wondering.." where is the beach???!!!" One point Marcus didn't remember how and which path he took before. I said to myself, "everything's going to be o.k, just trust him" By then, I was a bit grumpy.... 

After nearly 1½hour walking, we found a massive caves and an orange tree. That point, he knew the beach was close by. Another 15mins walk in hot climate, hooray, we got there. The beach was tiny, totally unspoiled and very peaceful. It was well worth it!

OMG, the beach(was called Fakistra), water was quiet, white pebbles, very clear water and amazing colour. When we got there, only 2 other couples were sunbathing. 1 was young Greek couple and older German couple.

 It was sooooo quiet. I fell asleep. All i could hear was quiet sea in and out on the beach. 

It was very very peaceful till three young wealthy Greek family turned up with boats! Peace was gone! German guy especially wasn't happy at all. It was funny watching grumpy face towards these young Greeks! He wasn't happy at all. 

We left about 30mins after they turned up, said good bye to the Germans... We had fun walking back to Damachuri too. We met an English retired couple who were on holiday for 3weeks!!! Wow!! They were doing very well walking those hills, rocks and very steep steps.

They were smoker too! I was impressed. When we arrived in Damachuri beach, we were sweating, it was hot. we went to the beach into the sea! fun swimming with fish! I would like to go back there with better swimming goggles!!!

Holiday in Greece -Arriving

This is the first time I went to Greece. I didn't quite know what to expect apart from beautiful scenery, fantastic beach and delicious foods. I think that was probably enough expectation.... I was sooooo excited for weeks in advance, I sometimes even couldn't sleep.

I did lots of shift previously(work...), so by the time our holiday came, I would thought I was pretty knackered. BUT, I wasn't.  We left U.K on 17th June,  Friday morning to Stanstead Air Port. Wow, lots of people there with their bags and suit cases. That made me even more excited we were actually going on plain to Greece.

 As usual, we checked in really early so that we had plenty time to have a look round in duty free shops......especially, "ALL SAINTS" shop(beautiful shop, i just love to look at it). They didn't have sales on, so we decided to wait till next time or go on line.......

 Journey to Thesanoski was pretty pleasant. Service and smile on Rynair wasn't too bad. we had good kip too. When we got to Thesanoski air port, it was just after lunch time, we went to hire our holiday car! It was cute.

 We did the contract in the petrol station near by. It was really hot, I had to change my top. It was boiling! I already felt the sun on my back and shoulder which I loooove, made me big smile.

 Well, poor Marcus, driving through Thesanoski was a bit tricky, there was not a lot sign or some drivers were bit mad on roads, took him a bit to get used to Greek road. By the time we got to our first destination "Affissos", We(especially me) were tired and grumpy.

It was dark when we got to the hotel for the night. They gave us some preserved sugared lemon and orange with nice chilled water on arrival.  We checked in and went out for wonder.

 Next morning, before we set off to Ag Loannis (Mt. Pillion), we went out to have look round in the village.

After our wonder we left for Ag Loannis. Still took us good few hours to get there. Oh, I need to mention breakfast we got in the hotel. They were sweet breakfast. We didn't eat any, only we had were freshly squeezed orange juice, tinned fruits salad and chamomile tea. I wanted to taste some of things in front of us. So, I had a piece of marmalade cake and a couple mouthful of eggy filo paste. They were not bad. Our breakfast was huge!

We got to Ag Loannis in late afternoon. It took us a little bit to find the hotel called " Sofokles Hotel" where we needed to pick up keys to the house we hired. While we were waiting for keys, we had freshly squeezed orange juice, it was delicious!

 Costas( guy who owns the hotel partly and the house) took us and showed us the way to the hideaway. OMG, it was bumpy road. Yes, his brother, Domitri was right, 4WD jeep would be more fun to drive the road there.

 Still, during our stay, we enjoyed our little ride on the bumpy road every time. Our house was very basic and cute! The view was fantastic! There was a big balcony over looking the sea, no neighbours, surrounded by untold numbers of olive trees, cicada, birds singing and peace.........