FAREWELL OUR LITTLE GREEK ISLAND

We are saddened by the fact that all great holidays must come to an end. We have truly felt relaxed and unstressed here, and have fallen in love with all things Greek! We have also had the great fortune of meeting some lovely people, Pauline and Mark our English friends running a bed n breakfast in France to whom we had many a laugh on the beach with a beer, and lovely Nicolle from the bike rental shop who lives here on this little island with a population of only 800, and who kept giving us such cheap rental on the quad, half price, and we never asked it, nor expected it, we enjoyed hearing her stories and her cheerful disposition, farewell our little Greek girl, and Greig from Street in Somerset England who is here for a 3 month working holiday, sweating in the taverna at our favourite beach, Apandima, 7 kms away from the village, for whom Noel has enjoyed as they talk music all night long, and whom we have shared the sunsets with, and many nights and early morning stints at Remember Bar where we drink oozo, amstel and listening to old songs from the 70's til dawn..thank you both for your hospitality and company over the last 2 weeks for we shall truly miss you.

We have appreciated the way the Greeks take their time over most things, its just too damn hot to work quickly, and how they serve huge thick slabs of white crusty bread to you before you have even ordered a meal, the paper tablecloths freshly laden at the table as you sit down, the red wine is served in a tin decanter, the menu may look full but when its time to order, only a handful of meals are available, the way the Greek owner will come to the table and discuss how the meals are made, usually by his loving wife out the back in the kitchen, and how, when they present the meal to you, in one hand is the food, the other a cigarette! And always, well nearly always, a gratus token left by the owner, either an oozo, raki, or watermelon, they are generous and open. We thank the Greeks for that.

The food, well what can we say, simply and plainly delicious, oily, lack of vegetables, plenty of stewed veal and beef and some lamb, their full greek salads boasting always a huge slab of feta cheese covered with oil and fresh oreganum, which incidentally, grows wild here and smells devine. Their chargrilled squid, which we saw drying out on the wooden old boats on the seafront every day, ready to dine on that night. The juicy cucumbers, red full tomatoes, and olives, we truly have savoured their cuisine, and thank them for that.

The sea, the beautiful med. the crystal clear waters with stony bottom and little tiny fish that swim round your feet. The calmness of it, the freshness of it, we have our little 'houghton cove' where we have had so much fun jumping in from the rocks above, snorkelling and finding tiny fish and sea eggs, where the depth of the water seemed never ending, purely magical and we shall so miss that little quiet spot in the sea. We thank them for that.

We have sat and watched the most spectacular sunsets at Sunset Beach, you will see a photo next week of that, every night at between 8.20-8.50pm Noel and Shirley V, together with Greig, would simply sit quietly and watch and absorb the most colourful richness before us as the sun disappeared slowly beneath the horizon.....I don't ever recall seeing such a sunset before, it truly moved me every time. We thank them for that.

We have spent 2 weeks here, Antiparos is quite perfectly our special Greek piece of paradise. Kia ora, we shall love it forever.

We are now heading back to London, full of trepidation and again not sure of what to expect, we are ready to settle with a roof over our heads, having a permanent address, a washing machine and fresh vegetables! Our main aim there is to find work, and meet up with old acquaintances, so let's see what awaits us and roll on our next adventure!

Yasos and yamas!!