Jun 2007

Great news, weather is hot, sunny, clear blue skies and warming up enough not to wear a cardigan. We hiked to Ia, its the northernest village on the island. We trod initially through little paved clifftop walkways leading past hundreds of holiday villas and homes (mostly unoccupied) and the path took us out to barren landscape dotted with the odd taverna. The volcanic slopes were hard work in parts to climb but as paused to take a breath, we were instantly invigorated by the view. Windy hilly tracks lead us to a cafe where we met a lovely English couple on their honeymoon (what is it with the Houghtons, we are attracting honeymooners..!!) Gary and Abbey from Manchester, whom we ended up sharing a delicious Greek lunch of shaved lamb, tszaki, moussaka and of course cold mythos beers! The walk took 2.15hrs so we were needing sustenance. Ia is just such a pretty village, super clean whitewashed cave houses everywhere, pristinly presented with every property looking toward the sea. There are a lot of resorts appearing there though, all with super duper infinity pool complexes and bars etc, most were empty, we both decided we're glad we are here now rather than in the peak season, wouldn't enjoy the crowds. We've used the public bus stood all the way back down the windy skinny road back to Imerovigili where we sat under the umbrella and enjoyed a quiet one or two. We bumped into Maurice & Sharon from Plan & Print Newmarket (they know Bev McCullough) who live in Howick, small world eh? We have discovered the Summer Lovers house where the movie was set way back in 1982, this was a dream of ours to see and we feel proud we managed to find it amongst 1000's of villas. Fira is the main touristy spot here, its where all the cruise ships dock so everyday all we see are tourists and accents, mainly American. we simply come here to use the services and then retreat back up the hill, an hours walk, along the cliff top back to our quaint little spot. We met up with Gary and Abbey and watched an amazing sunset from a cliff top restaurant, fantastic, and tasted merlot local wine (from a bottle, not the house stuff) which was actually quite palatable, enough so that we had another one...euros are spent like dollars, even though they are worth double, so for those contemplating a visit to Greece, we are finding it not as cheap as it once was, and certainly, not as cheap as Italy but that may be because we are in a touristy town. We leave for Ios tomorrow en-route to Sikinos next week. We hope you are all enjoying the long weekend back in NZ, and thank you to those leaving messages, great to hear Mike and Cam made it back safe and sound to Ireland, more good times ahead with them guaranteed! We are now off to meet our Amercian friends, Nancy and Lois, who are on a cruise ship and are due here for a couple of hours, so its off to the local taverna to do what the Houghtons appear to do best ..! Kalispera