Tuesday, 22 May, 2012
Yesterday was St. Constantine and St. Helen’s Day, and even though we didn’t really go anywhere, we could “smell” the festival atmosphere. During the evening we can hear music, and Crilly and Audrey decide to walk up the road and see what it is all about. It was so late when they left, however, that they only got to hear about 10 minutes of bouzouki music, and the villagers felt sorry for them and fed them souvlaki and libation, and they had a great time.
We had decided on a ferry boat trip to Albania for today; it’s only about 50 Euros, and includes a bus ride and lunch. However, when Dana tried to book it, the agency reneged on its former statement that the ferry goes on Sundays and Tuesdays and tells her that it’s on Thursday. Chris and Carolyn and the Kids (the “Stumpy-Maligners,” short for Malumphy-Steiner) leave on Wednesday and Braxony and I on Thursday, so we had to give it up. This starts a lot of jokes about Albania being closed for the day and, indeed, it’s a very poor country. We counted eight whole lights on the coast at night, and the view seems to be all mountains.
Crilly, however, decides they want to go, so today’s caravan is back to Kassiopi to book their Albanian trip. While Dana and Jerky turn off for the travel agency, we continue up the coast to Petratiki where we take up a lot of seats under a canopy and order the usual frappes to await them. They arrive not too long after us, still with no luck. This time it seems that the Thursday ferry is booked (so many people actually want to go to Albania?), but they can reserve seats on Friday’s special ferry. Crilly wants to think about it some more, and they leave without tickets.
As usual, Audrey finds a sweet little cat, who mooches pets from all of us while we’re there. Then it’s up to Irchova for lunch. We stop at a gyro place called Angelo’s and order gyros, Arabian pies and pizza, all served with the ubiquitous fries. The Arabian pie is a large, thin pita, grilled, with their idea of bacon (pancetta), turkey, cheese, mayo, lettuce and tomato folded inside. It’s very good and, while I can finish it, I’m able to palm the fries off on my brother.
On the way back, we take a bumpy little road off the beaten track to a nature preserve, where we find a place for Jumpy and Jerky and all pile out to walk. The fields are lovely, lush with a wash of small purple thistle and yellow broom. I see the occasional white Queen Anne’s Lace, and the warm country smell and the droning of bees are wonderful. Surprise! We come across grandstands and basketball courts stashed away out here, and follow a winding little stream for a little way before we start back. Suddenly I hear a sound like a bullfrog, and we search in vain until we see a Greek woman with her herd of goats—it is the goats that are making the sound!
Back on the road again, and we head down to Agios Spyridon (Agios is “Saint”), where we again stop and pile out by a little bridge over a stream that runs right into the Adriatic Sea. We look over the bridge and see myriads of small fish, and our resident Marine Biologists start spouting complicated names. We cross the bridge and walk the road for a while, then dodge down a side path that leads straight to the sea.
Another lovely view—the water is crystal clear and there are little cairns of small rocks sticking out of the water near the beach. The beach itself is gravely white sand, and I gleefully roll up my pant legs and wander straight into the water, sandals and all. The water is surprisingly warm, much warmer than our pool, and we all have a great time doing a little splashing and searching for shells. It’s decided to walk the path around the headland back to the cars and, although it’s a little hard going for me, Craig and Mick stick with me and we make it almost back when the path dead ends. We have to go through the overgrowth now, but there’s a beaten down path to follow, and we make it to the bridge, to the cheers of the others who are patiently awaiting us.
There’s a decrepit shack right by the bridge, and Joanne makes jokes about it being her and Papoo’s honeymoon suite. Then it’s a short walk to the little church and tavern where the oldsters have frappes and ice cream whilst the youngsters enjoy a dip in the sea.
Back at the villa, Jackson and Bryony make dinner. Some of us clean the amaranth for horta, while Bryony makes salad and Jackson grills porkchops and veggies. Dana makes saganaki (without the brandy and flames), and we feast.
Somewhere along the line Jackson has gotten a few sea urchin spines in his hand, and while they aren’t bothering him too much, it’s decided major surgery is in order, and I go get the needles and tweezers and hydrogen peroxide and Jackson dons the forehead lamp for a better view. Soon Dr. Bryony is busy doing her extracting and it’s a couple of heavily concentrating visages in the corner of the living room before she announces her patient is cured.
