It's not funny getting up that early in the morning but the taxi arrived ready to take us to the airport at 3.30a.m.and we arrived in plenty of time to check-in, have breakfast and before we knew it we were here in Halkidiki. I was still having problems with my back, I was still lop-sided and I was still in pain, but we made it with absolutely no hic-cups whatsoever.....most unusual we thought.
We stood in baggage reclaim for rather a long time, in fact when Maice's bag was last off the conveyor belt and we half expected a cuddly toy to go past we were stood there that long. Finally we made it onto what looked like the oldest transfer bus in Greece and set off for Afitos.
The Hotel Stratos looked just like it did in the brochure and is so quiet you wouldn't think it was in the middle of the village. We were taken to our room and there ended our euphoria......it was a double bedded room! Now, a few days earlier I had emailed the hotel and in my best Greek I had asked them to confirm ένα δίκλινο δωμάτιο (a twin room), the thing was, in translation this means a room for two, so they confirmed a double bed! Now as much as we are good friends we declined the double bed and fortunately we were moved to room 508 on the top floor with a sea view…..how lovely! I kept going on to Maice about my δίκλινο σώματιο and was sure I was right, but I have now put it into ‘the Control Dartboard’. At least we had a favourable outcome!
Having unpacked and settled into our new room we went in search of a bar and found Notos overlooking the sea. A bottle of wine, a bun and a fruit salad later and we were well chilled, except of course for my back which is still rather painful. We realised over our glass of wine that we had forgotten to buy any gin at the airport so made a list of everything we needed.....this included a 'rummy tournament' pocket sized notebook to record our results. Could we find one anywhere? No, although we went into every shop.
We decided to have an early night as we were exhausted so went out for an early supper and were in our single beds by nine o’clock. Ah, what bliss.....we've even got air-conditioning, an added bonus which we thought we'd have to pay for.
So on that note we shall bid you καλή νύχτα (good night).....now where's my pills!
M&A xx