We arrived home last night to our one bucket of water and made a pact …..we had to be frugal with our water so it was strictly ‘no solids’ until the morning when I’m sure it would be needed. Let’s hope we don’t wake up with a dodgy stomach like Winston……ha ha perish the thought.
We woke up refreshed at 05.30am, threw open the balcony doors, breathed in the beautiful view and were ready to take on whatever the day had in store for us……the first being Watergate! Thankfully the bucket was still intact so we carried out our morning ablutions using the water from the bucket sparingly, and headed off to the pool bar for breakfast. It was a small and simple breakfast but the piece-de-resistance had to be the platter. Katerina, the breakfast help had meticulously put together a breakfast platter of which she was extremely proud. It consisted of cherries wrapped in cheese (not had that combination before), tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and more sliced cheese with slices of ham neatly interlaced in amongst the cheese…..…only in Greece!
After breakfast we packed our beach bags and headed off to the bakery for our morning frappe, another thing that is a ‘must do’ when we come to Greece. The bakery, more like a Ζαχαροπλαστειο was full of delicious pastries and fancy cakes and they also did a lovely frappe, and very cheap too. €4 for two frappes! Last year we paid over €7. We were well impressed.
As we meandered our way down through the lanes to the beach we came across a gate with a bulb of garlic attached to it with a red ribbon. We didn’t think the area had a history of vampires so we wondered what the significance was. If anyone has any ideas, please let us know as we’re quite intrigued.
Down on the beach we headed for the front row sun-beds at the ‘Golden Beach’ beach bar/restaurant and paid €10 for two sun-beds and an umbrella. Apparently Maice had pointed out a BIG sign at the bar next door that said free sun-beds which a) I didnt see and b) I didn’t hear her say that So, note to self……must go to spec savers for an eye test and a hearing test when I get home! After rearranging the sun-beds we settled down and proceeded to do the hokey-cokey……we were in the sun, in the sea, in the shade, in the sun, in the sea, in the shade and so it went on. It was such a lovely day, the temperature was perfect and there was a lovely breeze which made sunbathing bearable, unlike yesterday’s scorcher. I have to say we were well impressed with the excellent customer service we got from everyone at Golden beach, it was certainly well worth the €10 we paid.
On the way back from the beach we visited the Coop (pronounced Coup as in Chicken coup) where we purchased a pack of 6 large bottles of water for €1.38, a bargain and were given two apricots from the lovely man who runs it. Apparently he gives away feta cheese so we’ll definitely be popping in there on a daily basis, you know, just in case. As you can imagine, lugging 6 bottles of water back to the room, up a steep path and up numerous flights of steps in the searing heat was not the most endearing so we decided to stop off for a breather and a cocktail at the cocktail bar on the road opposite the hotel but, typical, it was closed so we just had to bite the bullet and lugged it all the way up the hill. Honestly, we were totally exhausted by the time we got to the room but hey, we’ve got running water. Not only did we have running water we could hear running water in the room opposite which was vacant but had the keys in the door awaiting the arrival of the new occupants. Maice went to investigate and found the tap in the bathroom was spurting out water and the floor was flooded. She switched off the tap and another crisis was averted.
We decided to head to the pool bar and enjoy an afternoon cocktail here instead although Maice was a bit dubious to the quality of them in comparison to the cocktails bars in the resort. There wasn’t a big selection on offer and this got smaller due to the lack of ingredients for some of the cocktails but we ordered two Whiskey Sours and they were gorgeous. You see Maice, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover! We’ll definitely be back for more of these, that’s for sure.
Back at the room we needed to sort out the blog so we retired to the balcony and attempted to log into our Wix account. Honestly, what is it with us and IT? Neither of us could access the account which was a bit worrying and despite trying to log in numerous times we were either confronted with a) the wheel of doom or b) a white screen. We resorted to google and found out that we now needed to download the Wix App and work off that. Honestly, there’s always something to challenge us in the IT world…..can nothing be straight forward anymore!
Cristos, the owner turned up unexpectedly at our door bearing a new hook for the bathroom wall. Not had one of those delivered before but we are delighted to report that we now have two hooks in the bathroom although one isn’t a hook, it’s the end of a towel rail pretending to be a hook, which incidentally was behind the door when we arrived and mysteriously moved to the sink area. But, a hooks a hook, we just need more of them as these two are the only two in the whole room. I have to say that as rooms go this is the most basic we’ve had since we went to Paxos many years ago. Wind back thirty years and that’s our room. As with most Greek rooms there is absolutely no drawer space, we had to ask for extra hangers and we are living out of our suitcases. But, not to worry, we’re ‘go with the flow’ girls and we always make do. Take our wine for instance. We thought it would be nice to enjoy a glass of village wine (at €2.00 per litre) on the balcony but due to not having any glasses in the room we opted for the only receptacles we had…..espresso cups. So with our wine espresso and the last of Jane’s Bailey’s balls we enjoyed our two sips of wine on the balcony. Admittedly we had to keep filling up the cups every two seconds but hey, the point is you make do and these things then become part of one’s holiday experiences.
We got ourselves ready for supper and walked along the boardwalk to the end in search of somewhere to eat and decided on Sea Breeze, which although not busy it looked inviting. Well, we’d just finished a lovely meze when along came Spiro and Birgitta. He’s a retired Greek barrister and she’s a German civil engineer, they live in Munich and spend three months in their large villa in the village of Strongili, about twenty minutes away. They met at a ball in Germany when she was seventeen and the rest is history as they say. Yes, we had a lovely time chatting to them.
Back at the hotel we found ourselves back at the pool bar drinking another Whisky Sour and Tsipouro, the dreaded Raki courtesy of Cristos who was going from table to table plying everyone with these shots!! We got chatting to another lovely couple at the bar, Pete and Karen from Hull who’ve been coming here for the past twenty years. They know so much about the resort that eight years ago Karen set up a Facebook page called Moraitika Village Corfu. She’s most definitely the local oracle.
So, after downing the last glass of Raki it’s most definitely time for bed…..
Καληνυχτα, μέχρι αυριο χχ
