We beat the alarms this morning by five minutes and were up, washed, packed and in reception by 3.30am waiting for our taxi which was fifteen minutes late. No worries, we’d still be at the airport two and a half hours before take-off. We were hoping for a bit of ‘inner movement’ this morning as we were still bloated from our bread, cheese and gin fest last night but nothing was forthcoming. We had twelve hours before we would be donning our drop dead gorgeous bikini wear so something had better move in order to show off our ‘flat’ stomachs! Ha, if only!
Check-in and departures were quite straightforward although I did set off the beeper despite remembering to remove my jewellery. I had to strike the usual pose in the scanner, hands up, but thankfully I wasn’t subjected to the body ‘pat-down’ like the one I was given at Frankfurt airport in April by a rather intimidating Frau who proceeded to place both hands on my boobs and jiggle them around, having a good prod and grabbing underneath my bra. Well I must say I’ve never received that type of search before and have to say hope to never receive one again!
We headed off for breakfast and then wandered around the airport, both in need of some retail therapy. Maice bought a scarf for her hat and I bought a neck pillow, having left mine at home, oh and a really nice beach outfit from Harrods. Oh yes darlings, one is definitely going up in the world! Although a shortish flight of just over three hours we were quite fidgety. Maice, who’s chief photographer on this holiday and will be using my camera had finished reading the instruction manual so to alleviate the boredom we played our first rounds of gin rummy with our over-sized cards. We weren’t scoring as we didn’t have our Australian version of ‘autumn is coming’ to write down the scores so we took these hands as practice hands, not having played since last September. It’s a shame we weren’t scoring as I do believe I may be in the lead! It was quite windy coming into land and the plane seemed all over the place as it struggled with the thermals and after a very bumpy landing and what seemed like an emergency stop, we taxied to our position on the apron. We boarded the waiting buses and driven two hundred yards to the back of the plane where the bus stopped and we all got out. Was that it? We boarded a bus to take us two hundred yards when we could quite easily have walked! So, here we are………welcome to Greece!
Our private taxi driver was waiting to whisk us off to our hotel, the Imerti in Skala Kallonis, and despite trying to converse with him in Greek he couldn’t understand a word I said and I couldn’t understand a word he said so I kept quiet and conversed with Maice instead, at least we could understand each other, well sometimes we can! An hour later we were unpacking our bags in what I can only say is probably the best room we’ve ever stayed in in Greece. Basic it is not, but can you believe this, it has a large wardrobe with two very large draws, a large dressing table with a shelf below, two good sizes twin beds, two bedside tables with draws, a large sofa, comfy chairs, a mosquito netted outer door and on the balcony not a white plastic chair in sight. Yes, we have proper comfy seats on the balcony, and guess what, not a wire can be seen hanging out of any electrical socket. But the biggest bonus that makes this not like any other Greek room are the beds. They have really big comfortable mattresses. What a result. So yes folks, we are both very happy with our hotel accommodation.
It was quite a windy day and although sunny the breeze was cool so we decided to explore the area, find the tavernas, the mini-markets, the beach and the bars and found them all just 500 metres away. We were attracted to this really nice bar called Vista with its colourful tables, nice decor and it’s ‘fluffy pink’ cutlery. It was all very twee, which is something neither of us are but this was different, it was Greek twee and we could live with that. We sat on the unusual for Greece comfy chairs and were served by the owner Yan, who is Dutch and ordered Greek salad which came with flat breads, and a very delectable bottle of cold crisp white wine. It was heaven. The Greek salad was gorgeous and the wine was so nice and the setting so idyllic we had no option but to order another bottle!
Add to that the additional glass of wine given to us by Yan, plus the small bottle of raki also given by Yan you can imagine what state we were in! We had such a fabulous afternoon though. We got talking to Yan and his wife Saskia, who works for TUI, their daughter Rosa, their dog Nikos and their friend Mike.. I was even talking in Greek to Saskia who said my Greek was good in comparison to hers so don’t know why the taxi-driver couldn’t understand me. We had some lively conversations about all sorts of things and we even bought an excursion from Saskia which we’re going to on Monday. We haven’t a clue what we’re doing but apparently we’ve got to take towels, bikini, flip-flops, soap and water! An English and Canadian in amongst a group of Dutch people.....I’m sure it will be entertaining.
We finally left the bar three and a half hours later just after seven o’clock and went to the mini-market to stock up on water and local wine, then went back to the room where it all became a bit of a blur.........👀