Itisallgreek2me

Fare-welling Ken & Anita in Bar Spetsa

With the departure last Friday of Ken and Anita, returning to the UK after 10 years of living in Spetses and my impending return to New Zealand in 10 days’ time, this seemed to be an appropriate Title – “Nothing Lasts Forever”.

In contrast to Wednesday night when I did not arrive at the Bar until 0100 hours, Thursday evening I was there early, together with a number of other friends, to farewell Ken and Anita … a sad and tearful affair after which we drank a toast to them both.  Ken’s daughter Sarah and son-in-law Rob had arrived earlier in the week having travelled overland, delivering the much needed van which would take Ken and Anita, their three moggies and much of their belongings on a 5 night, 6 day adventure journey through Europe.  Had a text from them today … so far, so good – they have made it to France.

Yesterday saw me rise early … left the house at 0750 hours to walk to Anargyri on the other side of the island.  First haul up the mountain … it was a very calm day with not a cloud in the sky, when I reached the ridge, I decided to take the old road going straight down to the other side, meeting up with the asphalt road and right turn onwards to Anargyri, arriving at the beach at 0935 hours.  Spent a couple of hours just lazing in the sun … apart from the arrival of a fishing boat, no one else was around.  Enjoyed a Spanakopita (spinach pie) which I had bought at the bakery before leaving town.  Thought I would brave the ocean – alas, I had thought about it for too long and managed only a paddle. 

Time to begin my return journey … I would take the path Paddy and Wendy had told me about, from Anargyri to Profitis Ilias, the highest point on the island and yes, I needed a stick too – waving it up and down in front of me, doing my best to avoid all the spiders and their webs stretched across the path.  But the most spectacular, panoramic views made it all worthwhile and I was back at the house by 1315 hours feeling very pleased with myself … mentally and physically healthier for having done it.  Saw an amazingly large bright green lizard … unfortunately, he was camera shy.  There have been endless sightings of snakes too on the island recently … I saw none, but then perhaps that was a good thing.

After a well earned siesta, it was off to Bar Spetsa early in the evening … with the Eurovision Song Contest (the Greeks love it) screening live on TV last night, Costas thought things might be rather quiet for a Saturday night and so I would be there to keep him company.  Actually, it turned out to be rather busy but then Debbie finished work early and sat down to have a drink with me, Ray and Heather arrived and when Costas closed, we all went off to a new bar which opened last evening – another late night. 

It has been something of an interesting week in Bar Spetsa … a billionaire; Sophie Barker – a singer from London who has just completed a tour of the US; met again Antonis – top dog at the Grand Posedonion Hotel; Caroline – an artist whom I had not seen since 2010; Costas introduced me to Arthur – a chef and kiwi born and bred in Wellington, he has not been in New Zealand for 20 years, speaks fluent Greek and our friend Chris – she is back following just one month’s teaching in Libya, the kids were uncontrollable and she simply had enough.

Tomorrow I am hoping to take another long walk … up the mountain, right along the ridge, past Profitis Ilias and on to Vrellos where I will look for a quiet beach on which to spend a couple of hours, returning to Spetses town via Ligoneri.  With only 10 days remaining now, I must make the most of every precious day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2012 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.