Itisallgreek2me

Old Harbour – Spetses

and … cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, gardening, squeezing lemons etc etc.  Such is my life here on Spetses, however, it is not all work and no play.  With mainly wonderful Spring days, I like to take a walk in the mornings … nothing too serious, just an hour or so, down to the Old Harbour is a favourite.  After lunch, on days when the sky is blue and the sun shining brightly, a couple of hours on the beach at Agios Mammas is a wonderful tonic … but the sea is still rather cold and try as I might, I have yet to make it all the way in.  As I am usually the only body on the beach, I guess this tells you something.

Yesterday at 1430 hours, we met Ray and Heather for lunch at the Poseidonion Grand Hotel.  It is still too early for there to be a lot of visitors on the island and we were the only ones dining on the terrace.  We started with two salads … black-eyed pea salad with vegetables and roasted red beets with manouri cheese balls.  For my main course I chose the grilled chicken with fennel dressing and roasted carrots.  Scrumptious brown bread and a couple of bottles of a Santorini wine.  Costas, of course, left after the meal to go home for his siesta while we three remaining eventually piled on the bike and headed down to “Point of View” to sit in the sun, have a couple more drinkies and warm up … we had gotten cold on the terrace.  Eventually, Marilyn joined us and in time, my Irish friends Paddy and Wendy who are on Spetses for their annual visit.  Sometime after 2000 hours, we made it into Bar Spetsa, however, I was home soon after 2200 hours.  A somewhat long but highly enjoyable day.

The day before, Costas and I had had lunch at Bouboulina … Fava (yellow split pea puree), Horta (wild greens), Kolokithakia Tiganita (fried courgette slices) and Kalamarakia Tiganita (fried squid).  With a shared beer and fresh crunchy bread … and don’t I know how I like to make many of my readers green with envy when I describe some of the wonderful food I get to enjoy in Greece.

Yesterday before going out to lunch, I made a large dish of Briam (oven baked vegetables – potatoes, onions, courgettes, aubergines, red and green capsicums cooked in a sauce of fresh tomato, tomato paste, olive oil, flat leaf parsley,  garlic, salt and pepper).  This we had for our lunch today and will have again tomorrow … dare I say, it turned out perfect.

Today, Costas had a baptism to attend at 1200 hours at the Church of Agios Dimitrios.  Apparently, almost all the guests were from Athens, the wee boy Christos’ father, now 36, has been a patron in Costas’ bar since he was 17.  As much as I love spending time in Bar Spetsa, I do not go in every night.  When I do, we like to go to another bar after closing for a quiet drink before coming home.  “Balcony” is a favourite (now under new management).  One night we went to “Abari” … run by Spiros, over the years Spiros has worked in many of the establishments on the island and this is his first venture as an owner.  During the day and looking from the outside, “Abari” to me appears tacky, however, inside at night the place is quirky, there is live music and I quite enjoyed it.  Our daytime coffee venue is “Roumani” in the Dapia where we sit outside overlooking the water taxis bobbing up and down on the bluest of seas.

As I sit on the couch with three of the cats, midnight is fast approaching.  I have yet to decide whether or not to go out tonight … the Eurovision Song Contest is on and if I can find which channel is screening it Live, I may just stay in tonight.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2014 at 9:35 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.