Thassos 2004

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Day 8 - Wednesday 16th June 2004

The routine is very much set in stone now - wake up when the neighbours slam the shared front door on their way down to breakfast then up, change, down to the restaurant, pack bags and down to the beach.

Not far into the morning, we were both comfortably lying on our loungers, soaking up the morning rays and ploughing through the pages of our books when all of a sudden there was a naked German toddler standing by my side, looking at me inquisitively. "Are you German?" I enquired and from the lack of response I assumed that that was the correct analogy. The parents were nowhere to be seen and I was confronted with a small foreign child that had begun playing with my shoes. Whilst I had warned the toddler that my Carvellas were a bit on the niffy side considering they had not been washed in four years of bare-footed existence, the child would not go away, the parents still hadn't appeared and I could do nothing else but carry on reading. What else could I do? I couldn't talk to it, I couldn't pick it up and return it to its owners because I had no idea who or where they were and I couldn't throw money at the problem. So I ignored it.

The next thing I knew, my shoes were gone and bouncing off into the distance, smelly shoes clutched in one hand, was the thieving toddler. Fortunately it wasn't too far away and the parents looked up as it approached. They laughed, caught my eye, I laughed, and the toddler then put on my shoes. Advising him, under my breath, that that really wasn't a good idea, the parents quickly agreed and the mother brought the shoes back to where I was still laying, saying something to me in German about 'shoezen' to which I laughed, although for all I know she could have said "keep your eyes on your shoes you stupid English bastard" and I would have never known.

Back to the old routine in the afternoon - sunbathing, cards, swimming, an ice-cream, a few more pages and a doze before heading back up to the bungalow. Only this time we were going to have an early dinner ahead of a trip to Skala Potamia and Potagia with our friendly neighbours who had hired a car.

The roads in the area are very sloped, that's to say that you're either going uphill or down all of the time. Alec drove, with wife Stephanie in the passenger seat and Debs and I in the back. The poor little Citroen Saxo was struggling on some of the hilly parts and the engine whined as we negociated some of the mountainous terrain on our journey past the marble quarry towards Skala Potamia. "What gear are you in dear?" Stephanie asked as the car began to slow. "Third" came a rather tired response from Alec, "don't you think you should be in second dear?" she rhetorically added, to which he obeyed but clearly only to keep her quiet.

We reached our turning and the windscreen wipers came on for the second time as Alec got used to the indicator stalks, although they were on the same side as a right hand drive vehicle. We descended the hill that our Saxo had struggled to climb, noting the harsh hairpin bends and the lack of safety barriers on the vertical drop corners.

We chugged into Skala Potamia but there were very few people about, no cars and the place was deserted. Then we worked out that Greece was playing in Euro 2004 and everybody would be glued to their television sets. We did have a quick wander about but it was mostly restaurants and tack shops so we left Skala Potamia (or Crystal Bay) in the knowledge that our Makryammos beach was far superior, and aimed uphill for Potagia.

We parked up just as the football finished, so we were able to see the local bars full of the local old men, as seems to be custom in Greek villages. We pottered about a few shops in search of a mountain goat's bell for Alec and Stephanie's greyhound and we eventually stumbled upon the local church. Not far away from the church was a new waterway - a run-off from the local spring that is rumoured to make women pregnant if they drink from it. Debs volunteered to stay well away from the spring and we soon found ourselves back in the car and heading back to Makryammos for a swift half.