Today we hopped on the bus and hopped off at bus stop 23.5 (still a little sleepy and unable to get up in time to alert the conductor in time for the official bus stop 23). We walked through a pleasant woodland area in increasing heat surrounded by a variety of bugs to Mandraki beach and had a cooling frappe at ‘O Yannis Beach Taverna. I had a little tinkle in a Chinese style hole in the floor toilet and then we were back on the trail to Elias beach.
We also wanted to visit Agistros Beach but the road was just a little too steep, the sun a little too hot and we were short on water. We pulled a U’y and walked back down to the main road and then down to Koukounaries Beach.
Koukounaries is a great long beach, the supposed jewel of Skiathos, spoiled by commercialism and row upon row of sunbeds. We took a walk around to the quay and the grassy nature reserve around the back of the lake amid butterflies, wasps and doodlebugs onto the shortcut back to bus stop 23. There is a taverna opposite where we had a bite to eat and reviewed whether any of the bugs had snacked on us.
Dick van Dyke apparently has a new job as a conductor aboard one of the buses. We met him on the way back to the hotel. Siggy had a flower in her hair given to her by a randy old goat looking after the garden in one of the tavernas on the way to Koukounaries. The flower caught Dyke’s eye and we got a flash of that famous smile. There was unanimous agreement of his lookalike status.
In the afternoon by the pool, my daily vanilla milkshake went down a treat. We have been joined by a few families and there have been some tears and tantrums already; but then Siggy bought me a cookie magnum and I calmed down.
We had dinner at a taverna down a side road not far from bus stop 12 in Kanapitsa (lazily pronounced can o’ pizza stirring up a mental image of a new Pillsbury Dough product, hoo hoo!). Jonnie’s Taverna has an Italian bent and I struggled with some seafood spaghetti which was a little too hands on for me. If I never have to de-shell another Crayfish in my life I will die a happy man. They are exactly the wrong size and too spiky to handle properly. I’m okay with prawns and coped okay the one time I had to do a lobster, but you can keep your crayfish or get the meat out of the shell before it comes to the table thanks.
As far as we are aware there is nowhere of particular note near Jonnie’s at night so we bussed back to Victoria. Tequila Sunrise and Melon were next on the cocktail list. Siggy completed her annual drink spilling ritual and we beat a hasty retreat after being assured by Pedro that we weren’t barred. In her defence we did get two glasses of Mythos for free at Jonnie’s and so we were a bit tipsy by the time we fell off the bus in Troulos.
We blew off Tiffany’s (it seemed deserted) in favour of Chris’s where there was live music. There was a regular Greek singer who did mostly Queen covers who was good, but his guest performers were a mixed bag. One of the bands from The Three Nuns should do a tour of the island for a few weeks – they would go down a storm and make a mint. I was wearing a Primarni Hendrix teeshirt and failed to recognise when the Norwegian singer (I kid you not) ‘sang’ Riding with the Wind. One of the singers made a great comment at around 12:30 ‘has anyone got work tomorrow?’
On the way back to the hotel we saw a car that looked like a stormtrooper – an alcohol assisted automotive celeb lookalike.
I think this was our latest night so far simply because the singers were intriguing moreish – we found ourselves singing along and holding out to see if it would get better.
I asked Chris ‘is this what happens when there’s no football on?’
‘yes,’ he said with a smile, ‘and there’s bingo tomorrow!’
couchmagpie 