The minibus was late again (like it was for the trip to Kalymnos). Everyone else onboard was going to Paradise Beach (which looked liked anything but paradise tbh) or on a fishing trip which included a barbecue, but being trapped on a small beach or on a rocking boat for most of the day wasn’t something that appealed to either of us. We wanted to stay on the beach that we had visited only briefly during our island tour last year.
The tour bus kindly dropped us off at the town on the top of the hill where a small and unimpressive ruined castle overlooks some impressive views. Nearby there is a prominent graveyard (which we were too respectful to photograph). We took a few snaps of everything else and then sat outside and had a drink in a nearby cafe, Restaurant Castelo, and shared a delicious but overpriced cake which was a cross between a lemon meringue and a cheesecake. We then walked down the winding and well-surfaced main road to Kamari Beach.
We got a couple of sun-beds and umbrella on the beach for not very much money and were given four small slices of lemon drizzle cake as part of the deal. Honestly the amount of free stuff we’ve been getting has been silly. This, it turned out, wasn’t the best deal on sunbeds we would get – that would come in Kardemina – but more about that in a later post.
At lunch we ate at Syrtaki taverna and had ice creams from a local supermarket. We avoided captain John’s where we had had a really mediocre lunch last year. I saw a copy of the Sun newspaper and was shocked to see that the Brexit leave vote had won and that Cameron was probably going to quit as PM. I was worried that the exit vote was a reactionary thing and could turn out to be a big mistake for the UK. Time will tell I guess. After a finishing my ice cream I decided that I didn’t give much of a fuck right then about anything apart from the air-con, mosquitoes and the football. Wales was playing Northern Ireland later on.
I read bit of James Joyce’s Dubliners on the beach but haven’t finished Cocaine Nights yet – it was just that I had very little left to go and the Joyce book, being a lot shorter, was a lot lighter.
We got dropped off near the big supermarket back in Tigaki and so we bought a six pack of water and I had a limited edition Snickers caramel ice cream bar. So much for my calorie intake eh? It wasn’t up to much really and i preferred the normal Snickers ice cream bar. Maybe if it had been salted caramel I would’ve been more impressed.
The wind has picked up again – the leaves of the tall palm trees at the hotel were rustling violently. So maybe it would cool down a bit tonight. We went back to Vasillis for dinner – another pizza and some beer – because in my desperation to see Wales play, I figured it would be the quickest option. As it was we missed the first half but Sean Connery told us we could watch the second half at Mythos Apartments bar round the back of the restaurant and that Costas the barman would fix us a free coffee.
So we went and sat at the bar, drank the free coffee, watched the football and then had a couple of cocktails. Costas was great (apologies if it’s spelt with a ‘K’ I’m just making a connection between coffee and Costa) and told us he had a bet on Wales to win. They won 1-0 in open play admittedly via an own goal, but we won! Go Wales!
High from the Welsh win we deposited our drunk asses in Memories for the remainder of the night. We were treated to a woman coming back from the toilet with her skirt tucked into her knickers, Portugal’s extra time 1-0 win against Croatia, and several large beers. Poland will now play them having beaten Switzerland (in a penalty shootout) earlier on.
Really happy for Wales and Portugal, still a bit stunned over Brexit.
couchmagpie 