The land that time forgot

An early start this morning, 6.30 so that we could drop the car off and catch our ferries. Somehow though we have got way too efficient at getting ready and were ahead of schedule right from the start. We also had one last gift from our genial hosts, some cake freshly prepared by Sophia for us to take with us. As I said, we were ahead of schedule and so dropped the car off early then had a bit of a wait for our first ferry so I took advantage of this and went grab a coffee.
The first boat was taking us to Mykonos and was only 90 minutes. Our seats were right in front of the air conditioning units so we were all very chilled. We enjoyed our cake on this leg, anyone who knows us knows that it was never going to last very long and equally, anyone who knows us would know that Ruby would probably not like it. We arrived in Mykonos and had about an hour and a half to kill so we decided to check out the sights from the comfort of the cantina at the port where we managed to snag a table. We were going to need some food to keep us going and they had plenty to choose from, although we almost had an embarrassing situation where we ended up with 4 cheese pies when what we actually wanted was one 4-cheese pie. Luckily we managed to avoid this situation or I would probably have ended up having to eat them all.
Then it was time for our next boat and this time we had no pre-assigned seats so we primed Lily to be ready to lead the pack and get us a good spot. She was up for the challenge although it turns out that this boat did not have lounge type seats, just airplane type seats so it wasn’t overly important but she did manage to get us a good group of seats. Just as the boats set off there always seems to be an announcement where they call for several passengers to report to the reception desk, and I have always wondered what this was all about. Today as they were going through the names we were all a little shocked to hear them call Ruby Simpson, so we were about to find out. We sheepishly walked her up to the desk, ready to hand her over to the authorities for whatever her transgression was. It turns out it was no big deal, just that they hadn’t scanned her ticket on boarding so once they took care of that she was free to go. This second boat was going to be a two hour trip to our next island destination of Icaria. It looked different again from both Santorini and Naxos, I always like the first impression of somewhere new. One drawback of having to transport all our clothes and electronics everywhere on our travels is that Icaria rucksack everywhere I go which is sometimes tough in the heat, but at least today it wasn’t for too long because the place where we are hiring Icaria was just a 5 minute walk from the boat. It was the most organised car rental office and we were done and on our way in no time.
We made the drive to Karavostamo, the village where we are staying and found our apartment without too much trouble. I was very pleasantly surprised with the little touches such as local jams and snacks and a couple of mini bottles of Tsipouro (a Greek spirit) being left for us, I can feel a five star review coming up. There was a washing machine here as well and since there wasn’t at our last place we had a bit of that to take care of, and everyone just needed to rest as well as the early morning had caught up with us all. So we relaxed for a while and Tate and Ruby even had little naps, I think her brush with the law had taken it out of poor Ruby, and Tate, well she just likes a nap. The rest of us went for a little stroll to the village for the essentials, not much was going on because it is a sleepy little village on what seems like a sleepy little island, but there are a few tavernas and a couple of mini markets so we got what we needed. Lily whipped us up a lovely pasta dinner and then we had some yoghurt and biscuits, although it was not the normal Greek yoghurt but a ‘Strained’ version which we discussed for what seemed like way too long and Jess even dropped a couple of puns into the conversation, although I can’t actually remember them now. The tiredness was still being felt by us all so an early-ish night is on the cards.Read more