It’s all Greek to me

julio - agosto 2024
  • Pavlos Simpsonopoulos
  • Jessica Simpson
A Simpson summer in Greece Leer más
  • Pavlos Simpsonopoulos
  • Jessica Simpson

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  • Grecia Grecia
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  • As hot as Hellas

    30 de julio de 2024, Grecia ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    We were heading for the smoke today so it was an early start. But before I get to that I need to finish off yesterday’s edition, I am fairly surprised I managed to finish it if I am honest. When I was a younger man I was taught a little rhyme to keep me out of trouble: Beer before wine, you’ll be fine, wine before beer, you’ll feel queer. Unfortunately nobody taught me anything about beer before wine, followed by some ouzo, chased down with some wine and topped off by some more ouzo. Not sure how it would start but it would end ‘lying in bed, spinning in the head.’ Despite all that I bounced out of bed this morning fresh as a daisy and we got sorted for our day of travelling to Athens, packing done, sandwiches made, sorted. We had to drop the car off first, which meant dealing with the 12 year olds again, quite painful. We got to the port and there was no sign of our ferry so we just needed to wait, it was quite a windy day so it was running a little late. We were going to be onboard for about 3.5 hours so we were quite keen to get a good seat indoors, like we had last time, but it seemed like there was going to be a bit of competition as the crowds inched forward waiting for the starter’s whistle to signal we could board. Then it sounded and we were off. The Olympics have nothing on the sweaty backpack carrying race for the good seats and I feel like all my training was paying off. I didn’t know if the rest of the family was keeping up, there was no time to look back, but if they weren’t then I couldn’t help them. I would go into loads of detail about the rest of the race but it all passed in a blur, needless to say I assumed my usual position in the comfy seats and the family was right there with me.
    The trip on the boat was quite rough due to the wind and Allegra was not enjoying it. Jess and I used some of the time to do some work but I couldn’t cope for long, staring at a screen and riding the waves, after the beer, wine, ouzo combo was not much fun. There was Greece and Spain in basketball on the tv so most of the passengers were watching this and cheering away which was quite cool, it was close right to the end but sadly Spain won. The waves actually got worse and Allegra was feeling like she might be sick, so Jess took her outside for some fresh air which seemed to help her a bit. Once the boat arrived we were straight on to a bus and taking the winding road across towards the mainland and this is when I really started to pay the price, I promised myself I would not drink again, or not drink again until tonight, whichever came first. Eventually I had a 20 minute nanna (power) nap and I came good. Then it was Athens, still not a massively appealing place, and we needed to catch two buses to get to our accommodation, the first one pulled up just as we got to the stop, easy. Then a short walk to the next stop and as we got there the next bus pulled up, easy. Although not so easy, it was packed and there was no way we were getting on with all our bags. The next bus was not going to be for a while so we had a choice, wait or walk 30 minutes. It was 34 degrees so there was really only one choice, a walk it was. It was easy at first but by the end it was pretty tough, the bags got heavier as we neared our destination but we made it. As we rode the lift I could see my reflection in the mirror and my face was dripping in sweat so I commented that I was glistening, accenting a hard ‘t’ in the middle. For some reason the girls found this very annoying, given my tiredness this suggested to me I should repeat it several times to wind them up, I was then told in no uncertain terms I should fu** toff.
    We were all absolutely knackered by then but nothing that couldn’t be temporarily resolved with a shed load of chocolate, biscuits and chocolate milk. Time to relax for a little while but then dinner needed to be prepared, not toasties or pasta salad tonight, I thought I would whip up a regular pasta surprise. At the supermarket I found some interesting things I could add, that we haven’t seen before on our travels, I believe they might be called vegettables. Whatever they were, it was tasty. We don’t have much idea what we will do in Athens, but I am sure at some stage we might get our Parthenon. And of course, there is only one sleep until Lily is here.
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  • Parthenon and on and on

    31 de julio de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We woke up in Athens very excited, Lily is arriving today. But not until tonight so we had a day to kill. The morning was just the usual, a bit of work and the girls sleeping it around lunchtime we headed out to see the sights. It was a hot day, what a surprise, but there was some wind which kept it feeling cool, so it wasn’t too bad. We hopped off the bus somewhere central and immediately there were ruins all round. Now we could have been incredibly cultured and checked them all out but to be honest, despite the barred fences around them all I didn’t get the feeling that I would have a better view if I paid the entrance fee and got up close, essentially a bunch of old buildings that had mostly fallen down. One of them was Hadrian’s Library, and given the state of his wall, it was no great surprise that it had mostly fallen down. We also checked out the Agora, which someone told me was the birthplace of democracy, though to be honest I wasn’t really listening. I did find it ironic though that it was swarming with Yanks, as far as I am aware half of them think the good old USA invented democracy, and the other half are awaiting the second coming so they can finish it off for good.
    After that we headed fro Panatheneic Stadium, where the first Olympics were held. It is a very impressive stadium given its age and the fact that it is constructed out of marble. It also gave us the best view we were going to get of the Parthenon, please refer to my earlier comments if in doubt about why we didn’t venture any closer. We could see quite a lot of smoke though as well. At this point at the stadium we had two stresses at virtually the same time. First of all Lily messaged to say that her train was stopped because of an unspecified problem and then all our phones buzzed with an alert to say there was a fire in our area and that we should stay indoors and close all the windows. Needless to say we carried on with our tour. We had a bit of a race on the track, I came a creditable third and then we posed on the medal dais. We were getting hungry so headed back to the touristy part of town to find something to eat. Then, like the universe was giving us a message, a vegan cafe popped up on Google maps so we thought we might as well try there. What a good choice it turned out to be, some of the best vegan cafe food we have had in a long time, tasty sandwiches and salads, and they brought us out some cake samples to keep us going while we waited. After that it was time to head home, the heat had worn us all out, and we had to rest up for the main event.
    It was quite the trek to get to the airport, the first bus was a no show so we had to go to a different bus stop, then we had to catch a train, buying tickets first from the most relaxed ticket office guy ever, he was just having a good time eating his watermelon and nothing was going to hurry him up. We negotiated the world’s second oldest metro system with little bother and got to the airport in good time. We had been in touch with Lily on her trip and knew that her flight was delayed so we were all waiting with our hand made signs but it took her ages to come out. It was a very happy reunion all round and the girls still haven’t stopped yakking. Jess is walking around with a big smile on her face, she is in her happy place. I am a man so I shook Lily by the hand, punched her shoulder playfully and grunted something non committal. It was a long wait for a train because of the airport delay and then a long train ride back to our accommodation and the tiredness started to set in for all of us. But all Lily had wanted to do since landing was swim in the rooftop pool so luckily it closed at midnight and when we got there no one was in there. The 4 girls reunited happily swam and messed about like no time had passed enjoying the amazing view of the Parthenon at night and the secluded roof top pool. Me and Jess sat and watched again just happy the gang was back together again. As nowhere was open to get food we feasted on chocolate biscuits and tinned dolmades. A big day ahead tomorrow as we are heading back to the islands, it will be our final one, Alonissos.
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  • Call me Steve Martin

    31 de julio de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    The fallen comrade is no more. Much like Jesus I have risen from the dead, albeit three weeks later instead of three days but potato potato.
    The day was off to an early start as I woke up half an hour before our alarm at 8:30, in no way mentally prepared for a 10 hour long solo journey across Europe. I was however prepared in every other way, my mother has trained me well.
    The alarm went off and The Bentlequerry and I started slowly moving, having breakfast, finishing touches in the packing and last minute checks. We were so efficient that we were ready ten minutes early and so Quents mum who was driving me to the station suggested we go in early which we did. However there are downsides to being overly efficient and one of them is waiting at a hot train station for ten minutes more than necessary. But the train pulled up I said goodbye to Quent and on I got. All was going smoothly, we passed through two stations, Souillac and Gourdon (shoutout Milan) but as they say third times a charm. Or rather, as is always the case when it comes to the sncf, a bloody curse. We get there, people get offf and then the announcement man tells us that the train will be stopped for about ten minutes due to a problem with the train. As has been my experience with the sncf ten minutes is never ten minutes. It is always more and so I started shitting myself. Luckily the person sitting next to me had left otherwise he would have been in for quite a scene. Miraculously before the situation could spiral out of control the announcement man told us all was good and we were off. Crisis averted (the crisis that is me sleep talking in French is still not to be mentioned, I am in denial).
    We were then back on (train) track with only a ten minute delay. The rest of the journey passed smoothly and before I knew it I had arrived in the very hot city of Toulouse. If you’ve been reading Big D’s blog you’ll know that Greece is hot, well let me tell you, Toulouse is even more so. It is also a wonderfully well signposted city and I was therefore able to find the airport shuttle with no trouble. The shuttle pulled up minutes after I did and I began to become suspicious as to how smoothly things were going. In my experience that usually means trouble further down the line. I arrived to the airport with none of this expected trouble and breezed through security. Life is so much quicker as a single unit instead of six. Quickly made my way to my gate with a quick necessary pit stop to get a drink and take a pee. Seeing as I arrived with ages to spare I had my pick of seats and took great advantage of that by man spreading to my fullest.
    And about an hour into that and a few episodes into my series that trouble I suspected finally arrived. The announcement man (that dastardly bearer of bad news) announced that flight AF 1864 to Athens was delayed by half an hour. With horror I realised that my flight was flight AF 1864. Karma may be my boyfriend but they are also a dick.
    Anywho the extra thirty minutes flew by thanks to the mindless entertainment that is Netflix original series and before I knew it I was passing the threshold of my nemesis, airplanes. As I’m sure it’s well known I am a great disliker of flying and yet my parents made me do it on my own. I won’t go into detail but let’s just say for a well air conditioned plane I was sweating an unusual amount. I finally landed 35 minutes later than originally planned and squeezed into a bus where everyone one else seemed to respecting covid distancing which took us to the main airport. I was greeted by five smiling weirdos all holding a sign with my name on it and then promptly attacked with hugs and choruses of “Moo Moo!” (all from my mother).
    I was then informed by my father that I still had an hour and a half to add onto my already ten hour long journey. Luckily the time passed quickly with me talking everyone’s ear off due to my diet of brownie and crisps and not much else, which led Ruby to get pissy at me but I think it was just to make me feel properly settled in.
    We finally, eleven and a half or so hours after I set of from Quent’s house this morning, arrived at our apartment only for me to speedily leave again, this time for a quick dip in the outdoor pool. Despite having been repeatedly told by my father that it is hot in Greece, compared to France I might as well have been in Antarctica for how chill it was. However I have decided to adopt the yolo attitude and so, without checking the depth of this pool, I yelled “Euro Summer!” and jumped right in. However the pool was actually only waist high and so I ended up hurting my entire shins as they hit the bottom with a bang that Allegra said could be heard from outside the pool. However I soldiered on and was soon making all of my sisters dunk in the spirit of Euro Summer.
    We quickly got cold and so retreated back to the apartment where I feasted on the best dolmades that I have ever eaten in my life before writing this here banger and hopping into bed.

    Fallen I am no more
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  • Notenoughsleepos

    1 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    An early morning bus meant an early morning wake up call. We were up late last night celebrating Lily’s arrival and rather than waste time this morning trying to negotiate buses to get to the station we thought we would just get taxis to take some stress out of the day. It was a 45 minute walk from our accommodation to the bus station, so Jess thought we should allow 75 minutes for a taxi, just in case. My protestations fell on deaf ears and so the taxis were booked, reducing our sleep time by 30 minutes, crucial minutes in my daily grumpiness quota. To be fair though, I did get plenty of ‘I told you so’ time when the taxi took 15 minutes and we had an hour or so to kill at the station, these things have a habit of evening out I feel. Lily was full of the joys of travelling, it’s all new to her so early starts are a bit of a novelty, for the rest of the girls, they started off a little slowly but soon enough Lily’s infectious enthusiasm rubbed off and they were all yakking and laughing as we waited for the bus,
    The bus trip was equally as boring as the two previous occasions we have done it, although we did pass close-ish to a fire burning in the forests of Evia, we saw plenty of water bombing planes circling round in the distance. We got to the ferry port and we were like old pros, the twins jumped off the bus and grabbed some benches under shade in the seating area and we waited for the boat to arrive. We had filled Lily in on what was required to get a good seat on the boat, it was even more important now as it seems like since it is August it is full tourist season, it was way busier than even two days ago. So she was ready to go and was a little upset that a couple of people seemed to be getting preferential treatment and boarding first, until I pointed out that they were helping some disabled passengers. She grudgingly accepted this explanation, while keeping her eye on the guy who would give us the boarding signal. As soon as he did she was off, weaving through the crowds to get to the front, she was first on the boat and we had the pick of of the seats. The boat trip was also much like our previous experiences, although today we had volleyball and table tennis as our Olympic sports for our viewing pleasure. The boat stopped at some of the previous islands we had visited, Skiathos and Skopelos and then it was on to Alonissos. The twins and I went in a taxi with all the bags to our accommodation, we aren’t getting a car here, and Jess, Lily and Ruby walked, it was less than half an hour. While we waited we popped to a nearby shop to grab some essentials and they stopped at a bakery on the way. The cardinal rule was broken, never go into a bakery hungry, and they arrived at the villa loaded up with cake. So we sat and ate that, then wandered down to the beach for a quick swim to cool off, although by now it was about 8.30 so the heat had gone out of the day. It was just a quick dip then back to the villa to get changed and head out back to the waterside where we had spotted a nice looking restaurant for our dinner. The girls had mostly overdone it in the cake earlier and so they didn’t finish off what they ordered, except for Tate who polished off hers, wiped her plate with some bread, then got stuck into what Allegra had left, while scraping the last of the tzatziki. I’m not sure where she puts it all. Luckily the walk back to the villa is uphill so we managed to all work a bit of it off. First impressions of Alonissos are good, it doesn’t seem as busy as some of the other islands, and has a fairly relaxed feel. We will do a bit of exploring tomorrow to see what else we can see.
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  • Jeepster McBuggy

    2 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    We had resolved yesterday that today would be a getting a feel for the island day where we would mostly be just sorting out plans for the rest of our time here. So with that in mind, we slept until after 9 this morning, which is almost unheard of. Lily was first awake of the girls and soon enough I heard an anguished raised voice from the kitchen asking why we hate her so much and wondering if we even loved her. Our crime, buying multifruit juice that we know she doesn’t like, rather than a single fruit juice that we know she does. Sometimes as a parent you just know that you have done the wrong thing by your children even though your intentions might have been good and all you can do is hold your hands up and apologise. I will leave it up to anyone reading to decide which side of that particular line this episode fell on.
    Gradually everyone else woke up and gradually we got ready to head out. This involved plaiting some hair, applying some eye make up and of course deciding which particular outfit would work best for an island meander. I found myself wondering if the Kirkwoods had the same problem for their day in Vienna. Soon though we were ready and off walking into town to get sorted. I was leading the way and directing and inadvertently took us about 50 metres the wrong way, only to suffer an onslaught of invective questioning not only my parentage but also my worth as a human being. I resolved to lift my game. As we were walking down the hill to the port I spotted a cherry red jeep outside a car rental place and casually remarked that if I was going to hire a car that would be what I would get. Now Jess has never knowingly passed up an opportunity to take a bull by the horns so 30 minutes later we had hired that cherry red jeep, plus another vehicle (as the jeep only seats 3) and also booked a sunset snorkelling trip for a few days time.
    Our plans for the day had done a u-turn so we headed back to our villa to grab all our swimming gear and set off to explore the island a bit. It was fun driving Jeepster McBuggy (as I had christened it), feeling the wind blowing around as we cruised the windy island roads, although it was squeaky and bumpy this was more than offset by the envious looks we were receiving, we are nothing if not posers. We parked the cars at a spot near a beach then went in search of some suncream, which we found, although we were a bit short of food. There were a bunch of tavernas and while looking for some pastries Lily spotted one that had Aperol and said she had been serving them at work all summer and really wanted to try one. Any excuse to get on the sauce early in the afternoon, not sure who she gets that from. So we sat down to have some lunch and Lily enjoyed her Aperol spritz, which is Aperol, Prosecco and fizzy water, a perfect euro summer drink.
    We had some food which was tasty and then it was beach o’clock, I for one was feeling very hot. It was only a short walk and we were very pleasantly surprised when we saw that it had plenty of shade, and even more importantly, was very sparsely populated. We had been expecting it to be rammed but Alonissos has continued to impress us. Needless to say, the waters were calm and crystal clear and we were all cooling off in no time. We stayed for quite a while, chilling, snorkelling, skimming stones and just generally enjoying being together and hanging out doing nothing. There is literally nothing in the world I love more.
    I could have sat there for most of the evening but Jeepster McBuggy was calling. So after a while we packed up and jumped in the cars, which you literally have to do as there are no doors, and headed off for the Chora (old town) at the top of the hill with a plan to have an ice cream and watch the sunset. It is a magnificent spot, with views over the Aegean, and as the sun was going down the colours of the sky were changing. We wandered around, it was truly the Greece we had been hoping for based on all the travel guides, a hilltop village but a staircase or alleyway around every corner. Not only that, it had a lovely ice cream shop so all our dreams were coming true. We wandered as we licked, taking photos as we went, it was the sort of place we felt would have been perfect just to sit at and have few drinks and spend an evening. But I couldn’t do that to Jeepster, plus being such a picture postcard spot the crowds were starting to build up so I think the ambiance would have changed if we had stayed any longer.
    It was time to head back to our villa and rest up after a very full day, apart from poor Jess who had some work she just had to get done so that she can properly enjoy the rest of our time together. We have the cars for tomorrow as well so we shall explore Alonissos some more, I am at the point where I think it could not be anything less than awesome.
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  • Little Red Jeepette

    3 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    Another nice lie in to start today, I could get used to this. A tasty breakfast of Greek yoghurt, fruit and crumbled biscuits was consumed, I could also get used to that as it is a delicious mix. Lily decided this morning that she would determine our departure time today as she felt that everyone would listen to her more than they would listen to me, possibly a fair call. She said it was a midday departure and by 7 minutes past we were on our way so she certainly managed to rally the troops. Jess was to be driving the fancy car today, so she wanted to rechristen it Little Red Jeepette, although I still refer to it as Jeepster. We were doing a bit more exploring of the island today, although exploring may be a bit of a stretch, we were driving 25 minutes to a beach, not exactly Burke and Wills.
    The beach was supposedly the most popular on the island so we were expecting it to be a bit busy, and while it was busier than where we were yesterday, calling it busy would be an exaggeration. There was certainly quite a few people but there was loads of space so we dumped our stuff and set up our umbrellas, making sure to tie them down, despite the fact there was barely a breath of wind. We spent a very full couple of hours there, Jess had her usual swim, I did a bit of snorkelling although there was not much to see, and the girls did some filming for a little video they are making. Somehow while sitting in the water doing nothing much, Olivia managed to get bitten by a tiny crab, she obviously has something that attracts the sea creatures. After a while my stomach started calling out to me so I knew we would need to make a move for some lunch.
    We decided to head back to where we had been yesterday as there were a few tavernas to choose from there and we tried somewhere different, it was extremely enjoyable. After paying the bill we were just standing up , gathering our stuff together to leave.when the waiter rushed over telling us not to be in such a hurry and presented us with a free ice cream each, they were much appreciated even if we were full.
    After that it was back to the beach where we went yesterday as it was so perfect. I couldn’t wait to get into the water and do a bit more snorkelling, if you have been keeping up with Ruby’s blog you will know of my special friends Fisho and Eely, I wanted to see if they were still around. It took me a couple of goes but I found them, remarkably they were still hanging out at the same rock. I feel that my family may have been mocking me slightly when it came to my new friends, and perhaps there was even a slight suggestion that they were imaginary friends. Jess and Allegra decided to do a bit of snorkelling as well and although at first I could feel the scepticism building, eventually they both saw them and realised they were not just figments of my imagination. It was just about time to head for home so we woke up old lady Lily from her nanna nap and set off. One last drive of Jeepster/Jeepette, we stopped off to get beer and biscuits and then back to the villa as we all needed to shower. After a bit of a rest I whipped up some toasties for dinner, earning an ‘exemplary’ from Ruby, which is high praise indeed. We snacked on the aforementioned beer and biscuits which loosened Jess up enough to start trash talking making Leggy laugh out loud and remark that she had never been so funny. The lie ins are unfortunately done for, we have to take Jeepster back tomorrow, there could be tears but I think the girls will provide me with plenty of comfort. After that it is a day on a boat, life is tough.
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  • What a boatiful day

    4 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    It was back to the alarm today, which we definitely have not missed. But at least it was a sign of a fun day ahead. We were all up and ready to go in an impressively short time, maybe we are starting to get the hang of it. We took as few photos of us all posing with Jeepster, as I have previously mentioned we are nothing if not posers. We had to return the cars we had hired, not only Jeepster but also the virtually unmentioned Fiat McPanda, a car so unmemorable I don’t think we even bothered to take a photo of it, and it certainly did not merit two full days of blog posing. The cars were dropped off, pies were purchased from the Pie House (I had half hoped it would be a magical house you could just take a bite out of) and then we were ready for today’s adventure in posing, hiring a boat to cruise the islands.
    As old pros, we half listened to the instructions we were given, impatient to be on our way. Today we were cruising from Alonissos to Peristera, it’s not particularly far so it only took us about 45 minutes to get to our first stop for the day and when we arrived there was no one else around. We did have a little trouble again with the anchor, actually we didn’t have any trouble, we just imagined that we might be and so worried about it more than we probably needed to. Soon enough though we were in the cool crystal clear waters, alliterating as always. We spent plenty of time snorkelling as there were loads of fish to be seen and we all just jumped on and off the boat as inspiration struck us. We had some food, did some sun bathing and the twins decided to talk to each other while snorkelling, they were quite loud. Eventually a couple of other boats came and disturbed us disturbing the peace. We didn’t let them bother us though and hung around a bit longer before finally deciding we would set off in search of other locales. We cruised around the island and found a few places, one where there was a shipwreck which had even more fish although I didn’t snorkel there as we were anchored too deep and it freaked me out a bit. We headed off to our final spot for the day, where there was one other boat moored. It was a fancy looking Rib and we noted that while our little boat had a 30hp motor, this one had two motors on the back of 300hp each. We commented that it was probably some sort of compensation for lacking elsewhere, we also commented on how the elongated boat with two large motors hanging off the back was quite phallic. Of course I use the royal ‘we’, mostly it was just me. Anyway, we carried on enjoying our swim, ignoring the family on the other boat, even if it was very fancy. Eventually as we sat around,, trying not to be too nosy, we noticed the husband/father discreetly changing out of his swimmers using a towel to hide his modesty, while his wife and young children entertained themselves. Then, not two minutes later, he was what can only be described as basking, with his Rib boat and two motors on full display to us, yet slightly shielded from his family. It was odd at the time, and seems even more odd now I am writing about it. We upped anchor and set off fairly promptly after that.
    We headed back to port after an awesome day on the water and handed the boat back, sad in the knowledge we would not have this experience again. We found a place to have the obligatory post boating treat, some ice creams, banana splits, beer for me and a Woo Woo for Moo Moo. In case you are wondering, it is a fancy cocktail with vodka and schnapps. We also got into a fairly heated family discussion. This is fine, it happens reasonably often and it’s important I think that our girls can always say what they feel, and we can have difficult conversations with each other. But this one threatened to put a black cloud over our day, and I don’t really want to point any fingers of accusation at anyone so I will just say that we were disagreeing with ‘Annoying R’ and she was disagreeing with us. Then ‘Aggro L’ and ‘Feisty A’ got involved and ‘Holier than thou P’ tried to resolve the situation with calmness and testicles (which we had had enough of already today) until finally it was left to the voice of reason, Olivia, to sum it all up, point out where we were all in the wrong and really just take the heat out of the situation. Without a car we had to walk back to our villa, which was about 30 minutes but wasn’t too bad as there was a nice breeze. We were all pretty worn out after a day on the sea, so it was time to rest for a bit before our dinner of champions, toasties with beer (for me and Jess) and assorted cream biscuits.
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  • Snorkel talk

    5 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Hiii guys tonight my father is too tired to write the blog so I (Allegra) am going to write it, a quick warning in advance: I am not very funny.
    So today we didn’t have an early start so we all got up when we wanted to. Me and Lily got up around 10 and we had some breakfast that consisted of Greek yogurt, plums, and biscuits. Then we stayed in the parents room until we decided to wake up our sisters so Lily played some Taylor Swift which, surprisingly, annoyed Ruby.
    When they finally got out of bed we did some filming of our music video. Our parents then told us the plan was to go eat some brunch and then we would go on our snorkelling trip at 5. So we all started to get ready and we were out the door at 14:30, we walked through town until we got to the cafe that Lily saw the day before. I ordered some pancakes, they were okay, a bit much though, but très yummy. After our meal we meandered around town, there wasn’t much to see but we got some great views of the harbour. At 5 we made our way to the snorkelling place where we were greeted by people who gave us our flippers and goggles, there was about three other families with us: two French and one British. We got on the boat and we were off. Our first stop was at the green caves, I don’t know why it has such a cool name because it was not very cool. But we saw some fish and using flippers was kind of fun! We then made our way to the next destination: a random bay, which was much better than the first but still pretty tedious but not in a mean way. But me and my sisters were amusing ourselves by looking at the snacks in the ocean (but not the fish;) so that was very fun. We then went to the third spot where we watched the sunset but sadly it was hidden behind clouds. After this we had the choice to snorkel some more in the ocean or just chill on the boat. Our parents snorkelled and me and my sisters stayed in the boat. On the way back Mum made small talk with the very good looking French boy and his sister. But sadly she didn’t ask for his instagram for me. When we got back to the port we put our clothes back on, said goodbye to everyone, and started to walk back to our house, I was very tired so I was zoned out for the entire walk except for the end where me and Olivia ran home through the streets of Votsi (our village). For dinner we had some pot noodles because dad was VERYYY TIRED and worn out from snorkelling all afternoon. After that it was biscuit time! So I went to get them, we had four flavours today: chocolate, coconut, orange and lemon. Then we just chilled and I offered to write the blog because dad was still très tired. So it’s an early night for everyone tonight because we are all worn out. Sadly tomorrow is our last day here in Greece :(
    Anyway that is all good night
    🥞🚤🌺🐟🌊🐠🐡
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  • Ooooooh barracuda

    5 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Not a great deal for me to add today after the blog was excellently taken care of by Allegra, and also Ruby in her own blog, although there was a little too much snacking on the bros for my liking. I am actually writing this tomorrow, as was pointed out I was very tired last night. It was a lazy old morning and early afternoon, apart from our adventure with a centipede apparently living in our sink. We first saw him the day before, he did not seem particularly happy and could not climb out of the sink, so we just left him there. Then this morning he was gone. The sink was used as normal, including to wash dishes so we thought nothing more of him. Later on I went to get some water and he climbed out of the plug hole! I just about cacked my dacks. Apparently they can grow to 15cm, live for 7 years, and have been known to eat small mice.
    A bit of filming for the girls latest video followed and then time to go out. A walk to town for brunch, which was very tasty and then a stroll. It’s nice that this place is so un-touristy but it does mean there is not much in the way of shops. So we ended up sitting around for 30 minutes before our snorkelling trip started. Soon enough we were on the boat heading for our first stop, the green cave. We snorkelled, nothing majorly impressive although I did hang at the back of the group and after everyone had swum off it became the yellow cave. Snorkelling back to the boat, which kept moving as we followed the coast, was quite tricky as the water was quite wavy. Flippers helped but I didn’t find it massively enjoyable, there wasn’t actually much fish variety, just smallish dark ones mostly. It did get me wondering though, what if we were in some alternate universe where the fish was king and they just organised to come to this spot around 6 each day to see these strange creatures who appeared in the water above them in the summer months. It was a long snorkel, what can I say.
    Eventually we made it back to the boat and headed for our second location but the sea was too choppy there so we then had to move to a calmer bay. More of the same really, with slightly more fish variety, although nothing i hadn’t seen before. Some jumping off the boat followed, allowing me to do a massive back whacker attempting a somersault, but really it didn’t hurt. I promise. We chatted with one of the crew, Ricardo, who told us how he had given up all material possessions and walked from the south coast of Spain to his home near Bologna, then he had walked the entire coastline of Italy and then went to Australia and walked around there. I think he was solving crimes and helping people being oppressed by bullies along the way, but I may have got confused there possibly. By the time of the third stop it was cooling down a bit and clouding up, so the sunset view was not what it might have been. Most people did not go in for this snorkel, but Jess and I did. Ricardo was a little ahead and excitedly announced that he had seen a barracuda, since I don’t know my little brown fish from my silver fish with a dark spot near its tail I just acted suitably impressed as I think that is what he was after. Jess was busy practicing her free diving but I was getting worn out so headed back to the boat and soon enough we were on our way back to port.
    Then it was a walk back up the hill to our villa and the tiredness was really setting in, I was very happy when the girls said they wanted pot noodles for dinner rather than toasties as this meant I didn’t need to do anything. A 10 minute lie down when we got back helped me feel slightly human again, then a few sandwiches for my dinner also helped. We were all having our usual evening outside to recover from the day, and I don’t know if it was extreme tiredness, the beer and ouzo, or a combination thereof, but I could have sworn a little leprechaun appeared singing something about biscuit time. I ate several biscuits and by that stage it was most definitely time for bed.

    I feel like I needed to add to this blog (Jess) as I really enjoyed the snorkeling experience. Our globe trotting Italian guide was a free dive instructor and so he would swim to the bottom of the ocean and lie on his back and blow air rings it was a very cool sight and at the same time I think before you become a dive instructor you must meet certain requirements. Interesting mysterious back story (give up a successful career to wander the planet alone), philosophical tattoo across bronzed muscled chest (weak animals never live alone, Charles Darwin ), very chill and calm and cool persona, and a trick to impress normal people. So he checked all the boxes of being a tour guide/dive instructor/free dive Instructor. At one point he was giving advice to a very insecure 16 year old boy who was clearly in love with him as to how to chat up a girl he fancied at a restaurant. The whole thing was actually really funny and so filled with testosterone that it furlled other testosterone actions from all the boys and men on the boat. I wonder if balls give off a signal of some sort which heralds a call to action to all men young and old to bond over jumping off boats and showing off together. Anyway enough about an overgrown balls filled boat and back to snorkeling. I loved it because of the silence and there was one moment I was on a shallow reef and all of a sudden the reef ended to this really deep blue abyss and it really felt like I was flying and for a moment I was worried I might fall. I had to swim this several times as there was no feeling like it. It was a nice break from the overgrown testes I had had to endure for pretty much the rest of the trip.
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  • Omega

    6 de agosto de 2024, Grecia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Tomorrow we are off home, a massive journey awaits, so today is our last day on Alonissos and of our Greek adventure. We didn’t want to overdo it today so it was another easy morning, gradually everyone awoke and came and had breakfast on our bed, Tate having the absolute breakfast of champions, a biscuit sandwich. There was quite a bit of bickering today, I think that we are all actually quite sad to be going home, but we didn’t really want to admit this to each other. We just took it easy for a while, the girls did some more filming for their latest little video and then we got organised to go to one last beach.
    With no means of transport we needed to stay close to home, luckily there is s a beach about a ten minute walk away so that was our destination. This was probably at about peak bickering time so it was not the most pleasant walk, but like I said, it was only about ten minutes. The beach was quite empty when we got there but did fill up a little, there were probably about 15 people there before too long. The setting was fairly spectacular, it was surrounded by cliffs, but in all honesty it was not one of the top beaches we have visited, still it was better than our local at the Lac du Causse. It was a little choppy so this meant the water was not as clear as we have become used to and the snorkelling was not up to the highest standards that have been set. We hung around for a couple of hours but eventually had to say goodbye to the amazing Greek waters and headed back to our villa, stopping along the way for an ice cream. We then chilled at home for a while, it’s possible I may have had a bit of a nanna nap, although there is no photographic evidence so maybe it never happened. We decided we would go out for dinner to celebrate our last night and there was a restaurant not too far away that we chose. It was tasty, as most places we have been have been, but when we discussed our favourites over dinner we agreed that the first taverna we ate at at our first accommodation was the best. So you could say it’s been all down hill since then. But at least we all got free ice creams again tonight which were much appreciated. It is fair to say I am not feeling the inspiration tonight, I am tired and not really looking forward to going home, although I do feel completely knackered so it will be good to have a bit of a rest.
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