So after that exertion of writing all that, I fell asleep & completely missed sunset. Nor did we ever notice anything shiny in the wake. We docked at Paros (about 21:30) where we dropped off the majority of the ship’s passengers — I spent most of the time trying to take long exposure shots of bits around the port, whilst cursing the eejits who were trying to take photographs of the same subjects (that were quite a distance away!) with a flash! The only thing they succeeded in lighting up was glare on my exposure! Bah! Still, none of them turned out anyway, since the ship’s engines were causing too much camera shake…

It was nearly another hour to Naxos and, when we disembarked, we managed to find the bloke who rented a room to Annabel & John last time they were on the island. He even appeared to recognise them after a two year absence! It was an ‘interesting’ journey in the back of a Ford Transit minibus through the narrow, windy streets of Naxos Town, but we survived and we now have a 2 bedroom apartment, each with en suite bathroom, and a shared kitchen area.

After dropping the bags off, we immediately went to find the nearest restaurant — Oasis. Imagine sitting outside, in the middle of September, at 23:30, in short sleeves! But we were, and it was still pleasantly warm! For dinner, we had:

• Skordalia, which translates as ‘Garlic Salad’. It’s basically potato with tonnes of garlic, whisked around in a blender ’til smooth, then with olive oil folded in. (We learned later that you have to fold in the oil afterwards, or it will turn into an emulsion.)
• Octopus Salad
• Olives
• Warmed crusty bread
• Stuffed vine leaves
• Spanakopita — spinach an feta in filo pastry.
• A bottle of Retsina.

It was lovely. The Skordalia and vine leaves (which were in a lemony béchamel sauce) were wonderful!

After that, we were pretty tired (having been on the go for more than 20 hours), so we called it a night.

Saturday

Unfortunately, neither Annabel nor I had remembered to pack a watch, so when we woke up this morning, we had no idea what time it was. The shutters leading onto the balcony were closed, and did an incredibly good job of shutting out the light! I unpacked the laptop, prised it open, look at the clock in the menu bar, added two hours and discovered it was already 09:15! We poddled around for a bit cursing the lack of coffee (or caffeine of any variety) in the apartment, then poddled off to the attached hotel for Greek coffees. Greek coffee is good!

First stop of the day, proper, was to hire a car. We have a Fiat Punto (with air conditioning!) for the next six days, which will give us freedom of the island. I really want a quad bike (or even a motorbike, but I daren’t get my hopes up about that — I doubt Annabel would let me!) at some point though. After getting some petrol, we dropped it back off at the apartment and walked into town.

We stopped off for ‘breakfast’ at a bar called Klik — I had a cheese pastie — then sought out a pharmacy. See, in my typical style, I seem to have a nasty cold. We bought some throat pastilles and antibiotics — which cost € 44.80! I really hope they work, not only because of the cost, but because I’m really feeling kinda ill.

We spent an hour or so wandering around the old town — a maze of twisty passages, all alike! — eventually ascending to the Catholic church. I commented that the two of them were like homing pigeons — if left in Glasgow for long enough, they’d find Parkhead all by themselves! I suspect the joke wasn’t appreciated (either ‘cos I was being nasty, or neither of them knew what Parkhead was).

I had been promised a beer at the top,but consoled myself with a few pictures. We did find a place that served draft Mythos back on the shore front and stayed there for a couple of drinks.

Which is where I managed to get my first lizard photographs! John spotted a wall lizard and went to investigate. We then spent the next hour lizard-watching. The prize catch (on my camera!) was a Balkan Green lizard.

On the walk home, I started to feel quite ill (dehydration, my cold, the heat?) so after eventually reaching the apartment, I collapsed and slept for a couple of hours, while John & Annabel went to the beach.

I rejoined them about 18:00 at the beach, where John had been snorkelling all afternoon, while Annabel had read her book. We had beer & Retsina while John nipped back to shower, then headed along the shore — stopping to take a few sunset piccies — and eventually found a restaurant which served grilled octopus and ouzo. And here we’ve been sitting for the past while, John & I supping ouzo, — 40% pernot-like drink only much smoother and tastier — and writing up our diaries. There’s a selection of grilled octopus, squid & cuttlefish on its way, so now’s a good time to stop!