Skiathos

At last, holiday. Day two today.
The last week before going on holiday is always really fraught. It seems that there is always a crisis of some sort which just adds to the stress of going away: getting last minute things done, packing, downloading films and podcasts. Sally gets everything else done: sorting out her Mum, tidying everything away, bringing Dom’s things back from his shared h0use. Last week we went to Wimbledon and picked stuff up from Pat’s flat in London ready for him coming home. Busier than ever.

Anyway, somehow, we get away without any alarms. When we get to the airport Sally remembers that we hadn’t left a key for Matt to get in with! Luckily, we only live ten minutes drive from the airport; I jumped in a taxi and went to leave a key. No problems.

Of course there’s the irritation and indignity of security (I always think that they’re closing the door after the horse has bolted). Quick coffee and then on the aeroplane. Three and a half hours later we’re there!
If you haven’t been to Skiathos then you won’t know that its a small Greek island, just off the coast of Evvia, which is itself a big Greek island just off the mainland. You can get a ferry and a bus from Evvia to Athens in a couple of hours, so that should give you some idea of the geography – or I could just give you a map, but intrepid nineteenth century explorers didn’t have maps (or the internet) and had to rely on the powers of description, so why should my life be any easier?
Just at this moment I feel very 1920’s sitting in the shade typing away at yet another opus – if I still drank I could believe myself Papa Hemingway knocking out his 250 word a day on a Caribbean island before going to hunt something, or Scott Fitzgerald writing bad screenplays on the beach at Santa Barbara.

Skiathos is a beautiful island. It has a permanent population of about 6,000 people and is only 15km at its widest point. It’s covered in cool pine forest. Its most famous person is a writer, Alexandros Papadiamantis – never heard of him? Well he’s got a museum and an airport named after him – which seems to put him on a par with John Lennon and JFK, except he wasn’t shot.

Where we are, in the “resort” of Koukounaries it can’t be more than a mile or so north to south. Koukounaries is on the south coast, and the beach we favour is on the north. I say “resort” because Koukounaries consists of one bus stop, two or three hotels, some holiday apartments, four restaurants, two little supermarkets, a car hire place and a beach.

We arrived without incident. The apartment is really nice and has air conditioning (which means I’m a little too cold most of the time I’m indoors). On the first evening, we bought a bit of food and sat at the pool and then went to dinner, watched a film (“Never Let Me Go”, from the book by Kazuo Ishiguro  - recommended) and slept 10 hours!

Yesterday, a walk through the pine forest to Elias Mandraki beach, 5 hours in the sun around lunch and a nap in the café, dinner  (ate too much) another movie (“Festen”, a danish film – the first film I’ve ever seen certified to be compliant with the principles of Dogme 95 – another highly recommended film!).
It seems, however careful you are, you can’t escape sunburn on the first day – this year it’s my left thigh and knee and a bit on the back of my left shoulder. Had  a lot worse: in the olden days sun cream started at factor 2 and went up to 8, maybe 12. Factor 2 must now be illegal, at least you don’t see it on sale anymore, and seems to start at 10 and go up to 60!
So a day in the shade for me and blogging today! So far, so good!