Day 53

---

Day 53

I slept in till about 10am, then got ready for a run with Sara B, Jenn, Steph, Mae and Joe for 11:30. We ran up and around the Oceanis Hotel, for a change of scenery from yesterday, got a little lost but found our tracks again. It’s all residential so we were never really lost, just disoriented. We got back close to 1:30pm, and Jenn came over to have the leftover pizza, that I brought home from last night, for lunch with me. After that we met the same group for grocery shopping, since I had planned to make chicken pot pie with Sara, Lisa and Jenn tonight. I got a little souvenir shopping along the way with the group, and unfortunately it was so close to siesta time that we only got to the first 2 grocery stores before the butcher was closed. So I didn’t get the chicken, but planned to go back after we went to the beach.

We all returned home, after some successful shopping, and Neil invited us over for a pork chop barbeque at his place. It only cost us 2.50 EU a piece, so we were definitely in! I invited Sara B, and we postponed the chicken pot pie for tomorrow…until we found out that Jerry was planning another barbeque for us tomorrow, so again our pot pie will be delayed to Monday. But that’s ok because we have all our ingredients ready, and just need to pick up the chicken…which I’ll get the others to pay for since Jenn and I bought the rest of the groceries. So when I got home after groceries, I got changed for the beach and did some laundry in the sink and hung it on Jenn’s patio, where I left my line hanging outside. I was done by 3:15pm and we headed down to the beach to meet the others. There was about 7 or 8 of us down at the beach; it was sunny, but a little cold walking down. When we got down there it was hot enough to wear our bathing suits, but eventually I had to put my longsleeve shirt on and wrap my legs in my towel. We stayed till about 5:30pm and headed back to the apartments for showers and to get warm.

After my hot shower, I watched the last few episodes of ‘Modern Family’ that I have on my computer, and at 7:30pm Lisa and I headed down to Niel’s to help prep for the barbeque. We grabbed Jenn on our way down, but he and Gioria had prepped everything already and were just starting the fire. Ryan was out grabbing more fire wood, since most of it was all damp, and we 3 got ourselves hot tea from their kitchen and brought out some chairs and tables from the classroom. Close to 9pm there was more people who had arrived and we put the pork on the grill. The potatoes had started on the grill an hour ago, but for some reason weren’t cooking very fast. Neil dished out potatoes with onion, garlic and green peppers, and a pork chop per person. Ryan also brought his own kabobs, but took a pork chop too, so there wasn’t enough food for Neil, who served himself last. It was a delicious meal, but there was no way I could finish my dish, so I cut off a big slab and gave it to Neil. After dinner, I helped clear the dishes and washed them inside with Mae. Lisa, Jenn and Gioria followed, since apparently the guys all started talking about their ‘members’ for some reason :S Once the dishes were done, the guys came in after packing up the chairs and extinguishing the fire, and we all headed down to Kivatos. Jerry drove Lisa down, while the rest of us walked. Lisa brought over cookies, so we snuck one to Gioria, had one each, then packed the rest down for Vasilis.

We were FREEZING walking down to the bar from the classroom! It felt like it could have started to snow at any time; but it was only 12 degrees. The funny thing is that we’ve acclimatized to Greece weather, and so anything below 20 feels like the arctic! I went so far as to wrap my scarf around my head for more heat. Once we got to Kivatos, Vasilis had us all sit along the bar, I ordered a Baileys (that’s served straight on the rocks) and I quickly warmed up. His heaters were on and the place was pretty busy so there was enough heat to go around. Vasilis took out some peanuts and refilled those and our drinks all night long. We headed back for the apartments just past 12midnight because Ryan was pretty wasted (he drank some wine at dinner and had a Baileys at Kivatos, a little weak if you ask me, considering he’s a buff, tall guy). Joe, Mae, Neil, Jenn, Zach, Ryan and I headed back together, enjoying the warmth now in our stomachs and the moon and stars all around us. It was a beautiful night, and we could finally enjoy it walking home since we weren’t as cold anymore.

I got home, washed up and changed, then hit the hay pretty hard. I was exhausted and had a tiny head ache. And pretty excited about our 26km walk to Skala tomorrow!

---