The Naxian Mysteries


Advertisement
Greece's flag
Europe » Greece » South Aegean » Naxos
August 24th 2022
Published: September 17th 2022
Edit Blog Post

Today might be our last chance for a full day of relaxation before we go home so we decide not to waste it. We pull up sunlounges next to the pool and then on the beach. It’s very overcast and it looks like it might have rained overnight.

We don’t do anything so I don’t know what to write about, so intelligent readers should probably stop here. For the rest of you…..

We’re fairly sure now that someone doesn’t come along every morning and fill in the large holes that get dug on the beach every day. We were going to dig an unusually shaped test hole and come back the next day to see whether it was still there, but the sand’s really hard and we both forgot to pack our spades when we left home. It’s funny “sand”. It’s so hard that the overnight rain‘s still sitting in puddles, and then a boat cruises past and generates some waves, and the water from the wash then just sits in puddles on the beach too. It’s starting to get a bit smelly. It must get really smelly sitting on the beach here in winter when it really rains, not that too many people probably sit on the beach here in winter, or even for that matter come here full stop.

So we think we’ve solved the “holes on the beach” issue, but what about some of the island’s other great mysteries.

The lady sitting at the table next to us last night certainly looked a lot like Ash Barty, but I suppose we’ll never know now whether or not it really was her. Issy reminded me that Ash Barty got married recently so maybe she’s here on her honeymoon, although that said the man she was with looked old enough to be her father, so maybe not.

And we’re still also a bit mystified by the pair that sat on the table next to us the night before. The younger lady said she was Dutch but that she lived with her parents in New York. She had a really thick Dutch accent, so she can’t have lived in New York for very long, and how did her parents come to be there; surely they’d be too old to be immigrants, unless things have got a bit looser since the Donald handed over control of the reins (“handed over” probably isn’t the right term in that particular case, “had them forceably removed” is probably a better description). Very mysterious. The older lady sounded Greek and we discovered that she has a villa here in Naxos. Both ladies seemed to be somehow involved in the travel industry, and there was a lot of talk about bookings going wrong and clients ringing up in the middle of the night because they had nowhere to sleep. So what was the mystery with the older lady? Well the younger lady asked her whether she could take her photo and she refused; she said she didn’t like being photographed. She said that her dog didn’t like being photographed either. Her dog wasn’t there; she said it was back at the villa because it was too tired to come out, so I’m not sure how it not wanting to be photographed was relevant, and anyway how can you know that a dog doesn’t like being photographed. I think she might be hiding something if both her and her dog don’t like appearing in photos. Witness protection possibly? The younger lady asked the older lady what she should order and was told to try the octopus. I’ve had octopus for dinner more often than not since we’ve been here and it’s always been delicious, but younger lady then told older lady that she’d never tried it. She’s in the travel industry touring the world and she’s never tried octopus? There was definitely something very fishy going on there.

We head into town for dinner and manage to score a table on a balcony overlooking the waterfront. Which brings me to another mystery of life here. When the bill is above a certain amount and you need to enter your PIN to authorise it, the digits on the keypad they give you are always in random order. I’m sure there’s a good reason for this but it’s not all that apparent to us. I don’t think it’s to discourage customers from drinking too much; I had enough trouble putting the right numbers in when I was sober, and anyway it’s not going to do the establishment much good if someone has too many attempts, their card gets locked out and they can‘t pay. Very mysterious.

So it might be a mysterious place, but we both agree that we’ve had a great time
Greek “caravan”Greek “caravan”Greek “caravan”

This was in the car park next to the hotel for the entire time we were here. The Google machine told us that you cover the wheels with cardboard to protect them from the sun, but I think they must have run out before they got to the fourth one ..….
here in Naxos. Good weather, great beaches, excellent food, ancient Greek temples, and a very cute old town, but I think the highlight for us has probably been the beautiful inland mountain villages - stunning.

Advertisement



17th September 2022

I like your observations of people...
when my kids were young we used to make up stories about people we encountered. Your vacation is about up. I've enjoyed your humorous tales!
18th September 2022

Observations about people
... keeps us entertained at dinner time.... Thx for reading!
23rd September 2022
Another classic sunset

Living the dream
So many stories to tell ... or make up.
7th November 2022

People stories
I really love your theories about fellow diners! I would have been intrigued by the thick Dutch accent too - my theory would be that people who do student exchange programs sometimes call their program placement hosts Mum and Dad; so, she may have been an exchange student in NY when younger and has now moved to the US to live with them. We make up stories about people all the time too but don't record it very often... probably should start. I know others do it too because every now and again a brave soul will approach us and try to subtly figure out where we're from (mixed race couples are still a novelty in some parts of the world) :)
12th November 2022

People Stories
Thanks for that. Hadn't realised that exchange students sometimes referred to their hosts as mum and dad. That probably explains it, although could potentially get a but confusing??

Tot: 0.865s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 49; qc: 177; dbt: 0.8009s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.6mb