Greece at last

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Thriving on a unique diet of espresso coffee, baklava and Greek beer, we have recovered from the hiccoughs caused by a floating train onto a bridge in Northern Australia.

We had a great overnight stop over in Dubai. A swim in the heated, roof top pool warmed us up from the cold wind that blew over the airport. We then went into town, saw the world’s largest aquarium under the world’s tallest building watching the world’s largest musical fountain as we ate the world’s tastiest meal.

Eventually we reached our delightful cottage on the Greek island of Paros. Our host invited us to dinner to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, neither of us collected the coin in our cake that would give us good luck for 2012.

We hired a dodgy brothers car that was rather small to get into but did the drive admirably around the island. We drove up a rather steep, dirt track over the mountain in the pouring rain and were concerned that the little wheels might not make it but all was well. On the way down we met 3 Chinese students whose brollies had turned inside out in the wind, so we gave them a lift. Just as well we were going down not up!

We went to an orthodox mass for Epiphany. Alan managed to understand two words from his New Testament Greek – gospel and Mark. For the other 1½ hours we didn’t understand a word, but we understood that we were to stand up every time the priest came out of his cubby hole, and to sit down every time he went back into it. We then had a procession in the freezing cold wind, down to the beach, where a cross was thrown into the water and a young man in most of his clothes, including his shoes, jumped into the sea to retrieve it. We gather this was to bless the sea, but are not quite sure how it connects to the wise men.

Other treats on Paros included: a walk on a Byzantine track from the top of a hill to the bottom of the hill and back up again, many walks around old villages with tiny alleys and lots of cats, walks on a peninsular with a lighthouse and a natural formation aptly called a rock garden, and lots of drinking the aforementioned coffee and eating cake. The girths are getting wider by the hour.

We will report again when and if we lose weight!

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