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Today we are dropping anchoring in the bay between Despotiko and Antiparos Island. But we don't need to leave until later on today, so the plan was to take the 9am bus up to the town and spend about an hour up there exploring and then jump on the bus and stop off at the food market on the way back down, then set sail for a short two hour trip to our new destination. That was the plan of attack suggested from the previous evening.
As usually I woke up at the crack of dawn again, but today I used my 'Off with the fairies' eye mask and only managed a extra hour sleep. I'm starting to get really drained and tired with all the hours of sleep I am NOT having. So the plan of attack is to have a nap before dinner because we will be dropping anchor we can't get off the boat and explore. I was kind of glad we weren't sailing for to long or docking anywhere because my body was tell me to rest.
After we all had some breakfast we made our way to the bus stop. It was a good 15-25min bus ride to the town on top of the hill. We also needed to get a few more things for lunches and the dinner because Jules is vegetarian it was decided that dinner would be a pasta with a tomato sauce making it interesting with some herbs and spices. Dean suggested we stop off at the town on the way down because that way the cold foods didn't go hot and we weren't carting it around through the town.
Once we arrived up at the top of the hill we didn't have a map so we all decided we would just go for a walk and see what we could find. When exploring towns on hills the only real way to go is up. My poor little calves got a workout, I had to walk so slow because they would start to tighten due to ALL the steps we were climbing. I should start to count all theses steps like the time when I had to do walking lunges around the carpark at crossfit. Josh thought I was a nut case for counting all those lunges. I think it was around 250 lunges I ended up counting or something like that.
I seriously think we stopped off at every church along the way. But this was the first time we could actually go in to have a look around. To be honest I was expecting the churches here to be run down but oh my god! It was not what I was expecting at all! With chandeliers hanging everywhere, beautiful tiles on the floors and painting on the walls. It was just amazing! After we left we found our way to a non broken windmill which was converted to small B&B. It had a amazing view of the hills cliff and ocean. It's places like theses that I always have to take some time to pause and take in my surroundings. At this stage we had been walking for half an hour and we only had an hour the explore before heading down to the next town. So we decided to turn around and head back to the bus stop. On the way back down we walked past one of the churches again and Jules noticed a set of stairs at the side leading up to the roof of the church. Andrew followed Jules up but shortly came down so I went up there to see if there was any type of a view. I took a pretty cool photo close up of the two blue roofs well I think its a pretty cool photo.
We finally made our way back down to the bus station and I saw this cat rubbing up against this old lady. She let it do a few figure eights around her legs then all of a sudden she boots it away with her foot. I stopped walking, looked at her and my mouth dropped open. I was shocked. The poor cat was as skinny as a rack andi think it was pestering the old woman for food. I am so amazed at how many cats are here on the greek islands because I didn't see to many in Athens. Just quietly I kind of love it. This sounds bad but seeing all the cats here distracts me from missing Spooks as much as I would normally do. I always give them some food and I think everyone knows that I'm a cat lady. I told Andrew what I just saw and he didn't seem very phased by it.
While the girls and I were sitting waiting for the bus to come an old man came up to Sarah and started trying to have a conversation with her. I'm not to sure whether she could understand but the only words I could understand was "You go to beach. Next bus takes to beach". Other than that I couldn't understand a word!
We got on the next bus that arrived and it was about 10.30 at this stage. It didn't take us to long to get the next town and by this stage I was starting to get hungry but most of the stores were shut because of bloody siesta time. I really dislike siesta time over here in Europe and I can never read the or understand the open and closing signs (I'm gathering it's an opening and closing hours sign) We kept walking along and we eventually found a shops that was open. Of course it was a sweets shop so I bought a hand made kinder ice cream but it wasn't as good as what I was expecting it to be.
We made our way to the food market and bought the remaining foods for our dinner tonight and got some fresh bread, ham, cheese and salami for lunches. I bought myself some chocolate (because I don't already have enough in my suitcase) and some Oreo biscuits, I swear I have a Oreo addition and I really need to stop buying them! After we finished shopping we went to the bus stop to catch the bus back down to the boat to get ready set sail. Richard sat next to me and we didn't really talk because one: we had nothing in common and two: he was slowly starting to get on my nerves. Shortly after when the bus stopped at the beach he moved to the seat in front of much. Well wasn't that awkward...
When we got back to the boat we unpacked the groceries and as usual prepped the boat to set sail. We weren't sailing very far today (thank GOD!!!) only two short hours. It sort of reminds me of when I was younger. Every holidays my sister, brother and cousins would take it in turns to visit my grandparents for a week up at Paridgen Beach in the Sunshine Coast. I always use to remember it taking FOREVER to get up there, it was always the part of the journey that I hated most. But it's only an hour from my parents place. I guess back then when you're young everything feels like a mission.. The school year to finish, Christmas to roll around, our birthday to come around again and of course travelling to Nana and Grandad's place. Anyways back to it!! It was actually a pretty nice and relaxing ride. So glad there wasn't another repeat of yesterday sailing experience!
We dropped anchor and Dean tired a rope to the boy and tired the other end to the back of the boat for something for us to hold onto if we go swimming. Afterwards we all got the lunch condiments out to make ourselves some lunch, then we pretty much have the rest of the afternoon to relax. It was so nice not to have anything planned for the rest of the day. Jules, Sarah and I decided to go for a swim. Jules got into the water slowly because she can't get her hair wet and Sarah and I decided to jump off the back of the boat. I told Sarah to do a back flip into the water but she just jumped in normally, then I thought to myself I used to do some pretty good back flips when I was younger surely the talent was still hanging around somewhere. I told Sarah I would do a back flip into the water so I stood with my toes on the rim of the boat and went in BUT I had to much hang time in the air I did the back flip then landed with a belly flop. OH MY FING GOD!! I was in SO much pain. I couldn't make out which part of my body hurt the most. My thighs or stomach or chest. Sarah asked if I was ok and all I could say was ouch!!!
We swam down the side of the boat to meet Jules and Sarah said to her the first part of the flip was good, then it just went horribly wrong. It was so hard to face the back of the boat there was so much wind going on and the salt water from the waves kept splashing me in the face. The too also reminded me of the beach trips Grandad use to take us one. I would always dunk myself. Not on purpose of course, I always through I could swim really well. Oh how I was so so wrong! I said to the girls "I thought Dean said this was suppose to be a clam bay" they both replied "It's meant to be".
Sarah and I didn't last long at all in the water I personally couldn't handle too water going down my throat. Ange and Andrew got in as we got out. I showered off with the outside shower and went straight until the shower. Like the saying goes 'The early bird always gets the first worm'. Hot shower for me is in order! I got until my track pants and went upstairs to read a little but after a while I decided to go for a Nana nap. For some reason I left my cabin door open and eventually drifted off to sleep. I wish I closed the cabin door because I kept getting woken up by all the cooking going on in the kitchen but went back to sleep.
I finally woke to Sarah waking me for dinner. It was a very interesting taste of pasta sauce and it had a bit of a kick to it. I couldn't eat to much at one time but I kept eating because I was sooo hungry! After dinner we cleaned the kitchen and dinning area and I said goodnight to everyone.
Not a very eventful day to blog about but a nice relaxing day at that.
Tomorrow we are off to Naxos and I think we will be staying there for two nights. I looking forward to not sailing for a day :-)
Talk to you all soon
JB Xox
- comments
Marco Great shot! What bay is it? Naxos must be great man, they say it's the cradle of Zeus :))