... the morning after (Koroni)

Hands up who remembers the Poseidon Adventure and Maureen McGovern singing "there's got to be a morning after"? Well, this is the morning after the wedding. My sincere apology dear reader for re-cycling the title of this post, but it was last used sometime in 2012 and it was well over 100 posts ago.

Not everyone was feeling so chipper the morning after the wedding. We went down to breakfast about 9am. The food has been great everywhere. Fresh crusty bread so moist it doesn’t need butter (again I ask the question, why can’t we get decent bread in Australia?) freshly squeezed orange juice and espresso. All the while sitting looking at the Mediterranean. Life is good.

Glenn and Donna appeared while we were planning the day. They were driving over to Zaga Beach and offered us a lift, but I wanted to explore the local shops before going swimming so opted for the shops and the walk over the hill (mountain?) to Zaga.

There are quite a number of shops selling the usual tourist knick-knacks and many offered a range of clothes as well. Light, cotton style beachwear is the main line and Jayne bought a pair of aqua blue pants. Very comfortable and a great colour. There were a surprising number of bakeries and patisseries offering an amazing array of tempting gourmet delights. We even found a jewellery shop where the artisans made their product on site. They had some lovely items, especially the pearl necklaces and earrings. Suffice to say Jayne’s jewellery collection has grown by one more pair of pearl earrings. She is now being called ‘Bish’ because she is competing with Julie Bishop in pearl earring ownership.

At the end of the street, one back from the water, the shops finished and we followed a sign to the next street that indicated another store. On turning the corner we discovered a set of stairs climbing up the hillside in the direction of the fort. We ambled up the stairs enjoying the view across Koroni out to the sea and we were at the gate to fort before we realised. Despite the heat it wasn’t a difficult climb at all.

The fort gate

After some Kodak moments, we followed the path through the gate and up the hill where we came upon an old local, sweeping the path outside his whitewashed house. He wanted to know where we were from and then directed us to a side path to view other parts of the fort. It is deceptively large. In the centre of one of the viewing platforms was a set of steps descending into the cool darkness. If I had my phone I could have used the light to see how far down it went. In Australia all of this would have been barricaded to ensure public safety by the fun-police and we would have missed a fantastic experience.

Doubling back on our walk, we returned to the path and followed it to a church or several churches. One was attached to the monastery on the hilltop behind the fort, the other was next to the cemetery and it was just a shell; there was no roof. Down another set of stairs and we arrived at the church where Mel and Dean were married yesterday. One of the priests who presided at the wedding was sitting in the garden having a cigarette. Down the tree-lined driveway we walked and out into the sunshine on the road before locating another set of stairs that took us straight to the beach.

The path leading up to the church

The first thing to do was to buy some water. I had broken the first rule of bushwalking and set out on a trip of unknown length without water. Then we decided to opt for the free shade rather than pay 5euro for an umbrella and sun lounges. The beach was lined with tamarisks and it would have been even more stunning when they were in flower but we had missed this by a month or so. Once settled we took turns in going for a swim because we had our passports and Jayne’s pearl earrings in my back pack. We knew Glenn and Donna were some nearby because their car was parked just above us on the road. As it turned out, their gear was about 10 metres away from where we were. After another cooling dip we began re-tracing our steps to Koroni. It was time for lunch.

The church attached to the monastery

On the way back there was a women in a little Fiat trying to negotiate her car through the gate at the fort. Clearly she was having issues because there were people out of the car directing her and the back right door was already depressed by the side wall of the gate. While I would never volunteer to drive in narrow streets such as those of Koroni, this driver was clearly inept. The gateway was more than large enough to accommodate her car and there was no other traffic. Somehow she had manoeuvred the car very close to the right hand wall and was being directed to reverse up the path towards us. "That’s clutch burning activity," I remarked as we walked down the path. As we neared the stricken Fiat the smell of clutch plate was strong in the air. They were still attempting to drive through the gate as we disappeared from view.

There is an embarrassment of choice when it comes to places to eat, so we took the lazy option and gave our custom to the Parthenon, the place where we are staying. Calamari, fries, cheese pies, bread and of course wine was our fare as we watched the fish in the water. Glenn and Donna returned from Zaga and joined us as the afternoon drifted away.

Who could that be in the Mediterranean?

Looking back up at the church where Mel and Dean were married

We missed siesta time but still needed to shower after our swim so around 5pm we headed upstairs to change, rest and recover a little prior to dinner. It gave me an opportunity to see if my election prediction was accurate. I predicted another hung parliament and at the moment it looks like I am on the money.

This is our last night in Koroni and we thought we would eat somewhere other than Barbarossa – even though I find Christos so entertaining. Anna’s had been recommended so we walked there to find Glenn and Donna 

already seated and waiting for their dinner. Not long after we secured our table, Mel’s parents turned up, as did some of the other guests. Finally Mel and Dean came past, although they were off to another wedding dinner. The food here was good, of course, and as usual there was plenty of it. It was another pleasant evening with the breeze taking the edge off the heat.

The only concern was the presence of cats. Many, many cats. There are cats everywhere in Koroni and very few dogs. They appear everywhere there is food being served in the hope of getting a feed. We had three different felines in and around our table at lunch-time and there was a whole family of them trying to cadge food at dinner. No chance. One of the kittens contented itself chasing an olive that I suspect came from Glenn. Others were chasing flying beetles climbing onto to tables to jump at them. It could have been a scene from a YouTube clip.

There was going to be a gathering of some of the wedding guests later in the night, but we had an 8 o’clock bus to catch the next morning, which means being up at 6:30am and we still had to pack so it was an early night for us. Any further partying will happen without our friends as we head to Santorini, Glenn and Donna fly to Malta, Mel and Dean go to Biarritz and the others disperse to all points near and far.

Tomorrow is a transit day so there won’t be much to report aside from another 6 hour bus trip and then our early thoughts on Santorini, the island of love.

Until then …