Up at 7:30am. In the morning Euripides (the hotel owner, and an awesome Greek name) saw me and reminded me to pay for a beer from last night. I complimented him on his memory.
Most of us went kayaking from Loutro to Sweetwater Beach. Deb and I were in a tandem kayak. Along the way we stopped in a cave.
At Sweetwater Beach we had drinks at a cafe and Gabriel jumped off a big rock and got yelled at. Then we sat out for a while.
Goats on the cliff above the beach. One goat is obscured on the left. Try to spot the dawg! (Hint: There is no dawg here.)
On this beach I noticed a guy laying out with very large breasts. Only it wasn't a guy. Oh no...nude beach! Boutros Boutros-Ghali! Or I guess it should be Loutros Loutros-Ghali. Or Putros Putros Gollies. Whatever your local expression, it's not a pleasant thing. Especially when they bend over. Sweet Jesus. I wanted to take a shower right there on the beach because I felt the images crawling on my skin.
Apparently Susan wanted to take a nudie pic of some random person somewhere on the tour. It was suggested that she take one of me since I'd already agreed to model for Ellie. Gloria, barely paying attention, perked up her ears: "Are you a model?" If only I'd been wearing a button like this, I wouldn't have had to answer the question.
We returned from kayaking before lunch. I ascertained that my calves were really tight, as expected after the long downhill hike through Samaria Gorge. I had trouble getting down the stairs at the hotel, and nearly toppled two flowerpots in doing so. It felt like the day after Wiffleball when I can barely make it down the stairs at my brother's house.
For lunch I had giant Greek meatballs. I don't know what kind of spices and leaves were in them, but they were good. And they stay on your breath all day.
This bird Coco was next to the hotel. He did a wolf whistle and a meow, but when I got up close and did those sounds he did not respond. I know, Coco, Gammy, T-Bone...I'm worn out on the Seinfeld references. Make your own.
Some us unwittingly went on a hike with Gabriel. If he'd told us how strenuous and steep it was, none of us would have gone. But we all felt better for having done so. This was just gruelling.
The above pic was from fairly high up, looking down over a cliff that we had hiked up to. You can't really tell the height from here.
We kept going and going and going up. Much more vertical than anticipated.
This was at a restaurant at what was sort of the far point of the hike. Photo is included only because no travelogue is complete without a photo of a girl wearing giant gag sunglasses. (Yet another inside joke...same theme as the towel bunny. Sorry, GG...I'll take this down if you want...I said I wasn't going to post it but I deemed its inclusion necessary.)
Along this hike (which included an even more arduous uphill segment after this) I set a personal record by seeing 4 incomplete goats. That's including one stray leg as an incomplete goat. It's a hard-knock life, for goats. Another record I set today was most lancing stories heard (2). The kayak guy talked about someone getting a spider bite lanced and Sarah(?) mentioned someone getting lanced and thousands of chigger eggs coming out.
Toward the end of the hike we stopped at another small drink place and had sodas with lots of ice for a change. The proprietor went goofy on us and handed out brochures on some Pax Cultura organization involving Nicholas Roerich. Don't know what this is about but the guy seemed pretty bitter about it. Something about the US is after bin Laden but they don't care about this Roerich guy. I don't know. I'll read the brochure in my free time.
Finally we got back to Loutro and joined the rest of the group for dinner. I had lamb, which I felt bad about because on the hike a herd of sheep parted and cleared the road for us out of respect. During dinner the kayak guy Russell (who later scored an f in the k/f/m game...well done, my man) returned with a CD for each of us with photos from the kayaking. The URL on the CD is www.naturemaniacs.com, which was a bestiality site years ago when I had a subscription to it, but evidently now it's dedicated to tamer adventures. Reminds me...Gloria said she has a friend Russell and I explained that every Russell is supposed to be called Russell the Love Muscle. Same way every Chester or Lester has to be appended with "The Molester".
After dinner 6 of us went to the bar next door for ouzo. Thus was formed the Group of Six who closed out most nights: me, Gabriel, Gloria, Jodi, Patty and Sarah. Big revelation was Patty's year of birth, which I hadn't noted when the sheet went around during the initial meeting. We were all impressed. My problem is I'm a very young 39 and most people my age are so much older than me, which limits my options. It's refreshing to know that there are a few people close to my age out there who maintain their youthful exuberance, attractiveness, attitude, etc. We need more Pattys in LA.
Bed 3:30am.
