Monday, 30th July

T

o merely write the title of this entry I had to consult the calendar to confirm not only the day but the date also. It seems that I have slipped into every day island life and am losing track of the days- a concept that I am not entirely resistant to. Today I did not get out of bed until 1:00pm, totalling last night’s sleep to 13 hours, not a bad effort. My time has been generally spent sleeping in, lounging on the beach, sleeping again and staying out until 4am only to do it all again!

The constant buzz of the cicadas is interrupting my train of thought and I am ready to spring from my quaint Greek dinner of tomato, cucumber and feta cheese salad, and open the hose onto them, however I don’t think my aunty will appreciate me showering her clean washing with water. Concentrate.

Once I finally managed to gather myself I walked down to Spilia beach to spend the rest of the day sprawled out on a banana lounge to work on my tan and read my book. Monday night is tourist night on the island. It is termed this because Spartochori is filled with English and Italian tourists who have decided to spend their summer holidays on a Grecian sail boat tour. Because of this Spilia bay was a freeway of yachts and sailboats for the majority of the day.

My attentiveness to my book was interrupted today, as it seemed as though the entire beach was full of couples. Loved up, public display, no care for the presence of others- couples. I literally sat up from the lounge to survey the pebble shore and concluded that those who were not snuggled up to another were in fact children. Is there something in the water that I have not been told about? Perhaps Spilia beach was a secondary location of Aphrodite’s fountain or perhaps everyone has heat stroke. I choose the latter.

I am currently sitting outside in my traditional Greek backyard listening to my aunty entertain a friend she has over. I managed to pick up bits and pieces of their conversation that for the majority of the time has revolved around recipes. She is lovely, however I can’t help but feel that she is increasingly frustrated with me, and my lack of language skills. Unfortunately when she speaks to me, and I don’t understand something, rather than change the structure of the sentence, she instead yells it at me. Regrettably a louder pitch of the sentence does not make the words miraculously make sense. After passing a slice of deliriously sweet honeydew, Peponi, over the fence to me her conversation with her friend quickly turned to how my older sister can speak Greek and how generally fantastic she is. For the record, my older sister has only been here twice, the last time being over twelve years ago! This is my sixth time here and I am making every effort to speak Greek and spend time with her. My lack of conversational Greek skills is becoming increasingly frustrating for me. I feel it is time to source a tutor as there is only so much I can learn from my Lonely Planet: Greek Phrasebook.

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