Into the glassy sea
Lorraine and I flew back from Cephalonia, Kefallonia, Kefalonia or Kefallina depending on where you read it. In our last morning we quickly packed, and then slipped into the glassy sea, which was just a few steps from our door, and snorkelled around the harbour bay of Assos (or Asos).
For two weeks we had swum and snorkelled every day, in what was something like a vast aquarium. There were a couple of dozen varieties of fish: highly coloured ornate wrasse and rainbow wrasse, blennies, gold striped dreamfish that can give you hallucinations if you eat them, dark little fork tailed damselfish, shoals of mullet and sand smelts, parrotfish, two banded bream, saddled bream, little yellow finned annular bream, tigerish painted combers, garfish (which I always like to see as it takes me back to fishing in Guernsey where they are called longnose) and dark little fork-tailed damselfish. These latter when very young, and viewed by certain lights glowed violet. There were hand sized red starfish, and bearded fire worms, and loitering in caves, red cardinal fish. One day Lorraine spotted a cuttlefish, which was so good at camouflage it was able to disappear almost completely over the rocks.
Most days we sat on our shaded balcony reading, playing the occasional game of scrabble or dozing, when not swimming or climbing the big hill nearby we climbed up to see the remains of a castle and an agricultural prison. Lorraine spent time sewing and I had a few goes at daubing in watercolours. I was able to capture some of the colours, but the scene was too busy for me to be able to simplify it.
There was a paved path zigzagging up through the pines, ringing with cicadas, that took us up to the castle. We also found another route, which was a little cliff path.
I had not taken my laptop with me, and deliberately did no writing. It was good to have complete break, although I jotted down a few ideas not to do with poems. I read some Greek poetry Elyitis, and Eleni Vakalo, and shared good bits with Lorraine. And books by Philip Roth, which will be my last one by him, and books by Lionel Shriver, and The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis. Lorraine lent me a book called Olivia Oiliphant is completely fine, which was quite fresh and entertaining.
We ate each night in one of the three tavernas in the harbour, all not bad, although we took against one of them. There was another option, to be collected to be driven up to another taverna with a view of the sunset. We went there twice, once sweating in the late sun, and secondly a little muted and mysterious in the clouds. This taverna had only been open a few weeks, and it was a bit hit and miss, the service descending into Fawlty Towers levels on the first night. The second night much better.
You start by falling on the classic Greek dishes with gusto, but after almost two weeks of it, I found, as I always do, that I was craving a curry. Despite this things like Greek salads, moussaka, grilled chicken and pork are hard to fault. We drank lots of Mythos beer, and Ouzo mixed with Fanta lemonade, which is the perfect holiday drink. I also had a bit of retzina, which I used to drink when first in Greece. it tastes better with a cigarette, and as I haven't smoked for years not so good.
Lorraine and I chatted to a few people here and there, and fell in with a couple from Yorkshire towards the end.
Being august, the little beach got very crowded, but this did not unduly trouble us although there were three small children with incredibly loud voices who played just under our balcony quite often. Shortly after we arrived, the electricity and hot water went in all the holiday apartments, as there had been a flood in one of the rooms. Felt haunted by plumbing issues briefly, but these things were soon put right.
Occasionally you would see locals go off to spear fish for octopus, or catch a few little fish for the pot, or hit shells off the rocks for the same reason.
Like the best kinds of holidays, Lorraine and I spent unwinding, and talking and just being together.
The flight home was fine, although lots of hanging about in the airport. Once home, at about 9PM UK time, we walked around the corner and bought some curry, as I had been craving chilli. It was good to be home.
Below, a few of the dozens of holiday snaps. This one shows the distance from our door to the sea. The second one has Assos below us as we were walking up to the castle, a view of Assos with just a riot of colours, the beach scene (the colours are really that intense), a cicada, headlands, the door into the former castle/agricultural prison, a mysterious sundown view, a lightning strike, and the hour of the pearl over the harbour.
For two weeks we had swum and snorkelled every day, in what was something like a vast aquarium. There were a couple of dozen varieties of fish: highly coloured ornate wrasse and rainbow wrasse, blennies, gold striped dreamfish that can give you hallucinations if you eat them, dark little fork tailed damselfish, shoals of mullet and sand smelts, parrotfish, two banded bream, saddled bream, little yellow finned annular bream, tigerish painted combers, garfish (which I always like to see as it takes me back to fishing in Guernsey where they are called longnose) and dark little fork-tailed damselfish. These latter when very young, and viewed by certain lights glowed violet. There were hand sized red starfish, and bearded fire worms, and loitering in caves, red cardinal fish. One day Lorraine spotted a cuttlefish, which was so good at camouflage it was able to disappear almost completely over the rocks.
Most days we sat on our shaded balcony reading, playing the occasional game of scrabble or dozing, when not swimming or climbing the big hill nearby we climbed up to see the remains of a castle and an agricultural prison. Lorraine spent time sewing and I had a few goes at daubing in watercolours. I was able to capture some of the colours, but the scene was too busy for me to be able to simplify it.
There was a paved path zigzagging up through the pines, ringing with cicadas, that took us up to the castle. We also found another route, which was a little cliff path.
I had not taken my laptop with me, and deliberately did no writing. It was good to have complete break, although I jotted down a few ideas not to do with poems. I read some Greek poetry Elyitis, and Eleni Vakalo, and shared good bits with Lorraine. And books by Philip Roth, which will be my last one by him, and books by Lionel Shriver, and The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis. Lorraine lent me a book called Olivia Oiliphant is completely fine, which was quite fresh and entertaining.
We ate each night in one of the three tavernas in the harbour, all not bad, although we took against one of them. There was another option, to be collected to be driven up to another taverna with a view of the sunset. We went there twice, once sweating in the late sun, and secondly a little muted and mysterious in the clouds. This taverna had only been open a few weeks, and it was a bit hit and miss, the service descending into Fawlty Towers levels on the first night. The second night much better.
You start by falling on the classic Greek dishes with gusto, but after almost two weeks of it, I found, as I always do, that I was craving a curry. Despite this things like Greek salads, moussaka, grilled chicken and pork are hard to fault. We drank lots of Mythos beer, and Ouzo mixed with Fanta lemonade, which is the perfect holiday drink. I also had a bit of retzina, which I used to drink when first in Greece. it tastes better with a cigarette, and as I haven't smoked for years not so good.
Lorraine and I chatted to a few people here and there, and fell in with a couple from Yorkshire towards the end.
Being august, the little beach got very crowded, but this did not unduly trouble us although there were three small children with incredibly loud voices who played just under our balcony quite often. Shortly after we arrived, the electricity and hot water went in all the holiday apartments, as there had been a flood in one of the rooms. Felt haunted by plumbing issues briefly, but these things were soon put right.
Occasionally you would see locals go off to spear fish for octopus, or catch a few little fish for the pot, or hit shells off the rocks for the same reason.
Like the best kinds of holidays, Lorraine and I spent unwinding, and talking and just being together.
The flight home was fine, although lots of hanging about in the airport. Once home, at about 9PM UK time, we walked around the corner and bought some curry, as I had been craving chilli. It was good to be home.
Below, a few of the dozens of holiday snaps. This one shows the distance from our door to the sea. The second one has Assos below us as we were walking up to the castle, a view of Assos with just a riot of colours, the beach scene (the colours are really that intense), a cicada, headlands, the door into the former castle/agricultural prison, a mysterious sundown view, a lightning strike, and the hour of the pearl over the harbour.
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