And so we come to the last post in what has become something of an epic travelogue of my time on Alonissos. Like I said a couple of posts ago, I never meant to write something as long as this. In fact, this whole thing began life a post holiday email to Dave and Gerry describing a couple of photos that I had taken whilst walking around their island. It only became a travelogue proper when they suggested including these comments as part of a 'visitor's travelogues' addition to their site, at which point I thought I should write something more befitting of the genre 'travelogue'.
In this, the last of my posts, I do not intend to describe a walk for the simple fact that there are no more to describe! I only did four routes of the many that are described in the two guides that I have mentioned... perhaps next time I will add to this tally. Instead, what I would like to do is tell you the story of how I left the island. I had to leave the island suddenly and before I had planned on account of receiving some bad news. However, the sadness of this time was offset by more than enough happiness... as is always the case provided we look hard enough.
In this, the last of my posts, I do not intend to describe a walk for the simple fact that there are no more to describe! I only did four routes of the many that are described in the two guides that I have mentioned... perhaps next time I will add to this tally. Instead, what I would like to do is tell you the story of how I left the island. I had to leave the island suddenly and before I had planned on account of receiving some bad news. However, the sadness of this time was offset by more than enough happiness... as is always the case provided we look hard enough.
* * *
I completed the fourth walk, the walk through the Kastanorema gorge, some time early on in my second week on the island and although I had walked a lot, there was still a lot more walking to be done. Leafing through my walking guide late that evening whilst sitting in a taverna in Patitiri finishing off the last of my retsina, I considered my next outing... I had still to explore the western and northern regions of the island. Perhaps I could do a walk taking in the area around Megalo Horafi or Tourkoneri? Perhaps I could rent a bike again and drive up to the northern tip of the island to walk round Yerakas? Or perhaps I could take a boat to one of the satellite islands? I could easily spend another week here!
Rising from the taverna with a yawn, I started out on the walk back to the campsite stopping, as was my custom, at the phone box next to the ruined hotel Galaxy to give Maria a ring.
The minute she picked up the phone I could tell that something was wrong... I could hear from the sound of her voice that something very bad indeed had happened.
"What's the matter... what's happened?" I inquired.
"Lara died", the answer came back.
Lara was the family dog, a little tan coloured sausage dog who had lived with her at the family home in Athens since she was a child. Now that she lived abroad, she only got to see her during summer vacations when typically she would spend the whole morning lavishing attention on her velvet belly. Quite simply, she loved that little dog, as did the whole family, and this was going to be difficult, especially given that she was all alone up there in Germany.
It was frustrating. That it should have happened was bad enough; but for it to have happened when we were apart, just a matter of a weeks before we were due to visit the family home again was particularly cruel. It was a helpless situation... so we did the only thing we could do to take back some measure of control. She would change her ticket and we would meet in Athens in 2 days time.
This gave me one more full day on Alonissos, and I knew exactly what to do with it. Some days previously Dave and Gerry had asked me to get in touch with them before I left the island such that we could have a final lunch together. So I called them to tell them the news and arrange to meet them the next day in a restaurant near Paliohorafina.
It was always a pleasure to spend time with Dave and Gerry, not least of all for the insights they afforded me into everyday island life. But it was particularly nice to see them at this time. Not only did I need someone to talk to about our little tragedy, it turned out that they had some news for me to put things into perspective... they had just 'acquired' a little dog of their own.
As the reader of their website will no doubt know, like many of the ex-pats living on Alonissos, Dave and Gerry are actively involved in the local animal charity ASAP. More than this, if you get the chance to loiter in their yard, you might find yourself experiencing a little difficulty moving for the number of cats milling about! It was no doubt in their capacity as animal caretakers that they had begun to look after a very young stray dog that they had found scrounging for food with the cats outside local tavernas. It now seemed that they had finally taken her in as their own having assured themselves that she was indeed homeless and having just gotten her checked out by a vet.
And the name they had given to her? Zoe, a name which most readers will immediately recognise as the Greek for life.
It was a fitting end to my time on the island, to get a little boost just when it was required and under such poignant circumstances.
And with that, I bring this travelogue to a close.
As you may recall, my job, being that of an English teacher, allows me plenty of free time to escape Germany and live the simple life camping and trekking under the sunny skies of the Aegean. However, not everyone can afford the luxury of 6 weeks summer holiday every year - especially if they are a doctoral student of archaeology in the middle of their Phd - and it was for this reason that I was holidaying alone on Alonissos without the company of my wife. For Maria's part, she had decided four weeks was all she could spare from her studies and so would fly out two weeks after me when we planned to go on a kind of busman's holiday, touring the archaeological sites of Minoan Crete.
I completed the fourth walk, the walk through the Kastanorema gorge, some time early on in my second week on the island and although I had walked a lot, there was still a lot more walking to be done. Leafing through my walking guide late that evening whilst sitting in a taverna in Patitiri finishing off the last of my retsina, I considered my next outing... I had still to explore the western and northern regions of the island. Perhaps I could do a walk taking in the area around Megalo Horafi or Tourkoneri? Perhaps I could rent a bike again and drive up to the northern tip of the island to walk round Yerakas? Or perhaps I could take a boat to one of the satellite islands? I could easily spend another week here!
Rising from the taverna with a yawn, I started out on the walk back to the campsite stopping, as was my custom, at the phone box next to the ruined hotel Galaxy to give Maria a ring.
The minute she picked up the phone I could tell that something was wrong... I could hear from the sound of her voice that something very bad indeed had happened.
"What's the matter... what's happened?" I inquired.
"Lara died", the answer came back.
Lara was the family dog, a little tan coloured sausage dog who had lived with her at the family home in Athens since she was a child. Now that she lived abroad, she only got to see her during summer vacations when typically she would spend the whole morning lavishing attention on her velvet belly. Quite simply, she loved that little dog, as did the whole family, and this was going to be difficult, especially given that she was all alone up there in Germany.
It was frustrating. That it should have happened was bad enough; but for it to have happened when we were apart, just a matter of a weeks before we were due to visit the family home again was particularly cruel. It was a helpless situation... so we did the only thing we could do to take back some measure of control. She would change her ticket and we would meet in Athens in 2 days time.
This gave me one more full day on Alonissos, and I knew exactly what to do with it. Some days previously Dave and Gerry had asked me to get in touch with them before I left the island such that we could have a final lunch together. So I called them to tell them the news and arrange to meet them the next day in a restaurant near Paliohorafina.
It was always a pleasure to spend time with Dave and Gerry, not least of all for the insights they afforded me into everyday island life. But it was particularly nice to see them at this time. Not only did I need someone to talk to about our little tragedy, it turned out that they had some news for me to put things into perspective... they had just 'acquired' a little dog of their own.
As the reader of their website will no doubt know, like many of the ex-pats living on Alonissos, Dave and Gerry are actively involved in the local animal charity ASAP. More than this, if you get the chance to loiter in their yard, you might find yourself experiencing a little difficulty moving for the number of cats milling about! It was no doubt in their capacity as animal caretakers that they had begun to look after a very young stray dog that they had found scrounging for food with the cats outside local tavernas. It now seemed that they had finally taken her in as their own having assured themselves that she was indeed homeless and having just gotten her checked out by a vet.
And the name they had given to her? Zoe, a name which most readers will immediately recognise as the Greek for life.
It was a fitting end to my time on the island, to get a little boost just when it was required and under such poignant circumstances.
And with that, I bring this travelogue to a close.
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