Thursday, May 2, 2002 11:50
Weather: Hot & sunny.
Location: Internet cafe, Parikia.

I had a fun evening with Megan and Kirsten, my Australian neighbours in the hostel. We started with dinner in small restaurant opposite the water: fried zucchini balls, giant beans, and stuffed vine leaves for appetizers, shrimp saganaki as an entree, a rather bad sweet white wine and a jug of water to wash it all down. While waiting for the rather slow service, we traded stories: Megan's a nurse working in London, Kirsten a health inspector on her way home to Melbourne from her London stint. After dinner we walked into the old town and found the Pirate Blues Bar, whose welcoming bartender served up a seriously excellent CD collection, a progressively unwise series of cocktails and shooters, and a friendly but unobtrusive banter. He gave us a free round, and we invited him to join us for a round. At the end, I suggested tequila, but he refused outright and served us vodka shooters with sugar-coated lime slices instead. As Megan said afterwards, it's always a real pleasure to run into someone who is so good at what they do!

I didn't feel too bad this morning, which is probably due to the vast amount of water I consumed yesterday on the hike and at dinner. I got up, packed, and had breakfast on my balcony, leftovers from yesterday's lunch but still very nice. I packed up and said goodbye to Mike's... I have a ferry to Naxos at 12:40, where I'll stay for 1 1/2 nights: Friday night I catch an overnight ferry at 2:30am to go to Samos. I doubt I'll have any trouble sleeping on that one!

Update on the sunburn: it seems to have subsided considerably overnight, but I'm more sensitive to the sun than usual this morning. I'm wearing my hat and keeping to the shadows. I don't think I've ever had this many freckles before!
posted by Tom at 4:52 AM | link |