melle-belle's Diaryland Diary

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Welcome to the best day of my life.

We were there in August, the height of tourist season, and I wasn't sure how things would go. So many tourists, so many Germans. Well, there turned out to be more Italians and British than Germans. The Germans must stick to an annual Spanish invasion, summer after summer.

It was HOT. I like heat, though. Still, it can make me cranky. We had sunglasses, hats, massive bottles of water, sweat-wicking clothing and a mindset prepared for constant wetness. Hot, yes, but also windy. Crowded, yes, but not as bad as any vastly inferior vacation destination on the Eastern seaboard in mid-August.

What I'm trying to say is, Greece exceeded by expectations while blowing my concerns away. It was the best trip of my entire life. The most expensive, the longest, the most ambitious. For the first time, we drove a car in Europe. I wouldn't do it in Athens. Well, maybe I would, but I might not be writing this post to tell you how much I love Greece if I had. But, we rented a car to explore the interior, mountain villages of Naxos. Eh, okay. Not as quaint as I had hoped. If we'd had more time, a hike or two would have probably improved the situation. A couple of days later, we rented a dune buggy and drove dirt and sand trails along the coastline. As we drove further South, the people thinned out and the states of dress and undress shifted back and forth. English signs began to disappear. We sounded out Alyko and Pyrgaki in their Greek letters. Alpha Lambda, Iota, Kappa, Omega - that way! We lay on the beach at Kastraki, sandblasted by the Meltemi. We could see people in the distance, but they were too far to hear. The water rippled sideways, parallel to shore, due to the shape of the coastline and the direction of the wind. I feared windburn more than sunburn, as I wade out into the water further and further trying to get in past my waist.

We returned to the buggy, looking for the seaside taverna from travel brochures and found it. Blue, rustic, surrounded by trees and sand. After Greek salad, retsina, and sardines ordered by mistake, we continued South. At Agiossos, we stopped, with a broken axle and awaited the arrival of a replacement vehicle. We found an awful hotel restaurant, but at least the bathroom was large, clean and cool. We drank some more Greek beer and our ATV arrived. We were nearly as far South as we could get, nearly as far away from Naxos Town as we could go, and had to drive an ATV back? After a moment's panic, I put on my smelly helmet and we set off down the beach. We found a wide, deserted stretch of sand. It was late afternoon. The same wind rippled the water, but the sand was darker and denser here. I wasn't sandblasted. To our left, a half mile away, a family with a naked toddler toddling around. To our right, a mile away and around a bend, the hotel and distant people. Ahead, the ocean, empty of people. The occasional nude old man taking a walk, and the ocean, and the huge setting sun, and the wind. Begrudgingly, we left before sunset to head back on tiny windy roads on our toy of a vehicle. I took one last, sad look at our beach and told my husband, "This is the best day of my life."

1:31 p.m. - 2012-01-07

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