Wet week in paradise

We have been having very wet weather now for about ten days well for eight of the last ten anyway, George (our Greek oracle) says he can’t remember when they last had so much rain over such a long time and it’s forecast to last until Friday as well. It didn’t stop us from going out to Thessalonica on Saturday though, it’s 3.5 hours away although the first hour is only about 35 miles just windy roads. We went there over the top of the mountains as my Sat Nav thought the motorway wasn’t there however it was worth it even though it added an hour to the journey as we went through all the ski resorts and stunning mountain scenery no snow yet though. On the way back we came via the motorway which apart from a couple of little bits still under construction is all the way from coast to coast although we leave it at Ioaninna, there are signs all along the motorway to go slowly and be aware of bears although I would love to see a bear in the wild but I think if I did the last thing I would do is go slowly!!

We went to IKEA in Thessalonica to get a new bed seeing as the other bedroom only had an old bed frame and a single put-me-up chair bed in it. While we were there we bought some other bits and pieces we needed, lampshades, mirror etc. Thessalonica is a beautiful city with all the multinational stores in it including Makro of all things and a fantastic frontage along the Aegean, it’s really well worth the visit and we shall be going back there to see it better when the weather is warmer next year.

George has also said about us going to Turkey for a few days which is quite near when you get to Thessalonica. We took George and Martha (although we have now found out her name is Manthra) out for a drive yesterday into the mountains north of Ioannina to a place called Papingo which is all national park and untouched, they are not allowed to use concrete as a building material so all the houses are made of Stone really pretty. (Sorry no piccies forgot the camera AGAIN!) There is a huge gorge there rather like a Samaria gorge in Crete and equally as beautiful. We went in our car as it’s not easy travelling with four people in a petrol tanker (Georges vehicle) up some of the hills although Sanny could ride shotgun for ballast. He took us to a restaurant for tea and also another one for coffee earlier and would not take a penny for it and we had a right feast. You would love it!

Tony (from the villa in Levkas) has asked me to consider being crew in his J24 class yacht. He’s going to teach me obviously and I did make it clear to him that I am a novice sailor and only did the theory bit of the day skipper course !!! He did the round island race last Saturday and got knocked flat in a squall he was telling me on the phone that he was doing over 10 knots on just the jib as his main got ripped in the squall, he said only two finished out of all the starters and the weather was very unpredictable with thunder storms etc. Sounds pretty exciting to me!

Sorry again for the lack of photo's I really must stick a camera in the car.