Alonissos, Greece - July 27, 2013

July 27, 2013 - up at 5:30 am to catch a taxi to catch a bus departing at 7 am.  3 hour bus ride and then hopped on the ferry at Agios Konstantinos for 5 hours to get to Alonissos.  Alonissos is located in the Sporades Islands of Greece on the Aegean Sea (the Turkey side).  The Paradise Hotel minibus picked us up at the ferry and we arrived around 3 pm to be greeted by Bessie Kavgadoulis - we both went to high school with Bessie at Ross Shep in Edmonton.  Bessie met and fell in love with Kostas at university in Edmonton and they moved to Greece in the mid-80's.  This place is heaven.  We settled into our sea view room and then headed to the pool side bar for a drink with Bessie and to catch up.  We also met one of their daughters, Nicoletta.  Their other daughter, Margarita, is in Toronto working.  We then wandered into town for dinner and ate lamb and lemon potatoes and greek salad on the harbourfront.  We arrived back at the hotel around 9 pm and went to the bar for a drink.  Bessie poured me a Metaxa and Jan an ouzo with lemonade.  We sat down with her and her dad who is visiting for 4 months from Edmonton.  Bessie's dad is priceless - a bit politically incorrect (I told Bessie he has earned that), very well read and a great memory.  Jan is a bit afraid of him because he said he was going to quiz her today on their conversation.  At one point, Bessie told him to stop talking about religion and he asked Jan if he should stop - she replied YES.  She thought he asked if she understood which is funny in 2 ways.  We had a good laugh.  More drinks followed.  Kostas had been diving and arrived around 11:30 pm.  We ended up going to bed at 2:30 am!  Such wonderful people!  At least we could sleep, they had to get up to work in the morning.  We felt a little bad.

Our View from Paradise Hotel on Alonissos