Skopelos, 2nd and (for now) last chapter: Today is June 25th.The last few days went by way too fast.You know how it is.Just yesterday, you're sitting sunburnt and sluggish in a tavern, trying to balance your water levels with alcohol, only to find yourself sitting in overcrowded buses heading towards the airport the next day. Summary of the vacation:Good enough that I will definitely come back.Whether it's next year or the year after... I have to make it to 10.... ;) I never really understood why people want to spend their vacation in the same place all the time.And I also want to see more of the world.Ideally, everything.But:If something is good, you want more of it.And I just can't get enough of Skopelos.This view over the Aegean Sea.The sea shimmering in all shades of turquoise.That special smell.The green slopes that stretch for miles across the entire island.The friendly people..... Haha.Perfect segue right there.Speaking of people:We met a very special one. A few days earlier, Madeleine and I were at my favorite beach.We spent the whole day there, with temperatures reaching 73 degrees in the shade, and we were already fully packed when we arrived.2 air mattresses (which we both painstakingly inflated, but... um... DIDN'T use)Approximately 5 towels.2 beach towels.Water shoes.Flip flops.Food.Drinks.And a lot of sweat and tears to reach the best spot on the beach, which of course... was all the way at the end.But it had the lowest "population density".A must for me. Arrived.Swam.Chilled.Ate.Swam.Drank.Got sunburnt. (With many repetitions in any order) When we decided to leave a few hours later, I also decided to "shrink" our belongings and leave my Star Wars air mattress that I had bought in Germany behind.Deflating it always takes too long.And dragging it all the way back, unnecessary, I thought.We would come back the next day anyway.So I wedged it with a giant branch I found into our "private cave", the rock cave we claimed that day.It would hold.Wind and weather shouldn't bother it.I was sure of that.And done. The next day, as planned... of course... we DIDN'T go there...Only the day after that.But... it was still there.Great joy.I was just chilling on it for half an hour when our "private beach" was invaded by naked people.Fantastic.A couple sat down right in front of us.There were maybe 2 meters of beach between us and the sea.But of course, they had to sit there and seemed just as excited about us as we were about them.I blamed it on the music we were playing...But:Suddenly, Mr. Nude stood up and the Greek Adonis himself stood before me.His goods right at eye level. "exkus mi".I just stared.He did too."dΓ€ts mei".I kept staring.(What did he want?)He repeated:"dΓ€ts mei."Then he pointed at something below his naked body in my direction.I continued to look at him without understanding."dΓ€ts mei."(what is his?)"Mei. Mei."I acted clueless.(Because I was.)He got increasingly annoyed.(Now even waving his arms wildly)"Greek? English?"(I'm neither, so I said nothing and stared at the naked man blocking my view of the sun.) Honestly, it took me a moment to realize that he was referring to the air mattress I was lying on.MY air mattress, mind you.He tried another 3-4 times ("mei mei mei") before storming off in anger to his wife.Of course, not without throwing a few nasty glances my way.She also turned around and seemed quite accusatory. I guess he had found my stashed mattress the day before, used it, and wanted to repeat the experience. But no way, dude.Because it's MINE! π Ah yes... The Greeks are quite a funny bunch.Alexandros (our host of the accommodation), for example, had a very special hobby.No matter when we saw him...No matter what time of day or night... he was diligently marking the parking spaces on his property.Apparently, he didn't trust the guests to park their cars correctly.He dictated precisely how and where a car should be parked.First with white paint.Stroke by stroke.With concentrated deliberation, figuring out where and how to create the most space.Other people constantly joined him, providing him with advice and support in his parking space science.They were probably structural engineers, professional advisors, as well as friends and relatives.He drew lines all over the place, only to discard them and redraw them the next day.Then, at some point, he replaced the white lines with yellow paint, and he seemed satisfied.Life's mission accomplished.However, the next day, he was sitting, kneeling, and standing on his parking lot again....Well then.Everyone to their own liking, huh?...... ... And... in case you're thinking that the Greeks are actually quite funny, you haven't met the dogs here yet...Another day.Another beach.We were just changing when we noticed a dog wandering along the beach without an owner.He purposefully chose the spots where bathers had laid out their towels to do his business.He peed in front of one person's "home"... and the next person's too.... And the next person's... The last person he chose wasn't so lucky.He walked nonchalantly to a basket that was lost on the beach.I looked at the dog and then at the water.In the water, a woman was bathing, and she looked at the dog.(And he looked at her too, if you ask me.)Only to drop a huge pile of poop into her basket almost immediately.I saw the brief panic in the woman's eyes.(And the dog saw it too, I'm sure.)He left his spot.And she left the sea to save her things....And the lovely dog repeated this at another tourist spot. He disappeared as quickly as he came.And so did we.Laughing. .... Welllllll... What else could I tell you... Hmmm....I guess you can see the beauty of the island, as always, in the pictures... And otherwise... Oh well.There's one more thing worth mentioning.We went on a boat trip yesterday.For 25 euros, you're on the boat for about 8 hours and make several stops during that time.The boat advertised that it would take you to the most beautiful beaches of a neighboring island and maybe even see dolphins.Well.There were no dolphins.They probably didn't feel like checking out the stupid tourists in the water on a Monday.And the "most beautiful beaches" consisted of secluded and very rocky sections where no one would voluntarily get lost.... I felt like I was on a coffee tour.Of course, they had a cooperation with the cafes there.The stupid tourists would be dropped off somewhere for 3 hours, there would be only 1 cafe offering stupidly overpriced snacks, and there would be no alternative anywhere nearby.So you sit and wait and preferably not spend any money.Difficult. But here's the best part. When booking, they mentioned that one of the "beautiful" beaches had a pool.Madeleine and I were already very excited and wanted to swim in a pool the whole time.After docking, we were the first to jump off the boat to claim the pool. Well, what do you know.There was a sign that said "Pool 10 Euros".Um.Okay.What a bargain.So we were supposed to pay 10 fucking euros each to use the pool for the 90-minute stop?Who the hell pays that price?? Correct guess - W E. Don't say anything! There were reasons.All of this.The fact that we paid is probably due to our stupidity.But the reason they shamelessly rip people off is that apparently the people from the boat misbehave quite often.With lots of alcohol and loud laughter.And they took advantage of the bad experience.Stupid drunk people won't come back.Dumb people pay a fortune. π€·ββοΈ End of the story. And at the same time, the end of this collection of crazy vacation anecdotes. _____________________________________ By the way The last time I ended a blog, the sun had just disappeared behind the mountain as it set. We drove today while it slowly spread its radiant yellow across the horizon. And so the circle closes.And I end this blog entry. ...... By the way, a legend says that Alexandros is still armed with a brush and a bucket of paint, drawing parking lot outlines.......
