June 4, 2006

Hello, all!

We our home from our wonderful time in Skiathos,
Greece. The island was small and picturesque. It
was filled with pine trees, which we thought
surprising. It reminded us of Alaska, that kind of
rugged beauty, only with beautiful seas of green, blue
and turquoise surrounding it. We enjoyed perfect
weather. No rain! Our flight was less than three
hours! Hard to believe!

We arrived and were dropped off about a quarter of a
mile from our hotel. The gravel road was too narrow
and winding for the bus to maneuver. It was a pretty
road (that really reminded us of the area near Jim's
cousin Paul and his wife Ginny's home in Willow
Alaska) heavy with the scents of wild flowers and
roses. Heavenly. The hotel was a small complex of
small studios of white stucco and red tile roofs with
a bar and pool. There was alot of space for the kids
to play. We settled in and got right down to the pool
to enjoy the sunshine and a cool beverage. We had our
first experience of just how highly revered children
are in Greece when almost immediately, the boys, who
were playing soccer in a grassy area near the pool,
kicked a soccer ball into Jim's beer bottle and glass
(poor Jim!) shattering them into a thousand pieces all
over the ground and into the swimming pool itself.
The bartender jumps over with broom and assures me
that if its good luck to break a wine glass in Greece
it must be good luck to break a beer glass. And the
person stepping on the glass in the pool? Not so much
luck...


Honestly, though, the children were highly regarded.
Everywhere were comments on our large family and blue
eyes. Aidan especially was treated like a king!
Everyone wanted to touch and stroke his white hair!
After an infancy spent with doctors, chiropractors,
physical therapists and cranio sacral therapists all
manipulating his skull, he is very sensitive to people
touching his head! He grew so used to it, he wouldn't
even notice after awhile! It was sweet.

Our first morning we attended a short informational
gathering. The man speaking had a map of the island
and was helping to get us oriented. He pointed out
where the nude beaches were. I thought Aidan wasn't
paying attention when he commented loudly, "I like to
be naked". Ryan wanted to die. Speaking of nude
beaches, Jim was all prepared with a pair of really
dark sunglasses. He had, undoubtedly, created a
topless episode of Baywatch in his mind. Quite the
contrary. It was much more like an "R" rated episode
of The Golden Girls. The all day season finale where
Betty White and friends hook up with aged men and
spend the day at the beach changing and being topless
and doing lots of things that you'd do if you were
naked/nearly naked and elderly at the beach: undress,
reach, stretch, walk around, smoke, bend down for the
novel you dropped, re-dress, etc. Nothing that we
didn't mind having the boys see! Wasn't really going
to be anything to build a dream on, that was for sure!
Jim was famous for saying things like, "Siobhan!
Don't turn around!" Of course, she'd turn around only
to see an old man pulling on his Speedo. Yuck. No
courtesy 180 degree turn? Jim had such high hopes.
His one word summed it all up: Brutal.

One day, Jim took Michael, Siobhan and Ryan to Athens
for the day. Two hours by boat, two hours by bus and
then to see the Parthenon. An amazing experience for
them. A chance of a lifetime. They will probably
appreciate it more as they get older. What an
opportunity. Meanwhile, Aidan and I went into town to
dutifully pay homage to the Greek God of really cheap
shoes.

While in Athens, thankfully, Jim and the kids were
unaffected and, in fact, weren't even aware, there
was a terrorist attack. A bomb went off in the city
sending debris for up to 20 meters. Tragic. When I
packed for the trip, I ended up putting away some of
the clothes the boys had put out for themselves. They
had some British football jerseys and American looking
shirts. I put them back chosing plain t-shirts. I
didn't want to stand out any more than we already did.
No American flag shirts. Siobhan saw one man in
Skiathos Town (the main town) with a t-shirt that had
a picture of the twin towers with the Nike swoosh that
read, JUST DO IT. Frightening.

On a lighter note: Our hotel room was awful! Because
I am famously cheap and I planned the trip, we learned
a cruel reality: Do not go cheap in Greece.
Apparently, most accomodations are simple there. Go
cheap and you are now one step from camping only
without the basic essentials. I got a serious talking
to from Jim who really believes that he has arrived to
a place in his life that he doesn't want to stay in a
place where "the first roll of toilet paper is
complimentary". Yeah, it was pretty bad. Even I was
grossed out and had to swear to not be so cheap in the
future...we'll see. We had four hand towels for all
our toweling needs for 7 days! I did bring our own
beach towels. The beds were really like cots. You
made your own beds and the blankets were wool. I'm
guessing they weren't dry cleaned with each new guest.
Because there were too many of us for one room, we
had to split up and the room Ryan "called" (because
it was bigger, of course) for the boys ended up with
unpleasant smells (I'm being polite) accompanied by
sewer problems. At one point, three sewer caps were
opened in front of their room and were emptied by
hand. All day. Into buckets. There was nothing to
do but laugh and thank God for my patient husband!

This was a small price to pay, I reminded everyone, to
spend a week near a beach that is considered the most
beautiful in Greece and always ranks among the top ten
most beautiful beaches in the world. No hotels on the
beach, so it feels secluded. Besides, the food was
fabulous! Michael ate nothing but squid and octopus!
After a couple of months in England, we were missing
really tasty food!

That's all! If I can get my personal assistant and
professional social butterfly to show me how to post
pictures, I'll send some photos of the Pierces on
holiday.

Love,

T-Ann