A Stupor in Stoupa?
Or… Pubs, Problems & Police in the Peloponnese
I got back last weekend from a week in the Peloponnese, an area of Greece I’ve not stayed in before, having merely passed through on its northern shores on the way to Athens a few years ago. It was another 'lyric writing holiday', so some of the results of the work should be on my music website over the forthcoming months... In the meantime, please check out the Lyrico Website Here. (And here to hear sample songs.)
Once again, Greece amazes me with its stunningly beautiful scenery, roads twisting like spilt spaghetti down mountainsides, and, of course, plumbing that hasn’t improved in around 3000 years! And Mr. Lucky here (what else?!) got an apartment where if there was the slightest flow of water (perhaps even a dripping tap!) anywhere else in the building, then all my supplies of water (even taps in the kitchenette, but more importantly the shower!) just 'barfed air'! Brilliant! So I come in from a day on the ‘beach oven’ (it got to 44 Degrees C one day!) or, alternatively, after zapping around (up to 250 km a day) half-naked on a moped, and I can't even get a wash! What made it worse was when I’d been on the moped all day there wasn’t only an inch deep of sun lotion to contend with, but about the same depth of dead flies! Strewth! No wonder they were swarming round me in the restaurants in the evening!!… And there was me thinking the flies had just come to pay their last respects to their friends. Apologies to anyone who had an evening meal within three tables of me, but, honestly, it wasn’t my fault! (Hey, it's a good job I wasn't 'on the pull'!) Anyway, the tour operator will be hearing from me… again!...
Look, proof, completely deserted tables!
Actually, to be fair, the rep did get the apartment owners to replace the pump, so after three days I could finally return to my usual state of something akin to fastidiousness and not clear a restaurant from thirty paces! Also, it was a great holiday and I’ll upload some more of the fantastic photos of the castles and hill towns on one of my other sites soon.
Hello to everyone I met in Stoupa, and also to those two utterly bemused gentleman of the Greek Police who pulled me over on the road between Gytheion and Skala on my mega jaunt to the fantastic Monemvasia (just licence spot checks). I don’t think they could quite believe that this English nutter was making the journey all the way from Stoupa in the mid-west to the Aegean cost on a 50cc moped! Well, that’s all they had to rent in Stoupa and I get bored just lying on a beach! Alright, so the fact that I was walking like John Wayne for the next two days… and needed to get in a drunken stupor (there we are, got the pun in!) to numb the pain has got nothing to do with it! Monemvasia, as a World Heritage site, was well worth the visit!
Just look at this...
And a final note to finish on... Why do people always, ALWAYS have to behave like a particularly moronic flock of sheep around baggage carousels? I mean, think about it... There's this bl**dy great yellow line painted there and signs saying "Please stand behind the line" (which would allow everyone to see when their case approaches, step forward and retrieve it), but no, a good 75% of people have to stand there bleating to each other with their knees dusting the belt and obscuring everything for the chilled minority. Great strategy (think about it again)... NO ONE can see more than a few feet of belt, no one has room to swing their fake leopard skin suitcase or their bright puce trolley bag (let alone a cat), and myself and the others who decide not to join the herd can't see 'diddly'! Well, just to say to the fat geezer that ended up groaning like he'd passed a log and who came within two inches of his eyes watering like he'd peeled a dozen onions... "If you'd been standing in the right place...! And yes, my hard shell Pierre Cardin suitcase is pretty heavy, isn't it?!"
