Skopelos town

September 16th, 2008

Peace and quiet - even the hotel was empty at breakfast. We decided to spend a lazy day pottering around Skopelos. With its white buildings, red tile roofs, and blue paint to match the sea and sky it’s a paradise for artists and photographers.

We started bumping into people again in the evening. Rachel was on her way back from the internet cafe just as we were arriving. The sun worshippers had continued their circuit of the beaches on the island. The one bit of local knowledge they hadn’t picked up about today’s beach was that the island ferry creates a mini-tsunami as it passes by. So that’s one upset teenager, and one salt-washed camera, iPod, and phone to argue about with the insurance company.

I settled won in the internet cafe with my Eee PC to do some emails, upload blogs, and check some of the press coverage of the wedding for outrageous inaccuracies. The prize must go to the Edinburgh Evening News, for suggesting that the CAA had sorted everything, leaving Robert delirious with happiness.

When Lizzie joined us at the cafe to check how she was placed for her return flight on Friday, the shabbiness of the full ATOL response became apparent. She was instructed to visit their website and only ring them up as a last resort. The website was useless, as it only mentioned last week’s flights. When she rang, she was told to turn up at Skiathos as normal and she would be sorted by a rep there. I don’t have a good feeling about this.

No sooner had Lizzie left than Donald turned up to do emails. As I said yesterday, Skopelos is a small place :)

Off to Anne and Desmond’s for a meal with forty or so others - the wedding party plus ex-pat island friends. Unlike most of the other ex-pats (who appear to live a curious semi-detached life), Anne and Desmond live on the island year round, in a wonderful rambling home, half house, half garden. Lizzie told us there had been another disaster the night before - the taxis booked to take people from Limnonari to Skopelos simply hadn’t turned up, leaving her to run a shuttle service.

Despite the late night on Monday, the party still ran on into the beginning of Wednesday. The traditional musicians provided gentle musical accompaniment, and the conversation just flowed…