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| A little bit of this... |
Although we envisaged an early start this morning, the
errant fire alarm that went off at irregular intervals after 3.30am was earlier
than we had planned. The boys seem ready
to go from the off – in fact at 5.15am Mr. Suter was banging on the wall of
Arkady, Rad and Tony’s room for them to keep the noise down. We’ve discovered, though, that the girls are
somewhat slower rises – with the exception of Emma’s room (in fact, Emma spent
most of the night banging on Ms. Naidoo’s door!) Ms. Naidoo had to bang on all
the girls’ doors to wake them this morning.
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| If the cap fits... |
After a buffet breakfast – Emma was somewhat perplexed by
the leaves on the orange in the fruit basket – we met up with our guide for the
short hop by bus to the harbour at Marina Flisvos. There we were welcomed aboard our cruise ship
by a saxophonist – a very sophisticated start to the day, largely missed by
most of our group until he started playing the Birdie Song for them! At that early point in the day despite the
sun trying to break through the clouds it was quite chilly on the main deck,
and jackets and coats were quickly adorned – Tony quickly cocooned himself in
several layers.
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| Captain Kareem |
With the possible exception of Ms. Naidoo who has acute
seasickness, the children all quickly gained their sea legs and have been up
and down the three different decks of the boat.
As an added bonus, the Captain of the boat invited all the children up
to the wheelhouse to pose and steer the boat.
Ms. Naidoo graciously declined, but everyone else got to wear the
captain’s hat and pose. Mr. Suter will be selling “your beautiful pictures” at
a later date (he won’t – we’ll actually make available all the pictures from
the trip, but the lady announcer on the boat has been trying to sell “beautiful
pictures” all the time).
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| Vian has trouble seeing where she's going |
Upon arrival at our first island, there was great delight
from everyone when, while holding his hat up to demonstrate how he wanted the
children to pose for a picture, Mr. Suter’s hat was whipped out of his hand and
plunged into the sea (actually, he was lucky he had it with him – just as we
were about to depart for the bus this morning it was noted he didn’t have his
on! Fortunately, super-fit Kirsty
‘volunteered’ to run up to the fifth floor to fetch it). Luckily for Mr. Suter, a local shopkeeper
appeared Mr. Ben-like ‘as if by magic’ and plucked it out for him! After a tour of the local promontory, the
single-handed assault on the regeneration of the Greek economy was begun in earnest
as our students dug deep into their pockets and began packing their rucksacks
with gifts. Not being the most
enthusiastic shopper, Mr. Suter took his group off exploring the backstreets of
the port, waxing lyrical about archictecture, gardens, the donkeys being used
to ferry materials up and down the streets (there are no motorised vehicles on
the island) and the pace of life, only for Hala to interject: “Yes, but where
are the shops?”
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| Tony wraps up |
Back in 2010, when our first Greek trip took place, we
followed a similar programme of activities and arrived on the island of Poros
with enthusiasm at the prospect of exploring this quaint but busy little
harbourside town. One hour later, with
Mrs. Williams the guilty party, we reboarded the boat having spent the whole of
the hour in the same shop without a single bit of exploration having been
done. Two years later, the owner of
Williams’ boutique was rubbing his hands with glee at the sight of 25 Greek
tour hats ascending the stairs in front of his shop. Once bitten, twice shy – a time limit of ten
minutes was strictly enforced to avoid a repeat performance. Fair play to Fay – being reduced to the last
50 cents of her own money that she had taken out today, she still managed to
find something to buy with it!
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| Arriving in Hydra |
We did further explore the island, climbing a narrow
winding set of steps up through narrow clustered houses up to a clock tower
that, now defunct, is closed up with building site fencing to stop people
entering. Somewhat fatigued at the
exertion, Effat got to the top and pronounced, “We climbed all the way up here
to look at this?” but was then persuaded to turn around and marvel at the view at
the harbour and mountains stretching out in front of her.
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| All together now - say cheese... |
Our last port of call was Aegina. Fay excitedly called out from the top deck,
on spying a rocky outcrop on the portside, “Look, a rock!” Twenty minutes later she was somewhat
perplexed to notice, “Oh look, it’s still there.” We started our visit to Aegina with a walk to
the archaeological site close to the harbour, but sadly the site was
closed. Never to put be off having fun,
we walked down to the beach where the children were introduced to the art of
skimming stones. Only Ahmed H got close
Mr. Suter’s record of twelve hops. We
did manage to walk past the site which has one solitary column and the Year 5
teachers were thoroughly delighted with Amin’s knowledge retention from their
History lessons. To the question, “What
type of column is that?” he replied, “A long one.”
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| Gorilla boy |
Ice creams were had along the stroll along the promenade
– Kareem wore his – and we tried to visit the Greek Orthodox Church on the
island. We had been there last year and
the priest had shown us a tablet written in Arabic that had been left in the
church. Mrs. Randa at school translated
it for us and we were hoping to leave a copy of the translation with him, but
sadly there was a service going on and we weren’t able to go in. We did pose for a photo on the steps, and two
amused Japanese ladies decided our children looked cute enough (!) to snap
their own shot. “Oh look,” said Tara,
“we’re famous – we’re being followed by the paparazzi!”
As we type this, we’re on the boat back to Athens. Ahmed K has just lost his hat over the side
of the boat – it blew off as he was doing his Titanic impression at the
bow. Unlike Mr. Suter, he hasn’t got his
back. It will no doubt wash up on a
beach somewhere and puzzle a local who will wonder what these falcons are…
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| Ice Kareem |
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| Hold on to your hats... |
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| One of our children wanted to know why the statue was wearing a nappy... |
