Island (s)hopping...

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.

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.

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).

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?”

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!

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.

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.”

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…

Ice Kareem

Hold on to your hats...

One of our children wanted to know why the statue was wearing a nappy...