It’s almost midday when we get out of bed, not really late, because we in the end were only in bed around six. Eef still has a lot of fun, she laughs at everything and everybody; maybe she is still a little bit drunk. There is no one a real wreck, which is astonishing, as we see how much there was drunk last night. Together with Christine and Patrick we play cards for a few hours and Linda reads a book. Pat, An, Rita and Ann have taken the Jeep and the others went to the beach. At 14:00 we go to eat something with few people: again all different dishes, this time also with sardines. Very good. Then we go to buy our ticket for the boat tomorrow (no good!) and we call to Betty to inform her of our flight number. Then we need time for a siesta and we sleep till about 18:00. We take a shower, pack all our bags and Linda comes and has a coffee with us. We don’t go to have diner with the whole group and want to spend the last evening here in Evia with the two of us. At 20:00 we go to eat (Timo finally has pork chops – they were very nice – and Eef has gemista). We make a last walk here and then return to Vassilis. We stay up in the garden for a while and just when we want to go to bed, the rest arrives. So we have a goodbye drink and sleep at 01:00. Tomorrow our day will start early.

We got up as last people of the whole group, but it still was only 10:00, so it was still not that long we slept. We have breakfast; there is nothing much, but that is typically Greece and we’re already used to it. There are no real plans for the day, we start the day with a walk in the town. We walk to the sea, only 100 meters from Vassilis place and then take the boulevard along the harbor; it’s a pretty town Karystos with a lot of nice terraces, a castle and a nice harbor. We walk away from the water and go into town, then cross the town and end up at the beach again. Just outside the center is a nice sandy beach. We have gone on our own: Eef, Linda and Timo; just to be away a bit from the busy and noisy other persons. We need to get away from all fuzz, because it was quite of a chock in Athens. In the meantime Patrick went to Marmari to pick up Koen and Iris; they only arrived this morning. We sit in a bar and drink frappe. It’s is quite an expensive one, but this is the best we had so far. When we return to Vassilis, it’s already 14:00 and we go to have lunch in the harbor with the whole group (15 people). Now we can order a lot of different dishes and taste all of them at the same time.  There are Greek salads, octopus in redwinesauce, calamari, tzatziki, and taramasalata. It tastes very good and does not cost that much. We drink ouzo and water with it. Then it is time to lie down and that we do apart from the rest on the big sandy beach not far from Vassilis. We’re almost alone there, apart from some Greek guys and that’s it. The other group was on another beach with rocks, but there were a bit too much of sea urchins; that’s why we were on the other beach. They only lie in the sun, we go into the water too. We snorkel a bit, rest some time and completely relaxed we return to Vassilis. Before it al starts some of us have given Patrick and Linda a few things to do. They did not have a bachelor event, so this is happening now. After that Vassilis looks after the food on the BBQ.  At 22:00 he starts to prepare the meat. We already have an aperitif and some small snacks. Rita and I are the only ones drinking ouzo and the rest has wine. They bought about 20 liter, when they had diner last night. The food Vassilis is making is just GREAT. The best pieces of the pig, well spiced with nice thick fries and a lot of tzatziki. There is a good atmosphere with the Greek music, nice food, and good drinks. At about 01:00 some give up and then regularly some go to bed. We stay awake the longest together with Vassilis and Tatjana. It’s almost day, as it is six inn the morning. It was good and so we go to bed also.

We are not getting up too early, have breakfast at a lazy pace and then start looking for a wedding present for my mother and Patrick. We decided yesterday to keep the ouzo for ourselves and that bottle was already empty. We now stroll the Plaka the Adrianou Street and also want to bring something for Maurits and Betty. This time it is a bottle of oil with herbs and Maurits needs to try out ouzo. When he wants to come to Greece, he needs to know and like ouzo, doesn’t he? That is all done pretty quickly and we then return to our hotel to pack the bags. We flew from Crete to Athens and therefore a lot was still in the bags and all was done within half an hour. We don’t wait any longer and take the metro from Thissio to Viktoria and there we take the bus to Rafina. The bus leaves on time (11:15) and after one hour and fifteen minutes we arrive at the port. The first thing we do there is buying two tickets to Marmari. We have about two hours before the boat leaves, so we sit down, have a drink and order Greek salad and fried peppers. In Rafina there are a lot of fish shops and there the octopuses and other animals are lying on ice. It all looks very good. We just got our food and there Winny and frank arrive. They have taken the first flight this morning and arrived now in Rafina from Athens. They tell all different things from Belgium, but soon it is already all to busy for us. We enjoy it all ‘siga siga’ (all at ease, the Greek way). At 14:00 all the others arrive: Pat, An with Rita and another An. We all take seats on the boat to Evia and go to Marmari. And look who is waiting for us there. Patrick, Linda, Christine (a friend of Patrick) and Vassilis (the owner of the place, where we are going to stay). It is very nice, to see my mom and Patrick back after a few weeks. We take the bus from Marmari to Karystos and after arriving at the pension everyone receives their own room. We need to wait for 2 minutes. In Greece this means we’re waiting for a couple of hours. We don’t mind because we’re already used to the Greek way of living. Off course we can’t live another way after two weeks here. We drink some ouzo, because you always need to keep drinking, what you started with. At about seven thirty it is about time to go and have something to eat. Eef and I have had a bit too much ouzo and we stay here to have a rest. Eef sleeps for two hours and Timo starts chatting with Tatjana (Sofia after she was baptized in Greece). She is from Ukrainian origin and speaks Russian. This is a good opportunity for Timo to speak some Russian. Once in a while he goes to check on Eef and he speaks Russian for a couple of hours. Then the others return to the pension, but off course now Timo and Eef are hungry. Vassilis and Tatjana told us we could have a snack somewhere in the centre. So we go on foot to the centre with Patrick, Linda and Frank. We order something and can take it with us to the pension. We have sardines with chorta and Timo has spaghetti with large pieces of veal. We stay in the garden to have a drink and (for us) pretty late we go to sleep.