A little more Greek news

I know, I know, I said I'd be back to tell you more about our holiday in the week. I'd forgotten that I had a super busy week at school packed with meetings and assessments to contend with too. But here I am, better late than never to hopefully bring a little of the Greek sunshine into your corner of the world. 

Mr JK and I have been visiting Kos for 13 years; we love the island and especially the village where we stay. When we checked in at the airport, the person on the desk expressed surprise and commented that we didn't look the typical holidaymakers going to this particular Greek island! When we pointed out that we would be staying in a really small fishing village where daily life continues around the tourists, he was amazed that such a place existed! But it does, and each year it provides us with a complete chill out and battery recharge. We are greeted as friends by people we have come to know over the years, it's pretty special. We do spend a lot of each day relaxing on the beach. Neither of us are huge sun worshippers though - we stay in the shade and read, play endless games of Scrabble and I knit while Mr JK listens to music.

The beach never gets crowded, it's just glorious! There's often quite a strong wind there and you can see kite surfers showing off their leaps and turns. We've never been tempted to give it a try!!

Each section of the beach has its own sunbeds; I love the bright pelargoniums growing in tubs here. This year, one area of the beach even had its own wifi!!

Daily life really does just carry on around the visitors. The fishing boats go out each night whatever the weather, bringing their catch back into harbour first thing in the morning. Of course, the local cats know this and gather around, hoping for scraps.

Next door to the supermarket the cows are grazing in a field and just behind our accommodation, a farmer was baling hay using an old fashioned tractor and baler.

We didn't have wall to wall sunshine as you can probably tell from the photo above. One day was pretty cloudy and there was a huge thunder storm in the night. You can see it brewing here; the sky looks quite menacing, doesn't it?!

There are at least three churches in the village - one larger and the other two tiny. We looked in one when we were out and about on our daily walks and the wall paintings are breathtaking.

We ate delicious food the whole week - salads, fruit, fresh bread baked in the village bakery and bought on our early morning walks each day, a huge variety of traditional Greek dishes and sardines, Mr JK's favourite! I am not a great fish eater, but Mr JK was in his element (as were the cats!!!)

 

 

Yes, there were cats! Not as many as we have seen in the past, especially living in the rocks down at the harbour. Apparently it was a hard winter and many of the cats didn't survive. Also, some of the cats have been neutered in an attempt to keep numbers under control. The neutered cats are easy to spot as they have had the tip of one ear clipped. We only spotted one family with kittens. Those kittens were just starting to venture out on our last day, but vanished each time a human approached! They will have to learn to trust people in order to survive. Here are a few of the cats we befriended in the week. Our suitcases returned home somewhat lighter after the cat food and biscuits had been distributed!

 

 

 

The lady who lives in this house feeds a lot of the strays and they gather there each morning for their breakfast! We gave her our leftover cat food before we left as we knew she would be able to make good use of it. Florence doesn't know what a lucky little cat she is with plentiful food, a cosy bed and a lap to curl up on and people who love her.

 

We've been home a week now, but the memories will last us until we go back again in 2016. Do you have any special places that you are drawn back to year after year? xxx