Ithacan Anecdotes No 4
Ithacan Anecdotes No 5
I first came to Ithaca twelve years ago……..as a tourist. I have now lived here on a more permanent basis since 2005.
Over the ensuing years I have fallen in love with the island and the unique Greek way of life. I feel privileged to live here.
Ithaca itself is beautiful. The scenery, which is not just spectacular and unrivalled, speaks to me with a particular siren voice.
On this ‘journey’ of mine, whilst enjoying many wonderful experiences, I have also had the good fortune of meeting some rather memorable and remarkable characters.
I have been encouraged to share some of these reminiscences with you.
…….as an aside I can assure you, all of what you are about to read is absolutely true. Some of the names of people I have changed merely to protect the innocent!
5. A Wonderful Night (even for Margaret)
One year on Ithaca as the summer grew hotter and hotter; it almost became unbearable to work outdoors. The temperatures during the day soared into the mid forties and at night it seemed that they had only dropped by a few degrees.
As a representative for an English travel company, most of my daily work was completed during the daylight hours. As you can imagine just walking around during the day became uncomfortable. How some of the locals continued with their manual work, I have no idea. Even if you became accustomed to the heat as the majority of the islanders were, the intensity of it during the day was intolerable.
One evening, whilst eating dinner with a group of friends in the village of Perachori, the subject of the current heat wave arose during our conversations. We were eating in the local taverna, perched high on a hill, with the most spectacular view of Vathi and the surrounding bay below us. Alas, even here in our wonderfully elevated position, without a breath of wind, it was still incredibly hot.
At that moment one of our friends, Dimitris, could stand in no longer.
“Look’ he said, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had it with this heat. Let’s finish our drinks, ask for the bill and go down to the beach at Filiatro for a midnight swim. At least we can all cool off for a while!”
We looked at him with astonishment.
“What a great idea!’ someone agreed. “Yes, brilliant” a couple more chorused. “Let’s go right now”
“But what about bathing costumes?’ Margaret, the oldest one of our group asked, looking a little concerned.
“Ah, forget about that” replied Dimitris impulsively. “If we all have to return home to collect our gear, we won’t get there for another hour. We’ve all got towels in our cars, that’s all we need. C’mon lets go swimming”.
We paid the bill and set off on the fifteen minute journey.
When we arrived the beach was deserted. I stood for a while, simply taking in the view. The bay is crescent shaped, with olive trees almost down to the waters edge. The moon was full and seemed enormous, casting the most beautiful silvery light in a deep wide arc onto the inky blue motionless sea.
We quickly undressed and leaving our clothes and towels on some abandoned sun beds headed for the water. It was warm and inviting and as I waded into the deeper water and started to swim out a little further, I was intrigued to feel how very different the sensation of swimming is in the sea at night, as opposed to the day. You cannot see below and therefore your sense of distance and depth is completely different. I seemed to feel more because I saw less. As I swam further from the shore, this increased. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling and if anything it made you feel very much alive and yet relaxed.
After a while I really began to enjoy it. If you have never swam in the sea at night naked, I can thoroughly recommend it!
I called to Margaret, who obviously was a little bashful about stripping off.
“C’mon Margaret, don’t worry about it, nobody’s looking. The water is lovely”
With a little resigned shrug of her shoulders, she removed the last of her clothes and tiptoed out into the shallows. A little ripple of applause greeted her efforts.
Suddenly, one of the girls shouted out. “Look, I can see light in the water as I swim!”
Sure enough as we swam towards her we were all treated to the same spectacle. The water around our bodies sparkled with a faint greenish flicker. As we moved our arms and legs the sea outlined our shapes and the sea became full of phosphorescence……………it was truly amazing. Suspended in the water with the light tracing the contours of ones body was absolutely fascinating, almost magical.
We gamboled about in the water for another twenty minutes or so, unable to resist this strange phenomenon and then almost reluctantly headed back to the shore.
We were all excited by our fortunate encounter, but alas, Margaret the last to exit the water was slightly embarrassed as for no reason whatsoever, (other than bad luck and timing!) Light suddenly burst into life from one of the nearby beach lights and illuminated her in all her naked glory! For a moment she seemed transfixed, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car, but then shot up the beach with remarkable speed, for a sixty year old to the safety of her towel.
After we had dressed and began to walk back to the cars, I turned back to look at the bay.
I gazed up into the star-speckled sky seeing the Milky Way stretched out before me like chiffon and thought to myself once again that it truly was a wonderful night.