Carly had never had any intention of going to Aegina, Greece. Not even once, let alone twice. Over the years she had seen all the fancy cars coming onto the ferry that was returning her from her marvellous writing and yoga trips in Lemnaradis to the Athens port Piraeus. And on Sunday afternoons there were so many wealthy Athenians returning from their expensive villas, that the ferry ended up stopping for almost an hour to load up all their vehicles. And then she was tight on time and had to get a taxi to the airport rather than using cheaper public transport. She did quite enjoy the spectacle of watching all these cars and some coaches reverse onto the ferry but then she became increasingly anxious as it was really taking an age. She was sure she could rush down there and take over the task of loading up the vehicles in half the time. Never mind she spoke no Greek, and her spatial awareness isn’t up to much. She still believed she would be better than those currently undertaking this activity at, what she felt, was a snail’s pace. Therefore, by association she didn’t like Aegina. But note to self. Just don’t return on a Sunday afternoon in future.
But she did end up going there. And, of course, she rather liked it. She went once out of necessity and on a second occasion as a trip down memory lane. Every six months for five years, Carly went on a yoga and a partially silent writing retreat. And on her penultimate trip there she was destined to fly out of Athens on 8th October 2023 on a cheapy airline. But the war had started against Israel the day before, so all flights were suspended apart from El Al (the national carrier) and she was stuck. It is always an interesting situation to have your holiday unexpectedly extended. Carly believes vacations are best planned for the length that suits the individual. Even more so in Lemnaradis as you can choose to go for a few days or several weeks. And Carly always chose one week which is the perfect amount of time to write six stories. Just like this one. And the extra days are for arriving and departing and just plain old thinking. So, Carly really was keen to get back to Israel. But she was stranded. For several days. She received so many messages of condolences about the situation. As well as most of her family, friends and colleagues both in the UK and Israel really trying hard to persuade her to give up on this ridiculous midlife crisis notion of emigrating to what was now a war zone and move back to the UK. She had been an Israeli citizen for only a few weeks. But she remained committed and keen to return to Jaffa, Israel.
She, by chance, had a hotel room booked for the day in Piraeus, but this really wasn’t a scintillating destination for a few days until El Al could take her home later that week. She spoke to her son Haz and his lovely wife. They were really good at finding solutions. And Hotel Angela in Agia Marina, Aegina seemed to fit the bill. It was inexpensive, as it was off season, offered breakfast within the room rate and had excellent reviews. And there were so many boats to get over there from Piraeus. About 15 each way, every day. Despondent as Carly was, off she went on the boat back to Aegina. What a lovely island. And what a magic gem of a hotel. It was run by a woman and her mother. The owner had one daughter of eight who loved drawing and had a kitten called Blackie. This was a big draw for Carly who giggled about the name of the cat. You could hardly call any animal in the ‘woke’ UK that name nowadays.
Carly decides to explore Aegina with a positive mindset. She can do some editing of her Dr Carly videos for her YouTube channel as a break from enjoying this gorgeous island. Her main aim with these videos is to move them from one channel she has, to another. She watches several different videos on how to do this. There are so many helpful people out there making instructional videos on just about anything. It means that you no longer need to keep manuals for any gadgets. You just hop onto YouTube and put it in the search. How to fill up helium balloons. How to open the hood for your car engine. How to cast-on in the round with knitting needles. It is marvellous. Nowadays, companies are onto this and make bespoke versions for all their customers. But try as hard as she could, she was unable to transfer these videos across. She even asks more tech savvy people later and they cannot do it either. In the end, she leaves it for when she returns to Aegina seven months later. By then, the tech felt less scary and, as often the way when things are less urgent, it all works easily.
To get around Aegina, Carly decides she is going to rent a 50cc scooter for a couple of days. On one of her last family holidays to Mykonos before getting divorced, they tried to do this too. That was five years ago. And the men who lent out the scooters decided neither Carly nor Ades had it in them to scoot about their island. They were deemed incompetent. But Carly wasn’t going to be defeated again. Aegina was less hilly, and she could practise around Agia Marina which was fairly flat. The main issue for Carly is getting the bike back onto its stand. This is about technique and not brute force. She had a good teacher and mastered this. She also learnt how to kick start the engine should the starter motor fail. Which it did quite often. My goodness. Carly just loved travelling around on a scooter. There was such a feeling of thrill with the wind and exploring places that would be tricky on a bus. And way cheaper than taxis. She went to monasteries, churches, shops, remote coasts and had meals in out of the way places. It was a total joy. She could see the attraction of motorbikes. On this small, rather deserted island, riding one felt relatively safe. She got up early and scootered off to see sunrises and returned to base at the approach of darkness. And then Carly remembered a similar experience. When she was in Goa, her son hired a scooter and Carly was on the back. But occasionally he let her drive and was a good teacher. When Boo came to Goa, Carly decided to share a scooter with her. But Boo was a bit unpredictable. As were the men around her. It is fun travelling with grey hair in your 50s. Not so for blond 18-year-old girls. And certainly not on the back of a motorbike with them…
Back to Aegina. Carly is surrounded by all things pistachio. One of her favourite nuts. She buys a bottle of liqueur which is lovely to drink on her balcony with ice. She samples each of the five different pistachio ice-creams. And brings back a jar of pistachio butter. Carly must have ‘pistachio-nutter’ applied as a label to her forehead that is only seen by Greek salesmen.
Carly also finds a few art galleries. She goes into one that is run by a fabulous woman, Previnia, from France. Immediately they hit it off. Previnia has some beautiful gems from her father and Carly buys one of every purple hue. She will add them to her collection. Previnia has recently completed a number of oil paintings of women in local Greek traditional dress. The women she painted were from her own family in France and Carly likes this unusual juxtaposition. She buys a set of large postcards to keep and explain this idea to others. Previnia then has fabric produced based on these designs and makes them up as cushion covers and other items for sale in the shop. “A great marketing idea”, thinks Carly. They get together another evening to have pistachio liqueur. Both for fun and as Carly only has hand luggage, she needed to finish this rather large bottle!
But chatting with women from completely different and alternative backgrounds is magical for Carly. Despite being in Aegina for rather negative reasons, Carly had a very wholesome and wonderful experience there. And this is particularly so, once she had met the fabulous Previnia. And for this reason, when she returned to Lemnaradis the following spring, she thought she would trip down memory lane and return to the same hotel, in the same town on the same island after her yoga and writing retreat. She took out a scooter again and went off to Moni Island. This special place is overrun with peacocks and deer. It has an odd juxtaposition between some beautiful beaches, windswept fir trees with wildlife dancing amongst them and a load of burnt tourists on sunbeds around an English pub.But the previous time she went to Aegina it was off season and slowing down for the winter. This time it was high season and kicking off for the summer. It seemed everyone was either in couples or with friends. Carly felt truly lonely. She contacted Previnia who had no time to see her and had probably forgotten who she was. Poor Carly. She is not good at feeling lonely. Yes, she is happy to be alone and manage solitude and its multifarious benefits but not for a long time. But she cannot manage being lonely. And, also, she thinks she isn’t very forgettable. But clearly, she was to Previnia. “Hey ho”, Carly deliberates sadly. No more going back to romantic resorts alone with notions of faux friendships.
