My Travels in Greece
By mid-August 1976 I had landed myself a job in London and since I was only starting on 1 September, I decided to go back-packing in Greece. I landed in Athens and went straight to the port of Piraeus and caught a ferry to Naxos, mainly because the next available ferry was going to Naxos. What did I care? It was summer, the weather was beautiful and I had all the time in the world to swim and drink beer. I walked out of town to the nearest beach (the plaka), found an abandoned bamboo shelter and settled in.
The beach I had settled on was miles long and almost completely empty except for a single taverna and various hippy-types who were living in the dunes above the beach. Although I ate all my meals at the taverna it took me a full week to get to know anyone well enough to socialise. Then one night I was invited to a "party" at somebody's "house" down the beach and my island life took off! The host of the party was an English guy called Neil, who seemed to know everybody, including all the women. That night I also met a Canadian girl called Lynne, Neil's girlfriend's best friend. Life had suddenly become quite sweet.
All too soon I was on my way back to London to start my new job. Going through immigration at Gatwick the official asked me how long I was staying. I said "Indefinitely! I'm starting work on Monday!". Next thing I was ensconced in the Gatwick detention center and some eight hours later I was on a plane back to Greece, courtesy the UK goverment. I spent a leisurely day in Athens and then headed back to Naxos where I renewed my friendship with Neil, Lynne and the others, much to their surprise. I moved in with Neil and began a fairly lengthy and enjoyable life as a deportee. Meanwhile, the company I was supposed to start working for (Service in Informatics and Analysis, SIA) had promised they would get my work permit and send it to me in Greece.
During my stay on Naxos Neil and I went on a few road trips up into the mountains to take part in local harvest festivals. These were amazing adventures where we were the only outsiders present, and the rituals were fascinating. In the picture on the right you can see the band in action in the background.
On another occasion the whole gang went on an adventure around the surrounding islands of Santorini and Ios. The guys would sleep in the bushes while the girls sought refuge in a B&B. But with autumn closing in fast we decided it was time to move on home and headed back to Athens. Neil decided he wanted to hitch-hike to India and the two girls (Pam & Lynne) and I volunteered to go with him as far as Volos to the north. We spent a week or so there then bade Neil farewell and the girls and I hitched back to Athens, where we too parted company.
I was now on my own waiting for my work permit from London. There was no point in hanging around in Athens so I started working my way back to London. I caught a ferry from Patras to Corfu and notified SIA where I was. In those days my only communication was via phone or telex (too expensive) or snail mail, available via a post restante address at Kirkyra, Corfu. I hitch-hiked around Corfu, sleeping on beaches and cooking meals over a fire on the beach. One of the most beutiful places I visited was Palaiokastritsa on the north-west coast, but I was down to my last eight pounds and needed to find work. An Australian woman picked me up at a bus-stop one Sunday night and dropped me off at the Corfu Country Club in Agios Gordios where I became, with a number of other itinerants, a golf caddy. We all lived in a big barn attached to a taverna where we ate and drank every night.
A couple of weeks later my work permit arrived in Kirkyra and SIA flew me back to London to start work.
Almost exactly three years later I had transfered from London to Holland, and before starting work in Holland I decided to join some friends on holiday in... Greece! I had been seeing Claudia in London and she was on her way back to Australia, stopping off in Skiathos. The weather was fabulous, the people we met were OK - apart from one of them, a Greek fella, running off with Claudia. Since Claudia kicked me out of our pension I was obliged to sleep on the beach, and spent the first three days fasting as a means of assuaging my misery (yeah, right!).
Interestingly, this was where I first tried my hand at windsurfing and I devoted all my remaining time to improving my sailing skills and meeting other people!
It had been a year since I was frollicking in the sea at Cassis in France, but alas, it would be my last ever holiday in Europe. But there was one good outcome: on my return to Holland I took up windsurfing with a passion.