Here's a little adventure that I didn't expect this year during my Greek holiday. I went on a small fishing trip with
Dad and another family we've been meeting on holiday for several years now,
Gavin and his son,
Will.
For the last 9 years, me and my family have been returning to the same amazing Greek hotel
Oceania Club thanks to the magnificent service and scorching weather, meeting other English guests and mostly meeting the exceptional staff who speak great English and are like family to us because we've got to know them over the many years.
Anyway on the 28th July,
Dad had organised with our close friend on the beach who owns a speedboat and does the water sports for the hotel,
Giannis, for his mate
Vasilis and his daughter,
Dimitra to take the 4 of us on his beautiful big speedboat out to the ocean to go fishing.
I was most looking forward to this all night when Dad told me the night before of our trip the next day.
In the morning, we woke up pretty early and headed for the beach around 10.00pm (Greek time) and met Gavin and Will and set sail out to sea.
We found a good spot that showed most of the
Thessaloniki coast and the
Oceania Club hotel in the faint distance, we fetched the fishing rods out and begun. Now to be honest, I haven't been finishing in around 10 years or more, I guess I lost the interest while joining Dad when I was young. Maybe it was due to my lack of patience or the fact I've become too distracted now due to gaming and other things. But after that little adventure, it certainly rekindled my interest in the hobby mostly because I actually caught a few and out in the ocean it looked more interesting and fun.
But anyway, back to the story. We ended up fishing and caught quite the load! The fish were all roughly the same kind (I can't remember for sure or even what their Greek names are) but I caught 4 small fishes (they all looked like English Perches or Roaches, around that size), Dad caught 4, Gavin caught 5 and Will caught 11... lucky bugger. I was quite proud of myself for hanging on and not doing terrible after all this time. But my good little 13yr old mate, Will was the real fisherman of the day!
I had a real thrill and chill taking a dip in the deep ocean as well as fishing and getting to know Dimitra who spoke not bad English for being 14 years old.
I'll tell you what, looking underwater below was the scariest and also magnificent thing I've ever done in the big blue. Half of me was terrified thinking a shark would appear out of nowhere (like in my dreams) but I was really dazzled and entranced by the pattern that the sunlight created by looking down into the dark abyss, I saw a beautiful pattern that swirled and gently flowed (it's hard to describe without using an underwater camera, but hopefully next year I'll have one or a GO PRO camera! But it was almost like looking at the
Apple Mac screensaver with the rainbow plasma only this one was navy blue with a dark blue/ black background!) It was heart pounding as if I was looking at treasure glowing faintly in the darkness below.
 |
| Left to right: Me, Dad, Will and Gavin |
Anyhow, after we fished ourselves a good catch, we headed over to shore even further away from the beach where the hotel was and soon it disappeared from my sight. We headed over to a clear water coast to go scuba diving for a while while Vasilis and Dimitra cooked the fish for us all to enjoy a good lunch. We all had a beer (except Will and Dimitra of course), a good salad, thick bread and the little fishies. It was delicious, I even ended up eating a lot of tiny bones by accident ha ha. Before that, I headed for shore and took a look at what looked like a small stick tent (you know like Eeyore's from Winnie The Pooh), I was curious as to what was inside, maybe a corpse or somebody (my expectations sound pleasant, right?!) Sadly nothing was there, but I did find some beautiful shells around the rocky shore and did my best to avoid all the darn sea-urchins xP.
So after our meal, we decided to head further a long the coast and turn
into the other leg of Greece and go to a famous place called
Sani Resort
which is a magnificent port that had lots and lots of boats, another
hotel and a nice location full of restaurants and bars. It's also the
place where most of the staff at the Oceania Club go to have a smashing
time. So we sped over there and I layed across the front of the boat
doing the "Superman" position while the boat zoomed across the water and
bouncing on the waves, luckily I didn't get whiplash and I felt AWESOME
too.
We were all pointing out our future ships to purchase once we win the lottery ha ha.
As we pulled into Sani Resort's port, we saw all the million euro worth yacht's and ships. Some were that expensive and posh that they had a small dingy and 1 or 2 Jetski's on-board the ship's rear too. So we weighed anchor and decided to stop by a small restaurant and share some stories with Vasilis and Dimitra while the Dad's shared another beer and also had some
Ouzo (heavy strong Greek alcohol that even I struggled to try) and me and Will indulged in some delicious chocolate cake with Dimitra.
As I took many photos of the port and some panoramic pictures on my IPhone, I was astounded by the beauty of the scenery everywhere I looked and even got jealous after seeing someone Paragliding in the ocean with another speedboat. That was something I was so keen to try out for myself for thrills but sadly I had no time and wasn't a resident of the hotel... damn it.
 |
| The Sani Resort Port |
They weren't the best, but I tried my best to capture the environments.
 |
| The Sani Resort Pier |
Dad recorded a Sani Resort staff member, raking the sand... yep!
I did actually have a hard time in the beginning because I felt quite sea-sick because of the rough waves and how the boat was positioned after dropping anchor. But as I went for a swim twice and was distracted by the ocean's deep, I soon felt better and the boat gradually altered it's position and didn't rock around so harshly. But that was my worst moment on that day out.
Our departure from Sani Resort's Port
Our speedy departure from Sani Resort
So to end the day, we decided to head back for home, I sat at the front again but this time I sat at the very end as if I was reenacting the iconic scene from
Titanic where Jack and Rose head to the front of the ship and scream as loud as they can. I even said the famous quote "I'm the King of the World!" Only I was sitting at the front rather than standing. Even Dad, Will and Gavin took turns themselves and joined me like as if we were all in a rowboat position. It was an AWESOME way to return in style back to the beach while screaming our hearts out for around 10 mins.
As we arrived back on the beach, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening telling everyone how amazing it was and all for I think it was €350 for all 4 of us. Sadly I got off the boat so quickly and carried the towels, scuba masks and bags to shore that I missed my chance to say thank you "Efharisto" to Vasilis and Dimitra as they sailed away a couple minutes after dropping us back. Dad spoke on behalf of me for such a pleasurable day. I'm sure I'll see them both again for next year which will be a special anniversary as it will be our 10th anniversary return to the same hotel in Greece.
In time, I intend to write up a post about why I've been returning here for what will be 10 years! But today I wanted to share this memory with you all first because this really made my holiday and made this year seem like the best year yet for returning.
Before I say goodbye, I want to admit on how I've been a little busy recently with organising posts and how to lay them out over time and with making plans for my summer. But recently since Monday, I've started a new job in another department at work and now I'm working with some real descent staff (not that the ones I worked with previously weren't) but I certainly don't miss my previous job role as this new one is much easier, simple and less stress free on myself and on my Crohns Disease.
So hopefully this new role will provide a less stress free work place from now on and will keep me balanced from now on, not to mention make work less exhausting as I'm doing well already with the organising and multi-tasking.
This summer appears to be quite the summer with all my plans such as going up north a little to meet a friend for the first time because we've been chatting to each other for the past 9 months, I'll catch up with many descent people and most of all, I'll FINALLY get round to organising my Skydive within a month. I spoke to Gavin on holiday about this and he recommended turning it into a Charity Skydive so that I could reserve a booking much easier and also help raise money toward a goal that would make me feel even better helping out besides having a blast falling through the air! So hopefully not too long, then I'll be skydiving for a charity of my choice and will not back out no matter what. Let's see how this turns out.
