There’s not a cloud in the sky above Paxos today, at least not from my little vantage point on our ground floor ‘balcony’. It’s so beautifully bright, I don’t need reading or computer glasses. Occasionally, a gentle cool breeze washes over me and the only sounds are of the occasional door closing, birdsong and a growly old motor cycle passing by. For this short period of time, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
My asthma departed the day we arrived and the aches and pains of advancing age seem to be less noticeable under the Ionian sun. Although living on a Greek island would not be for me (see Eclectic Blue blogs passim), I can see the attraction for wannabe Durrells and Shirley Valentines. If you had that dream to live abroad what sense would it make to not take the chance if the chance came along? As we say, the worst saying in life is ‘What if?’
Lakka, the village in which we are staying in the north of Paxos, is small but perfectly formed. The harbour is picture postcard beautiful and there are any astonishing number of tavernas, cafés and bars, as well as mini-markets which deliver their produce to you for free.
The population is boosted by the boat flotilla crowd, as well as by those owning and chartering their own boats, moored in said harbour. This is how and why the eateries flourish, although we haven’t noticed that it’s anymore expensive than Big Brother Corfu just across the sea.
We haven’t even left Lakka yet, but we will put that right later by taking a bus to the capital Gaios. I first went there in 1985 when I was on a lads’ holiday, probably the most tame lads holiday ever. We took a boat trip from Corfu Town which seemed to take weeks. We made friends with a group of lads from Blackpool and by the time we reached Gaios we were starving.
“Eight pints of lager, please, and what’s on the menu?” we asked the waiter in the first taverna we found.
There was no written menu. Instead he announced it at breakneck speed and all we caught right at the end was Squid and Chips.
“Eight of them, please,” said one of the Blackpool lads. “Oh and eight more pints.”
I suspect we will be a little more staid today, which is just as well because Paxos really doesn’t do anything else, and that’s why we are here.
For now, I’m off to expose my repulsive lily white flab to a world that hopefully isn’t watching. That’s one of the advantages of being somewhere like this. My beach body needs quite a little work now that lockdowns are behind us. Less six packs, more six pack, if you get my drift.
