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Post by dennisn on Sept 5, 2023 18:19:07 GMT
Sunday - Woke at our usual fairly early hour and put breakfast right with unscathed digestives and tomatoes. After however long it takes, we eased off to catch a white bus into town where i asked at the Acropolis fruit stall for figs, but there were none - Monday, she said, so onward into the wonderful Vera stuff shopping zone. Passed a happy time before reaching NIKOS taverna. Gyros all round and I gave in to temptation and had another, still no appearance of the mythical Bob.  We didn't feel up to the Bourtzi so gently mozied to bus terminus, observing a ferry mayhem on the way, so many foot passengers boarding I'd have wondered if the boat could cope - maybe they copy the bus loading principle. There was a green bus there, but he had three white ones in front of him, so we had to get on one of those. That morning we had gone along the back track way to BS20 so that we could book a table at Sunrise taverna, where we met the others at the appointed hour.  Tzatziki and kleftiko for me, Vera had that king prawn dish which certainly looked impressive, but Ian had to get them out of their shells for her, after which they seemed somewhat smaller. But tasted fine, although she won't have it again due to the amount of oil. Granddaughter tried a bit and was converted to prawns. My kleftiko came in a clay pot which wasn't mentioned on the menu (or I didn't notice), so it was not added to my favourites list. By the way, that back 'track' to BS20 has been totally transformed, now a smooth concrete road fit to carry vehicles all the way up to the Thanos (Sunrise taverna) studios complex and with a big storm drain down to the Astoria - I wonder if that will have coped with the great storm we are in now (Monday, Tuesday). |
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Post by dennisn on Sept 5, 2023 18:57:25 GMT
Monday - Light rain day. We grabbed a couple of poncho things in the first supermarket and bussed into town where we put them on at Acropolis, where the fruit lady didn’t have any of the promised figs. There's little to be said of our time in town, except Bob managed to catch us in NIKOS. Absolute pleasure to meet him at last. We waited in there afterwards for the rest of the family to join us, but they were so long that I felt embarrassed holding a table, the place was crammed with rain escapees and a strange woman came and just sat down at our table without a word, so I ordered a second gyros and beer, which I much regretted as I couldn't finish either of them. Family arrived whilst the strange woman was still there and none of us felt capable of dislodging her so we paid for us two and left. Stood around under an overhang for a bit and another table came free inNIKOS, so we were able to feed more of our party, Vera and I just had drinks and Lauren discovered that she likes chicken gyros. Walked away to somewhere else with overhead rain gear and finished up squeezed into the innards of MAM for a coffee. Then a wet walk back to the bus. The three of them had bought poncho things in the first place they came to in town - cheap and flimsy, Ian's split when he put it on, Lesley and Lauren fared slightly better, with emphasis on the slightly, and both ended up with bits of plastic fitting where they touched. We got back to Troulos early afternoon for drinks in Premier which I dodged to take shopping back and book at Appalousa for that night. I had to call over the gate and he came out to point at the sign which said closed on Mondays. So I walked on to Ratatouille where they were already fully booked. In desperation I searched back through last year's messages to find the phone number for Jasteri - which went to voicemail. So back to Vareli (which wasn't yet open) to get their phone number off the gateway, but no number on display. By good fortune, standing by the kitchen entrance there was a bottle of wine with an invoice under it, showing the address and a phone number which I tried, with success. So we ate at Vareli again, but I was too cold to nap between courses. Vera and I had tzatziki and Kleftiko done properly in silver paper, for me a Baileys and two glasses of white wine, Vera had a latté and two glasses of fresh orange. No idea what everyone else had, nor what it cost - how does Kate always know the tiniest detail?
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Post by dennisn on Sept 5, 2023 19:05:40 GMT
Tuesday - it had rained all day monday but at some time after we got into bed, it started to do proper rain. Then at 2am we were woken by the biggest thunderstorm we've ever experienced, pounding rain, thunder and lightning continuously for an hour. We then nodded off, to be woken again by a repeat at 4am for another hour of unbelievable never ending lightning and huge crashes of thunder. Nodded off to be woken at 6am for the same again. Oops, battery warning - to be continued....
on Monday at about 6pm my phone howled with the national emergency alert. No, not Putin coming, but nasty weather, watch out for yourselves. See above!!!
So having been awake since 6am, we breakfasted on almost the remains of our shopping, not quite, but nothing expansive. And sat with our veranda door open to watch the sights a cacophony of sounds still going on outside. As daylight slightly approached, we were able to see the beginnings of flooding of the field at the other side of our pool, which itself was now topped up to the brim. We now huddled inside staring unbelievingly at the water pouring down from the floors above and cringing at the lightning and thunder which continued for most of the day. Can’t believe it hasn’t worn itself out, but it hasn’t. No prospect of going out and we never even bothered changing out of our jammies! Come lunchtime we decided to feed ourselves on what we had - diet rice cakes for Vera, origami crisps for me (turned out to have made a blessed mistake in the supermarket, I picked up the wrong size bag of crisps, 240 grammes rather than the more normal 120. With a spare bottle of beer I was well enough suited and Vera survived. The national emergency alert went off three more times during the day, first avoid mountainous roads, second police banned from mountain roads, third police prohibited all traffic in Skiathos. And a final alert this evening reminding us that “The police curfew is still in force!” No need to worry about us, the water pouring down from the floors above and the heavy rain, lightning and thunder were quite enough for us to voluntarily self isolate.
But we did wonder about victuals and several times I thought there was a break in the weather and put some clothes on, only to cower back down again as it started up again. I did eventually chance it and it rained lightly as I walked to the corner shop - the one and only business still open at 6pm. Packed with customers of course and pretty much empty of stocks. I grabbed the last two peaches, the last bag of origami crisps, two of the remaining useless folding umbrellas and came back out where it had started to pour down again. And my brand new designer rubbish brolly blew inside out within a few yards of leaving the supermarket.
We were expecting grandson and partner to arrive on this evening’s Jet2 from Bristol so I was scanning Flightradar24 for guidance. Firstly he texted his mum that his flight was delayed until same time tomorrow, then two hours later his holiday was cancelled. We have all been looking forward to this joint holiday ever since last September when we all booked it and for his to be lost is a real blow. Nothing can be done about it and apparently his room in Skiathos Premier Hotel has already been resold.
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 5, 2023 19:38:49 GMT
Reports on Facebook Dennis a lot people no power can’t charge phones no wi fi supermarket s running out of food. Jet2 cancelled people’s holidays from Manchester due out tomorrow. Because a lot of accommodation flooded people having to be moved out flooded ground floor rooms. Are tavernas open? After days of rain swimming pools will be chilly. Has skiathos got resources for clean up? This is certainly holiday to remember.!
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Post by dennisn on Sept 5, 2023 20:29:05 GMT
Surprisingly our power didn’t fail until well into the afternoon, but that chopped off the Wi-Fi. Not to worry because the 4g connection I’d actually very good so I use my iPhone as a hotspot for our devices most of the time. But eventually when the wind changed and started blowing the rain into our room I had to close the door shutters and that blocked the 4g so we were isolated for a while. Thanks for the info on Jet2, I hadn’t realised they were losing rooms to flooding, but I can easily believe it.
The island will survive, it always does and our owner’s husband is usually involved in mountain road mending - they dump a load of scalpings or whatever and bulldoze or scarify it back to shape - not necessarily as quickly as one would like, but it’s a well rehearsed procedure, just needs bodies and heavy plant which are often fully engaged on other work.
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 6, 2023 4:26:32 GMT
Skiathos on 10pm news last night looks terrible Volos even worse. Lots TUI accommodations affected to rooms flooded. No help from TUI people cannot contact they just get recorded message. Jet 2 people getting texts updating them some people whose holidays cancelled today had money put back into account within minutes so they can rebook somewhere else if they want . Excellent customer service which people will remember. Some TUI people heard nothing about flights due out tomorrow. No decisions made so turn up sit round airport for hours. I couldn’t believe someone put on Facebook they couldn’t get taxi to airport yesterday! Have they looked out the window do they really think planes flying? All travel banned for safety reasons. Pap street shops look like under 2 feet water. No more shopping Vera. See every cloud has a silver lining!
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Post by dennisn on Sept 6, 2023 4:40:03 GMT
OMG I’m catching up online this morning and I didn’t realise just how bad it has been. And this morning so belies the situation - it all stopped last night and this morning it’s calm, cloudy but not a suggestion of trouble. The forecast is still very bad but it’s hard to believe. I shall soon be going up the road in hope of finding the larger supermarket open for business. There were rivers running down the roads last night, but no indications of serious problems. We must be raised enough for it all to go elsewhere. I shall see later, although with the forecast still saying severe storm for today I wonder if the aforementioned curfew is remaining in force and we’re still supposed to stay in?
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Post by yorkshiremouth on Sept 6, 2023 6:05:55 GMT
Forecast as far as I can see is heavy rain and thunderstorms today and tomorrow, and maybe a little first thing Friday morning, but then wall-to-wall sunshine.
Once again, good luck.
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Post by kelso on Sept 6, 2023 7:23:19 GMT
I hope all is well in the lower parts of Troulos, Dennis. That usually gets it bad. Flights to the island from Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham have been cancelled and the flight from Newcastle which was meant to take me home is “ indefinitely delayed”, so I don’t know when I’ll get home. Thank goodness I brought extra medication with me! 😄
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 6, 2023 7:52:08 GMT
Now on Facebook TUI contacted lots people last night to say no flights before Friday at least offering 100% refunds or 10% off another holiday if anyone wants to book elsewhere which is reasonable also people still wanting to go will get some refund for days lost. That little supermarket down past morfia was very good last year Dennis but it’s down several steps so I imagine water would have poured down there. Hopefully more electricity back on soon so more tavernas can open more rain fell in last couple of days then whole of autumn. I so feel for shopkeepers cafe owners so much lost business and damage. I can imagine some won’t think it worth reopening this year. Here in England been 28c since Monday. Weather gone mad.
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Post by balddave on Sept 6, 2023 10:04:00 GMT
It wouldn’t be a proper Dennis holiday without some sort of incident occurring.
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Post by dennisn on Sept 6, 2023 11:08:36 GMT
We have today walked (slowly) down to Troulos beach and sitting having a drink, suddenly the national emergency alert went off telling us there’s another terrible storm due at 12 noon (two hours ago) and that the restrictions and curfews issued yesterday are still in force. The sun has just broken out. The emergency alert is going off all around us on all the phones at different times and repeated randomly, a right giggle - when mine ent off for the third time I issued a little scream and apologised to people at the next table. They’re saddos, without phones, don’t deserve to have holidays!
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Post by kevb on Sept 6, 2023 16:34:05 GMT
I've been stiffed by my phone network provider so I'm using my phone very intermittently and only on hotel WiFi. Even then it seemed to knock up £70 roaming charges in 2 days. My fault for not researching better (holiday done by travel agent at Helen's suggestion) Montenegro NOT currently in EU, makes a big difference.
Anyhow, Helen's provider not so thieving so we have been checking in FB occasionally to see the awful conditions the island is going through. Needless to say our best wishes are with all of you still making the best of it out there.
I expect some badly affected hotels might just pack in for the season at this rate and use time left for repairs and clearing up then shut up for winter. Could be very quiet for anyone gambling an October visit.
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Post by balddave on Sept 6, 2023 16:53:35 GMT
And to all those sceptics that say ,’ what climate change’
Floods in Greece,turkey,Bulgaria.Spain, scorching in the uk
Answer on a postcard
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Post by dennisn on Sept 6, 2023 18:29:01 GMT
What’s a postcard? Rhetorical question, it’s something you used to get in exchange for stuff called money, before your time folks.
At my age, it’s fairly unlikely that I shall live to see the outcome of climate change (as portended by Mad Max movies), but I seriously think some of the recently born innocents may well.
Grandson has partially rescued his Jet2 cancelled holiday, has booked a fortnight in the same hotel for next Tuesday, so we shall have two days together at least.
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