One thing I can always count on my husband, D, to do is to push me—from pushing me into a bet to date him or to climbing the Great Wall of China when I was 3 months pregnant; he’s always challenging me.
Yesterday, our day began in a relaxing manner: eating breakfast, playing ping-pong and swimming. Then we took a cab to what I thought would be a leisurely walk around the Venetian castle that overlooks the city of Myrinna. It turns out that there is no paved path, just a rocky climb up a mountain where wild goats and deer wander. My smart dad (so wise) decided to stay at the bottom and guard the strollers as D, Eena, Baba and I climbed up a treacherous course. Huffing and puffing, we reached the first major plateau, but would’ve had to climb more rocks to reach the rest of the castle ruins. It was at that point that I said: “no more.” The kids and I were exhausted. Eena and I were petrified that a goat was going to attack us. D spotted a cave and took Baba to explore with him as Eena and I unwrapped our reward lollipops. Luckily, the stench and swarm of mosquitoes kept D and Baba from venturing too far into the cave. D and I climbed down with each of us holding one of our daughters (and their reward lollipops).
Afterward, we walked into town, bought some more souvenirs and the girls found the playground again (later, when we passed it at 10:30p.m., it was filled with kids playing in the dark). We met Despina and Kostas for dinner at 8, which was way early for them because they usually eat dinner at midnight! Kostas’ mother Electra and Despina’s friend (an ex-pat from England) also sat with us. I say “sat” because only Despina ate. It was a fantastic Italian restaurant right along the water. We asked Kostas all about what life for a 16 year old is like (we were wrong about his age in previous entries). He has two more years of high school left, he takes additional classes outside of school, he has a girlfriend, he’s in a band and he loves American heavy metal and punk music (he was wearing a Ramones shirt).
After D told him about our castle climb, Kostas said that it’s very dangerous at night: he’s heard stories about everything from drug-users to un-Godly people hurting those poor goats and deer. Scary! All I could think about was that creepy cave D and Baba almost explored.
Thankfully, D’s equally reliable good sense prevailed over his urge to explore.
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