had a wonderful day yesterday, taking the scooter about a half an hour away with a girl to some beach that i had not been to. a half an hour on the scooter is a long freaking ways i must say, my butt hurt quite a bit once we finally got there, but the drive was fun. skinny winding mountain roads. and took my first nap in a long time on the beach. one would think that in all of my laziness and doing-nothingness that i'd have been sleeping a lot, but for one reason or another, i always seem to be lacking in sleep. getting home at 5am or later, and then waking up around 10 or so, just isn't enough. so it was wonderful to sleep on the beach. the drive home seemed to go faster, though it was freeezing cold and raining for a while. good fun though. hurray for scooters and being mobile.
another exciting night then of the usual, dinner, then joe's bar, then the ostraco bar. it pretty much has been the routine at night for the past 2 weeks. in fact, i can't remember a night when we DIDN'T do that. oh sure, sometimes we'd watch football (soccer) or a movie at joe's first, but somehow we always ended up in the same places. good fun though, it was a lovely last night.
and then, today, the final day. i knew it was going to be tough, but it actually was harder than i had imagined. cleaning the room, and packing, just reminded me that we had really gotten settled in here. and though i thought i wouldn't, i rather enjoyed the fairwell raki shot with chris. (raki is the local hard liquor). taking my scooter back was of course difficult because i actually had to WALK back from the scooter store, a whole 300 meters. the goodbye's were hard, but i know that i'll see my friends again. thats the nature of the place: people return. years from now, or whenever, i will see them again. and many i will see again soon in their hometowns or wherever. nope, the hardest part, for me, was just leaving the comfort of the place. i had a routine. i knew people all over town and they knew me. the pace was slow, and life was easy. *sigh*. oh well, i must move on, such is travelling..
a special thanks to chris for a running wonderful hostel and facilitating such a wonderful atmosphere. it was truly a pleasure.
check out the hostel website at:
http://www.yhplakias.com