Two Fortnights in September (and One in October)

Sam and I both recently read a bittersweet charmer of a book called A Fortnight in September which details a British family's seaside vacation almost a century ago. We both highly recommend it! RC Sheriff, who wrote the book in 1931, vividly captures so much about vacation time that's still true today. We are now into our last fortnight on Island A, and we can't believe we've been here over a month already. We share the feelings of Mr. Stevens, the book's patriarch:

But he knew that time only moved evenly upon the hands of clocks: to men it can linger and almost stop dead, race on, leap chasms, and linger again. He knew, with a little sadness, that it always made up its distance in the end. Today it had travelled gropingly, like an engine in a fog, but now, with each passing hour of the holiday it would gather speed, and the days would flash by like little wayside stations.

The past month on Island A has been a soothing balm at the end of a hectic but fun summer of exploring Greece. We've now finished a lengthy search of potential places to settle. Our tranquil time on Island A has given us the chance to digest all that we experienced on this search and to think about what we want to do next.

Peaceful Time in the Silent Retreat

September is the best month to be in Greece. The weather is still good, the water is a pleasant temperature, and there are fewer tourists outside of the heavily trodden path. There are now only a handful of tourists on the island but we've mostly had beaches and walks to ourselves. Sam's probably swum over 30 miles and I've splashed around a lot. We've cooked everything (truly) we've eaten since leaving Kalamata. And we've gotten to see some new parts of this lovely place. We've never done a silent retreat like some of our friends have done; maybe this is the closest we're likely to come to that. Islanders are friendly but chats beyond "how are you" are rare so we've been pleasantly on our own for over a month.

We've also discussed what we want for the future. We're eager to compare Italy with Greece and so we booked tickets and developed an initial exploration plan focusing on Bologna at the beginning. At this point neither of us definitely wants to renew our Greek permits (in November of next year), though we haven't ruled it out. To paraphrase an old researcher cliché, the conclusion of our recent research is that more research is necessary.

Your Monday Afternoon Appointment Will Be on Wednesday Morning But Not at the Time On Your Reservation

Because we’ll be in Italy for much of the remainder of the year we decided we wanted to get COVID booster shots before we leave Greece. We don't think it's even an option to get a booster in Italy, so now is our small window of opportunity. Greece has a great online system for scheduling boosters. We had used it in Thessaloniki and got our first booster on New Years Eve last year. We've been playing a waiting game for the new bivalent booster, hoping that it would be available to us before we leave for Italy. We also wondered if this small island would get the vaccine before our departure. I've looked daily at the online site to find out when appointments might open up. Much to our good fortune, we booked appointments for this past Monday through the online system. Monday was the first day across the whole country that the booster became available. Amazing that we could get it the first day on a tiny island --or so we thought.

We booked Monday late afternoon appointments. The automated reminder indicated that our appointment was on the island, but not exactly where. But we knew where the clinic was and indeed it's the vaccination spot. We showed up at 4:00pm for Sam's appointment and a woman was mopping the clinic floor. Sam spoke with her in Greek and the woman basically said to wait outside. We waited and waited… The woman came out with trash a few times and seemed to avoid making any eye contact with us. Then, after an hour of this, she brought her keys out to lock to door. Huh? So we re-engaged with her and then she told us in English that the clinic closes at 3pm. Also, they only do vaccinations on certain mornings. We showed her our appointments for after 4pm and she said "it's the island" with that familiar Greek shrug indicating something like "did you really expect that to work?" But she did leave us with a suggestion for how to proceed.

We went home and after a couple phone calls we rebooked Wednesday morning appointments online in the Greek system. But they told us over the phone that after we rebooked, they'd call to tell us what the real appointment time will be. So our rebooked Wednesday morning appointments for 8:58am and 9:28am--according to the system--eventually became two 11:00am appointments. Why they can't just put in the right times in the system beats me, but so it goes in Greece sometimes. It's akin to Radar O'Reilly's crazy filing system on MASH. A handful of older adults arrived at the door and waited outside with us. We were by far the youngest people there. We chatted with an older Greek guy who we see snorkeling at our usual beach as he waited for his booster too. Sam offered some tips to an older British couple about the potential benefits of 90 minutes of walking after getting the shot and they guffawed at the idea of so much exercise. But we did get our vaccinations! As with our previous shots, I've had minor side effects but Sam had a rough night though she's maybe getting back to normal slightly faster than previously.

October Packing and Unpacking

The weather looks like it should be mostly nice between now and when we leave for a couple nights on the nearby island of Skiathos before heading to Athens. We are excited that we'll be seeing several friends over the latter half of the month here in Greece and also in Italy. It's sad to see autumn coming, but it's a treat to have these meetings to look forward to. Soon we'll be arriving at a new destination and assessing the costs and benefits of unpacking versus venturing out, just as did the Stevens family a century ago in Sheriff's novel...

Unpacking is an irritating business at the best of times—but to wander about with rolled socks and underclothes, to hang coats in stuffy cupboards and lay things out in drawers before you have even smelt the sea is a stupid punishment to inflict upon yourself. Yet there is a devilish temptation to leave the job undone: to dive into the trunk as and when you want things, day by day: to allow it to become a bogey that haunts and disturbs your rest. The longer you leave it the untidier it becomes, and the harder it gets to find what you want.