Amorgos

The events described are based on true events, but some names of the persons appearing in it have been changed.

Sunday, 27.August

Johannes in the autumn of life

• 4:45 our alarm is ringing way too early
• Taxi is waiting for us: we arrive very punctual at harbour, Ferry is waiting, we are amongst the first ones to board
• find nice spot, sort everything out, turns out: we have two cabins with 4 beds
• Marco, Christmas, Tom, Baobun and Ron (who arrived tonight) move to their cabin to get some sleep, while we others watch the ferry leave Athens

• us sitting under the Greek flag, looking back at the harbour: Matthäus to Tom “so young and yet so wise”, yes well, we cannot say the same about Johannes
• Johannes told us yesterday “no, definitely do not get coffee on the ferry, it is way too expensive!” – already before take-off each of us has a freddo coffee in hand
• shortly after departure: Myko and Nos move to cabin to sleep, shortly after, Matthäus and I do the same
• while we sleep our roommates change and when we wake up, it is not Myko and Nos, but Johannes and Simon occupying the berths beneath us
• feeling a bit more alive and after another Freddo Cappucchino we join the others on now crowded deck
• We pass the time playing games, writing in the journal and eating the rest of the remains from the bakery escalation

• During the game Simon suddenly exclaims: “It does not matter what I do- you are going to end up on top of me”
• Arrival in Amorgos – us in front to get off (due to constant worries regarding whether or not there will be a bus and if so, will we make it? Nah, it will certainly not wait for the ferry…. ) – Tom (who is behind Johannes, Marco and Nos) to us: “Watch me, I will be the first one to touch land” – ramp is lowered, Tom storms to the front and indeed is the first one to touch ground
• Bus is there, waiting (us running there only to then sit for 10 minutes waiting in the bus for the other ferry passengers to arrive, at least we get sits in the last row)
• We go across the entire island because we arrived at the port on the other side to our village (the lovely Aigialis)
• Street super curvy (mountainous island), first turn, Tom: “Kurve beginnt!”
• Around 10 minutes after arrival and check-in in our lovely appartements with balcony and sea view, we see Johannes and Tom running to beach

• We go for a swim, super nice while watching sunset over the sea
• Johannes, whose birthday it is today, organizes beer and we cheers to him on the lovely island Amorgos (what else can you wish for on your birthday?)
• To restaurant with rooftop terrace, where Johannes has made a reservation
• Johannes: “drinks are on me” (as if we let him pay today..), Marco thinking about ordering a cocktail, Johannes (rolling his eyes): “You can have a cocktail without the tail”
• Cheering a lot, “Yamas!” with Raki, white wine arrives (Johannes ordered the most expensive), discussion about who should taste it, Marco: “Who has 300 bottles of wine at home?” Myko: “Just because I’m alcoholic, doesn’t make me an expert.”
• Soon we arrive at the moment when Johannes asks: “What time is it?” and I reply loudly and happily with “Shot o’clock!”
• Johannes vanishes to do God knows what, we use opportunity and Marco and Christmas organize cake, put their candles and when Johannes is back we surprise him with nicely rolled cigarettes (by Tom, Simon and me), cake and candles and our lovely sung “Happy birthday”

• Presents are presented: A Malaka T-Shirt, a lighter and a foto book – he is happy
• Suddenly things start getting out of hand and someone (really no idea who) comes up with the idea of pooring an olive oil shot for Johannes – another nice surprise for him and making him happy yet again
• Out of solidarity, we decide to all try one
• Some of us (who, but who?) like the taste of it and Tom and I believe it would get a nice touch if drank like Tequila with salt and lemon, which reminds of salad but turns out to be surprisingly nice
• Pay and move on to tourist shop, where owner -according to our local Johannes knowledge – makes Psimini Raki and sells it – we stock up on two bottles (“Drink responsibly”, he tells us with a wink)
• Cats are everywhere, Tom talks to one “cat, big fucking fat cat” – cat gets aggressive, this becomes a reoccurring slogan of the journey, Ron comes up with the acronym “BFC”
• I get Matthäus’ phone to write down the funny (and memorable) things that were said during dinner
• We pass the time playing games, writing in the journal and eating the rest of the remains from the bakery escalation
• During the game Simon suddenly exclaims: “It does not matter what I do- you are going to end up on top of me”
• Arrival in Amorgos – us in front to get off (due to constant worries regarding whether or not there will be a bus and if so, will we make it? Nah, it will certainly not wait for the ferry…. ) – Tom (who is behind Johannes, Marco and Nos) to us: “Watch me, I will be the first one to touch land” – ramp is lowered, Tom storms to the front and indeed is the first one to touch ground
• Bus is there, waiting (us running there only to then sit for 10 minutes waiting in the bus for the other ferry passengers to arrive, at least we get sits in the last row)
• We go across the entire island because we arrived at the port on the other side to our village (the lovely Aigialis)
• Street super curvy (mountainous island), first turn, Tom: “Kurve beginnt!”
• Around 10 minutes after arrival and check-in in our lovely appartements with balcony and sea view, we see Johannes and Tom running to beach
• We go for a swim, super nice while watching sunset over the sea
• Johannes, whose birthday it is today, organizes beer and we cheers to him on the lovely island Amorgos (what else can you wish for on your birthday?)
• To restaurant with rooftop terrace, where Johannes has made a reservation
• Johannes: “drinks are on me” (as if we let him pay today..), Marco thinking about ordering a cocktail, Johannes (rolling his eyes): “You can have a cocktail without the tail”
• Cheering a lot, “Yamas!” with Raki, white wine arrives (Johannes ordered the most expensive), discussion about who should taste it, Marco: “Who has 300 bottles of wine at home?” Myko: “Just because I’m alcoholic, doesn’t make me an expert.”
• Soon we arrive at the moment when Johannes asks: “What time is it?” and I reply loudly and happily with “Shot o’clock!”
• Johannes vanishes to do God knows what, we use opportunity and Marco and Christmas organize cake, put their candles and when Johannes is back we surprise him with nicely rolled cigarettes (by Tom, Simon and me), cake and candles and our lovely sung “Happy birthday”
• Presents are presented: A Malaka T-Shirt, a lighter and a foto book – he is happy
• Suddenly things start getting out of hand and someone (really no idea who) comes up with the idea of pooring an olive oil shot for Johannes – another nice surprise for him and making him happy yet again
• Out of solidarity, we decide to all try one
• Some of us (who, but who?) like the taste of it and Tom and I believe it would get a nice touch if drank like Tequila with salt and lemon, which reminds of salad but turns out to be surprisingly nice
• Pay and move on to tourist shop, where owner -according to our local Johannes knowledge – makes Psimini Raki and sells it – we stock up on two bottles (“Drink responsibly”, he tells us with a wink)
• Cats are everywhere, Tom talks to one “cat, big fucking fat cat” – cat gets aggressive, this becomes a reoccurring slogan of the journey, Ron comes up with the acronym “BFC”

• I get Matthäus’ phone to write down the funny (and memorable) things that were said during dinner
• Myko (us remembering the cocktail joke) “Nah, that wasn’t me. Obviously that was Johannes – I am smarter.”

The Danse du Limousin (ft. Tom)

The Danse du Limousin said remove your T-Shirt,
The Danse du Limousin said remove your pants,
The Danse du Limousin said remove your underwear,
Helicopter, Helicopter

• We learn the French expression “secret de polichinelle”, something everybody knows, but no one says out loud
• Chill in very nice beach bar

• Christmas and I meet Swedish guy from Malmo, who ditches his date and talks to Christmas and me, him to Christmas, who is from Brazil, when we tell him we live in the Netherlands: “Yes, you look very Dutch” – very Dutch indeed
• On way home obligatory stop in bakery: nice snacks and open 24/7!! I love this island already
• Dawn above sea, wonderful atmosphere, good night!

Monday, 28.August

The Greek Lasagne – in Loving memory of..

• Finally we can sleep as long as we want, yes!!!
• Breakfast at Frou Frou
• Tom makes a list tracking the number of times Marco and I say one of the following: “Mmmh, looks nice – can I try it?”, “Can we share?”
• With perfect timing (at precisely 1530 and with the engine already started) we catch the bus to go to the other island to the beach
• We take a boat (really?!) to get there and it turns out not to be deserted -as Johannes promised- but instead full of goats and (paradise) Freddo Coffee
• We find a nice space under an umbrella in the shade and it is overall very relaxing
• The only disturbance comes through the nearby dog, who is being annoyed by a goat, who seems to find immense pleasure in it – the more annoyed the dog gets, the more fun the goat has, Tom: “Whatcha gonna do?! Whatcha gonna do?!”
• Some motivated people go for a hike, Marco and Tom go overboard and want to reach the top of the hill
• Johannes slightly nervous because last boat leaves soon – everyone makes it, all happy

• Hike to bus stop, bus is late
• While waiting for the bus we see a crazy old lady overtaking a (fast moving) car in a (very narrow) turn – Marco shocked
• Tom and Marco hitchhike, Tom: “What is the name of the town? Where do we go?”, regardless and to our slight surprise they make it
• Telenovela: when we come back – Myko and Nos have left us to …… Mykonos, from there fly back to NL (“Duty calls” says the whatsapp message)
• our many theories are discussed, question: Who’s next?
• Our favourite theory: They ran away together to get married, Tom: “They can go anywhere- USA maybe- then they can marry whatever they want- a cat maybe?” (BFC is back)
• Dinner in town up the hill: Moussaka arrives
• Ron (explaining what a Moussaka is to Baobun): “It’s like a Greek Lasagne.”, what follows is a shocked silence, waitress: “I have no words – I feel offended.”
• Waitress asks us: What are we doing for work? Tom points to Ron “He is a chef, he cooks”
• She tells us: in winter there is only one shop open on Amorgos and it’s only her and 300 cats
• Figs arrive as desert: Ron “Ah, like bitterballen”
• Old guy (the one appearing in a TikTok movie dancing on the table) to Johannes who has trouble understanding him in the beginning “the difference between the German and French: the Germans they pay and give a lot of tips; the French … aaah… (makes a gesture with his hand)… you know”

• Very suiting  that Tom (our French) said just this morning during breakfast looking into the round “It is time to start making money out of this island” and simultaneously is at the bottom of the money-splitting app
• After dinner we hike back to town (Tom: Where? Which town?)
• At some point we turn around and somehow lost Johannes and Marco – only seven of us left
• Me: “If we keep going with this rate, tomorrow it’s only five of us left”
• We discuss how it would be good if Ron opened a restaurant serving Lasagne every day in different versions (Moussaka, Baklava, …)
• we pass some resorts/ houses and heard from Johannes that there is a very fancy resort somewhere on this hill – therefore, we carefully look at every place, asking each other “You think this is the fancy place?” “Nooo, not this one, this is not fancy!”
• finally we find it (hard to miss): “Do you think Myko and Nos booked a room here?”
• the seven of us walk in a line behind each other, reminds us of dwarfs, we start whistling the tune, Dwarf walk, every time a car comes the one in the front shouts “Into the Ditch!” and we all jump into the ditch – must be quite a picture
• search for snow-white begins – Tom: “First person we see will be snow-white”
• rather unfortunate: first person we see is riding on a motorcycle up the hill- there goes snow-white, search is abandoned
• arrival in front of bakery: appearance of big fat fucking cat
• we wait for our two lost dwarfs, I really have to go to the toilet, so run back to Hotel, see bed – sleep, becomes a running gag now whenever someone wants to vanish or go to bed, they shout “I have to go to the toilet” and make the Marie-move
• others: escalation as always, bar, other bar: cocktails, swim, bakery

Tuesday, 29.8.

Taxis wait, buses don’t

• plan was made yesterday evening

• We wake up at 12h, Matthäus tells me about plan – pack, get ready
• We all (?!!!) (9) make it to bus in time
• Christmas: “this is the plan and it will not change” – 2 minutes later: oh, the monastery only opens at 5, change of plan
• Chora arrival – we find a very nice breakfast place on lovely square with trees – shade
• Breakfast really good, Cappuccino Freddo has a lot of sugar, but as sadly often the case no good without (I try)
• Watermelon juice exquisite
• Very relaxed brunch until Johannes orders Taxi for beach in one hour – visit bakery, Tom and I go to buy postcards, we are late for Taxi and find others waiting for us
• Taxi to beach – very nice, stones, hot in the sun, swim, jump from rocks – first small one then Johannes wants to go bigger, swim to very huge rock, Johannes climbs up, Tom behind him, Johannes looking down critically, me: “What are they doing?” Matthäus: “Contemplating life choices” Tom (10 min later): “After a long consideration…” (they climbed back down)
• Finally jump from other rock in water (which to be fair is higher than first)
• A bit more chilling on the stones, then suddenly: “The bus leaves in 5 minutes!”
• Everyone running (me changing in less than a minute, thanks to Triathlon training), only Marco walking very slowly, checking things in his back
• Turns out: Taxis wait, buses don’t
• Johannes and Christmas being nice wait for Marco only to hear him say: “Ah, no worries, I wanted to walk up the hill anyways”
• So us, we already are at the monastery for around half an hour before they arrive breathless
• From bus station still quite a walk up to monastery, beautifully built exactly fitting in the stone wall, white against dark rock

• Me: “We can wait for the others upstairs in the Café”, the other: “Café?”
• People pass us on their way down: “Nope, no café only water”
• Upstairs we have to dress properly – long pants, skirts and long sleaved T-Shirt, Tom finds his new unique style (see picture), fits well

• We enter, sweating even more in all those clothes – fortunately area to visit is not very big, nice balcony with view – we see others approaching
• Last stop on way out: “You can sit here”, ok – we get served very nice Raki (!) very nice (!), unfortunately not for sale, highlight of visit
• Entry in guest book (something along the lines of “Yamas!”), Matthäus: “not sure if it was a guest book, they closed it after you”
• Exit: us thinking about changing clothes and entering in a new outfit to get another Raki
• Others arrive: cute cat sitting on edge of rock (falling down in a steep wall towards sea), Tom to Johannes: “Careful, do not throw it off!”, Johannes approaches – cat jumps off the cliff – “Johannes!!”
• Johannes visits, old men from monastery talks to him “You will take out your eye with your own hands”, Johannes flabbergasted (but he could have told any of us really, who doesn’t)
• Meet again friends from jumping from rock, one guy who jumped together with Baobun is exited to meet us again
• Taxi back to Chora- small one, goes twice, no problem, driver super fast

• Split up, some people walk through town, others chill in very nice Café that Johannes recommends – guess which group I join
• Ron and I order very nice IPA (Ron: “Verrry nice!”, words he becomes famous for during our trip)- excellent, with view on the windmills that frame the lovely town with its white houses

• To restaurant – food quite nice, especially octopus, calamari and sea bass (njam)
• Christmas and Marco thinking about big plans (shipwreck, beach etc)
• Us on other side of table “The plan is to not have a plan”
• Thinking about getting up early to catch 11:15 bus, Christmas (sarcastically): ” Yes, yes.. early”, Marie: “no way”
• We decide to get a Taxi to go home, all a bit tired, Marco instead “We can also go to the windmills and chill”, I wonder – windmill and chill is that a Dutch thing?
• Marco decides to stay and indeed goes for a walk and takes the late bus
• Arrival in Aiyiali, we see that Amorgi (a bar) has live music tonight- Johannes, Tom, Simon, Matthäus and I find seats, Raki ordered, Tom: “Yes, yes, we do an alcohol free day”, Yamas!
• Dancing, very nice Greek music, great atmosphere, mostly Greek audience, throwing plates, later also throwing chairs, whole experience, very nice
• Johannes after several bottles of Raki and at 3 am: “not sure if I can make it to the 11:15 bus tomorrow”, us coming up with the idea to create a local shipwreck so that we do not have to travel over the entire island to see one
• Johannes meets friend he knows from camping 10 years before, says hello (of course he knows Johannes still as well), Thodoris is his name (I think), Johannes describing him: “There is no way this guy can stay in a place other than the camping”
• Nostalgia restored the three of us remaining (Chicago crew: Johannes, Simon and me) take a walk to the camping, Johannes tells us that there is a guard checking the entrance, we hear him snoring from 200m away (Johannes: “Ah, nothing changed”), therefore no problem with entering
• Very nice camping indeed, walk through, nostalgia goes overboard for Johannes
• To draw nice contrast we also walk through luxury hotel complex after, again no guard stopping us, Simon: “Nice, we can swim in the pool!”, Johannes: “Then the guard will be behind us”
• Reach beach bar, get famous submarine shot, chill in very nice and comfortable chairs close to beach, perfect night, meet everyone who was already in Amorgi
• Night ends with sun already up, watch sunset from chairs at bar
• End at bakery of course, we see BFC

Wednesday, 30.August

The plan is to not have a plan

• Simon sends a summary of yesterday night, very accurate:

• Notes from today: None
• Sleep until 1500, do not move farther from apartment than Frou Frou
• Works until 10 in the evening, when Johannes and I are finally awake again (I am a creature of the dark) we take Taxi to Lagada (a small town up another hill), dinner
• Cat: Are we eating it? Baobun suddenly: “It is castrated”
• Christmas on drugs (why I don’t know)

• Walk home on path illuminated by blue moon (almost full moon), Baobun addicted to phone, falls almost twice, Johannes manages to scare him twice by jumping out of the bushes (and you really can see EVERYTHING with the moon this bright)
• Arrival back to square in Aiyiali, Marie makes Marie move (toilet)
• Others go to Amorgi, they had no Raki and no shot glasses left, all Johannes wants from evening was not there, at least he got a massage from Baobun in bakery

Thursday, 31.August

All about Greek Food and Greek Dances

• Breakfast in Frou Frou at 1500 as usual
• Ron orders Espresso Affogato, waitress understands “Avocado”, gives him incredulous look, 2 minutes later, Johannes: “What did you order? Espresso Avocado?”
• We hear the story of Marco entering the room yesterday night via the balcony (a very romantic Marco and Christmas story this)
• Tom preparing for big dance tonight at festival to Johannes: “Do you by chance have some Greek perfume for me?” Ron: “like Baklava and Goat”
• Afternoon at Q (the nice beach bar) as usual, Tichu, etc.
• Festival in Tholaria (the town up the hill we visited previously): Johannes made smart move to reserve in restaurant close to square, town crowded, in square live music (guy with guitar, guy with violin and singer)  
• Us eating offals – Kokoretsi, Ron: “It’s like licking a goat from behind”, actually very nice I think
• Dancing traditional Greek dances in circle, learn steps quickly (kind of), Raki in between, Tom approaches Frou Frou girl (finally)

• Walk down path, “under the moonlight” (Johannes, almost singing), find the actual path, no ditch this time, Marco and Johannes in good old traditional lost in alley full of olive trees (very romantic)
• Walk to Q, dancing, dancing, dancing, I make a lot of new friends, stealing two beers (“Yes, he is gonna pay for them later” – but who?)
• Swim in sea, Chicago crew left again, very nice

• Bakery infamous entry
• Simon and me throwing pie from one balcony to other, dropped pie on first floor balcony, me opening balcony doors almost soundlessly (BOOM!), Matthäus awake, me happily shouting it over to Simon “Matthäus is awake”, looking back into room “.. and pissed”- no wonder

Friday, 1.September

Festival and Fireworks

• Breakfast in Frou Frou with sun glasses on (that was my day)
• Others:
  • Festival in Aiyiali, dance in main square, fireworks for Christmas (whos birthday it is tomorrow) at midnight
  • Johannes ditching others, goes with his new friends to Q, stays as usual until closure, then guy from camping with guitar, dancing in front of Q
  • Ron (loves to draw parallels): “It’s like Irish Folk Music”