Day 8, Dinner date with the ladies

Got down for breakfast around nine o'clock, after waking up just after five o'clock again, as I normally would for work... blinking body clock! Still having my healthy breakfast, fresh fruit with lashings of lovely thick Greek yoghurt. On holiday and still eating healthily... what is going on here...???

True to form, there was no panic getting our favoured position closest to the pool bar; the building giving some much needed shade later in the day. I at least am keeping out of the direct sun today as I don't want to burn, not that I'm complaining,

the weather has been fantastic so far, so I'll be hogging the canopy shade today. Elaine perseveres with her sunbathing and appears to be made of asbestos as she doesn't seem to burn at all, fortunately for me she neither looks nor feels anything like asbestos!

While we are sun worshiping we get talking to the two ladies we met yesterday, Carol and Elaine, who are actually sisters-in-law and just happen to have had a bit of a falling out so relations are a little frosty... about the only thing that is in this glorious weather...!!! They invite us to go out for dinner with them tonight at the highly recommended nearby restaurant, the Olive Thea, set high up in the hills overlooking the Kanapitsa Bay. We think this was to make their evening a bit more palatable seeing as they weren't hitting it off at the

moment, but it suited us as we really wanted to dine out here.

As the sun was now directly overhead we deduced that it must be lunch time again, but I'm not very hungry, so a baguette for Elaine and just a pretty large nectarine for me, didn't want to spoil my appetite for our dinner this evening. After my sumptuous lunch I decide to sit things out in our room for a while to luxuriate in the air conditioning again, while Elaine continued in her hot persuit of the perfect tan! (see what I did there?) Once suitably chilled I dragged myself down to the pool area to check if Elaine was burnt to a crisp yet and to my delight she wasn't, though she was pretty hot...!!!

Soon enough the sun sank down to the horizon and we returned to our room to cool down and ready ourselves for our

dinner date. We'd arranged to meet Carol & Elaine in reception for the taxi that was due at ten to nine from the restaurant, as it's so far off the beaten track up in the hills they actually run their own little taxi service for their guests... a nice touch! So we had plenty of time to get ready, but, oh no, all did not go well, as I finished my shower I suddenly went deaf in my left ear - compacted ear wax, or so I thought. Against all the medical rules regarding ears, I started poking around to try and clear it, and did manage to remove a fair old lump of the offending wax, but my hearing was still very muffled so continued in vain to clear it further. This I did right up until we had to leave and I was most frustrated that it was no better at all, making it quite difficult to follow conversations.

I wasn't going to let this spoil my evening though, we'd heard

lots of good things about this place and wanted to make the best of it. I for one was pleased that we were being driven to the restaurant because I'm not too sure that I'd have found it had I been driving.

After we did a sharp turn back on ourselves off of the main coast road we started to immediately climb uphill. The road wasn't too bad at this point but that soon changed! The next turn off this ever narrowing road was onto a very uneven gravel track and our driver was swerving left and right to avoid as many of the numerous pot holes as he could; fortunately he was driving at a very sensible pace throughout this seemingly never ending part of the trip. Still it couldn't get much worse could it... wrong! Our next turn took us on to an even worse dirt track, that was full of dips and tracks that had

been cut into it when it was wet mud. It was more like riding a bucking bronco and we were quite relieved when we turned yet again onto a nice smooth made up track that led right up to the restaurant. I expected to see the ladies get out of the car looking all dishevelled but fortunately all three seemed to have survived the ordeal with no major damage...!!!

All four of us soon forgot about the rollercoaster ride once we set eyes on the restaurant and it's stunning uninterrupted views down to the coast road and beyond across the Kanapitsa Bay. Most of the seating here was outside on multi-level terracing and nearly all with sea views, with the ground falling sharply away from the edge of these terraces; so much so that we were looking down onto the top of trees that were actually only a few metres away! All the hype

regarding this restaurant was spot on... breathtaking...

Although the girls were still obviously somewhat frosty towards each other it in no way spoilt the evening for us, as they were happily talking to us if not too chatty with each other. The experience here was every bit as good as the views it afforded us and the hype surrounding it was well deserved. We couldn't fault the service, even if the young waiter that took our order wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, he did get it all right eventually! Most importantly the food was excellent and very well presented, there was even a second waiter on hand that introduced our meals as they were being served... now you don't get that everywhere you go...!!! The toilets here are quite unusual, more like an Edwardian red velvet lined ladies powder room, and certainly not what you'd

expect to find in a Greek restaurant.

Sadly our evening had to end when we could neither eat nor drink any more, and our thoughts started to consider the drive back to the hotel, it was surely going to be even less comfortable now with our bellies full to bursting! Well we were right to be a touch concerned as we now had a different driver for the return journey and it turned out that for him speed was of the essence and we got thrown all around the car as we careered down that sorry excuse for a road, there was much relief all round as we made it to the main coast road more or less in one piece...!!!

After a most enjoyable evening we said our goodnights and headed straight for our beds.