Thassos and stuff

So, holiday #1 for 2009 is over. We went to Thassos Town, on the island of Thassos, which seems almost unknown - never before has the name of our destination prompted so many cries of "where?" when people were told where we were going. It's a fairly large, circular (ish) island to the east of Halkidiki, and doesn't have its own airport, so you fly to Kavala on the mainland and catch a ferry across.

We arrived on 28th June to glorious sunshine, but as the ferry took us the 17 miles or so (35 minute crossing time) to Thassos, the island was obscured by a huge, black cloud with bolts of lightning shooting out of the bottom. Great. As we pulled into the port we saw rain bouncing off the ground, which wasn't really the best of starts... Five minutes or so later we arrived at the Thetis Studios, our home for the week, and they were lovely. They were in a quiet spot on the outskirts of the town, and were very well appointed for Greece, where things are normally spectacularly basic.

Once the rain stopped we went for a walk to the town for a look around. It's a strange place, clearly split into an old town and a new town, the new appearing to be of 1960s-1970s origin, and tourism seemed to be almost alien to the place, so the shops were more intended for locals (we passed a butchers, a few chemists, a couple of toy shops, a few clothes shops...) than holidaymakers. The seafront was the home of two harbours and a ferry port, the town beach plonked at the eastern end of the town and apparently man-made. Behind the town some ruins were dotted amongst the trees, and as we walked around the place we saw small walls jutting out of grassy areas, and a few broken stone columns protruding from the ground.

The weather was mixed during the week, the days usually starting off cloudy, then becoming hot and sunny, before the clouds gathered over the mountain and brought short showers, sometimes thunderstorms. We stayed by the pool during the day, our apartment a few seconds away, so we could seek shelter should the rain come, sitting on the balcony as we waited for the weather to improve.

When we went out in the evening though things were a little odd. We tended to go out at around 8.30 or thereabouts, and even though it was fairly early the town seemed eerily quiet - restaurants were less than a third full (although the food was all great), and bars were completely empty. On our way back to the apartment at midnight or so our footsteps echoed as we walked down the main street. It was lovely that the place wasn't crowded or ruined by tourism, but I've never been to a town which has almost felt abandoned before. Very odd.

Would we go back? Maybe, but if we did we'd go to a different resort - maybe Golden Beach.

If interested, some pictures can be found on my Facebook page.

In other news, Michael Jackson has died, as you almost undoubtedly know. It's always sad when somebody of your own generation dies, but his passing hasn't upset me - I was never a fan, and only really liked "Beat It" as a song, plus the scandals and his weird behaviour of recent years have only tarnished his image for me.

As for my health, I was absolutely fine while we were away, but iffy when we returned, so I'm convinced that work-related stress is my enemy. Yesterday I went for an endoscopy examination on my stomach, which was absolutely horrible. An anaesthetic was sprayed into my mouth, then a plastic mouthpiece inserted between my teeth before the endoscope was pushed quickly down my throat. It's as horrible a feeling as you can imagine, and you almost can't stop yourself swallowing as you feel like you're eating some long, endless thing which is stuck in your throat. The examination only lasted a couple of minutes, during which time a sample of my stomach lining was taken, and thankfully no ulcers or growths were fine, but I do have a small sliding hiatus hernia, which is most likely the cause of my problems. Next weekend I'm having an ultrasound scan on my liver, pancreas and gallbladder and I'm hoping they come back clear. The endoscopy was really awful though. Nice that they gave me a cup of tea and some biscuits afterwards though.