First the Magic
Do you remember the film “Shirley Valentine”? Well, I went to where Shirley Valentine was filmed and I felt like Shirley Valentine for a day.
After negotiating a maze of narrow laneway-roads with no footpaths and lined with parked cars my partner and I eventually arrived at the very beach where Shirley Valentine was filmed. It was a magical experience. I felt like I had stepped into a movie. Costa’s Restaurant was there (now called the “Hippi Fish”). The beach was there with the sapphire blue and aqua sea gently rolling onto the shore. I felt I just had to go in for a swim. So off with my clothes (bikini underneath) and into the soft rolling aqua water I went. I felt the warm breeze as the cool (not cold) soft waves washed over me. I felt excited, confident and alive as I floated on my back in the shark-free water.
The next thing was to eat at Costa’s Restaurant. I thought of cheekily asking for “chips and egg” but I thought better of it. I ate grilled calamari, Greek salad, and drank Greek sparkling wine. My partner and I were waited on like you wouldn’t believe. It was a magical experience.
Now the Might
Can you imagine waves higher than the boat you are on. Well that’s how it was on our trip to Delos. For three days now uncharacteristic wild winds had been lashing the island of Mykonos, and my idea of going to Delos, while on the one hand catered to my burning desire to visit the ancient site, was on the other hand a fearful thought. But my desire won out over my fear and my partner and I boarded the ferry to Delos (however not without foreboding thoughts), which as it turned out became a stark reality. I’ve never been surer that the boat I was on was going to capsize. The waves were monstrous, so monstrous that the Captain shut down the engines. The boat went up and down on the swirling sea, crashing down with enormous almighty thuds. Then suddenly a monstrous hit us on the side and the boat listed sharply to the left and listed, listed, and listed. Panic-stricken passengers let out excruciating screams, some cried, others went white and grabbed their loved ones. All the sea needed was another monstrous wave to hit us on the side and we would be gone. Eventually we filed off the boat in Delos, all with white-ashen faces, temporarily safe, but all carrying foreboding thoughts about the return journey.
However, there is one thing that I can say and that is that there is nothing like a near-death experience to invigorate one’s sense of being alive.
