05-05-17 Beach to Tavěrna

Friday 5th May 2017

Its JiaJia who fetches Dorøtheos from the school bus this afternoon, takes him to kick the ball around in the town square and encourages him to play in the pedikī hară but he’s not interested to go ‘because there are no other children to play with there’. Hearts break just a little when we hear these truths from our babies’ mouths. Mum tells me this when I arrive to meet them and of course I over compensate by devising an action-packed afternoon for our boy.

We’ve got first of all a visit to the market for his latest obsession: kaimăki ice cream. Its a heavy cream based ice confection flavoured with Μαστίχα. Mastic is the resin from the Mastic tree traditionally produced on the Greek island of Chios. Kingsley doesn’t know any of that. All he cares for is receiving his after school hit of tasty goodness before we beach it.

By the seaside we begin building what I thought would turn out to be a volcano but Kingsley had other intentions for the pile of rocks & pebbles: a soūvla – where his beloved, tasty souvlāki is grilled! Who would have thought the pile of sticks he was collecting were to be the base of the fire and the rocks to be the hot coals. Kingsley truly is turning Greek.

And the kid is hardy, too: showering outdoors and not a towel to dry him. Only the sun. We (he) feast on his other obsession straight after the beach: a pared down version of the classic souvlāki. That is: grilled pita filled with hot potato chips and a chicken souvlaki sans the stick. No tomato, no onion or even delicious tzatzīki. He pays the dude serving us this afternoon €2.40 and we settle into taverna life watching the crowds roll in. Hot chips are first to go, then the pita bread then two mouthfuls of chicken before Kingsley feeds the rest to a very cute (and well fed by the look of her) local cat.

Building a ‘soūvla’ to grill souvlāki. No joke

Under dressed but wearing shades for protection

About to his the outdoor shower

After our beachside warm water outdoor shower

Souvlāki for dinner makes this champ extremely happy

First thing he eats is the chippies