We phoned our friends, Glenn and Venice, last night and made final arrangements for seeing them today. They had some more English friends staying with them and decided to put on a Christmas meal with turkey, of course. We spent the day relaxing at the campsite, Jane went for a swim and said that the water was warm, although it took her a while to take the plunge.
Venice had ordered us a taxi and we set of for Sapounakeika just above Paralia Tirou and just below Kato Tiros and Ano Tiros. The taxi dropped us down the hill from Glenn and Venice's house (they don't like going to the square above because the roads are so narrow. Jane spotted their house as I was walking past it and we were soon on the balcony with Glenn, Venice, Patrick and Annabel. The view from their balcony is absolutely fantastic, encompassing mountains, sea (the Argolic Gulf) and the mainland and islands beyond. It was quite hazy whilst we were there but it was still beautiful.
Glenn and Venice are going through the wars at the moment. Venice has had a frozen shoulder for some time meaning that she is unable to grip anything and cannot drive. Just after Easter Glenn noticed that his eyesight in one eye had deteriorated rapidly and this turned out to be a blister on the retina. He took himself to the ophthalmic department of Tripoli hospital who diagnosed the problem and referred him to a specialist in Athens the following morning at 08:30. He arrived there and was admitted for surgery with the operation performed very early the next morning. Glenn said that the nursing care in the hospital was non-existent (they expect patients to be looked after by relatives) and the food was poor. Of the four men in his ward, two had wives who stayed with them over night, one sleeping in the bed with her husband and the other sleeping in a chair. Relatives came and went all day and night! The operation was not pleasant and the advice given to Glenn on discharge was poor but it was successful and Glenn is on the way to recovery. I was very impressed with the speed of the Greek health service in diagnosis, speed of referral and time to operation. I can't imagine that the British National Health would be as fast as that although the nursing care, food and discharge advice would have been better.
We had a lovely evening exchanging news, catching up on family matters and eating a lovely Christmas dinner complete with roast potatoes and bread sauce. There is a distinct lack of Brussels sprouts in Greece but some would say that was an improvement.
Photos: Jane swimming on Zaritsi beach; Over lunch we were joined by 16 cats but they were obviously well fed as they didn't bother us at all.
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