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Mary Irvine’s latest jaunt to Greece

 The Uninvited Guest or The Spectre at the Feast

The main purpose for my latest jaunt to Greece was to attend the wedding of Eirene, (Ireenee), an ex-student of mine. I hadn’t actually been invited but decided this was because the inviters probably thought I wouldn’t travel all that way. That’s what I told myself anyway! It was going to be a big surprise!
Regular readers (I’m optimistic!) of my scribblings may recall a short piece entitled ‘The Spirit of Christmas’ when I wrote about three children and their Christmas presents. The oldest of the three young girls in that is Irene. (Will write about the wedding later). What intrigued me was the amount of writing I got done and I was only there six days. Somewhere in the region of 9,000 words. And that with so many invitations bouncing around.

Two days were expended on the fourteen hour journey there and a fourteen hour journey back. May write about the journey later – so much to write about…

Poros

My first stop was on the island of Poros, in the Saronic Gulf. It’s actually two islands, the small island of Sferia and the much larger island of Kalauphria, joined by a bridge. Been her before, several times. It was here that the wedding was to take place. As stated above the bride and her family weren’t aware of my attendance so I’d arranged to stay with my friend Christina.

I hadn’t taken any notebooks with me as I’d decided on a complete break from everything. It wasn’t that there was nothing to do. One could walk for miles and not meet another living soul. Lots of animals but I believe received knowledge tells us they don’t have souls. I digress.

But there was something there that made me want to write. Call it inspiration, blame it on the weather – too hot, positively dangerous, to venture out, the solitude. Whatever it was I wrote! And I wished I could write faster. Christina left for work after her Greek breakfast – known here, I believe as an Italian breakfast – c. 8.30am/9.am – we were on Greek timing!! I had a more leisurely breakfast, fresh bread, feta, homemade marmalade and honey, ginseng tea. Made a change from my usual porridge. I had a short walk, the sun had already reached 28°. Returning to the house I called Christina. I need to add here the information that Christina lived a looooooong way from the town – about a 15 minute drive or an hour’s walk if you knew the short cut!

Is there any writing paper in the house?
 Why?
I need to write. Bring me a note-book when you come home from work.
There’s paper in the fax machine. Use that.
And I was away. The muse flowed.

That was the first day – I don’t count the day of arrival. The next day was the wedding which actually lasted two days. Feel quite tired thinking of it. Then I was whisked away to Epidauros. Have written about that before so it was pretty much the same. Evening of the fourth day I got the ‘bus back to Galatas – the mainland from Poros. Christina came over and we had a meal at Meze Meze. It used to be on Poros but they’ve relocated. Must remember to update Tripadvisor. Back to Poros

The final full day I spent 4 hours on the island of Spetses. Went over to pay my respects to a friend who died there and now resides in the chapel where the bones are kept. Have explained that as well in earlier writing.  Had a chat with a couple of people and a pleasant lunch at Argyros’ in the Square. The wedding I will write up and produce asap. And I’ll also explain the title of this and give you a resume of the writing I did.

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