Hot, sweaty, schlepping chairs, a backpack and a bag of snacks, I was ill-tempered by the time we decided on our spot on the beach. It was blazing hot in the mid-afternoon sun without much breeze and the kids had already wasted a fair amount of time going from the car down a path that was too steep and unstable for them to maneuver – despite my warnings. Sure, the water was crystal clear and the cove a beautiful turquoise – right out of a postcard – but I could sense the whole thing was really a hell-trap.
Even at sixteen when my friends and I first started hanging out at Zuma in the summer, I brought beach chairs – because being down in the sand is a messy business and sand lingers – forever.
I have never spent more than an hour on Vagia before despite how beautiful the water is and in large part because it is not an "organized beach" – meaning one with a lounge-chair operation. In 2010 when discovering organized Greek beaches, I thought it was this – not philosophy, mathematics or science that was the great Greek gift to the world and posterity. I wondered why in Los Angeles were we sitting around in disorganized tatters – rabble on the sandy beaches? Isn't the organized beach the civilized one? Why would anyone accept less? And I never looked back – at times to the annoyance of Emily and later Michelle both of whom considered a towel on the beach a perfectly nice way to spend an afternoon.
Luckily children are malleable – and at least on Patmos, my kids' butts have never touched the sand. We usually choose among organized beaches – which they very much like. However, knowing there are a few beautiful disorganized beaches, I bought our new umbrellaed double beach-chair and already had a few chairs in the closet. I loaded them into the car and figured we would sometimes explore the disorganized scene.
We had already spent a day at Livadi Geranou – a lovely disorganized beach – that went well. Last night when Sennen proposed we go to Vagia today, my first thought was it was another chance to make use of our new equipment and expand our horizons. The comfy double-chairs and pleasant interlocked umbrella surely could make any Patmos beach meet my basic standards.
It turns out there were factors I had not considered such as angle of the sun, foliage and the gap in effective temperature between sun and shade. Today had a high of 81 – much like most days. It's not especially breezy, but not stagnant or particularly humid. Only in the unprotected sun, especially with reflection from the water, it can feel a lot hotter….And Vagia is not equally shaded. Tons of hippie-like people were camped in odd and compromising positions under the trees on the left side of the beach whereas the tree-sparse, Lorax-alarming remainder was left to the bold few with giant sun umbrellas. I thought we were qualified to live among the hearty self-shaders and even more impressive sun worshippers. We were not.
Our umbrella was neither reflective nor especially large. It's meant to shade the two chairs, but the Vagia sun managed to evade our defenses, leaving one chair mostly exposed despite the umbrella. Because Vagia is primarily a pebble beach, at one point the wind picked up just enough to lift our umbrella away – leaving me chasing it down the beach. Twice if I'm being honest. After which we moved to the back of the beach where there was enough sand to hold the umbrella stake. Naturally, I found the exact line where the chairs could rest on the pebbles while the umbrella in back could dig into the earth. I wasn't going to lose the non-sandy joys of a pebble beach if I could help it.
All of that said. my tanning-addicted son was happy to sit in the chair with no umbrella, even if he had to be covered in sunscreen regularly – at least at first. As the kids often do, once we setup shop at the beach – be it in civilized lounge chairs or schlepped chairs I bring – they usually sit for long enough to emotionally claim their spot and then want to swim. In the cool, refreshing water, life was ideal. I learned this when I joined them a little later.
"Vagia is my favorite beach!" exclaimed Ailyn – who went into the whole thing half-hearted and skeptical.
"I think this is my favorite beach behind Petra!" Sennen said – having some remaining loyalties, but willing to throw a few favorite beaches under the bus.
I understood where they were coming from – except from where I was sitting – literally – it was baking. Or I was baking – sweat dripping down, unable to write the blog as I was expecting to do. There just wasn't enough shade and my legs were on fire. I decided to scrap my initial plans, put away the laptop and join the kids for a swim. Afterwards, I'd either find a better place for our little camp or seek refuge at the Vagia snack bar that probably had a shady seat somewhere.
While swimming, Vagia was indeed paradise. At one point, I thought perhaps I had been too sensitive and now that I was so refreshed, I would surely do better on the beach after my swim.
No. It was HOT in the direct sun. It got a LITTLE better as the sun moved and the umbrella provided a bit more shade. But not enough for me to write without losing my mind. So I went in search of the snack bar I had once encountered on a prior visit to Vagia years ago. I'm not sure if it was removed due to a new house built where I remembered the snack bar – or if the snack bar was no longer open – or I just botched the whole thing. But if it did remain, it was too far away from the kids to be a workable solution.
By the time I returned to our chairs, Sennen was VERY flushed and complaining about a headache. He was recently coated in sunscreen, so I knew he wasn't burning. He was overheating and it had been only ten minutes since getting out of the water. I gave him lots to drink but despite it, he wanted to leave the beach – something he never asks for. That was enough for me and Ailyn didn't seem any more motivated to make the situation work. She took a quick dip to cool off, we repacked our things and left.
Before we even made it to the car, Sennen said he was dying of thirst, had a headache and he thought maybe he was getting sun stroke or something because he felt really off. Luckily, my ThermoFlask had a lot of cold water still in it.
Between the water and the car air-conditioner, Sennen got quick relief. I suggested we go to the Agriolivadi cafe where we would be shaded, we could get some cold drinks and the kids could enjoy some more swimming time – which would probably feel good. Sennen decided air conditioning at home would feel better and our afternoon adventure was cut short.
All of this reinforcing in me and teaching my kids that the best beach is an organized beach.
"Agriolivadi is the best because Andreas comes around and adjusts our umbrella all day so we never have any direct sun if we don't want it," Ailyn said on the way home.
That's right, Sweetie – he does.
Amazingly, in the middle of town at the hottest part of the day on Patmos – 4 to 6 pm – it felt a lot cooler than Vagia. On the porch of the house under the sun shade canopy that was just restored today – it feels 30 degrees cooler than on that beach. Patmos has the same quality as Bali where sun and shade can be such different experiences. I was always amazed how the shade in Ubud could feel cool while walking down a sunny street could be excruciating.
After a cold shower and sipping cold water, Sennen is back to himself. I am writing comfortably with a bottle of cold German kombucha refreshing me. Ailyn is stretched out on the sofa underneath the new, powerful air conditioner. The likely aftermath is the great new chairs and umbrella will quickly become an attractive feature of my Airbnb listing – and not much else.
Which brings us to the follow-up from yesterday.
As if the Divine read my last post, yesterday evening Maria wanted to speak to me urgently. After seeing our house and further consideration, Kostas believes short-term rentals would be a better solution for me. He has a friend with a couple of small hotels who often has more booking requests than he can take. Kostas believes they could reroute some of those bookings for my house – Airbnb style – without the platform fees. Kostas would manage the property including cleanings and gardening – and keep me apprised of all bookings. Apparently, the cleaners he uses for his own Airbnb bookings are cheaper than what I pay my cleaning lady and he feels he can get a better gardener to my yard – which in itself would be a big win because I'm not happy with my gardener, but I don't seem to be able to make a change without offending Christos at Cafe Mostra and I haven't wanted to deal with neighborhood politics. Better to have a good relationship with Christos and a mediocre gardener than the other way around. However, if Kostas can take on the issue and be the heavy, I'm all in favor.
This proposal makes a lot more sense to me than a nine-month rental at 400 euros per month with high wear-and-tear on my house and things.
Maria said to meet with Kostas to talk it all through, so I'll do that as my next step and try to learn enough to make a smart decision and if so, negotiate terms.
In the meantime, I received a booking request for September on Booking.com. Apparently George was right – Greek domestic tourists prefer Booking.com. So, we're off to the races….
