A Dyspraxic Abroad Part 3- My second Holiday in Pefkos

The Purpose of this blog is to promote The Dyspraxia Foundation E book' "Dyspraxic Adults Surviving in a NonDyspraxic World" self help book for dyspraxic adults. All proceeds go to the Dyspraxia Foundation Adult support groups. Available on Amazon for £9.99

Yammas & La Chaim from Lindos

It has been a few weeks since I did my last blog. The novelty of not having to get up to work had worn off and I was feeling quite low so decided that there was nothing  worth blogging about. So I was really glad that I decided that following my redundancy not to cancel my second holiday in Pefkos (on October the 1^st). The Last one was in June

Firstly as I am the Adult Advisor for the Dyspraxia Foundation and this week from October 10^th to the 16^th it is dyspraxia awareness week I will first talk about how my dyspraxia affects me individually and the coping strategies I use as a Dyspraxic single traveller.

Somehow this makes people think I’m brave doing it on my own and as dyspraxia is a hidden disability some people think this makes me even braver. Now if I’d rescued one of the well fed & looked after Cats in Pefkos from a burning building I would consider myself brave and be deserving of a medal. However hidden disability or not there is nothing brave about stuffing my face with delicious Greek food, getting pleasantly squiffy on wine & cocktails and sunbathing on St Thomas  & Lee Beaches. I have a poor sense of direction but didn’t find it hard to get on the right plane or find my way round Pefkos & Lindos and seeing that I used to do travel training for a living Nor is wondering round the narrow cobbled streets of Lindos, on my own worthy of that kind of praise.

Delicious food of Pefkos

Going back onto the subject of dyspraxia and how it affects me individually I have difficulties with organisation, co-ordination and short term memory. So if I joined I n Greek dancing unless one knew what to look for, my un-co-ordinated attempts to dance the same as everyone else would give people the assumption I had been downing too much Metaxa and I’m a bit awkward with getting in & out of boats in a dignified manner.

 This time I nearly left the necklace I had to take at Manchester Airport security behind but the security man spotted it and unlike last time it was much more relaxing and less stressful as I checked in earlier this time just in case they changed the times again. Transferring to Pefkos went smoothly and The Marianthi studios were the first drop off point. There was a bit of confusion at reception about giving out apartment keys which but this was eventually sorted.

The apparent was typical of Greek apartments and similar to my last one bout in a much more central I found there was no kettle in my apartment but was given a brand new one quickly and when the cooker ring didn’t work when I wanted to boil some eggs for packed lunches later in the week to keep within my budget it was sorted very quickly. The plug sockets weren’t well planned. I had to use chairs to charge up my phone and boil a kettle. There was a toaster there but I had fruit 0 % fat yoghurt, granola and honey for breakfast so I didn’t have to do a risk assessment for making toast. The apartment walls were very thin and next door there was an extended Cockney family that could have been out of Eastenders, who had no self awareness about how loud they were, so I decided to use my music and headphones rather than falling out with them. It is just as well as I  chatted to loudest member of the family when he was on his balcony next to mine and he  turned out to be a nice person.

Although I’m disorganised I have developed strategies with packing by making a packing list and ticking everything off in my case. I had been to Pefkos in June so convinced myself that I didn’t need to refer to my list this time and I would defiantly pack less than in June as I took too much clothes last time. Now I don’t know if watching Shirley Valentine on my Kindle Fire on the outward flight, gave me a Friedan slip, but I realised I had forgot to pack my nightie. Never mind it could be worse at east I’d remembered my knickers. I ended up buying an extra large man’s -shirt as a nightie substitute as I have a thing about sleeping in the nuddy in case there is a fire. I also forgot my mascara and nail polish remover pads. I thought I’d left my jewellery at home but found them in my suitcase on my last night. I left my phone and sunhat on a boat trip but got them back before it drove off.

The weather was warm without being unbearable and I didn’t need a cardigan in the evening. The highlight of my holiday was when Captain Nickolas asked me if I wanted to go on his boat trip so I though why not. I know what you are all thinking! but he is nothing like Tom Conti he is a respectable family man, who’s family ran the Zig Zag cocktail bar. I met Anne who was also a solo traveller., We had the boat to ourselves. I can tell you that the boat trip was well worth the 20 Euros and we stopped at a tavern in St Pauls Bay and had deliciously fresh Calamari and grilled seabass. I met with Anne that evening to have a drink with her at Zig Zag,  that night but she was flying home the next day. and we may meet up next year as holiday buddies.

Captain Nikolas Boat Trip

I had a very special Rosh Ha Shanna (Jewish new year) New Year’s Eve in Pefkos so ate apple honey yogurt and honey rum to celebrate and I had dinner Lindos. I didn’t want to go away the next week during dyspraxia awareness week. It is just as well as some flights were cancelled due to the Greek Air traffic control strike. I was lucky that our Departure flight was only delayed by 45 minutes and it wasn’t affected by the strike.

 I felt really guilty about going on holiday when I was unemployed and wondered if going back to the same place was a good thing. I am very glad I did as I had an even better holiday on Pefkos than I did in June., and when I get a job and have saved enough money I will be back in 2017.