my memoirs: Greece

Monodendri beach on Paxos

... I was floating in the sea, alone I thought, at Monodendri Beach when suddenly, beside me, a woman wearing a swimming mask and snorkel burst from the sea in a shower of salt spray and droplets ...

samos octopus


she removed her mask and, as she threw her hair back, she took from the pouch around her waist a good-sized octopus and battered it against the rocks in front of her ...

to tenderise it of course, for it was the octopus that this woman, Eftihia, would be grilling for our lunch in just a few hours’ time at her restaurant built into the rocky slope above the bay ...

grilled octopus ...


it wasn't until we went for lunch that we noticed, despite her deep tan, faint traces of small scars on her arms ... they were the results of jellyfish attacks ...
and the jellyfish were such small and delicate things, pale and translucent, but oh, so vicious and with a very painful sting ... in high winds they were often swept into the bay in great rafts ...