Gennadi and Amos Beach

M and I are presently in Gennadi, a small village on the coast of the Island of Rhodes in Greece. Gennadi (pronounced Yen-adi) is a world away from the horrors of Rhodes Town. It is pretty much unchanged from the first half of the twentieth century, except it's much smaller. More than half of the village's population moved to Australia in the 1950s and the population went from 3,000 at the time of WWII to 650 today. It's a pretty little town with awesome souvlakis and a long pebbly beach (i'm starting to get used to them - i don't think sand has been invented yet in europe). There are few tourists and it is pretty quiet... we're having a great time here.

We are presently caught in a heatwave. In both Turkey and Greece it has been 40 degrees plus for quite a few days now. I saw a thermometer yesterday which had been placed in the shade of a huge tree and it read 41 degrees. Much hotter in direct sun.

M and I are both very brown - me especially. In Turkey people kept talking to me in Turkish and in Greece everyone I meet asks me what part of the country my family is from. I was just told I look like a Greek tv star - I was a little insulted as I'm usually told I look like a film star. As yet no-one has mistaken M for Greek or Turkish.

Turkey was fantastic. Friendly, warm people, sun, beaches (mostly pebbles), backgammon, raki (the national drink - actually it was missable), Efes (the v good local beer), great food and much more. Amos Beach, where we stayed when not on our boat trip, is a beautiful cove near-ish Marmaris.

M's friends K&C - whose holiday house we were staying in - came over from London for a few days and we had a great time hanging out with them. We hired a boat for the day on Saturday and the four of us cruised to a few coves, jumped out of the boat for swims when we were hot and generally had an absolutely fantastic and memorable day. The captain was also memorable. Late 60s, huge white moustache, even bigger smile, so many gold chains it was amazing he could stand up and just a total dude. He thought so too of course - he had a big photo of himself (in slightly younger days and with even funkier hair) up in the boat right next to the wheel. I will post photos of him in due course.