Viola's Snapshot

•• Update, Sept 7th: the picture has now changed! so Viola's pic is now below••

The new banner photo at the top was snapped by a fellow rep, Viola, who's a guide from Germany working for TUI over here this summer.

She came to Halki on Saturday as a day out and ended up working all day translating for me for my German-speaking guests. This shot is the moment when we disembark the boat on arriving at Halki, when I hold up my board showing the guests the time at which the boat departs for the return to Rhodes. She caught me unawares!

We had no less than 9 nationalities on my bus on this particular day. We even had a few from the Czech Republic, who, fortunately for me and them, were helped by Rudka (hope I've spelt that right sweetie - if you are reading this!), a young Czech rep who was also with us for the day (phew!!).

When I show the guests this sign whilst on the bus I usually explain that, at great expense to myself, I've prepared something which can be read in all the languages, so they'll be able to understand the departure time. We do this at the butterfly valley too, before going on to Kamiros Skala to meet the Halki boat. Usually gets a laugh. If it doesn't, then I know I'm in for a fraught day.

I'll be preparing a  new post about Kyria Levkosi'a soon, She's the ya-ya who runs a taverna on Halki with her sons and daughters. She's told me some fascinating stories about both herself and the island. See chapter 34, entitled "Moussaka and Maladies" in the book "A Plethora of Posts",  coming up as soon as I can get time to prepare it (if you click these links, you'll find it's now on sale in Kindle format & in book form from the publishers lulu.com. - as of Dec 2011 )