hiya all,

well back in one piece!! oh it was pure bliss the house was beautiful set on the outskirts of the village of poatmia, big sleeps 6 comfortably, detached and the views are to die for, terraces out side both upstairs bedrooms, fantastic would thoroughly recommend it, if anyone would like contact details please email me!

well we had an early start 3 am,arrived at gatwick about 5ish ( i would recommend the meet and greet airport parking service, you ring them when near the airport they meet you at departures and simply take your car to a secure site the on return phone them from the baggage collectionj point and they will bring your car to arrivals-simple) flight at 7.45 arrived thessalonikia 1.15 met hire mini bus(i will go on to this saga a little later on!!) the road across to keramouti was brill although do take care to notice the sign posts to kavala! took just under two hours and straight on to the ferry we were in the house just after 6, then a quick shower and we were enjoying our first ouzo at 8!!!!

we were over the moon that yannis and elka had arrived the same day and were busy setting up tassos taverna, he is now doing souvlaki chicken breasts ect on a barbeque and selling the at 1 euro for each item, for english customers hes cooking chicken breasts for the kebabs which the kids throughly enjoyed, needless to say the drinks were self service to us so many happy hours spent at tassos!!!!
sarah and stelois are both well at coasters if any of you are going out please give them our best wishes, it was lovely to see them again and their hospitality is second to none.

the star fish bar is no longer in existance its now called the garden bar run by an english couple who are holding quiz nites twice a week.

right on to the saga of potos car rentals!!! oh where do i begin! we booked the mini bus in january all signed sealed and delivered so i thought but oh no!!!

the outward journey was fine to thassos but being english you like to go and check things so off we popped on the monday before our return on tuesday, we saw martin and pauline (they are all innocent in this) to make arrangements to swap cars for the mini-bus it was all entered in to their diary, all they had to do was check with diamandis in potos, they rang and the dear chap told them there was no mini bus to take us back we would have to have a punto! (4 kids 2 adults and luggage)i dont think so!!! martin couldnt believe his ears, well you had to pick me up off the floor even if we starved ourselves and the kids we wouldnt fit in a punto!! we arranged to go back next day, well copious amounts of wine was drunk, it seemed to lessen the pain!

next day we were offered a punto and a lanos and a driver to take us safley to thessalonikia i was still angry but accepted that was the best option, pauline and colin picked us up from the house and drove us to the ferry where we met our driver, then on the ferry he calmly announced that he would meet us at the airport with one of our cases and we were all to travel in the lanos! and that was the last we saw of him until we got to the airport, there were 6 of us most of the luggage in a lanos! oh joy!!!

i have forwarded all the confirmation of the bookings i made with diamandis to him and will await to see what happens but the best bit was that he said he wouldnt charge us for the extra vehicle and the driver!!
apart from that we had a brilliant holiday, sat in megas alexandros eating and this english girl came over and said "are you julie" i have been following you and peters campaign on this website,so im famous!! i also emailed her about her apartments "souzana" which are lovely, she said they lost 28 thousand pounds with the failure of golden sun! which is dreadful news.

if any of you are thinking of travelling independantly to thassos please do, no coaches, no drop offs around the island its fantastic and im definatly doing it again, im also setting up a mini travel company to match people with hotels and houses for rent on thassos, with vikkis help from the supermarket from sakis motor bike hire, she is contacting hoteliers in september and passing their details on to me, so if any one would like a recommendation for a hotel or house please contact me; juliefjules@aol.com

and no the fight for a budget airline has not gone away apparently the military are pulling out of kavala next year so that will reduce the landing charges!! so off we go again! i will keep you posted!
well hope your all still awake, after trawling through this!

happy holidays for those who are still going(any room for a little one!!)please give our love to yannis and elka, anatolh and thoma at tassos taverna, cant wait to see them next year if not before!