Leaving Naplflio at 7 am we started our journey to Damos, Stan's mums home island. After a bit of a hiccup with hire car, firstly it was in town not at airport, secondly too small to fit our luggage, we got a bigger car and set off along the narrow, winding scenic roads ( seems to be a recurring theme) towards Ballos beach in the mid south of Samos.

It's very mountainous and quite green. Olive trees everywhere. His cousins have small beach houses at Balos. It is a small village, with at least 4 places to eat, but not a lot else. Very authentic, quiet, pebble beaches and the blue Mediterranean sea. It's still hot but the sea breeze provides some relief. Unfortunately that sea breeze is a bit stronger at the moment, and along with trying to balance on the big pebbles, walking down into the water without toppling over is quite a test of skill.

We had dinner at a local taverna till we felt " fuskasa" - means tummy is full, when suddenly 3 people came over to us. It was Stan's cousin, Robert, his wife and daughter. Stan has not seen him since about 1975. Later their son joined us, fortunately the father and 2 children (Nelli 18 and Dimitri 23) had great English. We enjoyed their company and many glasses of yummy sweet Samos wine , like a dessert wine. Poor Cassie was exhausted, wanting an early night, but it was special to meet them and they went out of their way to join us.

Stan went to bed feeling happy and quite "tottered".