Our days quickly fell into a pattern - up around 10.00am, breakfast, head out to meet friends or family, back to the appartment for around 3.00pm for DD's afternoon nap and then dinner out with more friends or family around 9.00pm.
DD slept for three hours every afternoon which was great, it meant we could relax in the appartment and DBF could chat with his family without their attention being fixed on the baby. It also meant that I got some stitching done which I really enjoyed, in fact it sometimes almost felt like a real holiday!
There were a few more occasions when DD got too wound up and consequently screamed and screamed but after the first time I could see them coming so managed to make sure they weren't too bad. Having said that, Thursday evening was particularly bad as, contrary to our plans, we ended up staying in the appartment and being visited but DBF's Great Aunt, his Cousing and his Mother's friend.
The first issue was the fact that I was a bit tense given that we'd planned to spend the evening with the group of DBF's friends that I like the most until I was told that his Aunt and Cousin were coming about 6.30pm so we couldn't go out until they'd arrived and spent some time with the baby. This wouldn't have been so much of a problem if they'd turned up at 6.30pm but that famous Greek time keeping was very much in evidence and they arrived at 8.30pm!
The second issue was that Jenny, the friend of his Mother arrived. I'd not been told she was coming so the first I knew was the intercom announcing her arrival. Not so much of a problem you'd think but I'd been warned that if I did meet her I should be aware that she's a bit mad and has a bit of a drinking problem...
Well trust me, it's more than 'a bit' of a problem.
She was completely insane. She squealed at the baby, bounced her up and down and (for reasons I don't understand) shook her head like crazy making her large amounts of hair go everywhere whilst holding DD up in front of her face. I could actually see the pressure rising in DD as she had no idea what was going on or how to react to this kind of mania.
Jenny was sporting a bandaged hand in a sling and I was told that she'd had an operation on a tendon that day and she was supposed to be resting it. This didn't stop her picking DD up though and I wondered why she wasn't registering any pain. I later discovered that she was on super strength pain killers given to her by her doctor husband which, coupled with the several large whisky's she got through during the evening, meant that she possibly wasn't even sure where she was let alone which bit of her hurt. Oh, and the ouzo she'd had before she even arrived with us probably didn't help either.
At least the mixture of drink and drugs explains the absolutely hideous dress that she bought DD. DBF's mother has some strange ideas for clothes but the first thing even she said was we could change it. We left it in Greece (I did toy with the idea of keeping it and making DD wear it when she'd been bad) but I did take a couple of pictures so when I get round to sorting those out I'll post one.
Anyway, having two more mad women around as well as Jenny meant that I spent much of the evening in our room trying to calm DD down. This was probably good for me too as I have extremely low tolerance for alcohol abuse and I'm sure that I'd have said something waaaaaay inappropriate had I been around more.
So that's some of the more negative parts of the holiday but there were plenty of good times too.
We spent lots of time with DBF's mates who I really get on with and are great company. Most of them I'd met before but there were some that were new to me but all of them I really had fun with. The good thing about his friends is that most of them speak really good English so it's not so important for DBF to be around to translate and this means we're both more relaxed. Hopefully my Greek will improve greatly over the next few months as I'm much more determined to learn now.
We also did shopping with other people's money which is always fun. We came back with several bits of bedding for DD's room (they have much nicer stuff over there) that his parents and sister bought and his Grandmother gave us 300 euros between the three of us so I actually came back with more money than I left with!
As well as DBF's friends I met many more of his family all of whom were lovely and we had an especially nice evening with the family of one of his Uncles. This Auntie actually treated DD like a human being and spoke to her normally. DD loved her and responded to her in a way she didn't to anyone else out there (much to DBF's mother's disgust). DD chatted and chatted and chatted with huge smiles to the extent that I thought we'd have to leave her there as she was having such a good time!
So all in all our Greek adventures were fun and we all had a good time. We left DD only once, on the last night, and she coped okay but it took her Grandmother a lot of effort to settle her to sleep (something I knew would happen as we left the appartment just as other visitors arrived so DD was bound to be wound up a bit). I coped ok too which is just as important. Okay, we were only five mins away but we were out for four hours and it was the first time I'd left her so I didn't know how I'd feel.
