As Soon As Dawn Appeared, Fresh And Rosy-Fingered.

[rionaleonhart]

The text message I sent to th_esaurus early on in my holiday:

The colours in Greece are very bright and warm, like someone's turned up the saturation. On the downside, today I had literal ants in my literal pants.

The message I sent towards the end:

I'M IN ITHACA, FUCK YOU ODYSSEUSSo, yes, I've spent the past week in Greece! On the extremely beautiful

Comments

[littlered2]

Dad ran out of reading material and resorted to Being Binky, the autobiography of a Made in Chelsea star, which someone had left in the villa.

Dad: Binky is starting to annoy me. She's always complaining about her life.
Harriet: If you don't like hearing about Binky's life, have you considered reading something other than Binky's memoirs?

I feel for your dad. Running out of reading material on holiday is a nightmarish experience. It happened to me on a family holiday as a teenager, and I started having feverish dreams about libraries every night.

(You and your family are, as ever, hilarious.)

[rionaleonhart]

He read the entirety of Being Binky and I'm not sure that he enjoyed a second of it. Fortunately, I'm currently reading A Song of Ice and Fire (which I'll have to make an entry about at some point), and it would have taken me some very determined reading to get through A Clash of Kings in one week.

[littlered2]

At least if your dad ever needs to know facts about Made in Chelsea he will be prepared. Pub quiz secret weapon? But it's a shame that being forced by necessity into reading it didn't provide any enjoyment - that is how I read Northern Lights, and it was an excellent surprise. (I was almost eleven and had tried to read it several times, but kept getting bored and bogged down. Then we went on holiday and were stuck on a train in Thailand in the middle of floods for four days, and I had no other choice. It turned out to be amazing.)

I was reading Bring up the Bodies on my last holiday, which lasted me for most of it. Long books are a holiday must.

[rionaleonhart]

I actually had a semi-similar 'fortuitous reluctant reading' experience with Northern Lights! Like you, I was bored by it at first, but one day my mum insisted that I read it. I'm not sure why she was determined to make me read it, because she hadn't read it herself at the time, but grumpily I lay down with this stupid book and surprise, it's great!

(I, er, hope you were well supplied with food and water on your Thailand flood train. Well, I suppose you were well supplied with water in any case, but I hope you had something to drink.)

[clo]

I love The Odyssey because I first experienced it being read aloud (we'd take a chapter each every class) in Classics A-Level and whoever was reading would pause every so often to offer a running commentary on all the things Odysseus was doing that they disagreed with - and yet we all cheered when he got to Ithaca. He's so marvellously self-centered and yet ridiculously endearing at the same time. (It also helped a lot that we read The Aeneid the next year and we all hated Aeneas for being such a monumental jerkface that Odysseus came out of it looking way more likeable). In short: I have Ithaca!envy for you actually getting to go! I was in Cyprus last October and we passed a sign saying CYCLOPS CAVE 2KM but my Cypriot friend flat out refused to walk to it in 30degree heat, so now I have to go back to Cyprus at some point just to do this one thing because, The Odyssey. It's well over 2000 years old; how are we still this invested. Argh.

(I love your family holiday posts. The Tipp-Ex line in particular was epic. :D )

[rionaleonhart]

I've never forgiven him for going to all of the trouble of disguising himself as a beggar and determining who were the good suitors and who were the bad ones from the way they treated him AND THEN KILLING ALL OF THEM ANYWAY, ODYSSEUS, WHAT WAS THAT, but I do love The Odyssey and it was great to see Ithaca. I'm sad that you missed out on being imprisoned by Polyphemus!

[clo]

Ohhhhh I'd forgotten he did that! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WILY, ODYSSEUS. FALSE ADVERTISING.

...when you put it that way, it makes me think that maybe my friend was on to something with staying far away. Maybe she realised we hadn't planned ahead and hired a convenient crew of sailors to sacrifice towards our getaway plan.

[dracothelizard]

"I could swear the shore nearest us was the shore from the opening video of Final Fantasy VIII."

But did you bond with any GFs?

[rionaleonhart]

I... suppose I bonded with Joseph's GF?

[dracothelizard]

Yes, but can she throw fireballs at people and/or is she a giant cactus?

(Imagine your brother's girlfriend being Doomtrain.)

[apiphile]

I still enormously enjoy your travelogues for the experience of a family holiday without having to actually go on holiday with a family.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm glad to be able to provide this service! Although you might need to imagine some petty arguments in there for the full 'vicarious family holiday' experience.

[milliebee]

Oh hey, you're kidding! I just got back from a holiday in the Greek island of Rhodes! I wish I had material this good to write about.

The trees are painted white to stop ants hurting them. Or at least that's what our tour guide said.

[rionaleonhart]

I hope you enjoyed it! (And thank you for solving the tree mystery!)