A Sea Ever More Distant

Love of the sea and passion for the sea, are what I can boast of, and they are the pleasures of life that don't get old like I do with time.

I live somewhere where there is no sea and this increases my love and need but the fact that I can only see the sea a few times a year, for a few days, makes this passion not die, not disappear in boredom.

Unfortunately, there are places I have seen in the past, of course by the sea, a sea further away from where I live, but which I am unlikely to see again. I feel that sea receding and I see it more and more blurred, even with the help of memories and imagination. The colour fades and there remains only black and white...

The Aegean Sea, that sea we knew from Greek mythology, in northern Greece, on a large island called Thassos.

This is the only sea more southern I've seen. Where I live there is a sea, the Black Sea, but it has less salty and less clean waters. In Thassos, I could see fish swimming by my feet near the beach.

I went every late summer, three years in a row until the pandemic interrupted this series that I can't seem to restart. I lived only in Limenaria, the second village town on the island.

I love these Greek villages, where everyday life seems untouched by the arrival of tourists. That's what I liked the most, this feeling that you don't go on holiday to just any hotel, I had a feeling that I was going to a place where I lived many years ago and where I still know the places unchanged by the passing of the years.

It's been five years since the last holiday on this island. I remember everything so well, helped by the photos I took there. For example, I can't forget the little cafe where we couldn't fit two customers at the same time and where we had such a good cappuccino.

Just as my wife can't forget the little shops she visits daily... several times!

I haven't forgotten the very nice Italian woman who spent all summers in Thassos in her little shop and made me wish I could do that too. I couldn't, of course.

Not to mention the food at the taverns, the freshly caught fish from the sea, the likes of which I had never eaten before.

I enjoyed the walks the most!

In Limenaria, as well as in the neighboring villages of Pefkary and Potos, it was all walking. Walk to the beach, walk to the shops, walk to the taverna, walk through the pine forest, walk through the olive grove, first and foremost walk.

Life on the island is superb, the tourist life on vacation. I don't know what life is like for the locals but it seems it's not all that pleasant, there are needs, hardships, and limitations.

It seems that life can't be all wonderful.

However, I was sad every time the holiday ended and I had to go home. As unfortunate as this cat...

I mean, that's what it looks like to me, sad. I compared it to this cat who doesn't look so sad.

I don't know how cats express sadness. I imagine it could be the same as in humans.

Credit for (this idea of) putting up a black-and-white video goes to @ewkaw, who used to do this. This is an excellent idea because what is a black-and-white video? It's a sequence of stills (photographs) in black and white. Unfortunately, this video doesn't belong to me but I'm convinced it brings beauty to the viewer and has a great connection to what I wrote here.

Aphrodite's Child - Aegian Sea

For younger people who may not know about this Greek cult group, Aphrodite's Child, I can only say that it featured two great musicians: Vangelis and Demis Roussos.

_{This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.}