Day ten - Cinema, Banana beach, Skiathos back streets & Gravisi.

SKIATHOS TOWN.

Last night, the re-showing of the delayed Mamma Mia film was on at the cinema. With our re-scheduled tickets, we were able to get in to see it. It's really popular, for obvious reasons.

The seating was 'interesting', with movable seats (which lots of people did) and tables thoughtfully placed between the seats here and there to put drinks on.

They got the audience 'in the mood' with some traditional Greek dancing before the film. 

You can see a snatch of that HERE

There you see the moon above the cinema with no roof!

At various points, the staff rushed onstage and joined in. It all made for a very good performance, and not at all detracting from the film. You can see them HERE
Of course, this sort of thing is always better when you're actually there.

A relaxed town walk afterwards, before wending our way 'home' to our hotel and sleep - tomorrow we had no real plans.

Today, we decided on a lazy day. We went to banana beach, a long, super-sandy stretch that, I would imagine, is very touristy in the summer. To be honest, I don't think we'd use it in the season. Even now, with only a few people on the beach, the small beach bar kiosk (not at all rustic like previous ones, more a prefabricated place) was belting out music, completely spoiling the place. Also, there was hardly anywhere to sit, unless you wanted to hire a sunbed set.

 There was a place at the far left of the beach called 'bananista' - a bar, 'resort' area, and further collection of sunbeds and parasols, plus a more swish beach bar (with swish prices to match). It was all geared towards getting your cash.

This is the view of the beach from the bar.

Note, all the 'cool' cushions scattered around.

We did hire beds and a parasol (grudgingly, on my part) and did exactly what we intended - nothing, apart from swimming and snorkelling.

Afterwards, we drove over to the Amaretto bar at the end of the airport runway and watched a couple of more hairy landings on the infamous airstrip.

We explored the back streets of the hillside Skiathos town, and it's well worth a look. Lots of 'locals only' cafes, bars and shops. Not that they wouldn't serve you, just that not many visitors seemed to venture up this far. 

We found this super little coffee and spice shop. He had a special piece of kit that roasted and ground beans. He then sold the coffee, about 40 varieties. We would have had a cup, but the strange thing is, he doesn't sell it to drink??

We had a very enjoyable meander around, before setting off into the other side of town to find 'Gravisi', a pizza place. Now, we make some of the best pizza you can get - the guy who owns Gravisi said HIS was the best on Skiathos, so we just HAD to 'go compare'.

A beautiful little hidden gem, complete with 'Romeo and Juliet' balcony, and romantic outside tables with candles & gingham tablecloths.

I'm glad we only ordered ONE cheesy garlic bread as a starter!!!!!

Ours is 8 pieces of baguette!

This one was HUGE, and stuffed FULL of cheese, 

more like a calzone!

We really couldn't compare, as this was a totally different animal from ours, but we have to say, it WAS good - thanks Konstantinos :-)

Tomorrow, we take the car back, weather report is warm but cloudy, they say.