14 September 2025 (sunny and hot 31C) 0km

Ju here. We woke at 6.30am and were straight down to our little beach and workout place before it got too hot and the hordes of tourists got up.

It looks like a guy called Greg thinks he owns the place as he's got his name plastered everywhere.

On the restaurant, on the prom, on the nightclub, and even on his fancy big boat in the harbour.

That's 2 x 250HP engines on the back.

But it doesn't matter how big your boat is, there's always someone with a bigger, flashier boat than you.

That's 4 x 500HP engines on the back of this boat, which I believe was called Pete.

Anyway, we were more taken with our two workout companions.

Yesterday we had a lovely quiet dog just come and lay between the loungers where we were working out and I accidentally gave her a pat. I just couldn't help it.

So she followed us down today and I gave her another pat and she seemed quite happy to just lay down and snooze beside us.

Then we had this handsome young dog come down and he was far too cute to ignore, so also got some affection. He tried to get “snoozing dog" to play with him, but she was far too comfortable. So in the end he gave up and lay down for a snooze himself.

I have to say, the dogs here look happy and we haven't noticed much dog poo around. They all look pretty healthy (definitely no overfed dogs or cats though) and have total freedom. It is common to see people giving the cats some food but I've yet to see anybody feeding a dog, which is not to say it doesn't happen.

Whenever I've observed a dog approaching anybody who is eating, they do it in a very respectful manner. They just sit within throwing distance and look at you. If no food is forthcoming, they move on. This system seems like it works.

After our workout, we went for a walk in the morning sunshine before it got too hot and found the tiny public beach. 

Obviously we couldn't leave here without a swim so enjoyed another dip in this clear water with only a few other people around.

We also found lots of other scenic spots, and we realized Ksamil is still a very lovely area, but best seen in the morning.

We walked back to the apartment and enjoyed our usual breakfast before calling Briana and having a catch up with her for an hour.

That prompted an interest in the local body elections so we watched some of the mayoral candidates for an hour but unsurprisingly that gave Pete a migraine. So he had a lie down while I got a shower and blogged.

Made a cheese and tomato omelette for lunch and an iced coffee before strolling round to a bar to watch Liverpool vs Burnley. We had been hanging out to see the new team in action so we sat down with a beer and a coke, the bar owner very happy to see us as he only had one other customer. And I'm not sure if he was a customer or a friend/relative, as he kept helping himself to a beer from the fridge.

Anyway, they quickly saw why we were there and indicated we should sit where the other customer had been sitting as this had the primo view of the TV.  They also turned up the volume, which wasn't necessary as the commentary was in Albanian.

They then sat at the next table and smoked cigarette after cigarette. We noticed a big fan pointing right at us which wasn't on, and asked if we could turn it on. The owner quickly jumped up and turned the fan on. It had only one speed and it was turbo, so we sat there, fan full force in our faces for the remainder of the game as the bar filled up, until we had ten men all smoking around us. The fan did keep the worst of the smoke away but our eyes were very dry by full-time. Which may not have been the case if Mo Salah hadn't scored that last minute penalty!

We had been toying with the idea of watching the Manchester derby as well, but one game was enough. Our lungs needed some fresh air and our bodies needed to move.

So we went for a walk and came across the "best burger in town" for $11NZ, including fries, so thought we'd give that a try.

Well, it might have been the best burger, but it was also the smallest. I had Shish kebab and fries. It was nice enough and filled a gap, but we bought an ice cream each on the way back to the apartment to help fill the gap a bit more.

The dogs ready for a night's sleep in the middle of town.

Followed that with a cold milk coffee and bed at 9pm.