Local Color

I decided to leave my camera behind in the hotel room after changing clothes, content to just use the one on my phone when I needed to. There was going to be plenty of time to worry about serious filming later in the week.

When I was dressed in a new light button up and some cargo shorts, I looked over just in time to see Aaron pull out this gaudy looking bucket hat with blue and yellow stripes and plop it right on his head. The rest of him had changed into a white muscle shirt and knee-length trunks, and to complete his look he threw on a thick pair of obnoxious black sunglasses.

He turned to me with a flourish, dramatically flexing his lanky arms while asking if I was ready.

“You look like an idiot.” I told him in a dead pan.

He seriously stuck his tongue out like a child. “No, you.”

I rolled my eyes and made sure I had one of the room keys in a zipped pocket of my shorts before we left out the door.

Doris was kind enough to give us directions to the meeting spot where her friend volunteered, even giving the helpful tip of avoiding the back streets because they are indeed not faster than going her way despite the maps alleging.

Yes, a map; the folded pamphlet kind, not the GPS that tracks your location kind.

“Darn kids like to assume just because a street appears smaller on paper that makes it a shortcut. Then they complain that their precious schedule’s all messed up… bunch of whining ninnies.” Doris rambled, spouting curses in Greek here and there as she marked our map for us.

Something told me this old woman was going to be a real peach during our stay. I already liked her.

The meeting place was in a wide open courtyard that had a bit of a Venetian feeling to it with the high balconies of the buildings surrounding us and the lush ivy vines clinging to their walls. At the very center, drawing your eye to it immediately was a grand fountain that spouted three big but calm streams towards a graceful feminine statue at its core.

But my eyes quickly drifted down to the impeccably made stone flooring made of white and blue tiles arranged to look like a mural of waves circling the fountain in a spiral fashion.

I gotta hand it to this place everywhere you look would make an incredible set for a film production, perhaps a romantic-comedy of some kind… it was hard not to feel inspired by it all.

There didn’t seem to be any kind of ticket system or line to stand in or anything - it was just a group of tourists standing around semi-patiently waiting for the top of the hour just seconds away.

As we waited around with everyone else I found myself getting distracted by the fountain, or more specifically; the two little girls that were playing around it. They didn’t appear to be older than five; one was lying on her stomach on the wide stone rim as she splashed her hands around in the water and the other was balance walking around on it.

It felt nostalgic to watch them play, and sometimes you just wish you could go back to those carefree days.

Suddenly a panicked woman – their mother, I’m assuming – rushed over and yanked the one walking away from the fountain, setting her down on the ground and then she quickly did the same for the other. She knelt down next to both girls and appeared to quietly reprimand them, judging from her stern face.

I didn’t really see the big deal of a couple kids playing but to be fair it was a pretty large fountain, if they fell in it was basically a deep pool to them. Perhaps she was just worried they’d drown?

Then a person began loudly clapping their hands to gain attention, and I turned to see the group gathering around a petite young woman with strawberry blonde hair. She tucked a loose curl from her bun behind her ear as she smiled at us.

"Hello everyone, my name is Jodi Madison. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances, thank you for choosing me to guide you around today. Whether you are here to celebrate love or simply relax and escape the world for a while, rest assured there’s something for everyone to enjoy. I hope this tour will encourage you to seek out every bit of the hidden pleasures our little paradise has to offer you.”

Her English was positively flawless, with just the barest hint of a Greek accent in her dialect, but she sounded like she was speaking for a commercial advertisement. I wonder if this came from reciting the same starter lines for the same tour so many times.

I honestly can’t imagine being a tour guide to snobby and/or stupid tourists day after day… it sounds like torture. Like being trapped in a time loop where you experience the same mundane things but with different people every single day.

… Huh, that actually wouldn’t be a bad idea for a short horror film project. Just add that one to the hundreds I come up with on a weekly basis that will probably never be made.

Jodi turned out to be a very constructive speaker as she led the tour, the words flowing from her so seamlessly that there wasn’t a single stammer to be heard as she effectively kept everyone - even my attention deficit self - intrigued. She was concise and to the point about what we should be looking at and why it was significant to their culture.

Clearly she knew what everyone wanted to hear and how to explain it in a way that was descriptive while not feeling like a lecture. The really nice part was she actually seemed to be passionate about sharing it with us, and despite the occasional dumb question here and there she never lost her confident stride as she led us around the village.

What really amazed me the most was the fact that no matter where we were, no matter how different the altitude became there was always some incredible view waiting for us there. I thought I was going to run out of space on my phone with how many pictures I was taking so I could refer to them later when planning my shots.

At the same time though it was almost too easy to forget the real reason we were here and just live in the moment… Just be a normal guy hanging out with his best friend in an amazing place while we joked around about stupid things.

Jodi elaborated a bit more on the things Doris had been talking about, even pointing out a few archaic pieces of art that were made from the wood of the sunken ships that had washed up on the shore over the years. According to her there are more like it as well as an actual scrap piece of the front half of a pirates ship to be found in the museum, which only hyped me up further in planning to go there.

Throughout all the sights I took quite a few video recordings on my phone to send back home, and was bombarded with a bunch of heart emojis in reaction to every single one. She gushed through text over how cute everything looked and how jealous she was to not be here to see it herself.

A large part of me felt guilty for being able to experience all this while my mother was stuck back home in the horrible Texas summer heat… I really should take her on a trip somewhere of her choice to make up for it.

At one point we came across a stone slab that was randomly out in an open grass field Jodi had brought us to.

“Every year we hold a special two-day celebration during the peak of summer called Aphrodisia; the festival of love and fertility. This ancient holiday represents far more than just the love between two people – it revolves around uniting people of all backgrounds and ethnics coming together in harmony. After all, empathy is what brings most people together.”

Jodi then gestured towards the remarkably flat stone, which was long enough to have an adult lie on.

“And this… is where we hold the sacred ceremony for the offering to Aphrodite herself.”

“What’s the stone for exactly?” Aaron asked curiously.

Jodi turned and looked him dead in the eye to respond, her face as sweet and direct as she had been the entire tour.

“Oh… that’s where they used to sacrifice virgin men and offer their blood to the Goddess.”

There was a brief pause, and I swear I saw the color drain from Aaron’s face as Jodi stared him down. Even the rest of the group grew hush at the serious tone she used.

But then our guide’s face quickly cracked into a repressed grin as a snort escaped her nose, her hand quickly coming up to muffle the sound as she released a couple more.

“I’m sorry! I’m just kidding, I promise you!” Jodi giggled, which in turn made myself and a few ladies in the group laugh along at the dark humor.

Aaron’s face regained color and grew slightly red while mine had a huge grin on it.

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t resist...” Jodi said with an ‘apologetic’ smile and a wink.

“But in actuality there truly are no bloody sacrifices made during Aphrodisia other than that of a dove – the stone is primarily used to place a spiritual offering of fire and flowers. For the rest it’s very general; we hold a grand feast around a great bonfire and light special incense with which we send our gratitude to the heavens. As a matter of fact we highly recommend you pick up some for yourselves so you may be able to further celebrate our traditions with us during the festival next week.”

Incense? Yeah, I’ll definitely be passing on that. Stuff irritates my nose something fierce, and it doesn’t matter what it’s supposed to smell like it always just stinks to me.

Still, this island was turning out to be a lot more interesting than I originally expected it to be, the more we explored it the more potential I saw in the piece we were trying to create. The more the vision laid itself before my eyes.

Yeah, I could feel it… This was going to be a good trip. 

And who knows, maybe I'll make a conscious effort to come back and film one of my movies here when I'm more wealthy and credible.