Day 15 / A Parabolic Boogie
80s anthems, sunsets and history - these are a few of my favourite things
Biscuits resisted: 1 box (v good)
ABBA tracks: 0 (a rare event)
Information boards wished for: 2 (just call me Dad)
Saltburn moments: 1 (guess which lol 🔪🛁🪩)
My next artist date is a little different.
I pencilled it in last week but come the afternoon, I’m feeling decidedly un-datey.
All I really want is put a face mask on and eat my way through the tray of apricot chocolate biscuits I found at the supermarket (startling revelation, 9/10).
But no, I say. It’s artist date night. Time to show up for myself. And yes, I’m well aware that I’m currently in the middle of an entire month of me time but still, it’s the principle that counts.
So I lace up my running outdoor activity shoes, jump in Suze, and head west.
Goat Spotting (Again)
I park up at the usual goat sunset spot but this time, I turn right and start winding up the gravel track towards Leros’s very own parabolic acoustic mirror.
Yes, I know. Sounds v funky. Drinks on me if you actually know what it is.
The track cuts upwards in hairpin bends, each one revealing another island bay and cliffs glowing in the early evening light.
Way down below, the sea has gone soft, almost cream-like from up here and the detention centre hasn’t quite switched to full floodlit spaceship mode yet.
Somewhere down there, tucked into the trees, is my little hermit house.
Funk-Busting
To help shake off my slight funk, I pop in my earphones and hit play on my ‘Greece Upbeat’ playlist. Brace yourselves - not a single ABBA song in sight (shocking, I know but they’re reserved exclusively for my Greece ABBA playlist, durr).
Instead, a soundtrack of indie classics - think The Killers and Vaccines - meets 80s bangers, hello Pet Shop Boys and Pulp. I’m soon striding up that hill. Singing along. Alarming the goats I come across.
God, has a power walk ever felt so good?!
Ruins-ing
At the top, the entire sky has turned molten gold. Long shadows are everywhere. Just me and the goats.
And there she is, the parabolic acoustic mirror herself. Three sweeping concrete semi-circles that look like something out of a dystopian film. Equal parts bizarre and brilliant.
So, I hear you all cry out, what is this concrete mirror you talk of?!
Well, allow me to put you out of your misery.
Back when the Italians controlled the island, humans had learned how to fly but were yet to develop radar. So in order to have some warning of planes approaching the island, the Italians built what is essentially a massive listening device to hear them before you could see them.
Apparently they would put a blind man (heightened hearing) in the middle who could hear any planes 17 minutes away - just enough time to warn the rest of the island.
Boogie-ing
Whether you're into old war ruins or not, it is pretty cool and I have the place to myself for a proper parabolic boogie to Disco 2000.
There are some other ruins - barracks, look out huts, what looks like an old toilet block - and again I do find myself worrying wishing for an information board or two.
Guess I get it from you Dad (along with my dodgy runner’s knee).
Kitchen Disco-ing
I head back down as the sun starts properly setting. The tunes continue and soon I’m having my very own kitchen disco à la Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Murder on the Dancefloor blasting. Pasta bowl in hand. Swirling around the terrace.
The funk is long gone.
Guess all I really needed was some power walking to ballads, a dash of history and a Saltburn-esque end to the day. Albeit with fewer (ie zero) murders or bathtub moments.
