Day 44: Mamma Mia for REAL

I woke up with a purpose. I was going to make coffee with the Bialetti I discovered in the kitchen. I knew how to make it thanks to my talented father. I had it down. I prepared it all. Yet, sadly, it was a tragic end. I think the coffee was old. There is NO way it was my coffee skills. That would just be disgraceful. After opening up my failure, I saw that the water boiled up into the coffee grains but could not make it through the tube to bless me with liquid energy. In short, I was sad.

---

My coffee failure meant nothing. We were going to go get breakfast no matter what and coffee along with that. Anna and I walked into the trendy little restaurant called Fabrika for brunch. Between us we shared an order of French toast with butter, fig jam, and a form of garlic whipped cheese and avocado toast with scrambled egg on top. The French toast was where it was at since it employed their typical thick bread which is not naturally sweet. The scrambled eggs were also doing it for me. As Anna and I devoured our breakfast, we spoke a little more deeply about next year, our paths, and the year that led up to Harvard. The experience was beautiful in that I was sitting peacefully in a café on an island surrounded by the Adriatic sea talking about a subject that was forcing me to think and not just chat with absolutely no other plan for the day.

---

Running across some friends (it is a very small town), we sat for some time longer in the little café, eventually making our way to Factory Beach. This beach takes a little more effort to find. Climbing around a sky blue fence through the old fish tinning factory buildings, we came to a beach that has some massive concrete outcroppings which yielded some much needed refuge from the sun when needed. Alternating between the sun and the shade for the hours to come, I was flooded with happiness as the water tickled my toes and this surge of contentment ran through my veins. It is funny how I found this joie de vivre in a space of deserted buildings, a space where one could say that life looks like it has completely moved on.

---

Letting myself become a part of the beach until 6 or 7pm, I decided it was time to head back to get myself together for my last evening on this magical little island.

Washing off the salt and sweat from the day, I felt renewed again. Heat radiating off of my slightly burned body, I wore my red dress to say goodbye to my paradise. We made our way to the pizza place that we enjoyed on our first evening here, a little ceremonial celebration.

While waiting for a table, we saw this advertisement for the movie Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! going on tonight at 9:30pm at the open-air cinema. In short, we lost it. It was the perfect ending to our little vacation, a true full circle. We ran to grab tickets and ran back to get our table where we shared two pizzas, a margherita and 4 cheeses, along with a Greek salad, the salad full of the amazing feta and mouth watering onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

---

Running to the movie so as not to miss it, we laughed our butts off at the cheesiness of this second go around. What is even more a propos is that this movie filmed some parts on the island that I fell in love with. I was sad to let it go.

We could not end the night without going to get gelato for the third time. Wanting to try two new flavors, I went for caramel and Kinder chocolate. The flavors did anything but let me down.

---

After rocking out a little to the Fisherman's Festival's band, we sat by the dark endless water, enjoying the rest of our ice cream and discussing religious syncretism.

Encroaching on 1am, we made our way back to the Airbnb where our "host mom" was making cake for the guests coming tomorrow. The sweet lady had us try her pear, lemon, and cheese concoction and bid us goodbye. Despite our obnoxiously full stomachs, we were grateful nonetheless.

---

Packing quickly, we wanted to at least get a little nap in before our early bus. 2am rang out and our heads finally hit our pillows for our two-hour nap...

Oh, what a day!