You shouldn’t go back -especially with holidays. Not that you can’t revisit places – I have been to Venice and Florence but would like longer in both places. I mean that you cannot recreate a special holiday – something that is so brilliant and amazing. Going back is always going to be anti-climactic.
Everything was slightly worse. We had to get the really early flight which meant leaving Brightlingsea at 2am. Andy had been out celebrating his birthday and it was a nightmare waking him up. We were thinking that we would have to leave without him as we banged on his door. As it was we had to give him a lot of coffee and a fry up at the airport. Fair play to him that he managed to make the journey, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have.
There were only four of us this time as Dave had settled down with Rose and his holidays would be with her from then on. This meant that we were in one apartment and did not have the luxury of space (or two bathrooms). The maids did not come round on Sundays and on the second Monday we were too hungover to let her in. Three days-worth of toilet roll from four men is not fun.
The first night we ate and eagerly headed for Club 69 – our favourite bar from the previous year. It was dead and the two waitresses (Mandy and Miriam) who we had wanted to catch up with were gone (one pregnant and one getting married). Their replacements were not as good.
We got the party rocking there by dancing on the tables and getting people in. The tables were about four feet high and I fell off. A lot.
The trouble was that we knew everywhere. Kos is small enough to cover in one holiday and there was nothing left to look at. We spent our time in pretty much the same places drinking and partying. We even went to The Ghetto Bar that we had studiously avoided the year before, where Andy guested on drums.
(Andy drums)
We went back to Heaven and Kalua.
(Neil and John)
We met plenty of people – Alison and Lyn from Scotland; Carol and Justine, and Kato. Stavros challenged some semi-pro arm wrestlers to a competition and failed. We played football for the Club 69 team and beat a Dutch team.
We watched the end of the European football championship (it was hard to find a bar showing it as basketball was more popular in Greece). This was the year Graham Taylor decided that Gary Lineker (48 goals for England was less likely to score than Alan Smith, 2 goals for England) with England failing to progress (Taylor would go one better and fail to get England to the 1994 World Cup Finals). Denmark beat Germany in the final and they were only there as Yugoslavia were removed from the finals due to the civil war that had broken out.
I am not saying that it was not fun, but it was not as good as it had been the first time.
(Neil, Alison & Lynn)
The biggest song that year was by Nirvana. Grunge had arrived and replaced hair metal. Nirvana’s career was short as only a couple of years later Kurt Cobain blew his own brains out in his Seattle home. What a waste. This song remains not only highly influential, but an absolute stormer that still speaks to young people nearly 30 years later.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Playlist:
- Smells Like Teen Spirit
- In Bloom
- Come As You Are
- Lithium
- Polly
- On A Plain
- Heart Shaped Box
- Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
- Pennyroyal Tea
- Rape Me
Five Miles Out 