The Deserted House on Anaphi

I wrote this in the late 1990s - bear this in mind if you try to find this deserted house.  But I have day-dreamed about many other deserted Greek island houses!

The Deserted House on Anaphi

I would not have found the cottage if a couple of German tourists had not pointed it out. Looked at from the cold light of an English winter, the cottage was a ruin and would never be lived in again. Seen from the rosy viewpoint of a tourist I saw only the marvellous views and imagined living there. Even my rosy eyes saw the drawbacks of water from a distant well, and the long climb to and from the limited shops in the village. A cottage at the end of Europe indeed. The Germans had approached the cottage from the opposite direction to me, and I understood them to say that they had walked round the back of the mountain. I tried to do the same but found the terrain impenetrable. I spent longer than I would normally have done trying to get round, on the basis that anything they could do, I could do better. I eventually gave up. Meeting up later, we compared notes on our respective walks. It turned out that the Germans had walked in front of, not behind, the mountain!