Naked in Monemvasia.

My wife belongs to an organization called the WIC, Woman’s International Club. The club often organizes trips, some husbands go along, they are informally called the DICS, do not ask what it stands for, each person has it’s own definition. Needless to say there is a bit of drinking amongst the DICS, so the trips with the wives are a big success. The women feel good that the men made the effort to be with them and the men figure they are entitled to have a drink or two on these trips.

I have to admit that we have had some really great trips, Turkey, India, Monemvasia, the Greek Islands, and many more.

The Turkish trip was memorable, more about that later. The cruise to the Greek Islands was another great trip. The one that stands out to me though is the trip to Monemvasia, I made a complete fool of myself on that one. I will share it though, since it was bizarre.

Monemvasia is this great walled city on the first finger of the Peloponnese; it was Byzantine, Venetian, Frank, Turkish, and now Greek. It was a wonderful defensive position, the name means, “Only entrance”. Look it up and you will be amazed at its beauty and historical importance.

We went with the group, for a long weekend, and stayed in this series of old interconnected houses converted into a very elegant first class hotel.
We had a wonderful room with an amazing view. There was a problem though; all the doors in the hotel are the same, room doors, bathroom doors as well as closet doors. This shortcoming will play a role in my mishap.

After a long evening meal at one of the local tavernas, with very ample amounts of monemvasia wine, and lots of laughs, we all wandered back to our hotel. The infamous hotel with the uni designed doors.

We are in our room and soon fast asleep. At about 4 in the morning I woke up and went to the toilet, or so I thought, I opened the door to our room instead and found myself in the hallway, obviously the door closed and locked behind me. The title gives it away, I was naked, I did not want to knock on the door to wake my wife up, God knows why. I went to find a toilet, assuming there was one nearby, I was soon wandering in the courtyards of the hotel, I found the breakfast room, the bar, the reception area, and all closed thank heavens, no toilet so far. I continued to wander, avoiding leaving the actual hotel and going into the road. I finally found a large pot of bougainvilleas on one of the terraces, with a view of the sea, this would have to do. The next challenge was to find our room, but I was feeling relieved and fortunately found the room. I knocked and was let in by my rather surprised wife.

Breakfast was my recount of the story to mixed reviews, laughter, shock, distain and even some people worrying about the bougainvilleas outside of their room. It was too good a story not to share.

When you visit Monemvasia, and stay at this amazing hotel, make sure you know which door is which.