GOING on holiday is supposed to be the most relaxing two weeks of your life.

But it was anything but for Callands resident Christine Howie and her family who were caught up in two international incidents.

The Howleys flew out to Greece on the morning of August 10, the same day that police forces are believed to have foiled a terrorist plot to bring down a number of planes, throwing airports across the country into chaos.

And four days before their return the family have described how they felt as though they were fleeing for their lives when the northern Greece forest fires hit their resort of Hanioti.

Mrs Howie said: "We flew out on August 10 but I guess we were lucky as we were one of the first flights that day at 5.30am.

"We spent the whole of the time at the airport in queues and going through security but the good thing about it was that we didn't really know what was going on.

"It wasn't until we got to the hotel when they explained what had happened."

And while the next 10 days were a relaxing holiday for the Howies and another family they had travelled out with, things took a turn for the worse on August 22.

Mrs Howie said: "We had seen some smoke when we were in the hotel but at the time we thought perhaps there was a fire in the distance.

"We went out to dinner and, as we were ordering, my husband was outside taking some photos. People started to panic then and leave their meals as you could see the fire was getting quite close.

"My husband then ran in and said we needed to leave. We felt as though we were running for our lives - even the palm trees were on fire.

"We managed to get on to the beach and my husband said our next move was going to be into the sea!"

The couple's daughter Kirsty was even left with a little singeing on her head from the falling embers.

The family was evacuated out of the resort the following day.

Mrs Howie added: "The first 10 days of the holiday were absolutely fantastic.

"We were starting to wonder whether it was meant to be though!"