EXPLORING NAOUSA

Monday, November 19^th, 2007 Another rainy day……

We actually slept in until after 7 am after a restless night with storms coming and going throughout the night. Jim definitely has a cold and has started taking the Sud-a-fed that we have with us from home.

By morning the sun was out and although cool, Jim enjoyed several walks in the surrounding hills while I readied my photos and journal for a trip this afternoon to Naousa and the Internet for the sending of Journal # 9. I’m also busy reading my current book as it’s so good and I want to finish before we leave tomorrow afternoon.

Our supply of food is nearly consumed and we’re having the last of it for dinner tonight, with a rice base we’ll toss everything that’s left in the pot; a bit of this and a bit of that! We’re going to miss our house on Paros but look forward to getting to Mykonos by way of a night on Syros. We leave at 7:30 pm for Syros tomorrow evening where we will search for a nights lodging; everyone assures us that it will be no problem even at that time of night. Do hope the weather is mild. Then on Wednesday we will leave from there to sail to Mykonos at noon. Our family of cats is going to miss us as they've enjoyed a nightly feast of a full can of cat food. The last can shall be opened tonight. Then they will have to find another family who will continue to feed them.

Looks like rain out there right now; its noon on Monday and we’ll wait until about 2 pm to head into Naousa. Jim is hoping for another serendipity journal up a strange road to a monastery that we can see at the top of a hill along the coast from our window.

Written later in the day:

This afternoon proved to be an adventure. First we started up the mountain to see if we could reach the monastery on top. It started to rain and then we found that we’d have to hike the last portion up a very steep hill. Backed the car down a very precipitous narrow road to a spot where we could finally turn around.

We then went on to Naousa for the Internet Café. Arrived at 2:30 and found a note on the door that it would not be open until 3 pm. Spent the time walking around the port and over to the ruins of a Venetian castle. We waited from 3 to 3:30 and no one came to open up the café so we headed towards Parikia and explored the ruins of the Frankish Castle there before getting gas for the car and heading back to Naousa and the known Internet Café since we couldn’t locate one in Parikia. Arrived to an open café and while I went in to use the Internet, Jim walked around taking video shots of the village and the mushroom storm clouds in the sky. We had storms off and on all day so the clouds were truly magnificent. Suddenly, Jim came into the café and announced he’d locked the keys inside the car. They only provide one set of keys so we borrowed the café telephone and called the number on the car of the rental agency that was posted on a sticker on the car. Nick, the owner of the company arrived within about ten minutes and shortly afterwards I finished downloading journals and emails. Thank goodness for small islands!

We did take the time to email our friends and family a send wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving next week as we never know when the next Internet Café will happen. But, as the years pass they do seem to happen much more frequently than five years ago.