PAROS

Sunday, November 11^th, 2007 Ferry boat to Paros and our little house….

Jim woke about 5 am and was dressed by the time I woke up about six. He went down to the ticket office and purchased our tickets. We took our things and boarded the ship about 6:45 am. Crowded but manageable, we found seats and purchased some coffee and chocolate to go with our apple pie that Julie had insisted we bring with us last night; made a great breakfast during our four hour cruise. I’ve been typing on my computer now for the past two hours and Jim has started to read my book, “The Kite Runner”. I’m going to bring it back to Julie at the end of our stay in Paros as she said she’d like to read it. Jim generally doesn’t like the same books as I do but he is thoroughly enjoying this one. Highly recommend you get the book if you haven’t read it. Amazing is all I can say.

I walked around while Jim was reading my new Journal and at the reception desk I found a card that said they had wireless Internet. I asked and it is ninety minutes for 9 euros. I immediately purchased some time and soon we were online for the last hour of our sailing time. This will be perfect for the trip back to Athens to send my journal and photos from our stay on Paros.

Arrived and Aristos was there to meet us. Nice man, younger than I thought he’d be; took us straight to the car rental place across the street and assisted us in renting a car. We took the mini compact, a Korean built Daewoo, stick shift; very basic but only 18 euros a day….a great price. We then followed Aristos for about a half an hour to the house. Can’t imagine how we would have found it without him. We’re located near the top of the hill just north of Drios; views to die for of the Aegean Sea and the islands along the coast. All white houses, flat roofs to catch the rain, and bright colors on the shutters, doors and fences. Water is very precious here on Paros and we need to drink bottled water unless we want to drive to a spring that Julie told us about last night.

The house is two stories on a hillside; you enter on the second story where there is a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and dining room. Downstairs there is a living room, bedroom and second bathroom. The house has very spacious rooms, all tile floors, lots of windows but without screens and most importantly a washing machine. Each load takes over two hours as they are European machines. Jim is thrilled that there is a satellite TV with about a thousand channels! CNN is primary as many of the others are in Greek. The owner of this home actually lives in North Carolina and was just here in October. Julie has been using the house every year for more than ten years, usually during August. I must say their detailed instruction books are fantastic. Puts my little Big Bear book to shame!

We also have five friendly cats that were waiting to be feed as soon as we arrived. They don’t belong to anyone but the owners encourage guests to feed the cats while here. We purchased cat food at the store and watched them devour every bite. They’re sitting at the patio door as I type hoping that we’ll let them in but that’s not going to happen; Jim will tolerate my feeding them but not allowing them inside the house; says he’s allergic to cats. We do have a lot of houseflies. I’ve been working with the fly swatter and have them under control. There is mosquito netting over all the beds so I guess that’s a problem in the warmer months.

After checking everything out and starting a load of wash we headed out to get gas for the car, find some early dinner and the grocery store. Got lost at our first turn but soon turned around and wound our way down the hill to the main road following the “Dasco Villa” signs. There we found gas and next door a wonderful Grill Restaurant called Pateneth or something like that. Family run and very good food, again we were the only foreigners in the room. Someone told us that Tom Cruise is of Greek heritage: his cousin was sitting in the room today having lunch. At least he looked a lot him Tom Cruise. Jim had lamb that we watched the owner/chef cut up with a huge meat cleaver before grilling over charcoal. I had a Greek Salad and we both enjoyed baked cheese with spices. Two beers completed our first meal on Paros; a great meal and I’m sure we’ll go back again while we’re here.

Drove towards Drios looking for the market; saw one on the edge of town but it looked closed. Jim pulled into the parking area behind and there was a man cleaning corn. I asked him if this was Margarita and Harry’s market and when would the market be open? He motioned us to follow him, I said are you Harry? He shook his head for a yes and unlocked the door. He turned on some lights and let us purchase some groceries. There wasn’t a huge selection, no eggs or fruit; but we found enough for breakfast and lunch and cans of cat food.

Continued to drive and then found other markets that were closed because today is Sunday. We’ll come back tomorrow as I don’t think that we were at the store that Julie told us about. Checked her email again after we arrived home and found the name of Margarita’s store, I don’t think that was Harry that we met. Continued to drive around the area before heading home to check on the laundry and learn more about our new house.