Greece Trip - Part Three

Ok, I have some serious blogging to do to get up to date. However, it isn't going to happen this week. Jim and I are going to Colmar, France tomorrow and then Jim's mom comes on Monday.

September 9, 2008

The next morning, Jim and I swam to shore to explore what little was there on the island of Kea. It looked like it was a little tourist resort but was completely deserted save for an old man smoking a cigarette and drinking a coffee. It almost had an eerie feel to it as if there had been a big party there the night before and everyone was still sleeping or they were waiting for a big tour bus to come through.

We wanted to get a coffee but it didn’t seem like anyone was working at the bar. We decided that either the old man we saw needed some serious customer service lessons or he was staying at one of the bungalows behind the bar.

Thankfully, we were able to find a bathroom in the deserted town which was clean and even had toilet paper. Bathroom strategy came into play all week as we tried to avoid the bathroom on the boat.

Our second day sailing was a long one. We sailed for about 7-8 hours. We intended to go to Mykonos, but weren’t able to get there. I started to worry about whether we would have enough time to get to Santorini in time if we were consistently were behind schedule.

We ended up going to an island named Sryos and anchored at Ermoupoli. Ermoupoli was a great little town with tight alley ways filled with restaurants and little boutiques.

Unfortunately, Jim had gone down in the galley earlier in the day and ended up getting sea sick so we decided to stay in a hotel for the night. It also didn't help that our boat seemed to be rocking much more than any other boat in the harbor.

We had dinner on shore and then walked up to a chuch high above the town - Agros Greorgios. On the way down, we saw cats everywhere. I am not sure if they belonged to anyone but we saw a lot of cat food out for them as if they were community cats.

I was actually glad that Jim was seasick because having a hotel for the night was really nice. We were able to wash off the salt from the sea and get a good night sleep.

Wednesday, Sept. 10

The next morning, Jim and I went to the main square (Plateia Miaouli) for a coffee. We had our first Greek coffee sitting with 15 or so old men. They were all facing the square, drinking coffee, gossiping and fingering their worry beads or Komboloi. Worry beads are Turkish prayer beads which are often used to reduce stress and bad habits. They were generally only used by men but have more recently come into use by both sexes although we only saw old men using them.

The next island we went to was Naxos. It was the largest and most fertile island in the Cyclades and had lots of tourists as a result. We first tried to anchor in the bay near the port to avoid having to park the boat again, but when some policemen began yelling at us from shore, we surmised that it must be illegal to be there and reluctantly took the boat into the harbor.

After walking around the town that night, Jim and I set up our beds on the bow of the boat again. Unfortunately, the harbor was very windy, noisy and bright so neither of us slept much that night. I moved to different parts of the boat all night long which I think resulted in my glasses falling overboard. They somehow "disappeared" on our trip.

Thursday, Sept. 11th

It was another really rough day on the water so Jim was seasick again. He took over steering the boat and after a few hours seemed to be doing better.

Our next stop was Folegrandos which was a sleepy little port. All I could hear were the waves lapping the beach, and a dog barking in the distance.

Jim and I got another hotel that night at the Farm Hotel. The hotel did have a little farm next to it with chickens and goats.

That night for dinner we rented scooters and ATVs and drove up to the main town - Hora. I was a little scetched out by the rickety old scooter until I realized the poor thing couldn't go over 20 miles an hour.

I was on a mission to get seafood during this trip, but sadly the main "seafood" restaurant didn't have any fish. The seas had been too rough for the fisherman to go out. We ended up having dinner in a little square with Christmas lights hanging from the trees and little Greek girls playing nearby.