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Published: September 9th 2006
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I sit here now, on my little twin bed (most of the rooms we rent come with two twins) where I have spent the last 19 nights. It is the first time in our travels that we have settled somewhere for any length of time. Sifnos has turned out to be the secluded, quiet island that we hoped for. In the port town of Kamares, where we arrived, we rented a scooter so we could set out to see the island and decide where we should stay. The scooter rental shop gave us a rudimentary map of the island, with a key that literally said “good road” “bad road”, and Bryan did a quick practice run on the bike before I jumped on and we were off to explore. Along the way we saw multiple villages, all dressed in white wash with blue trim, and tiny churches and monasteries delighted us around hidden bends and atop many hills.
The most remote of the villages, Cherronissos, was located on the northern tip of the island. We drove until the road ran out and there sat a building with the words “Room to Let” painted on its side. We observed it was
called Romanza and sat on a hill overlooking the water with four small rooms for rent upstairs and a family run restaurant below. The owner, Nicos, gave us a dish of figs (I’d never had one and I think they are the best piece of fruit every created) and told us he grew up in this town. When he was young his father made a living making pottery and Nicos had to walk to school each Monday, two and a half hours over the hills, to Artemonas, and back again on Friday. He explained that the electricity and paved road leading to Cherronissos had just been completed three years ago. Our interest was peaked and he informed us that his prime room would be available at 6:00 that evening and showed us the beautiful view from its balcony. The seclusion of the village, the view from our room of the little inlet with a total of 31 buildings (Bryan later counted them), and the personality of Nicos were the selling points that caused hands to be shook on the deal.
This island truly had everything we were looking for: The weather was perfect, hot but with a constant breeze
blowing; The water was clear, warm, and had ample jellyfish, octopus, crab, shrimp, and fish to make snorkeling fun; There were private beaches we could hike to with enough sand to lay our towels on and rocks to dive from; Our scooter rides included old men on donkeys fetching water, hand stacked rock walls enclosed with goats for local cheese, enough tiny monasteries and churches with simple, elegant lines to keep any photographer hobbyist busy for months, and gyros and Mythos for a grumbling stomach; But, the best part about Sifnos Island was that the rest of the world’s tourist hadn’t all flocked here.
Over time, we established a routine, almost like being at home, but far more fun. We began with Greek coffee (see Athens blog for explanation) and breakfast on our balcony. The newly purchased gas burner came in handy as we boiled water and fried sausage and eggs. Then we’d discuss what we’d like to do for the day before jumping on the scooter to explore; Whether it was a new beach to lay on, a town to sightsee, a church to take pictures of, or an acropolis to hike to, didn’t matter because they were
all enjoyable in their own way and we had as much time as we wanted.
About a week and a half into our stay I found myself feeling terribly sick. I had had a slight bladder infection in Rome but it seemed to have cleared up on its own and I forgot about it. Now, my stomach felt acidy, my lower back hurt, my head ached, I had chills and my bladder infection was back with a vengeance. The gripping in my lower abdomen was so tight that I spent hours wiggling around on my bed rather than sleeping at night. If our travel nurse, Eileen, is reading this, she’s going to scold me about the fact that I didn’t go to a doctor. But, it seemed that one day I’d start to feel better and then the next I’d be curled up whimpering in pain again and, in Sara fashion, I thought I could ride the storm and avoid a doctor’s visit. On the 5th day Bryan, having fed me crackers, yelled at me for not drinking enough water, and given me full reign of the bathroom, finally came back from the Pharmacy with antibiotics, after discussing my
Look closely...
that's right - he's wearing a snorkel and sandals... nothing else needed in this very secluded cove. condition at length with the pharmacists. I began taking them religiously and hoped they would work a miracle quickly, which they did. No one likes to be sick, and I’m as big a baby as one will find, but being sick and away from home, with no phone to call Mom Marline, was very hard on me. On the positive side, I learned that I could count on Bryan to take good care of me and tell me that I’m beautiful when my hair is greasy, I’ve spent half the day sitting on the toilet, and I’m wearing the same pajamas for the 5th day in a row. I can report that I’m feeling all better now, and if I feel sick again, I won’t wait to go to the doctor.
As it is probably evident, we love it here on Sifnos, but I don’t believe we would have stayed quite this long if it hadn’t been for the trouble we’ve had in trying to get our malaria pills through customs. We’ve thought about travel nurse, Eileen, for another reason besides my sickness. She had recommended buying our malaria pills at Costco since we needed to take them for
an extended period of time and required 500 pills. In our desire to save even more money, we opted to shop in Nogales, Mexico for our prescriptions before leaving. We were able to buy all of our medicine except the 500 malaria pills (see blog “10 Days and Counting”) and ended up purchasing this last prescription online, via a company in Canada. We were not happy with the $185 dollar bill but it was far cheaper than we would have paid in Nogales. Unfortunately, the medicine did not arrive in time for our departure and we asked Dad and Marline to forward it to us when we settled down somewhere long enough to receive a package. Sifnos seemed like a resting place to have said package sent, and they kindly forwarded it via Fed Ex. We could add another $95 to the total cost of the pills due to shipping (granted Bryan’s rolls of Copenhagen added substantial weight). We received a call (via Nicos) from the Athens Fed Ex office shortly thereafter, and were informed that the medicine was being held in customs and we would need to work together to get it released. Working together turned out to mean
Bryan and I had to make dozens of phone calls, find, receive and send several faxes (we found a local appliance store had a fax), pay an additional 175 euros ($225) to a customs clearance agency, track down and fill out an application for a permit from the National Pharmacy Organization (form found at a book store and filled out with the help of our Pharmacy friend because it was written in Greek), and then wait another 6 days for the package to arrive. This brought our malaria pills total cost to $505. Lesson learned: Go to Costco.
And so, here I sit on my twin bed, with a Lonely Planet guide book on Turkey, contemplating the repacking of my backpack. The Ottoman Empire awaits.
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Nurse Eileen
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Love reading your Blogs
Sara, I love your writing style, you are very descriptive and throw in a touch of humor...I never get tired of reading them... PS.The Cipro that I gave you can be used also for bladder infections...It works very well but you need to take it for at least 7-10 days. I won't tell you what the Doxy would have been at Costco...LOL Hopefully, you won't be sick again, but if you are, just email and I will try to help you decide what to do.