According to the people who know, there are sections of Sifnos outside the main part of town that are even nicer. I like the main part, mainly because I like to interact with people (when they're nice), and you get a lot of that in town. Either way, there is a tourist office, and the woman there, Sophia, was very helpful, and spoke good English. She said that if you like the town of Kamares, then you will love the rest of the island even more. High expectations. We rented a car, a Chevy no less, and decided to investigate. First off, we wanted to learn more about the pottery, as well as the local food and cooking scene. We stopped again at Symos and introduced ourselves to the proprietor, a lovely woman they refer to ... read more

Since I am having some trouble with Blogger, not to mention the uncertainty of finding good internet, I'll try to catch up on this blog and get as many entries in as possible. As you might have guessed, I am hopelessly behind on these posts. We are on day 14 of our trip, so that gives you some idea of where I stand, but that's mainly because we have been having a great time and there's not much time to write. I figured we'd be on the islands, sitting on a deck soaking up the sun, and I would have tons of free time to blog, but that has not been the case. This is not a bad thing, mind you, I'm just behind. Anyway, enough of ranting. After three days, we were off to Sifnos, ... read more

One thing you notice when you first stay in Europe is that the bathrooms are different. Not just in size, which is generally smaller, but in style. They look hip and stylish, albeit smaller, with the showers tending to have the hand held head, which can be nice at times. The toilets also look and work differently. In fact, when I first encountered them, it took a few moments, at least it took me a few moments, to figure out how the things worked. The flush mechanisms are often on the wall behind the seat, and there are two settings, a low flush for #1 and a big flush for #2. There is usually less water in the bowl than what Americans are probably used to, leading to an interesting bathroom experience, to say the least. ... read more

I am having trouble with Blogger, so my posts have been inconsistent. Sorry about that. We spent our last half day in Athens scrambling to find myself a patch with the Greek flag. In the past, I’ve collected pins with the national flags and pinned them to my backpack, and then proceeded to lose them all, which is a bummer, because the pins are cool, and we gotten them from some pretty cool places, but such is life. My new plan is to buy patches, and then sew them on. Problem solved, as long as I manage to actually sew the things on. The city was really nice in the AM, again, not unlike NYC. Cool, quiet, and peaceful, though only a handful of vendors were open at that hour. The ones that were open were ... read more

We settled quickly into our hotel, getting acquainted with the layout. It's a nice room, with two bedrooms, so the kids can have their own space. I always find it interesting to scope out European bathrooms, which are always so much different than what we have in the States. They're so Euro. You have to remember that a town like Athens is old, thousands of years old, in fact, and a lot of the infrastructure is old. Plus, parts of the city wasn't really designed for modern conveniences, like cars, and the hotel rooms tend to be small. I personally love European hotels, because they always have charm and character, though not the conveniences and high tech gadgets you get in American hotels. Hotels in the States, however, are literally all the same, while when you ... read more