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Published: April 14th 2009
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Some of the things that I am loving about our Greece experience:
Greece is vibrant, chaotic, authentic and charming. People just are. They don’t seem out to impress you and yet they do.
Fruit trees growing by the roads on the foot path - you see oranges and lemons growing and smell orange and lemon blossoms when you walk under them. They often have parsley growing at their base.
Everyone that we have interacted with have been very friendly and the hotel and restaurant staff speak excellent English and have menus translated into English. It makes our trip that much easier.
Organised chaos - the whole vibe so far has been fairly relaxed (except driving and then horns are used with gusto) and it appears that Greece does not have the same level of rules and regulations as home. You hardly see people on motorbikes wearing helmets, smoking can occur anywhere etc. I am not suggesting that this is a good thing, it is just different.
Sitting in a cafe listening to conversations in Greek, music in English (current top 40 music) and then music in Greece and seeing a TV with ads for Desperate Housewives
and Lost with Greek subtitles.
The experience of the universality of the world yet admiring the cultural diversity
We both feel very blessed to be doing this trip. We have discovered some lovely little treasures in the form of streets to explore, great restaurants and shops etc.
We came across a restaurant last night called the Happy Green Cow. As vegetarians, this is the type of name that instantly appeals! It was a good restaurant for vegetarians as it does not serve red meat and had plenty of vegetarian options. However, the true charm of the place was it decor - it was decorated in pinks, oranges, such vibrant and clashing colours yet it worked so well. It played jazz and blues too. Heaven! We have taken some pictures and will upload them. The owners were so genuine and happy. They were apologising for the weather as it has been pretty cold and spoke to us about the bush fires. We are definitely going back.
We have also found a wonderful cafe to spend some hours people watching. It is called Love Cafe and we spent a happy couple of hours there yesterday just talking and
passing time. We have had so little opportunity to do that lately that it was a luxury to do so.
The place where we are staying in Paros - Pension Sofia is highly recommended. Manolos was at the port to pick us up with a big smile. He drove us to his place and we found that it is very close to the main part of town - an easy 5-10 minute walk. The accommodation is his and his wife Sofia’s home. They keep the place beautifully. Lots of stone work, lovely gardens. Both Manolos and Sofia are so friendly and kind. Our room is great, a triple room that is spacious, clean and bright. We have our own balcony which is huge and looks over the garden and out towards the water. I think that we were given the best room in the place. We are glad that we have 4 nights here. There is free wireless internet (which is sporadic on Paros). All this for a bargain price of $60 aussie dollars a night! As a bonus, the owners have a friendly dog and cat.
Our four days in Paros is now at an end and
we have found the island very endearing. We made friends with Angela from the Love Cafe - such a sweet, lovely woman. We are hoping that she will have the opportunity to visit us in Australia one day. The Love Cafe ended up being our second home during our stay. We would have breakfast there, explore Paros and then return in the afternoon for a coffee and a game of chess (current count 6:2 - Jo is winning).
We had our first experience with driving on the wrong side of the road yesterday (right for Paros, strange for us). We hired a car and drove around the island. It is very small and easy to drive around. This place is beautiful.
We also had an opportunity to visit the Church of 100 Gates (doors). It was built in the 4th century. It was such a reverent place. High domes, stone work, marble carvings. The main church has 7 smaller churches leading off it. Pictures of Saints abound and the locals would kiss each picture as they made worship. We also visited the Archaeological Museum. It has a lot of sculpture and carvings. Some artefacts dated back to the
2nd and 3rd century BC.
We feel a bit sad to be leaving this island. I know that I felt at home here because I could imagine myself living here. That is always a sign of my enjoyment of a place.
Steve befriended any dog that he met along our journey (and there were many) and the cats too (if they weren’t too timid). Nyla - the dog at Pension Sofia - ended up playing with him the way that Misty does. It appears that playfully tormenting a dog and having them play back is universal! She got into the spirit of play very quickly and would roll on her back with joy. The owners were quite surprised because they weren’t used to her being so playful!
Now we sit on the ferry again, onto our next destination, Santorini. We have 5 nights here. As much as we enjoyed the Love Cafe and restaurants, we are looking forward to staying at Maria’s Caves House where we have a full kitchen. I need to start to cater for us again. Paros has been way too tempting. Each tea and coffee was served with a piece of cake. Steve
tried gallantly to eat them all for me and we asked they would not be provided to us, but were told that we were on holidays and we HAD to eat them to keep up our strength! I avoided most of them.....
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