From Santorni to Paros

Saturday, 7 April

This is Joan writing about yesterday (Saturday), since Nicole was rather unwell again and doesn't have the best of memories of it :(( It will also just help her catch up so that you will all read about the day before, rather than two days before.

The day started as days have to, with breakfast. The little dining room is one staircase up from our rooms, so I slipped up and made some toast with honey for Nicole, which she had in bed. The rest of us enjoyed the lovely little continental spread - great breads and pastries! Then we went and packed up. Officially we were meant to vacate the rooms by 11am, but they were letting us keep one of the rooms till at least 1 pm, which really made things easier. Nicole worked a bit on her blog about Thursday, but she got so tired (she's really a bit run down from the bug that seems to be lingering) that she climbed into bed for a sleep.

Roy, Ash and I decided to do one last little trip in to Thira town. The receptionist called for a taxi who was there in less than 5 minutes. The idea was to buy a little soft toy donkey for a friend's daughter. There are plenty of shops in Thira and quite a lot of them sold donkeys in various shapes and sizes. Ashlyn spotted a cute one and insisted THAT was the one. By the time we got back to the hotel she was already pretty attached to it, I think. She told Nicole she chose it because it was "looking at her." Next it was given a name and now it's little head sticks out of her backpack. I think we might have to find something else for Robyn in Paros - detaching Ash and the donkey might be traumatic!

While in Thira, we also wanted to buy some plain goodies that Nicole and Roy could manage to eat. We found Marie biscuits and even some Dutch rusks (made in Athens and much cheaper than the rusks at De Zoete Inval). They even taste Dutch. Ashlyn and I decided Dutch rusks for lunch didn't excite us much and tucked into a delicious souvlaki, which we ate in town, before heading back to the hotel where Roy and Nicole had their lunch. Nicole had had a pretty good nap while we were gone and since then has pretty much been back to normal again (Roy too, fortunately).

The healthy people's lunch

The sick people's lunch

Our transfer to the port was at 2:40pm. The ferry was due to arrive at about 3:15, but it turns out that Greek islands have their own version of Africa time. It only arrived after 4 and nobody (except me) seemed to find this stressful. By the time the cars, trucks and people had disembarked and the new ones embarked, it was about 5pm. The ferry was really comfortable on board and also rather quiet, so we could spread ourselves out. It was a very pleasant 3 hour trip to Paros. Nicole and I took turns on the iPad to write the blog, Roy read and explored the ship and we supported the on board Greek version of Wimpy, called Goodies, for an early dinner.

It was still fairly light by the time we reached the island. It's mountainous and very pretty, and the main port, Parikia, was rather buzzy. We had to walk along the seaboard for about 200 meters to reach the Avant car rental company. Outside we were met by Kostas, the owner of the villa we are staying in, who has been emailing me for the last few months. As he saw us, he said "Mrs Joan?" This is what he started calling me after he mistakenly addressed me as Mr Campbell in his first email. When I pointed out his mistake, every email after that started with "My dear Mrs Joan..." He waited patiently while Roy did the paperwork for the car and we got a few supplies at the supermarket next door (everything closes in Greece on a Sunday). He also loaded all our luggage in his car, since the Nissan Micra couldn't handle much more than our hand luggage (he's already said he'll help us with it to the airport too).

Paros in sight

Then we carefully followed him the 7km's to Agia Irene. He was so proud to show us our little villa and tell us about the gardens he has planted in the last 5 years. He also told the kids about the rather tame duck that has become a permanent t resident here and follows people around for food. We couldn't help think of Scilly when he told us they never lock the doors here and that guests who have left wallets down on the small beach in front of the units go back the next day to find it in exactly the same place. I think we're going to enjoy it here!