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Greece: Cyclades

Tuesday May 16, 2006: Departure

After a short night and a last working day full of stress for Eef and a day off for Timo (doing a lot at home) we get up at 03:45, perfect to be at the airport on time. Maurits picks us up at home at 04:15 and drives us to Zaventem. We’re right on time and wait a little while to check in. leave the bag pack and suitcase there, then we pass the control; we were told this was done a lot more intense, but we don’t notice it now. We can pass faster than ever – all is OK. We take the time to have breakfast: coffee chocolate cake, croissant and 2 raisin biscuits. At 06:00 we go to gate 48, wait for 20 minutes and board almost as the last people. Marvelous! We have emergency exit seats with a lot of legroom. A nice flight that takes us by 10:45 (Greek time) to Athens. We don’t have to wait for the luggage. We want to take a bus to Rafina and then return to Athens. The next bus is 1.5 hours later, so we immediately go to Athens center by subway with all the luggage. After one hour we need to switch trains at Monastiraki and go to Viktoria station. This stop is near the departure station of the buses, so we first check when we have a bus to Rafina (at first every 30 minutes, later every 45). We take our bag pack, the suitcase and the hand luggage to the museum and check until what time it’s open and if we can leave the bags somewhere. Both perfect: the museum opens until 19:30 and there is a separate space for the bags. We already knew the opening hours, because we’ve sent an e-mail and received a reply, but you never know in Greece.

FORMAL MESSAGE

National Archaeological Museum

1 Tositsa Street

Athens 10682, Greece

Tel. 0030 210 8217724

Fax 0030 210 8213573

Information: K. Spirou

Prot.No. 3403

Dear Sirs,

In reply to your email dated 8/5/2006, we would like to inform you that the opening hours of the National Archaeological Museum for Tuesday, May 16th 2006 are 08:00 - 19:30.

Yours sincerely,

The Deputy Director of the National Archaeological Museum

Dr. Rosa Proskynitopoulou

We each have a sandwich: one with chicken and salad and another one with feta and salami. We eat and drink and then enter the Archeological Museum. Seven Euro each and we get to see about 40 rooms with archeological finds. No problem. We check out the most beautiful pieces of art and visit the rooms for about 2 hours. There are the famous dead masks, a lot of kore statues and an unbelievable huge collection of bronze art and stone vases. A few of the most important finds from the museum are listed here (from the site of the museum):

Neolithic figurine. Clay idol representing an ithyphallic seated man, found in Thessaly. The unique in its kind rendering of the male figure, possibly a god, is an outstanding example of the Chalcolithic sculpture. Dated to 4500-3200 B.C. Inv. no. 5894. Early Cycladic figurine. Marble statue of a woman, belonging to the characteristic folded-arm type. It was found on Amorgos and it is the largest known example of the Cycladic sculpture. Dated to 2800-2300 B.C. Inv. no. 3978. The "harp-player" from Keros. Marble idol representing a seated musician who plays the lyre of harp. The three-dimensional figure, typical of all the male idols representing musicians, is an early achievement of the Cycladic sculpture. It was found at Keros and dates from the Early Cycladic period (2800-2300 B.C.). Inv. no. 3908. The "spring" fresco depicting the landscape of Thera with volcanic rocks, red lilies and swallows flying in the air. From Complex D at Akrotiri, Thera. 16th century B.C. Inv. no. BE 1974.29. Grave stele from Mycenae. Funerary stele made of shelly sandstone, bearing the relief representation of a hunting or a fighting scene, including a chariot. It was found over Shaft Grave V of the Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Dated to the second half of the 16th century B.C. Inv. no. 1428. Gold mask from Mycenae. Funerary gold mask known as "Schliemann's Agamemnon", found in Shaft grave V of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Dated to the second half of the 16th century B.C. Inv. no. 624. Bronze dagger. Both sides of the dagger are covered with gold and silver decoration inlaid in bands of niello. On one side of the blade a lion hunting scene is depicted and on the other, lions seizing antelopes. It was found in Shaft Grave IV of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Dated to the second half of the 16th century B.C. Inv. no. 394. Rock-crystal vase. Oval bowl made of rock crystal, with an open spout and a handle in the form of a duck's head. It is a true masterpiece of Minoan stonework, found in Grave O of Grave Circle B at Mycenae. Dated to the 16th century B.C. Inv. no. 8638. The Vapheio cups. Pair of gold cups found in the tholos tomb of Vapheio in Laconia. The releif representations depict scenes of bull-chasing. They are unique masterpieces of the Creto-Mycenaean metalwork, dated to the first half of the 15th century B.C. Inv. no. 1758, 1759. The Tiryns signet ring. Gold signet ring from the "Tiryns Treasure". On the bezel is depicted a ceremonial procession of lion-headed genii holding libation jugs, towards a seated female deity. Dated to the 15th century B.C. Inv. no. 6208.

Then we start to get a bit tired and go outside to get a drink. Water and two frappe, for which we need to have some patience. We take the bus from Athens to Rafina and are in Rafina at 17:30. We’re dead beat now. We first check when the boat leaves tomorrow and then look for a free room in a hotel (Hotel Akti). We immediately book a room for one night and pay 70 Euro – is not too much for Rafina. We first set some stuff in order and then have something to eat and drink: ouzo, water (neró), chorta, calamari, choriatiki, and fried peppers. It tastes very good. At 20:00 we’re tired and go to the hotel. First some water, retsina and cigars, then to our room, write the diary and sleep. We’re exhausted.

Wednesday May 17, 2006: Boat trip to Tinos and Tinos city

Timo does not have a good night rest; he is awake all hours of the night and at 06:15 he is completely awake and gets out of bed to watch the rising sun. He sits on the balcony, while the Greek sun is starting to unleash her beams over Rafina. A beautiful sunrise over the mountains of Evia. At 06:30 Eef is also awake. We still have time to take a shower before we need to take the boat to Tinos. We quickly buy a ticket, get on the boat and he leaves 15 minutes later. The boat is loaded, apparently with a lot of people traveling to Mykonos; no one leaves on Andros. We reach the harbor of Andros in about 2 hours and then we’re just halfway down. There is not much to see on the boat, there is a lot of noise and especially young Greek people are on the boat. Stavros in Rafina will explain 2 weeks from now, that they’re all students staying for their holidays at Mykonos, only 4 or 5 days. At the three hours point we reach the spot, where Andros and Tinos almost can touch each other and then it takes less than an hour until we’re on Tinos Island. We know a few hotels from Trotter and Eef first goes out to look for Alanavou Street and from there we can start the search. She return half an hour later and says she knows where the street is, but it’ a long walk. Nor problem. We go with the bag pack, suitcase and hand luggage. We arrive in the street, where we need to be and a Greek speaks to us, saying that his hotel is also mentioned in Trotter. He has rooms with a balcony for only 25 Euro. Let’s do it. He gives us a little room with a private bathroom down the hallway, small room, but nice and neat. With the 25 Euro breakfast is included and that is being served in the garden. He leads us there and then we can go our own way. It seems like we’ve chosen good: at Manthos and Marios Boussetil. We put on other clothes and go into town to see some stuff already, i.e. a good tavern or restaurant. We find something nice at the other side of town and have lunch. It 13:30 so it’s time for tzatziki, choriatiki, tiri saganaki with bread, retsina and water. Very good! Next to the tavern there is a fish store and the owner has a pet: a pelican, a beautiful animal. We go back to our rooms and put on long trousers and a T-shirt that covers the shoulders, because we want to visit the monastery of Tinos - Panagia Evangelistra. This is one of the most famous monasteries in the world; orthodox people come here in august in swarms. Now it is a lot calmer, but even as pretty. There is a red carpet leading from the entry gate to the actual church with iconostasis. The whole church is full of ex-votos hanging down with animals, ships, fishes and similar things; all typical things, which are important to the Greek people. We also visit the crypt and then go down back to the harbor. Then we go for a rest, write the diary and our postal cards that we bought on the way to the rooms. Timo goes out for jogging. He has started with a jogging schedule at home and he wants to keep on running here. He jogs 10 minutes and walks 2 and does that 4 times. It’s warm; let’s even say hot. Eef has fallen asleep and Timo comes home and already showers. Then we prepare to go out to eat at 19:30 starting with an aperitif. Same restaurant as we had for lunch. Ouzo ‘me salty fish’ as aperitif and then Timo orders melanouri, but there is no melanouri available in the fish store and he can have another fish of 550 grams. Eef has chicken souvlaki, also very tasty. We enjoy it all this evening and taste some of all the different dishes. We actually don’t need to pay very much, 43 Euro and that for fresh fish. Indeed fresh, it comes directly from the store next door. Nice tavern! Then we go home and watch some Champion’s League: Barcelona – Arsenal. After 45 minutes score is 0-1 and then we go to sleep, because it’s already 23:30. Tomorrow we’ll rent a car and cruise around the island.

Thursday May 18, 2006: Explore Tinos

We get up in the morning and to for breakfast in the garden. The women of the house (Antonia) bakes bread and we have coffee and marmalade with white (!) butter. Breakfast is nothing special, but it’s never like that in Greece. After breakfast we prepare to go to explore the island. Timo goes to Dimitris rent-a-car, but the door is closed. At 09:00 he returns and the door is now open, but there’s nobody there, so turns to the other rent-a-car on the other side of the street. Yesterday evening the person at the desk of Dimitris had told us there was a small car available for only 25 Euro and now at Vidalis there is also a Suzuki Alto for the same price. Then minutes later he has the car and picks Eef up at the hotel. She is waiting there, because Timo was away quite a long time. So we’re now ready to leave. The first direction we go is inland into the mountains to the ‘Convent of Our Lady of Angels’ Kechrovouniou. We at first drive past it and then turn and see it on our way back. There is a lot of wind and we return to the hotel for long trousers and a vest – it’s even pretty cold out here. Within 30 minutes we’re back at the monastery and visit it ‘decently dressed’. The monastery is a small village on itself, not busy at all: we’re the only tourists here. There are a few churches a there is only one nun we see. We drive on to Exovourgo, get out of the car and get back in. The hill has the look of the Mont Ventoux: foggy, low hanging clouds, very cool and a lot of wind, not as high as the Ventoux though. Then the road to Volax, a nice village with the typical colors of the Cyclades: blue and white. We walk in the village for a while, look at the pigi (source), the square, the church and the little theatre. Again very quiet and nice. From Volax we don’t take the road to Kolimbithra, but drive on to Kalloni, Kardiana to Pirgos. There is the next stop: two monasteries, but we don’t enter. It’s great to stroll through the small streets, we watch the beautiful town square and walk on. We almost loose our way here. This is one of the many nice villages on Tinos and we now move on to Panormos, a harbor in the north of the island. We have domadokeftedes and kolokithia with a can of local white wine. We then take the road back to Pirgos, Kardiana and then pass by Komi to Kolimbothra. There we find a beautiful bay to snorkel. We have diving gear with us, so we park the car and walk over the beach to the other side of the bay. We dive into the water and realize it is very, very cold. We can only stay in for 15 minutes, because it’s too cold without a suit. We see a lot of fish however, little ones, big ones, black and colored ones, a lot of sea urchins and anemones. It’s too cold to stay snorkeling too long, we make ourselves dry and drive back to Tinos city. We rinse all gear, take a shower and go to Konia by car; it’s not far from Tinos. We each have 2 frappe there and check out the plans for our new house. We think it’s all OK. After a while we return to the hotel, drop off the car at Vidalis and go eat at Aithrios. We don’t have a lot today: moussakas and gemista. After supper we go back, because we’re tired; we’ve seen and done a lot today. We drink some ouzo back home and watch television. We don’t find a show of the Eurovision song contest: too bad. By 22:30 we’re asleep.

Friday 19 May 2006: Move to Mykonos and see the town

Timo gets up early at 07:30 and jogs for about an hour: three times 15 minutes and 2 minutes walking. At 08:30 he’s back and takes a shower. Then we have our last breakfast on Tinos, pay and say goodbye to Antonia and then leave for the harbor. Antonia gives us the address of a friend of hers on Naxos: Pension Kalamies. We buy two frappe (two times metrio) and wait an hour at the harbor in the sun: nice, a boat just comes in the harbor, moors and immediately sells a few crates and sacks of fresh fish. We’re sitting on a great spot and feeling good. Suddenly we see the big ‘Penelope A’ and he goes to the other side of the harbor. Timo was at the desk earlier to ask where the boat would moor and we had to wait in this part of the harbor. So we race against time to the other side for about 10 minutes and make it just on time. To Mykonos! A boat full of youth and disgusting people. We’ll see what it brings. 30 minutes later we arrive at Mykonos and then it takes another 30 minutes to get off the boat. A herd of people, a sea of persons, is waiting like stupid cows and cattle to get off the boat. We first wait a bit and then get off too and search for a free room with the entire luggage. At the first hotel ‘Hotel Delos’ Eef checks if a room is available and returns with a key after 20 minutes. All right, a room on Mykonos for 45 Euro. We don’t unpack, because we’re leaving tomorrow. At 13:00 we look in the town for kebab and find it quickly: very good. Then it is time to start exploring the city and the alleys. It is a little more busy than on Tinos, but it still is OK: little alleys, a lot of churches and then get lost. The mills of Mykonos is something, that needs to be seen, Little Venice is nice too (very busy) and we walk up and down the streets and left and right into and out the alleys. The tourist can’t demolish the charm of the town. We rest a bit till about 18:00and go for supper at 19:00. Eef had seen earlier a nice quiet place and so we enter into a dark and strange looking alley and find ourselves a quiet square with a restaurant ‘rendezvous’. The cook is an old Greek women, the waitress is her daughter. We have sardines, tzatziki, bread, soetzoekakia, with a lot of “aspro krasi” (local white wine – three times half a liter) and we enjoy it. We stay here late, smoke a cigar and then go back to the hotel. Eef goes out to buy cigarettes (Assos light) and we drink another two beers. At 23:30 we go to bed, we’re actually pretty tired. The only thing that keeps us from having a good night of rest is our partying friends of Mykonos.

Saturday May 20, 2006: Delos and Antiparos

During the night we could not sleep very well – as we expected – but in the end it was not too bad. We slept till 05:45, got woken up by the disco noise and slept till 08:00. We start to make our pack ready to go to Delos. Hat on and a lot of water with us, because there is not wind at all today and it’s predicted to get hot today. By 09:00 we’re at the boat “Margarita”: a small boat with maximum 10 passengers on it. It only takes 20 minutes to get to Delos. Yippee. We pay 5 Euro to enter the site and then Timo leads the way with a map in his hand through the monuments, temples and square. The most important things are: arena, theatre, the lions, the house of the dolphins and of the masks, the holy street and as last thing the museum. We don’t have to stroll, cause in the end we just have enough time to see it all. We see a lot of gecko’s, lizards and spiders. Delos is very nice, what an opposite from Mykonos. The later it is, the busier it gets here. We’re glad we came with the first boat. By now there are a couple of 100 people walking on this small island, so time for us to leave. We take the boat back at 12:15 and we’re back in Mykonos at 14:00. We buy our tickets for Flying Cat 4 to Paros and eat a kebab on the way back. Then we pack the last things and pay the bill: 45 Euro for only 1 night, that’s a lot in comparison to other islands, but yeah, we knew it up front. We check out at 14:00 and go to the harbor. We wait in the special equipped waiting room. Eef withdraws money and uses the cash immediately to buy some ice cream. Out of the Flying Cat a lot of people join the island of Mykonos and it takes a while. At 15:00 (15 minutes to late) we have our numbered seats. Front row, a lot of room. And then we’re off to Paros. Eef has taken a Touristil (against seasickness) just to be sure – remember Kalymnos. At 15:50 we arrive on Paros. We get out and immediately a lot of rent-a-room-people come to us. No, we don’t need a room here. One of them tells us we need to take the bus here in Parikia (capital of the island) to Pounda and there the ferry to Antiparos. Only in high season there is a direct ferry from Parikia to Antiparos. As he says, we do. Everything goes well. On the bus, off the bus, on the ferry, off the ferry and already have a room available. One of the guys working on the ferry had some rooms to rent. Once in Antiparos he takes us and completely our luggage into his car and dropped us off at the rooms: 25 Euro for a night (choris proino). We pay the four nights straight away, so everything is settled. We make sure we’re OK and then – half an hour later – go out to find our way in the village. It is very calm and quiet here, just what we need. We walk along the seaside, can’t find the “Blue Island Divers” immediately and have a drink on a terrace. Eef has a frappe “metrio me gala” and Timo has ouzo. They give him a small plate with tomatoes and cucumber with it. Very enjoyable. Eef likes ouzo too, so we order another 2 with grilled octopus. This is the first octopus we have here and tastes very good. It’s already 19:00 and we go back to our room and seek refreshment in a shower. We walk through the village and have now located the diving center in the main street, but it’s not opened (yet). We walk around the town and look out for something to eat: what we had earlier was only for aperitif. Again we choose the same restaurant as this afternoon at the harbor. Half a liter of retsina, gigandes, chef’s salad, pastitsio and mushrooms à la crème. Everything is very good. We’re starting to be a bit tired of the trip to Antiparos and a bit caused by the drinks. At 22:00 we go to the dive shop and now the doors are open. Alexandros is very friendly, but he first needs to he the logbooks and so; we haven’t got our temporary badge as PADI Open Water yet. We’ll return on Monday and will see about it then. We go home, talk a while and then hit the sack.

Sunday May 21: The Cave, snorkeling and do nothing

It’s already 08:00 when we wake up; Timo goes for jogging (15 minutes twice) and returns at 09:00. He takes a shower and goes shopping for bread, milk and cola. Eef makes coffee and we can have breakfast on our balcony. Yesterday we already bought the other things: tomato, cheese, and marmalade, so all was ready for breakfast. It tastes delicious. This is something else, than only dry bread. We’re not in a rush and just before 11:00 we go to the bus station in the centre with a bottle of water and all snorkeling gear packed in the bag pack and wait there for the bus to The Cave. The bus goes at 11:00 and 10 minutes later we’re at the Caves entrance. We pay 1 Euro for the bus and 3,5 for entering the cave. Trotter says it’s not worth a visit, but we want to see that for ourselves. We go down, the cave is especially very deep, nice, but nothing special. We get to see two large chambers, one with only rocks, the deepest one. The other one has a lot of stalagmites and stalactites. There are a few walls, where curtains were being formed, it seems the cave is not very active anymore. It only takes us half an hour to get round and then we go outside and wait for the bus of 12:15. We want to go to the other side of the island to Agios Georgios. The driver drops us off at a crossing: he goes left to Antiparos and we go right to Agios Georgios on foot. Timo has the large bag pack to carry. We have the underwater camera, snorkels, masks, fins and everything else. After an hour walking we have done the 5 kilometer to the village. It looks very strange: a collection of houses, a church, 3 or 4 taverns all built against the mountain and in the valley. It isn’t really a village, but some houses in each other neighborhood. We have a drink at Zombos (cola and water) and then go to the sea and beach to snorkel. The water is a bit warmer than it was on Tinos, very clear, but there are not that many fish, because we’re not swimming close to rocks. First we snorkel a while together and then Timo tries out the underwater camera. He tries it to see if he can manage it during our dive next Tuesday. It seems to working very easily, but we’ll have to wait, what it says after the film is developed. We dry in the sun, wear clean and dry clothes and go back to tavern Zombos and wait for the bus. At 15:00 the bus arrives, very strange, because it comes from the middle of nowhere. About half an hour later we’re back in Antiparos. Eef buys 1 banana, 2 peaches, water and chips and we eat it all on the balcony. After 20 minutes we need to move, because it is just too hot. Then we take a siesta and we will return here later. We rest until 18:00 and then check the guide, what we’re going to do and see tomorrow; it’ll be a day in Paros. Now we go to have supper, not in the harbor, but in the main street, the restaurant is ‘Olympic Flame’. We take 1 Greek salad, 1 swordfish, dolmadakia ola mazi; everything together. We order half a liter of retsina twice and leave home at 21:30. Outside on our balcony it is very good now, only a bit of wind and drink a third bottle of retsina. At 22:30 we sleep. We thought we would have a quiet day and we still did pretty much.

Monday May 22, 2006: Exploration of the Island of Paros

We make our own breakfast at 07:30. Timo buys bread and Eef prepares coffee. We should add some sugar, but it is OK like this too. When we’re on holiday it is all OK all the time. We have bread, cheese, tomato and marmalade with a great view. We pack for the day, snorkel, mask, fins, long trousers, clean clothes and other stuff. We go to the harbor and there is immediately a boat at 08:45, but in Pounda we need to wait until the bus to Parikia arrives at 09:30. We see a bus stop near Loukis rent-a-car and want to get off, while the driver gets a bit annoyed. Why want to get off here? After 10 minutes we have a Daewoo Matiz and go back direction of Pounda, where the ferry is. The first stop is the valley of the butterflies: a small road leads us to it, but there are no butterflies now and everything is closed. Then we visit the church and monastery we passed by earlier: Agios Arsenias. Nice buildings and a great view on the fields round Pounda and on Antiparos. From here we follow the coast to Alykes, a beautiful village with a beautiful harbor and a small beach. There is a tavern that has placed all the tables and chairs on a platform, almost completely surrounded by the sea. Beautiful! We walk here a while and then drive off to Drios and Marpissa. First we make a stop in Pisa Livado, a nice fisherman village and then to Marpissa. We park the car on a parking lot near the three mills and stroll through the town. Typically little alleys, white chalked walls, lots of flowers and blue doors and shutters. A lot of geraniums, bougainvilleas: an unbelievable shining presence of flowers. It also is very hot here, it even seems Eef is not feeling too great about it. From Marpissa we go back inland to Lefkas: a mountain village, again the streets are beautiful and the views on the mountains are great. On the town square we buy some fruits and water and cool down in the shade of the big pine trees. When we leave here, we drive to the north of the island, quickly view Molos, pretty but busy, drive past Naoussa and have our pick nick at the bay of Naoussa: bread, bananas, 2 nectarines, 2 medlars, simple, but good. We drive on to look for a quiet beach to snorkel and find that in Agios Tourbas. A mini beach with a lot of sun and heat, but also with shade. This is paradise. We snorkel and see many fish, small ones near the surface, bigger ones more down, 2 starfish and lots of urchins. This is one of the greatest places we’ve been to snorkel. At 14:30 we take the car back to Parikia and look where and when a boat to Syros leaves the day after tomorrow. We leave the car where we rented it and the guy has nothing to do and brings us to the center of town. We have 1 gyros (paketo) each with retsina. We take the bus to Pounda and there the ferry to Antiparos. We clean all our gear and rest a bit, ouzo and writing the diary. Timo first goes to buy some cigars and retsina and then we lie down for a while. We pass by “Blue Island Divers” to schedule our two dives tomorrow. Yes! No, not yet still closed. We go and have something to eat in the same restaurant as before: it is the one near the sea, called Makis. This time we have a lot of water, 1 bottle of retsina, lamb chops, spanakopitia, tomato and cucumber salad and tzatziki. We don’t make it too late, give the 4 kittens a bit of fat leftovers and go to the diving shop. Two dives (160 Euro for 2). We pay immediately and arrange the timing for tomorrow. Timo does all by phone. We need to be at the dicing school at 10:45. We sleep at 22:30.

Tuesday May 23, 2006: DIVE!

Early in the morning Timo is awake and in order to let Eef enjoy her sleep, he leaves to jog. Normally his schedule says to run once for 20 minutes long, but that did not come through correctly and he did it twice. Then shower time and breakfast at Yannis’ Place. Eef has the breakfast ‘Antiparos’ (toast with cheese, ham and tomatoes); Timo has ‘Kambos Livado’ (omelet with vegetables). Both are served with coffee and fresh orange juice. This is perfect to start the day. We buy water (2bottles), fruit, cola and some biscuits to take with us on the boat and we prepare our bag too. All we have, we take with us: fins, masks, and snorkels. In the meantime we need to move to be on time for our appointment at the dive school. We’re waiting at the and of the beach road and suddenly see a person walk by with fins in his hand. Timo speaks up and this is Filip. We look for a diving suit, that fits, put it all near the road and wait for Alexandros to pick the gear up with his van. At the boat Timo helps Filip to load it all on the boat and everything is put on the boat (almost perfectly on time). Eef does social talk with a mom and daughter from Sweden, they join us, but for snorkeling. Now we’re on the move: we get dressed with a shorty and a 5 mm suit. Everything is done for us; all equipment is ready to dive. The first dive is near San Spiridon, the name of the church on top of the island. Before we go there is briefing: go down to 8 meters, then next to a wall further down to the bottom, up next to another wall, swim for the three minute stop and then to the surface again. Ok! Let’s go! On the boat, front roll. First Timo, then Filip and as last one Eef. We go down easily and then we’re under. Everything is unbelievably beautiful: a lot of small damselfish between the rocks, seaweed, sea urchins, 2 fire worms. Scorpion fish also swim there; it’s really too beautiful and too good to be true, but it is. We’ve been to a depth of 19 meters. Last year there was an octopus in this area, but he’s not at home right now. Two starfish and the diving skills are OK. The water is warm, sight is good. Marvelous. We all get back on the boat and go a few kilometers further to the ‘Black Rock’ for the second dive. Again Filip does it all for us. He changes bottles, gives us our jacket and we’re settled to dive away again. They tell us that two years ago Tom Hanks has learnt to dive here. What an honor! Now we see again lots of fish, one moray eel. There is one bigger fish with loads of different colors: green, yellow, blue and has a fin that sticks up. The descent happens very well again, we both have it under control. We swim around the rock, now only at a depth of 11 meters. A great opportunity. This is why we have been diving into black water of De Nekker without any fish, without any visibility. During the second dive Timo has the underwater camera, we’re curious how it will look like. After 30 minutes we’re back in the boat. The only thing we need to do is undress; we don’t have to worry about the equipment. We’re on our holiday, remember? Once we’re back in the harbor Eef runs for the first café she can find: she urgently needs a bathroom. Then we say goodbye to Filip, Alexandros and the two Swedish women. We clean all our equipment, take a shower and prepare ourselves for a cheerful aperitif. At Makis, 1 retsina, 1 ouzo with chtapodi psito, spaggi vegetariana and let’s enjoy it. We feel great. Let Mike know how it was with a message from the mobile phone and continue to enjoy our moment of glory. Filip arrives too a while later and joins us. We’re chatting about Greece and diving in general. From 16:00 till 18:00 we’re sitting there and then go back to the rooms for a siesta. We’re there until 19:30: then we drink coffee on the balcony, write down our stories of the day and go to the dive shop at 21:00 go fill our logbooks out and afterwards we can go to eat. The Swedish women had a good suggestion for us to eat tonight, so we will check that out. Fillip was not in the dive shop yet, so we go directly to Pavlos Place. The reception is unbelievably friendly and welcoming and they show us all specialties of the day. We order fisherman’s plate as an appetizer, 1 souvlaki shrimps, 1 grilled snapper, 1 chicken kleftiko. With that we drink 1 liter of retsina. The waiters are very friendly, the food is excellent and guess who is there also: the Swedish woman with her family. We eat it all and it is very, very good and when we ask for the bill, there still is one ouzo from the house. A good thing we had a lot of water with dinner, else we would be drunk as hell. So back to the dive shop now. Alexandros and Filip are drinking on the terrace right opposite the shop. We fill out the logbooks, drink another 2 ouzo and talk about traveling and diving with Filip. We finished a beautiful day with a great evening and night. It’s pretty late when we go to be (00:30).

Wednesday May 24, 2006: Quiet morning and move to Syros

We get up and we’re planning on spending the day quietly and not busy at all. We start off with breakfast at the same café as we did yesterday: Yannis Place: 1 toast ham, cheese and tomato, 1 coffee, 1 ice tea and that’s it for today. After breakfast we walk in the village and then go back to the rooms to pack all our things. The fins and snorkeling gear in the suitcase and within an hour we’re ready. It’s already 11:00 by then. We go for a walk along the beach just in front of our room and go to the harbor and the centre and sit down at Taverna Makis. There we drink twice and check it all out very easily. Three frappe and once Alfa Beer. At 13:30 we go to get our luggage from the hall in the apartment and take the ferry of 13:45. We only have to wait until 14:25 to take the bus to Parikia. We’re on the bus with a couple from Puurs, relatives of someone that Eef knows from school. That’s remarkable: we’re on a bus on Paros, the bus Pounda – Aliki – Parikia with 2 people from our neighboring village. We chat a bit with them. In Parikia we sit down to have a pita, buy tickets for the ferry and they warn us that the ferry will be 15 minutes late: well shit happens, not that long. Eef buys a newspaper – ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ (‘The Last news’) of Tuesday May 23 – to kill our waiting time. At 16:00 we go to the harbor to take the ferry of 16:15. And then Greek destiny strikes. The boat is a little bit later, than previously announced. First the 15 minutes become half an hour ad then it is an hour and finally after 90 minutes the boat Panagia Thinou to Syros arrives. Good we had the newspaper; we have read it already read it half way through. We get on the boat and take pills for traveling disease, because sea is rough and even a large ferry feels it. The transfer takes about 1.5 to 2 hours and after the second part of the paper we arrive in Syros. There is very much wind. The reception committee is present as always, typically for the Cyclades. Every Greek that owns a hotel, pension or rooms for rent, is waiting at the harbor, when a ferry arrives. Actually it’s a funny sight. We walk through as always and look for our way with Trotter. A nice elder Greek man (also renting rooms in Galissas) tries to rent a room, we don’t do it, we want to find Odos Chiou and he helps us to find it. There are a few rent-a-room facilities. Our first choice is not open; the second one is very nearby. An older Greek couple with the daughter or the manager (?) shows us the room 13 for 25 Euro per night. Let’s do it: all is clean with a nice bathroom. We unpack a bit and then go into town. It’s 21:00 in the meantime and we want something to drink and to eat. We walk along the sea and then walk directly in the centre hoping to find something nice. In a small alley there are a few taverns, all with beautiful bougainvilleas. We sit down at Apollon: tirokafteri, keftedes, fried peppers, and choriatiki. We ask for extra oil and vinegar and we like it a lot (again) with retsina and water. At 23:00 we go back to the hotel and go to bed. Burn a candle (already 9). Goodnight.

Thursday May 25, 2006: Explore Syros

We get up at 08:30. Our first task is to find a car. Close to the harbor there is a rent-a-car (Hertz – Vassilikos) and they have a Chevrolet Matiz free for us today. The next task is to have breakfast. We have difficulty to get out of the city and find nothing in Any Syros, so we take the car to Agios Dimitrias. This is not a village, this is only a church, and so we can’t have breakfast there either. One does have a nice view around here. We try to drive to Kini then to have breakfast. That works out fine. It takes only 9 kilometers to drive from one coast to the other. We have toast with ham and cheese (Timo) and Eef has a complete breakfast (toast, marmalade, coffee). We can continue now. Challenge: drive to Chalandriana to see excavations. That is not simple. We drive through Ermoupolis two or three times, then make an attempt through Anastasi, but that doesn’t work either. Then drive to Ano Syros and just follow straight through. That finally works. The road gives us beautiful views on the mountains, but arriving there we can’t find a castle, nor excavations, so we’re taking the road back to Ano Syros. Thank god the views on the mountains and the bays are most beautiful here. Then we drive through the island from the east, over the south part and then to the west part to end our tour in Kini. Our first stop is Azolimnas, then to Vari and Megas Gialos in the south. Then we drive on to Possidonia and Finikas on the west coast. They’re all beautiful fisherman’s villages with a beautiful bay and beach, but too busy for us. Galissas is also a beautiful village with a bay outside the centre, but there’s only nudism on that beach. Driving through small mountain roads and through fields of grain and corn and olive trees, we go to Kini and to a quiet beach nearby in Lotos. Here we have shade, a sandy beach to easily go into the water and there are also rocks to see some animals near the rocks. Timo goes in twice and Eef lies a bit on the beach. The first time he sees a lot of fish, the same as on other snorkeling spots, but it still is beautiful. The second time Timo sees a cuttlefish, great! He always wanted to see this under water. It’s marvelous how this floats through the water. The third time – after every dive he needs to dry to avoid, that he’s feeling cold – Eef joins him in the water, but the cuttlefish is gone. At 15:00 we go to the restaurant up the stairs to have a drink. We’re not allowed to pay our drinks, because they’re not open yet. We have 1 cola and 1 frappe en leave 2 Euro on the table. We eat something in Kini: gemista and choriatiki. Then we drive back to Ermoupoli, park the car (we need to walk a long time, because there is little parking space) and clear all the snorkeling gear. We rest about an hour and then go into town. We have gyros in a small alley (Antiparos Street) in a tavern, where they’re not particularly friendly. But then again the food is good and we’re having a great time. At 22:00 we go back to our room and watch some television. We see the last hours (with additionally an hour of commercial) of “The Lord of The Rings – Fellowship of the Ring”. At 01:00 we go to sleep.

Friday May 26, 2006: Transfer to Naxos

Timo is up early in the morning and prepares breakfast. He tanks the car full with gas and drops the car off at Vassilikos. He then buys on the market warm spinakopitia. This is very good, but a little hard on the stomach that early in the morning. He also bought some bread and fraoulas (strawberries) to have on the boat. We take a shower, get dressed and pack the suitcase and bag pack. We walk through town and sit down at Apollon to have a frappe. Very cheap: 3.40 Euro for two. Nancy of the real estate office calls us to say she has potential buyers for our house. They apparently want to pay 225.000 Euro. We say we have to think about it. We discuss it amongst us both and call back to say it’s OK, as long as they accept our conditions. She will have a meeting with the potential buyers later this afternoon and will let us know then. Cool. At 11:30 we pay for our frappe and go back to the hotel to collect our luggage. We pay the room (50 Euro) and then move on to the harbor. Eef goes to ask where the boat from 13:00 to Naxos will moor; they already explain to her it will be 30 minutes late. Yeah right, we know about that. Timo doesn’t think it’s really funny. We try to still make it a happy moment and sit at a bar close to the harbor. There are only Greek people in this bar, so it’s really local. We order two Mythos and also get some salty nuts with it. Relax and enjoy. At 13:30 the boat arrives and at 13:45 we leave the island of Syros. It’s a good idea, that we took pill against traveling disease, because the sea is very rough. At 14:30 Nancy of AW Vastgoed (real estate) calls with great news. The potential buyers of our house have signed a kind of “promise to buy with some conditions” for 225.000 Euro. Cool, great! Eef buys an ice cream to celebrate (at the same time other people on the boat are not feeling good). Later, when we’re back home, we will see they will not buy the house. We stop in Paros and see our two diving places back: San Spiridon and The Black Rock. Cool, isn’t it, dear. The boat continues and at 17:00 we arrive at Naxos. At first sight: great island. The usual rent-a-rooms are waiting at the harbor. Kalamies is not there; this was the address that Antonia (Boussetil) from Tinos gave us; they’re friends of her. Timo stays on a bench in the harbor and Eef goes into town to find Kalamies with the Trotter. She finds it pretty easily and receives a diklino (two person bedroom) for three nights at 25 Euro per night. Normal price. She sees the room: clean, big enough, TV, airco, fridge, and balcony. That’s all we need. The owner is on old Greek man, very friendly and helping. He even takes his car (well, yeah car) to the harbor to pick up Timo and the luggage. During the drive there, Eef has tried to her best knowledge to talk Greek to the man. It was not easy, but Eef understands a lot already. The man has explained his complete life within the 5 minutes of the drive. In our room we unpack and Timo goes to get water and retsina, because it’s thirsty weather. It’s warm and again a lot of wind. At 19:00 Timo goes jogging and Eef starts to write up the diary on the balcony. Feeling great in the sun. When Timo returns, he takes a shower and we prepare to go out to eat. We eat a lot here. But then again, we’re on holiday aren’t we? We quickly notify Linda to tell her the ‘good’ news about the selling of the house. With them everything is OK, they’re on Evia now. After the jogging we’re ready to go for a walk through the city and along the beach. We start the walk at 19:30 and enjoy a beautiful sunset here in the harbor. The taverns on the boulevard have all fish displayed and it looks very good. We walk into the alleys and arrive at a nice square wit a lot of tables of restaurant O Nikos. We sit down and order one mix grill fish special. It tastes good with water and retsina, but is actually nothing special. We’re quite tired due to the trip today with all the bags and stuff, so we go to bed early. First have some retsina and chips and watch TV and we sleep at 23:00. Tomorrow we’ll explore the island.

Saturday May 27, 2006: Explore Naxos

Rise and shine at 08:30, take only our money and go to rent a car. Mikes Bikes is a friend of Kalamies and we’re taking a look there first. They have a Fiat Seicento available for today at 20 Euro. We take it and within 15 minutes we take the car back to the pension. There we make sure we have everything with us for snorkeling and to visit monasteries. At 10:00 we go. Our first stop is the gas station (the man was too late to stop at 10 Euro, coincidence?). We’re on the big road to the south already, so we’re going to follow it. We drive along Glinado and Belonia Tower. There we have a nice view on Chora, the capital of Naxos. Then we have some difficulties with finding our way with the bad quality of the map – what’s new? – and finally arrive at Naos Dimitras: a ruin of an ancient temple, on a location with a great view on the fields and the mountain of Zeus. Then we take the road to Filoti, buy in a supermarket something to eat for breakfast and for lunch and we have our pick nick near the village. Little time before lunch we move on and drive to Apiranthos. This village has a short visit, for the other villages we don’t take the time. In Apiranthos we hold and walk through, because according to Trotter this is the most beautiful of Naxos. And indeed it is very beautiful. It’s not the prettiest of all Cyclades, but it is one of the most typical. The Greek people walk slowly through the alleys or sit down at a table with a Greek coffee or frappe. Magnificent. Then the road leads us on to Keramoti, then to Koronos, Skado, Mesi to Apollonas. The roads are in good condition; from time to time we meet goats and donkeys grazing along the side of the road. The best are the views on the island: now you drive through fertile valleys, the next moment there are mountainsides with all yellow broom, fig trees, a lot of green slopes and then coming from a turn, you suddenly see only rocks and mountain, without anything growing on it. On the road to Apollonas there are also some beautiful bays, but it’s still too early to snorkel. In Apollonas we go and see the unfinished kouros (still lying between the rocks) and then go to the village itself. Beautiful location. We go sit at tavern Apollo and drink 2 ouzo, eat 1 melanouri and drink a lot of water. We enjoy the sea, the food and drinks and leave back to Chora at 14:30. The drive goes through rough landscapes, green valleys and blue bays. We drive all the way to Chora and then take the time for a siesta. Timo writes the diary and Eef sleeps a bit. On the balcony it’s still hot, very hot. We can’t complain about that, the weather has been great. Later that afternoon we take the car and drive to Agia Anna. According to the Swedish woman on Antiparos (snorkeling, diving), this is a beautiful village. It’s only 7 kilometers, so we arrive there fast. Small village, small harbor, small beach. Everything is small and very beautiful. We drink 2 frappe and enjoy the sunset. At 20:00 we’re back in Chora, deliver the car back to the renting office and go to eat. A first class restaurant in town on a cozy square. Beautiful location, very good food. Eef has shrimps saganaki and Timo has lamb with vegetables and yoghurt and cheese. Both of the dishes were at their best. We walk around through the streets and return to Kalamies at 22:00. Watch some TV and go to sleep at 23:00

Sunday May 28, 2006: Sightseeing, enjoy ourselves, do nothing

We sleep pretty long until 09:30. Timo goes jogging for 30 minutes. We have breakfast on our balcony, the rest from yesterday: bread, emmental and some water. At 11:00 we move into action (well yeah, action?) and walk into town. We sit down on a bench watching a Greek try to catch some fish. Greek people only fish with wire, without a fishing rod, but this guy does not seem lucky today. We withdraw money and visit the Kastro; on the Kastro there are a few chapels, a catholic church. We visit the archeological museum with a lot of pottery and a lot of statues. The museum is not big, but pretty and with a lot of stuff from the Cyclades itself. A lot of female statues: they stand up straight with their hands over the belly and the head is too big and only the nose is visible. Maybe we’ll find a picture on the Internet to show what we mean. Then we stroll through the alleys back to the harbor and buy some water and ice tea. We go to the beach of Agios Jorgos, a couple of 100 meters from our rooms. We snorkel a while, see sea snails, urchins, big and little fish. We let the sun dry our skin and return a bit later and drink some retsina on our balcony. Just like yesterday it’s very, very hot there. We almost can’t bear the heat, but we need to have some extra sun, because what will the weather be like, when we return to Belgium. At 15:30 we take a siesta. We sleep and rest till about 19:00 and then we get ready to go and see the sunset on a mountain in the north of the harbor of Chora. There are ruins of an ancient temple also there: Palatia. We walk around there and sit down on the ancient marble to enjoy our last sunset. Beautiful, almost a totally flat sea and beautiful red: a nice way to close our holidays. We go for dinner in the district Agios Jorgos at the restaurant Kavouri: tonosalata, soutzoukakia, kotopoulo souvlaki, dolmadakia and as always miso kilo retsina and some water. Very good and also nice to close out. We smoke our last cigarettes and go to sleep at 22:30. Kalinichta!

Monday May 29, 2006: Departure back home

Get out of bed at 07:45 – we also made sure our mobile woke us up on time. We pack all our things for the last time; Timo goes to the supermarket and returns immediately, because the market ‘Zoom’ is closed. Within 30 minutes all is ready and we can go for breakfast. In the neighborhood on the beach everything is closed, so we walk further and eat on a square nearby: protodikiou platia close to Sirocco. We take one regular breakfast and 1 omelet with ham, cheese, onion, tomato and 2 coffees. We have to wait for fresh bread, because they still need to deliver. We eat our breakfast and go back to Kalamies to get our luggage. We pay the money for our stay to the cleaning lady, as Irini nor Leonidas are there. We go to the harbor on foot and arrive at 10:30. First 2 other boats arrive (Highspeed 4 and Panagia Tinou – the one that was that late) and then ours arrives: Highspeed 2. The boat brings us to Paros, Mykonos and Tinos. We arrive on Tinos at 13:30 and then it’s still a long way to Rafina. It’s OK; we have a good place and it goes a lot faster, more comfortable and luxurious than a normal ferry. It’s a little more expensive, but we don’t complain about that. We arrive at Rafina Port at the busiest time of day, but manage to find a free table on the second restaurant in the row (the one with the blue chairs). There we have a Greek salad, fried peppers and keftedes with retsina and water. We talk a long time with Stavros, the owner of the place, in Greek, English and German: all mixed together. Now it’s a bit calmer, so he has time to talk. His wife is Finnish and she comes by once in a while and he sometimes goes to Finland. We still have the whole afternoon to enjoy our last hours in Greece. At 18:00 we take the bus from Rafina to the airport. There we quickly grab a bite and check in and get off on time. It’s finished. When we land in Belgium the plane starts shivering. Temperature is only 7 degrees Celsius and it’s already the end of May. Hellas was a lot better.