onwards to Naxos

(I wrote this on Friday July 17, while we were still in Drios on Paros, and meant to upload this post before we left, but didn't get to Internet till today, Sunday July 19: yesterday we arrived in Apollonas on Naxos, now settling in here. We'll upload more photos to our new Greece album soon).


(Lunching on local goods, at our home at Alechos' farm in Drios, Paros)

Friday July 17: It’s our last day to enjoy, out here at Alechos’ farm, in Drios on Paros, before we move on to Naxos tomorrow, to a small village called Apollonas, about two hours by bus from Naxos town, through the villages in the mountains. Leighton had a full day, to say the least, this past Monday, checking out places in Naxos. On the one hand, the landscape is amazing. On the other hand, communicating and negotiating with people is exhausting. But he did find a place, Flora’s, in the village recommended by our current hosts, Margarita and George, the daughter and son in law of Alechos. Flora’s apartment is bigger (two rooms) and closer to the beach, for only slightly more than what we pay out here at the farm, which is smaller (one room) and farther away from the beach (even our “own” beach, which we look straight out at, beyond Alechos’ wine groves, but it’s rocky and not so easy to move around on for Lilly). Apollonas, as a village, is more secluded than Drios; two hours by bus from Naxos town, last stop coming through the villages. Leighton and I worry a bit we might feel more stuck and on top of each other eventually, seeing that we are who we are, but on the other hand, we realize that the openness and proximity of villages and settlements here on Paros where we are now (Drios, with Golden Beach, Punda Beach, Logaras, and Piso Livadi next to it along the coast, and then, up in the mountains, Marpissa, Marmara, and then Molos again down on the coast) might make this area kind of overwhelming for us when all the tourists arrive tomorrow for high season. And we are, both Leighton and I, rather fond of our privacy, though we also of course do so love the people in our lives, and Lilly in particular thrives on socializing and meeting new people, more like her mama that way, me thinks. In any case, after, this week, exploring Naxos, and then Paros again more thoroughly, we’ve decided to move on to Naxos tomorrow. We’re excited about a fresh start in a cute place that we can stay in for the rest of our time here (our flight leaves Athens August 31, but we’ll leave Naxos on the 30th and spend the last night in Athens, see Acropolis and have plenty of time to catch our flight to Oslo, where we’ll spend the night in a hotel by the airport before we move on to the US), with the options of renting a car and taking the bus (and on Tuesdays and Thursdays it goes along the coast and takes only an hour to Naxos town…).



We will have spent all of July, up until tomorrow (July 18), here in Paros, after five days in Sifnos, where we arrived June 25, and though it has been stressful at times, in terms of searching for a more permanent place to stay for our two plus months in Greece this summer, it has also been very good. We’ve been with Margarita and her family here in Drios on Paros from July 2, and have been treated in all sorts of way by her and her family, with fresh baked goods (by her), local cheese (by her aunt), fresh fruits and vegetables from her father’s farm (tomatoes, lemons, cucumbers, egg plants, zucchini, green beans, parsley, dill…), as well as wine and olive oil from her father’s farm, sweet wine from her cousin’s farm, chocolates from Thessalonica (where they live during the school year…), and we’ve so enjoyed their company and talking with them, as well as their oldest daughter, who’s Leighton’s age and now here to help out her parents. She has a sister a couple of years younger than her, who will join them all in a few days when she’s completed a summer music seminar in Salzburg. They’re all teachers (Margarita and George are around 60 and have taken out early retirement, Margarita taught kindergarten and George ancient Greek in middle and high school), their two daughters are both music teachers). Margarita grew up here on Paros, in Marpissa, and her father, I think they said he was also a teacher, owned all this land in Drios, for his summer farm, including both the land of the more luxurious apartments run by Margarita and her husband, where we spent our first few nights, and the few more rustic ones up by her father, at his farm. Margarita’s husband, George, is from Thessalonica, hence why they live there during the school year.