postcard from the Cyclades of Greece

We arrived in Kamares, the harbor town of Sifnos, an island in the Cyclades, Thursday June 25. It was a long journey; we left our apartment in Oslo around 4 a.m. and got to our hotel in Kamares around 9 p.m. Lilly was such a trooper throughout it all (airport express bus to Gardermoen, flight to Copenhagen, then Copenhagen-Athens, bus down to Piraeus, ferry over to Sifnos), such a savvy world traveler, even with a two and a half our delay onboard the plane that was supposed to take us to Athens, waiting for take-off because of a strike by the Greek air traffic controllers. We would walk up and down the isle of the airplane, play with the new plastic BRIO cars I got her for the trip, read her book (Sjøvenner), and, most importantly, make lots of new friends. Lilly is quite the social bug, she loves people and people tend to fall in love with her too. This in particular makes life on the road easy, easier, in fact, than at home. She’s never bored with so many people and places and things to explore. Being at the beach is a particular treat, with new people and landscape around, and the water. All those baby-swimming lessons must be paying off, she loves splashing in the water, walking or crawling in and out of it, sitting down to gather small rocks (she loves the white or black in particular). Eating out can be fun too with other people around to connect with, or cats to look at, but it’s definitely a more active eating experience than before, following her as she crawls around or demands one of us to walk with her, unless she’s happy eating on one of our laps, or in a chair next to us, or, sometimes, sleeping. It’s a dirtier experience too… But that’s the nice thing about being here; she can be only in her diaper, or diaper-free, and then quickly clean up in the water again.


(Kamares, Sifnos, 30 June)

Lilly took her first four steps by herself our first day in Kamares, at the terrace outside of our hotel room. She’s also gotten another tooth while we’ve been down here, and two more on their way. She’s taken to eating octups, loves peach and nectarines (in fact, she first walked for a bite of nectarine), eats lots of bread, and some yoghurt. Last night she downed a big portion of spaghetti. She prefers her spaghetti, like her bread, plain.

We had reserved a room in Hotel Stavros in Kamares for four-five nights and the plan was to rent a car one day, drive around the island, and find something affordable to rent for our two months here. That proved more difficult than expected; turns out the Cyclades have developed quite a bit since I was here last (island hopping during the summer of 1991…). Back then you could run into an old Greek man and rent a cheap room in his house. These days people tend to use the Internet to make reservation in advance, and the Greeks who have rooms to let in their homes are listed by central tourist agents, all prices are coordinated. We were advised to try the bigger islands, Paros and Naxos, so after five nights we took the ferry over to Paros. We spent the first night in the harbor town, Piraikia, then rented a car the following day and began our hunt.

Paros is more beautiful than I remember; we really like the coastal villages of Drios and Piso Livadi. In Piso Livadi we found a woman, Anna, who has rooms to let on the pier, and who also has a son who owns a house in the village of Marpissa, one kilometer inland, that she told us we could rent for 500 Euro per month. We saw the house and it was agreed we would move in the following day after they had gotten it all ready for us. It was a darling house with a cute courtyard. We spent the night at Anna’s, overlooking the beach, with the buzz of the tavernas on the pier below us. Unfortunately, the next day, Anna’s son changed his mind; problems with girlfriend, he explained, need house himself.

So off we were again, took the bus back to Drios, walked around with all our luggage and Lilly in either the stroller or the babybjorn. We’ve stayed here since, first at Alpha Omega, a really nice place close to the beach, we had an apartment with A/C, super nice but a bit above our budget. It’s run by Margarita and George, retired teachers from Thessaloniki, who come out here in the summer to run this place. The wife, Margarita, grew up here, in Marpissa, and her father, Alechos, has a farm in Drios. After a few nights, we moved in at her father’s farm where they’ve set up a few simple apartments. We love the non-touristy feel of it; only the field of Alechos’ farm is between us and the beach. We are surrounded by his vineyard, lemon and lime trees, an olive grove further down. Margarita brings us tomatoes, cucumber, snap peas, and cilantro from her father's garden. She gave us fresh apricots from her garden before we moved out to the farm, as well as pie she made with them. She also gave us all sorts of other treats, much to our delight, and toys for Lilly, whom she loves. Lilly’s favorite is a set of tennis balls she bounces up and down.

After hotel lodging with plenty of eating out, sampling local Greek fare like chick-pea balls, eggplant salad, stuffed tomatoes and bell peppers, in addition to the typical Greek salad and tzatsiki, it’s been really nice to have more of a home again, here in Drios, where we can make and enjoy our own food, prepared with local ingredients. Unfortunately, we can’t get fresh fish, season doesn’t begin till September, only octopus and squid are in season now, as well as small fish, they call it white bait, picarel or sardines. I love the thick creamy yoghurt they make here, and the feta cheese, as well as the harder sheep and goat cheeses that tastes almost like Gruyère or Parmesan.

We are so happy here in Drios on Paros and wish we could stay longer, but unfortunately we have to move out on July 18th when a bunch of French people are moving in here. Tomorrow Leighton is taking the ferry over to Naxos to explore there for us, it’s an even bigger island and I feel pretty confident we’ll find something there.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to enjoy active and lazy times at the beach, meals on our terrace overlooking the vineyard and the Mediterranean ocean, with Naxos on the other side, sipping chilled cheap local white wine, which actually goes really well with the onion and feta in the salad, and the garlic and cucumber in the tzatsiki, snacking on kalamata olives and yummy cheese. We get why the Greeks dine late, around 10 p.m., because it is very hot till then, even with the seasonal winds that provide some relief during the day.
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Thought I'd add to Anne's post this little video of Lilly walking and taking a big fall. Lilly was OK of course but gave papa a scare. She's tough. She was up and walking again not long after her fall.


(Lilly walking, falling, 4 July)