gazlington

Initial take on Athens driving in from the airport…….it’s massive dude. Really a big surprise. Staying at our new digs for 2 days. We’ll have a view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon tomorrow night from a roof top restaurant, fingers crossed. Sitting by the pool at present waiting to get into our room. The pool has its own lifeguard. Interesting preservation effort in the basement here at the hotel dating back to 479 BC. Nice to see the corporate model working around significant archaeological sites. Caught a different image of the moon on our last night in Santorini. Picasso would have had a field day turning this image into something surreal and other worldly.

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The end is nigh. Off to Athens tomorrow for 2 days and then the long haul on the big iron bird. Last day at Santorini. Another zip around the town of Thira and a bit of reflection. Very quiet in the town today. Not as hot, but with some really strong winds. Managed to take in the big views for the last time, set up some last minute purchases and chill and ponder. This has been a big trip with some extraordinary highlights. Our time in Dubai for example feels like it was 6 months ago. A nice chat just now with a couple from Boston. These types of interactions are priceless. Glad our time in Venice didn’t overlap with the Bezos wedding. Desenzano was a real surprise packet. Oh yeah, and Abbey Road was a peak experience for yours truly. Many more highlights. Magic.

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Choosing to have a low key day in Dream 2.0 today. Temp really ramping up, plus 3 big ocean liners have just pulled into town. Thira the town will be quirky as usual but very busy today. Would love to have done a cruise/ swim but don’t want to get scorched out on the water. Temp expected to hit 30. Athens expected to be 40 when we get there on Monday. A bit of a heat wave pushing through Europe at present. Visited an interesting shop yesterday. Some very creative messages imprinted on tees and shoes. Ah technology. Pics below. No sign of the donkeys trudging up the cliffs. It’s all cable car stuff now. A tick for animal welfare. Hopefully any remaining cliff donkeys are being looked after in shelters. While waiting for our return shuttle I was intrigued to hear the tourists from the cruise liners focussed on the cable car activity. This is clearly a tourist feature of Santorini that is being promoted by the cruise liners at the moment. Santorini is a great spot full of history, panoramic views and cultural reminders. BTW Santorini with its layered cliffs down to the water must be a veritable treasure trove for archaeologists and geologists.

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Always surprises at Santorini. During dinner last night we could see someone in the adjoining property organising a big heart and some roses. Interesting. And then some words were placed within the heart. Reading them backwards from where we were sitting….….”will you marry me?” And then without further ado a car arrived and a masked woman descended a set of stairs to the big heart. It didn’t take long for the answer to be given in the affirmative and then it was photo time. Apparently this type of event (weddings or proposals) happens here almost everyday day. It’s quite the business. Another surprise today was going into Thira and finding 3 police officers directing traffic. Pretty busy in the town. The pedestrian and bus intensity tend to go up and down as a result of the arrival of liners. Big businesses. Noticed a big influx of tourists around 2pm as we were heading back to our accommodation. On another matter I remembered a spot below our clifftop accommodation in 2014 just off the rocks where an ocean liner came to grief. The floating markings for where the ill fated MS Sea Diamond Ocean Liner came to grief in 2007 are still there. 2 people died. 1195 passengers and 400 staff managed to get to safety. It’s all about money apparently. While very casually browsing for jewellery we ended up chatting to an Australian woman running the shop. An interesting interaction in terms of Old Melbourne Town and who lives where, but in the end, no purchase. Funny about that. Familiar historical backdrop to the island and its ups and downs. Gee those Italians and Germans were obnoxious and ruthless. Pic of the flatter lower side of the island below.

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Quite emotional coming back to Santorini and this location after a long time. I think it’s the wide open expansive, elevated Santorini views that hit you when you get into ur accommodation high upon the cliffs. Really good to connect with a familiar place. Big thank you to Kerstin Masson (KCM Travel in Husrtbridge) for organising our trip of trips………all connections and bookings have been seemless, and there have been some great hotel surprises. We were last here at the Petit Palace in 2014. Lots of stairs, although the installation of a lift was a nice surprise. Endless gazing at the ferries and liners and local fishing boats. Clearly the ocean liner traffic has increased substantially since we were last here. A bit of a balancing act for the local authorities with taxis and buses and retailers doing quite well during the tourist season, but at what cost? Our taxi driver indicated that four liners on some days equates with something like 9000 tourists coming into the town for the day. Still hard to reflect on Santorini and how the island was formed, with the centre of an island/ mountain like volcanoe cratering into the ocean, leaving only the sides to be seen, and a submerged hole (Caldera). Historians and other specialists have suggested that this part of the world that disappeared under the water was in actual fact the lost city of Atlantis. Interesting. A look at the town of Thira shows considerable development since we were last here with regard to shops and bars and restaurants. Apparently the brewery side of things has expanded, along with a number of wineries. Impressive but wasted on us. Very hot. Thankful for the pool here at our accommodation. A luxurious second last stop on our journey, but there you go.

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As Ringo sang on the song ‘Goodnight’ from the White album…..”now it’s time to say goodnight.”
So that’s it for Parikia, the freakishly ambient town of Paros. Sad to say “goodbye” to our host Irene. I’ll never forget when we arrived here late last Sat night, we met Irene and asked the question “what time is breakfast? The answer was “anytime”. NICE. Irene also supplied us with some home made cake and a bottle of her home made wine. Born and bred in Paros. The little things make all of the difference. We have enjoyed flowing along with our little location and its water based outlook and swimming options. Pretty well been in the water twice a day. Magnificent. Have become a little obsessive with the arrival and departure of the ferries, but there you go. Correction from yesterday’s post…….half a million people visit this island during peak tourist season April to October (not 50000). Paros is a great little town. General observations………..evidence of a number of people of my vintage, as well as a plethora of younger dudes and couples riding motorbikes and quad bikes, unlimited sun bathing/ swimming, many waterside dinning options, cats, a variety of shops and general ambient funkiness. A few memory pics below, including the famous Irene and her daughter. Irene has owned this hotel since 1986 and is the cook of amazing breakfasts. A Paros treasure.

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Alot of walking around Parikia today including the old town settlement area. Some great alley ways and great little businesses. We did get lost, taking a right turn instead of a left. No probs though as we got directional advice from a car mechanic outside his garage. Good people. Did have a peek at the history of the island, from the 1500s. Pretty ordinary. Overtaken by the Turks in 1537 until the Greek War of Independence, 1821-1829. Islanders enslaved, atrocities. WW2 saw Paros being occupied by the Italians until 1943, after which the Nazis took over. Successful defeat of the Nazis in an operation conducted by British and the locals. A staggering number of people coming to and going from the island via ferries. 500000 tourists visiting here in peak season. I suppose Paros is a unique international destination along with a number of the other Greek Isles, so of course this all makes sense. Population of Paros, 14500. Did see a lot of cats wondering around on our tour today. A real cat culture here, evident in the art and souvenir shops. More swimming and plans for a pizza will round out our day. Still vibing from our Paros experience. A shot of our accommodation (last pic), balcony to the right.

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As we lurch into day 2 it’s business as usual. Not as hot, but a great breeze. Here I go again sounding like an ABC weather reporter. Staying at the wonderful Irene’s Hotel. Classic Greek breakfasts. Great hospitality. Everything we need is right here in this little Port of Parikia.

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The journey to ambience was certainly a bit of test. A general strike in Italy (buses, taxis, trains) injected 240 volts into our moving plans. Fortunately we were able to organise a transfer to Rome Fiumicino “Leonardo da Vinci” Airport. On to Athens we were bound, but delays in taking off made today’s project a little murky. Maybe the baggage handlers were part of the strike action? In the end we arrived at Athens late and departed for Paros late, after being transported to our plane in a bus. On board a propeller driven plane to Paros conjured some interesting mental images, including the adventures of the Wright Brothers and Baron Von Richthofen. Upon arriving at Paros Airport there just seemed to be more light. The in-flight announcement system started playing some nice ambient music, and the stage was set for a taxi journey into ambience, in actual fact a place called Parikia. We are literally 30 metres from the beach, so a swim was first on the priority list. Lots of quad bikes and Vespas and motor bikes. Ferry activity is out of control (I saw at least a dozen Ferries come and go during the course of today). A bit of a walk and a pizza and that was the day that was.

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