The island of Paros

Dinner a the local taverna, with the table right on the road side. Delicious food cooked by Mumma, and huge portions - and this is only the salad!

Yesterday we caught the big blue star ferry to Paros -  the once quiet and beautiful island where we camped for 3 weeks long long ago. It was only an hour by ferry, and not many people got off. But they were leaving the island in droves at the end of the season.

Paros is one of the most popular Greek Islands, and as such it caters superbly for the tourists. Cafes, bakeries, restaurants, boutiques, and knick knack shops. There was heaps of traffic around the port with people coming and going, and cars and trucks loading on and off the ferries. Lots of hire places for cars, scooters, and quads, and general busyness.

The old town is picture postcard stuff of white houses, blue doors, and even the paving has white painted borders.

I think I even found the street matching one of my old photos. I also went into a treasure trove of a shop that had clothes, shoes, bags, etc in huge mounds, and some of it looked like it had been there for ever. Hànd knitted cotton & woollen jumpers made on the islands - you could hardly walk around in there. I asked the ancient shopkeeper how long the shop had been there and he said 100 years (same stock?). Ros bought an old photo of the port off him.

We then hired a scooter to go exploring - I think the poor bike had been thrashed by those before us, and even without much traffic Ros was initially clutching on to me like grim death!

We went to the 2nd port of Naossus - a very pretty harbour full of colourful fishing boats. But I don't think there's many fish left in the sea around here, and many of the boats look like they don't leave the wharf. One man was pulling fish out of the net on the deck of his boat, but it was a pitiful catch, and huge piles of nets on the jetty were covered in old tarps - apparently the Mediterranean is clean, but doesn't support much life. I even found out that the octopus, shrimps, and squid are brought in frozen from who knows where. If you don't go looking then all appears fine on the surface, pretty and idyllic, but the main industry here is tourism, and the fishing boats and fields lie fallow. Hard won stone terraces are crumbling, and figs and grapes seem to be rotting on the trees and vines.  I remember a sleepy place with mostly dusty dirt roads, and fisherman cleaning their octopuses on the Seawall.

It is however still incredibly beautiful, and the tourist dollars are paying for things like solar panels, and wind turbines. The roads are in pretty good condition, and people have jobs.

Then we went and found our old camping ground - and while the outside is flashed up with an archway and restaurant the actual camping area is still dusty ground under bamboo awnings.

Back in town we talked to an old Greek man at the hire place (well we talked to each other in our respective languages) and he was born on the island and used to farm, and keep cows and sheep - you don't see many animals nowadays.

We then met a local port official who talked about the complicated economic situation in Greece. He told us that Crete has reserves of oil underneath it that would keep Europe going for 100 years - and he's not the first person to mention it either.

Today we caught the bus back into the hills to 2 very pretty villages. The 1st one had a old citron distillery where they are still making liqueur from citrus leaves. There were also a couple of shops selling beautiful local woven fabric in very fine cottons, and exquisite embroidered cloths.  Marvellous workmanship, but what do you do with such things these days. The embroidered curtains look stunning against the blue window frames here, but wouldn't look quite the same at home.

The second village was higher up in the hills, and up behind it a tiny white washed church perched on top of the highest peak.

We wandered the village and bought local cheese off a man on the side of the road, and fresh figs. I think there is still some small semblance of traditional life up in these villages.

And then we had lunch at a little cafe outside under a big plane tree. Greek salad with creamy ricotta cheese, and local lamb baked in paper and served with potatoes and crusty bread. Followed by a small cup of Greek coffee - ah, bliss!