PAROS

Our airbnb host Nicholas picked us up from the dock. He texted to say to meet him at the traditional mill. Mill? We thought that had to be a typo. When we got off the ferry we saw the visitor center is in a non-working wind mill.

 In Santorini, there was a small area of houses built like windmills. Nikos told us a rich guy built the first one, then lots of people copied it. Nicholas drove us around downtown Parikia, the capital city of Paros, pointing out things to do and good restaurants and bars. Then he took us to the condo which is in a 3 unit building on beautiful grounds complete with a swimming pool. He kept asking us if we wanted to go swimming but we said it's too cold. Maybe the pool is heated. He lives upstairs and has a partner he's teamed up with to build more airbnbs. They're putting in another pool and adding another building on this property and more condos in the city. Even knowing Europeans have a different interpretation of distance than we do, I still booked this property because the description said it was in the middle of town and close to stores, bars, restaurants. By close, he means over a mile away. That's not such a bad walk but it's not city walking; it's a narrow, winding road with no sidewalks. After showing us everything in the condo, he drove us downtown since we got in late. We had dinner at a restaurant he had recommended. Restaurant row faces the sea so any restaurant you go to has a great view of the sunset and the sound of waves hitting the shore. After dinner,  we walked to the taxi line close to the port. This morning, we asked if we can call taxis and he said no because the drivers might not speak English.  So he drove us to town because he was going anyway.

But before we went downtown, he brought enough laundry soap and softener for one load of laundry. Joyce put a load in the washer and he set the dial, asking us if we wanted the temperature at 40 degrees and how fast the spin should be. As you can see, there are a lot of choices on that dial so we told him to do what he usually does. There's no dryer but there's a large rack which we put outside. We left before the cycle was done and came back hours later to very wet clothes. I'm thinking we should have gone  for a faster spin. The dryer rack had to come indoors because it's incredibly windy today. 

Nicholas had given us a map of the Island, telling us which cities we should visit. We decided to go downtown first and see the castle, the traditional market, and the archeological museum. We thought the market would have fresh fruit, vegetables, fish but all we found were traditionally narrow streets filled with stores. Lots of upscale souvenir shops, clothes, shoes, jewelry stores. 

We went to the castle but it's actually just the castle walls. It was built in 1260 from materials from ancient buildings. 

Frankish Castle Wall

The Archeological Museum is small, containing artifacts from the Neolithic period to early Christianity. 

One of the more complete sculptures; most of them are just parts of torsos. 

We walked to the bus station and bought tickets to go to Naoussa, a traditional fishing village. The buses are comfortable and it doesn't take long to get to any of the other towns.

There's not really anything to do in the town but look at the boats in the harbor--lots of fishing boats, sailboats and boats for tours. 

We had time to kill before the bus home so we went to a wellness center. Really. That's what it was called and they had smoothies.

When we got back to Parikia, we sat on the sea wall before dinner. One of us decided she must get her feet in the water.

We ate dinner outside at a table protected from the wind. We often get dessert to share. Some restaurants in Greece have a variety of desserts but every one includes baklava and orange pie which is really cake. Someone told us orange pie is a traditional dessert that everyone's grandmother made.

Orange Pie. Not the best one we've had but still good. 

View from the restaurant. Cargo ship at sunset.

When we got back to the condo, we looked at how many steps we took. Over 11,000. The most we've taken in one day but where we were is mostly flat so it wasn't as tiring as fewer steps up all the mountains we've been climbing. Here in Parikia, the rock pathways have been smoothed out with concrete so strolling is possible as long as you can avoid being blown over by the wind.