First Day in the Islands

We arrived back in Thessaloniki last week after 10 days in the islands. Only one word to describe the island trip and it’s not even a real word. Trelákala. It’s a word we made up out of two Greek words and literally translated it means “crazy good.” No one here says it yet, but we’re doing our best to start a grammatical trend.

Anyway, our trelákala trip through the Cyclades Islands began on Saturday, September 2. Each of these islands is absolutely phenomenal in its own way, with its own feel and its own sights to see, and each island made a slightly different impression on each if us. If we tried to describe all of it, this blog would be way too long (and probably pretty boring). So instead we’ll give each island its own little post, and we’ll take turns giving our impressions.

Saturday, September 2: Paros (Bill)
We caught an early morning ferry from the Athenian port of Piraeus to the island of Paros, where we were scheduled to board our catamaran for a week-long sail. On the ferry, we started talking to the girl sitting next to us. Her name was Sofia, and though she lived in Athens, she visited Paros often because her father retired there. Knowing we had a full day to kill on Paros before our cruise activities were to begin, we asked Sofia if she had any sightseeing suggestions. She told us to drop our bags off at our boat and then go to a nearby café for breakfast where she would call our cell with some suggestions. Next thing we know, she swings by in her car and spends the entire day driving around the island with us! She took us to Panagia Ekatondapillani (an elegant 1,000-year old cathedral), the plaka for some great shopping, beautiful beaches, and a little fishing village named Naoussa for lunch (I convinced Amanda to eat three maridakia, heads and all!). Paros is a gorgeous island and we would never have experienced it the way we did without Sofia’s generosity. She’ll be in Thessaloniki on business later this month and we look forward to returning the favor.

At 5 p.m. we boarded our catamaran and met our skipper Thomás and our hostess Sini. When we asked if we were the first to board, they told us we would be the only ones to board. It turns out the other cabin scheduled for the trip canceled at the last moment, leaving us with a private catamaran cruise for the next eight days. Thomás and Sini took us to dinner at a fish tavern on the paralia, where they engaged in the first of several great debates about which society contributed more to the world, the French or the Greeks. We had a great meal and called it a night.