PAROKIA
Parokia is the largest town on the island of Paros, about fifteen miles away from Naousa. It is where the ferries from a number islands arrive and where we will leave from. I have always thought of it as an uninteresting commercial center. But today we drove to Parokia and parked beside what was said to be the old town. And it was both fascinating and beautiful, narrow winding lanes with beautiful still open shops.
The old town includes the ruins of a 12 century fort built by the Venetian king of Naxos when he ruled Paros. We walked back and forth in the old city, taking photographs. One thing that has stuck me about Paros and the other islands I‘ve visited is that there don‘t seem to be any rundown areas anywhere where the poor live. Maybe no one is poor in Greece or maybe maintaining a beautifully kept house is something that even the poor do. In any case, everywhere everything seems to be in extremely good taste and well maintained.
The last thing we did in Parowas to go to the office of Blue Star Ferry to check on our ferry ride back to Athens, stopping at the island of Siros on the way. But we learned that in the off season there was no way to get to Siros on Sunday and then on to Athens on Tuesday. In fact, a storm with huge winds is blowing in on Sunday and there won‘t be any ferry rides at all on Sunday when we were planning to leave. When the wind blows hard the ferries stay in the harbor. So suddenly we wondered how we are going to get to Athens. Our plan now is to leave on Saturday, before the big wind, and to go straight to Athens, then on Monday we will go to the much closer to Athens, but very interesting, island of Hydra for a couple of days and then back to Athens. We fly home Wednesday.
Because today is Thanksgiving we had a Thanksgiving dinner, a gift from Todd at a harbor restaurant washed down by souma, a clear and powerful drink.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 