Journal - Day 11

Day 11 - Appollonas, Naxos

Friday, May 23, 1997

7:30 breakfast on our balcony. Yogurt, a pear, and coffee. No plans, so decided to walk to the unfinished Temple of Apollo. It's a huge arch, but an unfinished temple. Quite spectacular. We met a couple of ladies from Boston with an interesting wedding story to tell Wendy. Their sister was married in the village of Oia on Santorini. She wore a vaporous 'Athena-type' gown with a wreath of flowers in her hair. She rode a white horse into the white, white village overlooking the ocean, and a man playing the flute piped her into town. Sounds like a fantasy.

On our way back to town, we passed the bus depot, and noticed that there was a bus to Appollon at 11:00, so we hopped aboard. The bus driver had almost a "shrine" of good luck charms hanging at the front of the bus. Our confidence flagged even more when he turned around, 3 minutes into the trip, and went back to the bus station. He had forgotten the ticket-taker guy. We had heard the road was quite treacherous. Steep, steep cliffs on a narrow little road. It was a 2 hr. ride across the island, up and over the peak of Mt. Zeus. It was like the road to Edith Cavell for the last hour, but the scenery was spectacular. The mountain is a series of terraced gardens, separated by hand-built stone fences - for miles and miles. Lots of local colour, farmers in their fields, goats and donkeys on the road. Of course, I always seemed to be on the wrong side of the bus with my camera, but still got lots of great shots.

Arrived in Appollon about 1:00 PM, had a quick lunch, and headed for the beach. I bargained with a shopkeeper for some ceramic plaques, and then we went to wait for the bus at 4:00 PM. As we were waiting, a taxi came by and said he would take us back for the same price as a bus ticket. So we hopped in with a couple from Holland, and were in for quite a ride! Man with donkeys I asked him to slow down if we saw a man on a donkey so that I could take a picture. He just laughed. We passed a couple, but he never did stop. I don't think he understood me. He pointed out a few sites in his broken English, including a marble quarry carved right out of the mountain top.

Home again, wrote a few postcards, and then off for another walk. Went back to Popi's Grill where we shared a Greek Salad and Calamari. Mmmmm.

The town where we are staying, Chora, is the capital city. Our studio is in the resort area of St. George's Beach, so there are a lot more tourists than Greeks, it seems. In Syros, it was just the opposite. Here you are more likely to hear Madonna on the radio than Rembitaka.

I have been really surprised to see so many people smoking in Greece. It seems like everybody smokes. Not only in restaurants, but in stores, on the streets, on the beach. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, young and old. I've never seen so many people smoking!

A few more menu items:

Sippings:
Parfe Chocolate
Capuchino
Fresh Tuices
Water Menou
Lokal Pastry
Ise Crems
tunnasalad
special wine from the own farm

Day 12 - Chora, Naxos

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