I have not written or commented about the wild fires in Greece because the TV cameras on the international news—and non-stop on Greek TV—have shown so much.  Also they did not materially affect visitors or travel.

That changed this morning when we noticed a tall column of dark smoke beyond our hill.  The strong North wind was blowing it out to sea before it came our way.  Karin had plans to visit our friends who lived on the hillside so she hopped on her scooter and headed out to take a look.

She managed to capture some of the drama with her camera.  The fire was above the Glifa beach, about 5 kms from our home.

Approaching the area.

At first the fire was far away.

But in just a few minutes it jumped up the hill.

Getting close; time to leave.

Helicopter to rescue.  We saw two helicopters and four airplanes dumping water.

As far as we know there was no homes burned or injuries on Paros from this fire that lasted a couple hours.  Later as Karin was watching the water planes refill from our friends hillside terrace she commented what a dangerous job for the pilots.

This afternoon we read in the news that sure enough a water plane pilot was killed in an accident this same morning off of Cephalonia while fighting a fire there.  We owe more than we can ever repay to fire fighters.

One can tell where our Piso Aliki beach at the south end of Paros ranks in the scheme of things when it is August before the maintenance crews and their equipment arrive.

Though I must say that the village street cleaners do clean it regularly starting in May.

We are not sure what the purpose of this machine is but there does seem to be more sand and less rock above the water line than before.

Perhaps they were getting ready for the visit of the Club Med ship.  Early Wednesday morning Karin was sitting on our veranda reading.  Then she went inside to prepare her breakfast.  When she came back out to eat it she was surprised by this view.

If she hadn’t seen it in previous years she would have thought it was plunked down by a time machine as there was no sight or sound beforehand.  Again it looms much larger than the photo indicates.

Yesterday August 6th conflicted with the full moon.  I say conflicted because the annual festival for our village of Aliki is held on 6 August; a busy night of music, dancing, food, drink and people watching.  But Karin and I decided that this year we would rather go the Full Moon celebration on Antiparos.
The above photo is before the group “L’anima”  arrived.

We were glad we did; this was one of the best string quartets that we have heard in years of attending concerts in three countries.  There was no program so I can’t tell you about the group or the music they played other than it was obviously very well done.  It seemed their instruments had better tone than others that I have heard.  Their web page


This photo is of the moon rising over the south end of Paros.  Why is it always smaller in photos then in real life?

The location and atmosphere might have had something to do with the enjoyment of the music.  Although I was quite annoyed on a few occasions when some of the crowd to my left and rear, my good ear side, thought it was an audience participation event and proceeded to hum to familiar tunes.  Believe me, their voices were not in good tone.

Not only was this high quality concert free but the committee served free wine—out of glass bottles, not the typical plastic jug.  Then to top it off when we went to the Nautica Cafe to have an ouzo while waiting for the ferry home they served an antipasto plate with it.  This used to be traditional but lately the cafes and bars have cut costs by serving nuts or nothing.

My conclusion:  Everyone who visits Paros should make a jaunt to Antiparos.