We had a pleasant evening Friday night. After dinner we drove into Parikia to tour the Holland Tunnel Gallery while listening to the jazz styling of Heleen Schuttevaer, a Dutch professional. The art was fine but we got more enjoyment from touring the 17th century building of which the gallery is the ground floor, sprawling living quarters above.

Next I had a gelato from my favourite vendor that I have raved about in previous blogs followed by the two of us having ouzo at our favourite in-town bar, Pebbles. We sit on the terrace and watch the ferries come and go from the black sea and the pedestrians come and go in all shapes and styles. We drove home in pleasant moonlight.


This morning we wake up to the beautiful yacht, Club Med 2 sailing into our bay. It was even more beautiful as it sailed away after dark with its floodlighted sails.

Life is good.

Blogger has a new feature by which you can "browse profiles". I just used it to find other blogs from Paros.

Here are two:
M in Greece Now! - A young Canadian living on Paros with a Greek boyfriend.

Paros Animal Welfare Society Blog - This group constantly struggles against the tide of homeless cats and dogs on Paros.

On another Paros subject here is an update on the Marion True / Getty Museum / illegal antiquities controversy. This one is more pro-Marion than we have seen: The Human Cost

Don't forget to come back here to see the photos below when you have finished reading these other blogs. Cheers.

We are excited about our newest possession, a gift from our Amsterdam friends, Eddy and Louise. It is a Compact Visual Dictionary--Greek/English.

We just got it today so haven't used it yet. Just thumbing through it, however, we have seen countless instances where it would have been priceless in the past. It is easier seen than explained but it full of pictures of everyday things, plants, tools, fish, clothes, machines, animals--you get the picture. So you find the picture and see both the Greek word and the English word.

What more can I say. I want to go the hardware store tomorrow and buy stuff, or maybe the butcher to get a good steak, or ask my neighbor about that tree we have wondered about, or . . .

Click on the link below for more information. It also comes in French, Italian, Spanish, and German.

August 15 is the biggest day of the year on Paros and most other Greek islands. It is the combination of the religious national holiday and the height of high season for tourism.

The season is always a slow build-up with each week after 1 May being busier than the week before. Starting today it will be a steep slide into the quietness of autumn and winter with just a brief respite in early September as the older crowd takes advantage of lower season rates.

What strikes us as so weird is that the best weather of the year is in September with a bonus of warm water for swimming. October is usually quite good as well. Yet there are so few people around to enjoy it. Many seasonal businesses start closing in September; most are shut by late October --leaving the island to us that know best.

The busyness of the last couple weeks seem strange as well. Where usually most houses are shut up now there are beach towels drying on every balcony. Last Sunday every shade tree at our beach was occupied when I went down in mid-afternoon, that was a first. Before I could cut a corners on the roads and not worry; now there are cars everywhere, except quite time, of course.

Which brings up something I noticed last night at the climax of the pinnacle day: the August 15 fireworks. They were spectacular! Well worth the trip into down and hassling the crowds. What I noticed was that the crowd appeared to be nearly all Greek. You had to search to see a foreigner and this in a big tourist town on a popular tourist island.

So there is plenty of opportunity to have a real Greek odyssey on Paros. Read more on our full service Paros web site: http://www.ParosParadise.com

I can identify with World Lizard Day. We have as many as five geckos living on our veranda--read about their entertainment value here--and recently a lizard at our front gate.


At least our resident bug population seems to be down this year.

In our part of Greece stone walls are more than common. It is not uncommon to see lizards sunning themselves on the stone walls. This Flickr photo by leslie_NAXOS

On Squidoo there is an excellent lens on lizards at http://www.squidoo.com/world-lizard-day/

Squidoo is fun and can be profitable. Register with this code: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/Paroshep Please.

The municipality of Paros is sponsoring a series of concerts around the island of the local musical group named En Plo.

The night it came to our area we arrived a few minutes ahead of the publicised starting time of 9 P.M. in order to get good seats. We knew from experience the actual starting time would be much later.

The band warming up.

About 9:15 the group of about 12 strong had completed their tuning and sound checks and started playing. After a few bars they quit and got up from their chairs and strolled off. What's this, a strike? I wondered. No they were just waiting for more time to pass before starting in another 10 minutes or so. Another case of Greek logic that we will never understand, I guess.


The audience waiting in the Angeria church forecourt.

The audience was mostly the older generation with a smattering of young married, not many teenagers. We soon discovered why; the music was all traditional folk -- the people behind us singing along with some of the lyrics. They seemed to be really enjoying it. We left before it was over.

We had some strong gusts of wind in the afternoon. Three sail boats took refuge in our bay.

The wind didn't prevent people from enjoying the beach.