Last week Karin had an interesting day with a visitor from Canada. It started with the Agia Anargiri Monastery above Parikia. She writes:

"I have been here before but saw it differently this time because the person I went with had spent time here as a young man in 1965! He and several of his buddies were on a trip to Africa and then came to Paros to relax....the stories he told about what Paros was like and how the Greeks gave them food all the time, and were so kind to them in many ways, kept me interested for hours! The boys rented rooms here and then walked each day down a donkey trail to Parosporos Beach to swim! He said they were really fit...and that Parikia was a small village at that time....and the landscape was NOTHING like now....no houses and road. He said the road out of Parikia to Parosporos was nothing more than a dirt track!!!

Also he was told that this Monastery was originally a house of a rich Parian who did "something bad" to a brother, and then turned his house into a religious place as a penance.




How it looks from the road up.






How it looks from the courtyard down.

For those of you who know Parikia, you can probably spot landmarks such as the church, the marina and the port.

"My friend and his buddies rented a room for 3 drachma a day, which he thinks was about 5 cents or less! That included spring water directly from the mountain (still there but now tapped with faucets), a view, and an outside oven for cooking! Oh, and outside privy!! He slept on a straw mattress on a wooden platform which was what beds were then in remote farms and the like. No electricity. He said that there was electricity in Parikia, but not much, so when you looked down at night you saw very few lights and also they were not bright like now. Usually it was moonlight as they came up the hill "slightly inebriated!" from parties that the Greeks invited them to...dancing, great food, the real Greek experience. "

Please come back tomorrow for Part Two.

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