PAROS: CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS...
can you spare just a couple of hours once per month?

We need 31 volunteers - one for each day of the month - to help with the dog walking at the shelter. If you can spare a couple of hours a month (and of course you can offer to do more than this if you'd like to), please add your name to the schedule here.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/Paroslife/doc/501070253262290/  

Cape Fanos

I recently discovered that I have not written a blog post about Paros walking, hiking, trekking  including running or bicycling.  I am guessing this is because I know of only one marked or designated trail, the Byzantine between Lefkas and Podromos.  Yet there are countless places to move around the island without being propelled by a motor.

Last month I received this query: "Please could you give me some self-guided walks (easy) from Parikia, which are interesting, reasonably short – under 3 hours."
Here is my response:

                        2)  From Livadia beach take the back roads to Kolimbithres and climb up to the Mycenaean ruins.

Benefits of climbing a hill

                        4)  Take the bus to Lefkes and walk the Byzantine trail to Pondromous and catch another bus back from there.  Be sure and check the return bus schedules before hand, in June they stop early.  Hitching a ride is not as common as it was just a few years ago but is still done.

Use private gates on public paths

Steve Jobs stories have been number one in all news media around the world.  Today I was very surprised to see Paros and Antiparos mentioned in an article about Jobs.  In the Hollywood Reporter the head of Fox Films, Jim Gianopulos reminiscences about negotiations between the studios and iTunes about online marketing of Hollywood movies.  He quotes from a 2006 email from Jobs:

We need to talk and if that's not possible over the phone or via e-mail, then I need to come to Paros and go for a walk on the beach with you and resolve this. The time is now to begin creating a new online distribution vehicle for movies, and Apple is the company to do it. I need your help.
How do I find you once I get to the airport on Paros?
Thanks,
Steve

The whole article is at The Hollywood Reporter

Here are a few items that I should have reported on earlier.

The archaeological excavations on Despotiko off the south coast of Antiparos produced major finds this summer.

While uncovering a wall of an archaic building they discovered half of a “kouros” that matches the other half found in 2005.  They found a head in 2010 that may belong to the same statue.  All of which are of excellent quality and are of a style used on Paros in the 500’s BC..

It is possible to arrange boat tours of Despotiko and adjacent Tsimintiri where other large ruins have been unearthed.  That is on our list of things to do this September.

Another positive achievement for 2011 is flat taxi and limo rates between the Athens airport and central Athens.  In the past this was a major sore point as many taxi drivers took advantage of unaware visitors.  So now you are aware of the following:

Fare for Taxis

DAY TIME FLAT FARE (05:00-24:00)

€35 AIRPORT TO ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING

€35 ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING TO AIRPORT

NIGHT TIME FLAT FARE (00:00-05:00)

€50 AIRPORT TO ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING

€50 ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING TO AIRPORT

1. The flat fare price depends on the time of arrival to the destination.
2. The flat fare includes all applicable surcharges (V.A.T., meter start, luggage, toll fee, and airport charge).

The fare to Piraeus is not fixed but under normal conditions it is officially indicated as €47 Day time and €72 night.  You still have to be aware of attempts at over charging or taking slow routes.  The best defence is to agree a rate in advance.

Finally be on the look out for Greece wines at your local importer.  Prior to the economic crisis 90% of Greece wines were consumed within Greece.  Read why I think this best.  But now sales are down by about 40% so winemakers have an incentive to export.  Undeniably the quality of the better Greece wines has increased over the last decade and are able to compete with the best from France, Oregon and other wine countries.  So help a Greek; drink a glass of wine from Greece.

In past years we have seen groups that island hop by swimming from one island to another.  Paros is always included because it is less than one mile to Antiparos and a little more than a mile to Naxos.  So when we heard about a cross channel swim from Paros to Antiparos with free food and drink at the finish, we decided to participate—as observers not swimmers.

We enjoyed a delightful Saturday evening.  It was a great photo/video opportunity so we assembled a few of them in this video.

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.

I have been in the private villa rental business about four years now and have seen it grow from strength to strength.  This year the travel business in general, especially into Greece, appears to be down substantially from previous years.  Yet I see article after article about how private house hires are increasing.  This is attributed to two causes:  1) More people are discovering the accommodation alternative through the internet and 2) a family or group of friends can get superior facilities for less money than the traditional resort hotel.

In addition to my full service Paros site I am also an affiliate for VillaRenters with a separate web site for renting private houses anywhere in the world.  Take a look at http://www.GreekIslandTravelGuide.com 

Last week I saw a press release from a competing company that really impressed me.  It featured a villa on our neighboring island of Antiparos.  (I have been blogging a lot about Antiparos lately.  Does that tell you how much I like it?)  So for the sake of journalistic fair play I will give a plug to the company.  After all this Windmill Villa accommodates up to 14 people and rents for a seasonal range of £8260 to £10,780 per week.

If your holiday budget is a little less than this then take a look at my villa page.  We range from 420 to 1,545 Euro per week.  The latter is the high season rate for 4 bedrooms, 2 baths at the beach accommodating up to 10 people.  It is a remodeled Greek farm house and includes broadband.

Don't procrastinate, however.  Despite the slowdown our high season is almost fully booked.  We have plenty of availability for June and September which is the best time to visit the Greek islands anyway.

See you soon!

P.S.  For a follow-up to our traditional kite flying on Clean Monday see Karin's photo essay on Picasa.

Last week we had been invited to pop over to Antiparos, our neighboring island, for their community cinema club meeting.  We passed then because the movie didn't appeal to us, but this week it was  ***, an Oscar nominee.

  Update:  I learned from the first comment that this group wants to keep a low profile for their strictly local activities.  So I have edited this post a bit.  It is too late to retract it, I am afraid due to some of my automatic publicity.

Let me say I never buy bootleg CD's or DVD's--the itinerant vendors are in constant flow in any resort area--but my conscience was clear in attending this free showing.  If any readers are entitled to royalties of this film, first, congratulations, second, leave a comment and I will gladly pay your share for this group of 30 or so viewers.

This photo shows Karin and a friend boarding the local ferry for the six minute jaunt.  By the way there is an inside lounge which no one uses in the summer but all 10 passengers shared it for this trip as there was a cold North wind blowing.

I thought I would take a candid photo of the snack bar and some of the patrons but I was a little too long in focusing.  However I did not spend enough time composing.

The venue was the common room in the primary school.  The walls were lined with historical photos, probably from the 1960's as the young girl sitting on her mother's lap in the center photo had brought a fig tart to share.  I especially enjoyed the photos of the bakery in action because we have such romantic notions of these small ovens shared by every group of houses.

Probably the best part of the experience was the pre-show dinner we had at Pandalis's Taverna.  We had very simple grilled chicken skewers but his tomato and mayonnaise type sauce was the best I have ever had.

Oh yes, the film was terrific.  We thoroughly got into it.  I think the depiction of life in India while following the adventures of two young boys was quite well done.  It was graphic yet not as brutal as I have read in other accounts especially of the criminal underworld.  There were no scenes showing the lifestyle of the middle and upper classes, however.  Since I spend a lot of time on a computer I enjoyed the few scenes that showed a very large call centre in action.  We highly recommend this movie even if you have to watch it in an ordinary cinema.