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| Festival Harvest Moon Very full very big |
In early October, John and I had the opportunity to start for Moshi, but take a "side" trip to Greece to visit our wonderful friends Nic and Sylvie Emmanuel and their daughter Sophia and her family in Naxos. We planned to meet other friends Pat Beaver and Bob White (Quail) for a few days of their own journey to Athens and Naxos. Pat has been writing a memoir of Sylvie and her mother with Sylvie's immense cooperation and help, and because Sylvie is the consummate "keeper" of family diaries and pictures, the memoir has morphed into including her husband Nic, and grandmothers/grandfathers and father. It is an exciting venture, and I feel very fortunate to have been involved from ground "zero".
We started our journey on our typical Delta Flight, but made the dash to the flight to Athens after arriving in Amsterdam. The flight is short relative to our usual additional 9 hours and we actually had time after arriving in Athens to walk from our hotel down to the harbor in Piraeus to scout where we would leave the following day for Naxos.
As we passed a lovely Greek Orthodox Church in Piraeus, there was an ethereal chant over the loudspeakers, and I actually turned to John and asked, "Is this a mosque?" Imagine the response from him! His snarky reply, "And what country are we in?" I was properly put down.
We went farther along and saw the port, the ferry, and the lovely waterway. Knowing that we could find our way, but that a taxi would be a better option, we returned to a darling hotel the Lilia. A gin and tonic toast to our successful arrival in Greece marked the first hours of our journey.
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| A toast to the Lilia Hotel |
I was surprised that the weather was so cool and getting cooler, thus we quickly ventured down to the waterfront to look for a restaurant. There were so many, that I had no idea where one ended and another began. But we had a delicious dinner and watched the sun begin to go down.
The next morning came early and our taxi picked us up promptly to take us to the Blue Star Ferry. what an adventure. The sun was just peeking up, and we raced aboard the ferry to get a cherished seat outside. The sights were glorious, but the air quite chilly. And somehow we forgot that Greeks might smoke, and that smoking might be forbidden inside the ship but not outside. I spent several hours quietly moving ash trays located near our little table and made noticeable coughs when more smokers sat near John and me.
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| The port |
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| Spectacular view of our entrance to the harbor |
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| Everyone carried pastries on board, but the ferry also had them. |
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| Our Ferry |
There were enormous cruise ships entering and leaving the harbor as well as "working" boats. I loved "Festos Palace". I wonder what was going on in that one? There were cruise ships from everywhere, the German one being the biggest, but not as entertaining as "Festos Palace" I think.
Once we were out of the harbor, the views were chrystal clear. I had not internalized that this ferry takes 6-7 hours to get to Naxos and had to find ways to entertain myself and not think of the smoking, so took frequent walks around the boat. These were not entertaining but good for my back. Also, I discovered the best bathrooms (in the First Class area but not restricted apparently as no one blocked my entrance.) John constantly found himself in the mens room with women because the economy bathrooms were either always full for women or broken. I finally led him to the nice Mens room. But, the best thing was snapping pictures and discarding them. My nice Canon powershot has a great zoom, but envariably the boat would crunch as I snapped a picture. I still had a plenty.
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| Seas got a bit rougher the farther out we cruised |
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| Perfect small Greek Island |
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| Waves hit the Portside and the bow of the ship and covered the windows with salt |
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| Paros |
When we arrived at the first stop, John and I got all our stuff and headed down. We got to the last steps (not easy for me) and John checked to make sure that we were getting off at Naxos. No. We were getting off at Paros, 2 hours away from Paros, but a day if we waited for the next ferry to take us to Naxos. Close call averted, we trudged back up to our seat and waited for the next stop. Huge sigh, we were in Naxos.
We were thrilled to see Sylvie and Pat waiting for us. It had been a long trip but we were finally in Naxos.
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