Winds of Milos

No cliff diving on this day.

Beautiful Waves

We visited the beach at Sarakiniko on a very windy day.  The sea was too rough for cliff diving
but we swam way out to the bigger waves.  Got some pretty good splashes and
mouths full of salt water before I called for enough.

Peaceful Pollonia

Modern Ruins

Think Romeo and Juliet

What we needed, our instructor said, was a calm day to start our wind-surfing lessons.  Our playbook was full.  We had things scheduled.  It was our only day to start.  And it was windy.  We took full responsibility for any difficulties.  And we learned a few things...how to get up on our board, how to lift the sail.

The wind had the upper hand, though.  Everything seemed to be going well as we worked through the step by step instructions, until a gust of wind would grab the sail and take it out of our hands.  We tried again, and found ourselves attempting to sail outside the barrier buoys sooner than we expected.  There was a good bit of drifting taking place while we wrestled with wind and sail.   Interfering with the area for swimming was off limits, so that meant we had to jump off our board and swim back to the marked off area.  It seemed like we got a few chances to see how the sail worked during the quickly passing hour, and then we realized that although we weren't quite at the level of the wind surfers we saw sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, we sure wanted to do it again.  Yes, we signed up for another class.  From the puzzled look on the owner's face, I guess we weren't the typical wind-surfer type, but who knows what he was thinking.  We hoped for a day when the sea was more calm, and got it.  

Lesson two was about learning to turn the sail and it took all of the hour to practice that move.  Wobbling around our boards while we attempted to make the turns meant to our instructors that we needed more instruction, maybe another demonstration.  Fully concentrating, we watched the experts do it slowly and easily, hoping we our turn would come soon, and then in the attempts to perform the task, found ourselves outside the buoys, confused about how to get the wind in our sails.  A young boy about 10 or 11 years old was taking lessons just before us and was on his 10th day.  He was also working within the buoy zone, which seemed rather limited, but it was clear the only way we were going to get out of the buoy zone was to learn how to sail with control. By the end of the second day, the instructor was sure we wouldn't be back.  We signed up for two more hours.  

Lesson three:   Changing directions and handling the sail, how to place the feet, the direction to look - a set of five moves.  We all found these challenging and difficult.  The younger man,  the son, was especially determined that we stay in the buoy zone and each time we got out of it, called us to drop our sail and come to shore.  There we had to explain what happened.  This was somewhat hard to know, but it seemed to help him give us more instruction or do another demonstration.  Our last lesson ended in broad smiles, so we must have managed to meet expectations at last.  Fun and frustrating to get so far - we think we want to do it again somewhere, someday.  

ONE MORE STORY

Adamas - Cutest Boat

(Picture taken  while sitting at our table in a sidewalk restaurant.)

Adamas, again. 

Kleftico

At the Bus Stop, that's where.  Where did you think we were?

At the Acropolis

A Pretty Red Convention Rose

Meanwhile, back home I had a husband who has not been on vacation for the last two weeks. Instead, he was working through the summer heat without a break, painting containers and making evening container deliveries and pickups in addition to trying to handle the monthly billing and a few glitches that appeared in my absence.  Let's just say he was more than a little overwhelmed but handling it very graciously. 

I arrived and had every intention of paying the bills and doing bookwork, but he was dealing not only of back pain which he had endured throughout the course of several days, but also was miserable with a summer cold.  It was not surprising that he was in the general emotional range of slightly to very cross.  On Tuesday morning I suggested we take a break - and take our kayaks out on the Shoshone River.  So what happens next?   This was the gist of my email to Mindy with a few added details.

Dad and I had quite an afternoon.  Dad has been needing to take a break so yesterday he decided to postpone one appointment and take the kayaks out on the river for the afternoon.  I wondered how the going would be with perhaps a different water level than we had seen before.  

The directions were produced to seek the correct amount of air to fill the boats and in the process I read on to see that they don’t recommend using the rudder apparatus for white water because it is harder on the bottom of the boat.  So we decided to give it a try.  The boats do respond well to the paddle as you know.  

Anyway, had two dunks in the Shoshone, one at Coulter Falls when I got turned sideways and couldn't get it straightened, so a huge wave of water gushed, lifting me up and out, and another when I ran into a rock on an attempt to sideswipe it.  Instead it overturned and I ended up in the water with the boat on my head, but managed to grab a black seat strap and floated through the rapids with a firm grip on my boat.  Walked and swam over to the edge where the current was not quite as strong and after three attempts, got the boat turned over and me in it.  

Sent Dad to rescue the sunscreen that was floating away.  We lost two water bottles but found one floating…mine because I had drunk some of it.  My phone was along for pictures in a plastic bag.  Ineffective.  (Bag leaked.) So I had taken it apart and stored it in the side of my life jacket which is not water proof.  It’s drying out in rice and pretty sure it won’t survive two dunks, but we’ll see. 

I hadn’t fitted my helmet right, so it smashed down so I could not see, which did not help although it’s hard to see much when you’re under a boat, anyway.  The first time when I went over the falls, I was pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience and let my kayak go on without me once I got out from under it, hoping Dad would catch it but he got dunked too. 

Noticing that he was watching me as my boat floated by him, I said,  "I am okay, go get my boat."  I floated down the river in the current quite a ways, hitting rocks with my thighs most of the way.  There was no way I would have been able to fight that current. 

Watching him, I could tell going after my boat was not as easy as I thought.  The second time I got dumped, therefore, I grabbed something and hung on for dear life - the adjustment/fastening strap for my seat.  Guess we will have to really work to keep our boats straight without the rudders.  Anyway it made me kind of mad that I got thrown out.  

She replied that she thought we would have to use the rudders (skegs, actually), so the next trip out we took them along to put in just before the dam/Coulter Falls.  The river level was quite high and "thick" rolling green- we couldn't see the bright green vegetation growing under water, and the edges of the river were floating over the tips of the long grasses that were bent to the water's edge. 

I had been recalling in vivid detail my last dips underwater, fighting for air, swallowing part of the river, giving in to the current and all the bumps - feeling a little fearful as we drove toward our parking area.  Typically, I said nothing of the sort as we unloaded and aired up the kayaks.   Once we were on the water, however, I found smiles that kept bubbling to the surface, not that I could have explained exactly why. 

After installing the skeg, I asked Jerry to go first over the "dam".  He didn't tip over - even without his skeg inserted.   I paddled hard, aiming my boat across the current and at almost the last moment turning towards the main large wave, fighting to keep the kayak straight as the water swept me along into the highest crest.

I knew full well that it would take all my strength and determination to position my boat in time to meet the wave head on and only moments to find out if I could ride it out.  The kayak, with me in it, hopefully, would be standing on end as if headed for the depths for one heart-stopping moment. Then the trust of the wave met the kayak and the boat, instead of floating me out on a huge wave of water and flipping it over, rode right over the wave. 

After the big one, I fought the oncoming waves, jabbing hard and quick on either side of the kayak with my paddle in the effort to keep the boat straight for the rest of the rapid.   Did it.  There were a couple more rapids downriver that surprised me with their ferocity, but that makes it exciting. The river was different with this depth, and I don't know how it will go next time.  The river keeps you guessing.

Night is a world lit by itself.  

~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Let there be sunsets.

Mindy led us to Notos Studios in Adamas for our last two nights on Milos Island because the owner had been kind enough to answer a touristy question a few days earlier.  We enjoyed the peaceful view from the balcony and left the patio door open all night to cool our delightful room.  

Ship Shape

Adamas ~ My Girl ♥ My Inspiration

She gave the directions for our workout on Thursday morning in the fitness center of our hotel before we left to go shopping. Twenty minutes of cardio.  She chose one of the treadmills, Lisa took the bike and I used the elliptical   Surprising what a difference in motivation that warm up made.  Then she led lunges with lateral raises.  Since I came home I learned that my half circle driveway is 45 lunges long one way.  How ever many I did, plus the other stuff made me notice the next day whenever I sat down, a good, happy sore. 

The shopping trip was planned with high anticipation for our last day in Greece until we got the news that it was a full-fledged bank holiday and all the shops were going to be closed.  We could hardly believe such a thing, so we took the bus to downtown Athens anyway, hoping against hope to find stores open, only to peer mournfully in shop after closed shop window.  

Lisa had a couple of losses when something didn't come out of tee-shirt tops in the wash, so there was our excuse to do what girls do best.  I had picked up only two small gifts and a book on Milos, but it was a struggle to fit them in my already full black backpack despite repacking.  We laughed that Lisa had a nice neat backpack and ours literally looked like explosions had occurred when we unzipped them.   This was because with all the repacking, I couldn't remember where things were!  I was frustrated with trying to fit it all back in - short on patience, I admit.

   Mindy and Lisa had been discussing minimalist blogs and living.   They made scaling down sound like a rather merciless process.   An especially soft, frothy coral skirt ended up on the discard pile because the top that went with it was a little too tight in the sleeves.  I was starting to wonder if I needed to stand guard over my suitcase before they started in minimizing me!  Mindy's suitcase, holding almost everything she was taking to Ethiopia for an entire year, was quite a bit of trouble to move around so she was really having doubts about taking so many things.  We left it in Athens, fortunately, along with a few of my things in it while we went to Milos Island. 

I was considering getting rid of some dead weight, too, however.  At "only" 25.5 lbs. it did not take standing very long waiting for the bus or running for the ferry to feel like it was 50 pounds.  I just take things a little slower than other people. As I listened to their discussion I realized that every item in my bag was subject to scrutiny.  I tried rolling items because Lisa said her mom claims rolling is the best use of space.  Squeezing the air out of my garments didn't seem to make them weigh less, although it did work well for saving some space.  Long term value was measured against carrying it for the short distance from the shuttle bus through the line until I would hand my bag over to the ticket agent.  I sure didn't want to part with my yoga pants which I had carried the whole trip and hadn't worn once - too hot for Greek weather.  I sure did like the arch support in that pair of flip flops.  My jacket was the wrong choice because it didn't breathe well except for that one infamous boat ride.  The light denim shirt I left in Athens would have been handy for an island layer, as I had first thought.

It had taken some effort and a firm reality check from my husband to narrow down my shoe choices to four pair for two entire weeks and many possible activities.  Tennis Shoes or Vibrams?  Would we be biking more, hiking more?  My favorite flip flops - older but not obsolete - could be due for replacement and by the end of the trip, well, they were getting kind of hard to keep on my feet and I had noticed it more just lately, trying to walk fast enough to keep up with these gals.  After lingering around some scenic view with my camera, my calves screamed bloody murder as I gripped my toes to keep them on, hurrying to catch up with my companions waiting ahead for me.  Again.   

It must have been a case of when there is a will, there is a way.    While it wasn't the section of town I hoped to shop, the tourist shops were open.   Two pair of new sandals and a new bag for my camera equipment soothed my feelings of loss when I gave up the favored flip flops and heartlessly abandoned our 30 year old camera case.  Lisa, with her command of Greek, negotiated and everyone was happy.  After checking my bag, I had two hours or so to kill at the airport,.  Found the best gifts - all things I would like to keep!  Now to part with them  and share with family as I intended.

Fresh Figs -
New Favorite Fruit  

Action Figure

Did the Stairs.  Part of my Adamas workout.

Men of renown.  In reverse:  Mihales, Kostos, Paris and ? Jeri in background.

Mindy, Sofia in our tent.  Great lady.  Slept peacefully through
my afternoon yoga session at the head of her bed
while I worked through travel stiffness.  

Pollonia ~ Yoga on the Rocks

This was taken not far from our motel and there was only one day out of five, Saturday,
 that the sea here was calm.  This area was transformed into a tropical beach with
people enjoying sun-bathing, paddle ball games and swimming.

Had Enough Yet?

Located three blocks from the Athens apartment Lisa uses when she is in town.
No a/c, fyi.  Spent two nights there, and the second one was a story all by itself.

  A great big rock stands in the water to the left..
Mindy and I chose  the rock for our destination while the wash was in - a good  swim workout.

...

Wind Store.  Free Wi-Fi.

Temple of Zeus.

The Corner, aka the second Malfunction Junction I know.  

Indicative of the general state of traffic and in addition to the heat, why we did not bike in Greece! See that blue sign? This centralized location in Adamas, or Adamantas,  - the bus stops where that man is standing -  is 10 km to Pollonia to the right and 5 km to Plaka straight ahead by switchbacks which territory the bus claims to its complete extent to make the corner.  

We saw just one accident from our bus but whatever ran into it destroyed the car.  Two lane roads and city streets don't have shoulders and are really half a lane each, built before city buses were designed perhaps.  The cars park on both sides, using the sidewalk for parking wherever possible. This often turns the road into a one lane passage or at most, one and a half.  There was a lot of give and take, and while buses seemed to have priority, they were also considerate of other drivers and remarkably patient.  Schedules wasn't quite as loose as the internet led me to believe.  The ferry lifted its ramp right on time.   

Walking on the sidewalks, though, required flexibility as we wove our way in and out between cars and street traffic. Interesting job the servers have, waiting tables across the street from the restaurant where we ate our dinner beside the sea, and dodging traffic in order to get the food served.  Mindy resorted to walking on top of the wall, leaping over the openings where you could walk down to the sea, but it was not a requirement.  After the initial concerns we felt moderately safe despite the lack of restrictions and began to wander about like everyone else. The Greeks must be fairly relaxed as a whole.  I remember only hearing horns once and it was at this corner.

Going through the streets of Plaka by bus, we encountered a small sedan double parked.  As we approached the bottle neck, the driver appeared from a doorway across the street, keys in hand and hurriedly backed out of the way.  Another time it required the driver of the car who was attempting to use the same street to back up into someone's driveway in order for us to pass by.  We were bigger than he was by quite a bit!

Some snazzy restoration work.

Mars Hill

Athens from Mars Hill with the Acropolis to the left off screen.

The First Olympics Stadium

SELECT VACATION MODE

1. Take the slow ferry to Milos from Pireas, 8 hours, and arrive at 15:35. 
2. Catch the bus to Pollonia. 1,60 Euros each for a 20 minute ride with three or four stops.
3. Locate hotel, check in, and drop off luggage.  Change into swimming suit.   Thirty minutes.
4. Walk to sandy beach, about 5 minutes, go swimming among the boats for as long as you wish. Shower, change and go find dinner.  
5. Breakfast is included with the room by booking online.  Enjoy Greek yogurt, toast, cereal and milk, fruit, coffee or tea and homemade fig or apple cinnamon jam.
6. Grab a handful of brochures from the hotel office.  Confront your choices of things to do.  How many times are you going to vacation on a Greek island?  What have you always wanted to do? 
7. Arrange for a half day kayaking excursion for the next day and if they're too full, take a windsurfing lesson.  If you like it, do it again.  At least twice.  Try scuba diving.  Then spend the afternoon swimming and shopping local venues, or take a nap. 
8.  You will need Euros more than your credit card.
9. Make three reservations for an all day trip on the Mama Maria - 60 Euros each.  Save 15 Euros over the kayaking trip in the process.  Spend the day stopping at various Milos beaches by boat.
10. Enjoy the view, apply sunscreen, take a 1000 pictures, swim and investigate beautiful underwater realms and caves, watch the tiny tropical fish. 

Adamas after wind-surfing.

 Leaving our Gyropita lunch spot a little better than we found it although
aware of making a very small difference in the great scheme of things.  They need
the Adopt a Highway program.  

Note to self: finding a cool quote and writing it in your journal 

is not a substitute for Getting. It. Done. 

 ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

Morning Sun, Pireas, Athens!  See you again all too soon.

Headed out to sea - Milos by ferry - uh...where IS Gate E9?
 (See previous picture of me with backpack on.  Now picture three worried women running,
 or at least propelling forward in my case, 100 meters with said backpacks to save  ferry tickets and plans.)
132,00 Euros each for the slow ferry.  FYI - we took the fast ferry back one week later - four hours.

As you can see, we made it.  Ferry's Wake

Step One: Remove Shoes.
Step Two: Wash Feet
Step Three: Board Boat

Kleftico

Kleftico - Pirate hiding places.



Even if you happen to have  really stormy seas on the way back to port and you happen to get very sea sick, at the end of the day, it  may have been the most awesome boat ride you have ever been on in your entire life up to this point and it will have been worth every terrifying and exhilarating moment. 

Big Fat Greek Holiday

The taxi story? I wonder how to tell it and do it justice.  

There were seven of us, so it took two taxis.  Catching two taxis was just a little more fun than catching one, somehow.  It took our friend's husband to flag them down...height and gender matter, you know - chivalry is not dead.  And it took Lisa.  In case the Greek English wasn't working very well.  

We needed to get from the Holiday Inn by the airport to downtown Athens first of all, to hand-deliver a letter from a friend of theirs to his relatives at a restaurant in Greece, and second, to see the Acropolis and museum, and meanwhile have lunch.  You haven't truly lived until you've eaten potatoes in Greece.  Later we included dinner - eating light, (salad with tuna and some sort of delicious bean dish with lattes to finish) except for the boys who ate double and were ready for ice cream after, and head back for the night and their early morning flight.  A serious lack of sleep may have contributed to the lack of sobriety, since we only had water with lemon to drink, as well as a (very) impromptu shopping trip and a (very) cute and also money-grabby (not-at-all-cute) very small accordion-playing boy.  

For the third ride of the day, Donna joined Mindy, Lisa and I in our yellow cab.  As luck would have it, the driver was a rough looking character even for a many-summer-suns Greek, but in possession of a lovable personality.   I suppose he has a few life stories to tell.

It seems he had agreed with our host and the other driver on a price of 30 Euros for each car. I'm not sure if Lisa knew that, but she spent the first several moments of the ride in a good-natured and lively negotiation over the price, anyway.  At the next stop light, the price was confirmed in a quick conversation through the front passenger window to the other driver. Then arose the question, the answer to which, in a mixture of Greek and heavily accented English, seemed to be basically how fast could we get to the hotel through the streets of Athens.

We had four votes - one each. Donna voted for Fast, and after an initial burst of speed down busy city streets that left me breathless and the other taxi out of sight and breathing our exhaust, the driver asked for the rest of us to chose safe or fast.  He left us gasping with the demonstration of speed so it was no surprise that the votes from the back seat were all safe, safe and safe.  I changed my vote to safe and fast which choice would give me (and my rather quiet back seat company) some moments of concern over the next 20 minutes or so.

That was one taxi with a good engine.  The biggest surprise about Greece perhaps was that the water really is wonderful shades of blue and very clear blue-green, plus the perfect temperature for swimming.  You can see the bottom of the sea from 3 meters above but it didn't look that deep at all where we were anchored.  Another surprise was the quality of their taxis.  His driving skills weren't too bad either, which did not surprise me.  He chose driving for a living, after all. Despite this conclusion, the tunnel, the freeway, the speed, the gathering darkness brought to mind the night of Princess Diana's accident. Scary.  Exhilarating.  Yes.  Speed is fun. Despite my safety concerns, it was undeniably exhilarating, even breathtaking.  Just hoped we all lived to tell the tale. Taking a wary peek at the speedometer as it hovered around 140 km was an eye opener, and warranted a second glance to make sure I was reading it right, but it didn't bother me as much as watching the rate at which the other cars appeared and disappeared beside us - more or less standing still.  But what fun.  Oh yes.  Wondered what happened if he got caught.  Surely they wouldn't throw us all in jail.  Maybe just him.

The speed limit was 80 km on the freeway and I didn't know the conversion but 140+/- km seemed extraordinarily fast in a yellow taxi cab.  However, the driver had a steady hand and took the corners tightly, without the slightest waver and I was in sheer admiration.    The most fun was that Donna was cool as an angel the whole time, egging him on. 

The faster they talked, the faster he drove. Partially intelligible pieces of conversation wafted to my wind-buffeted and Greek-accent challenged ears while I held my breath hoping desperately that no one decided to change lanes at the last moment.  My eyes were peeled for the least indication - there were none, and I knew I couldn't do anything about it if they did.  Then he slowed down, explaining that area was monitored by a speed camera, I was good and ready for the respite. Then he sped up again.   While enjoying the fun and quite impressed with his driving, I felt some responsibility for the safety of myself and crew, so I fervently wished they would quit talking and just concentrate on the road.  I may have said as much, but the wind gobbled up the words.  It was with a enormous level of relief and some surprise to me that we arrived safely in the half circle at the hotel entrance.

Donna's window was open and I was sitting in the back seat behind her.   Shall we say I got "a bit" wind blown.  Okay, I don't know what my hair looked like in the end, but it was apparently quite hilarious before I managed a quite re-do with my fingers.  I loved her innocence afterwards. Surprised to learn our speed, she said. "I couldn't see how fast we were going!"  

It was so much fun getting acquainted with this tall, bold, beautiful, warm, delightful farmer's daughter.

Kleftico

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/cb/42/9a/cb429ae26be35e3a16f72a53b7a51189.jpg

(Greek Salad picture) 

Pollonia ~ See the light on the building?  We ate there, across the street by the beach, under a covered area - like a carport here. Kapetan Nikolas' signature dish is spaghetti with lobster.  We three shared one serving, so we didn't get the freshest lobster, and that was probably a mistake on our part.  We asked for a recommendation and then didn't quite follow it.  We also ordered Rusk Salad which turned out to be a hearty base of homemade barley bread heaped with diced tomatoes, olive oil and feta cheese.   At another restaurant we shared a pizza topped with capers and prosciutto, eight Euros, two different times.  Yes, it was that good, especially combined with a warm and friendly seaside atmosphere and ice cold water.

The first night in Pollonia we chose to try Enalion.  We ordered a rather simple green salad, a chick pea salad and one order of spaghetti with shrimp.  Delicious, and was satisfying to all three of us.  Greeks eat at different times than we do, (much later)  so we ate whenever we got hungry.  Three dishes of food were more than we could eat, so after that we mostly stuck to ordering one or two meals and sharing them among the three of us.  We ordered Frozen Forest Berry Yogurt served in stemmed parfait dishes delivered to our comfortable cream colored canvas sling chairs right on the sand, where I lingered while Mindy and Lisa went for a swim.  It was fantastic and I would recommend it.  I had gotten sea sick when trying to scuba dive.  The water didn't seem especially appealing to me that evening.  

Kids played on the beach, and in the playground off screen to the right well after dark.  It's cooler then, but that's Greece.  Dinner was commonly at 8 p.m. during our first four days.   Also cats everywhere in Athens and Milos!  A very few are pets, but there are many, many tough looking cats fending for themselves including a kitten with the same lean body and skinny legs, who begged at our breakfast table on the veranda or whatever they call it in Greece.  Lovely spot overlooking the northern sea. 

Cats roam the roof tops in Athens, making a nuisance of themselves.  Though somewhat jumpy, they beg at your feet during dinner, and one even sat on a railing right behind some people and begged over their shoulders when we walked past Enalion on the way back to our studio at Apollon.  By their leanness, it doesn't look like life is a Big Fat Greek Holiday for them. 

Sundown

Sunup

Schoolyard ~ Pollonia

Kalimera, Pollonia
 ~το πρωί της Κυριακής~ 

Lovely Water.  I don't know which beach this is - our first stop on this day trip.
We were diving from the Mama Maria on the Southern Coast of Milos between
Paleochori and Kleftico at several inlets.