We left Santorini early this morning and were at nearby Folegandros by breakfast. Joseph has said that Folegandros is his favourite of the islands as it is beautiful and quiet and unspoiled. We tend to agree.

Joseph had arranged for the local public bus company to put on a special service for us to take us to the main town, which is over the hill from the bay. They charged us €2 each instead of €1.80. It’s that sort of place ?.

The main town is built higher up above the cliffs on the other side. The houses weren’t originally whitewashed so they blended with the hills and were not so obvious to pirates. The town was also easier to defend. The island is pretty barren but beautiful also. The streets are very narrow and windy but with 4 or 5 shady courtyards that have cafes alongside. It really is rather lovely and would be nice for a week or so just to chill. It’s not far down to where the beach is if you want a swim.

I found an excellent shop selling clothes and got a lovely white top that could go over togs or with black pants and also some nice white cotton harem pants.

We caught the bus back down to the port and had a lovely swim at the nearby beach before reboarding the Galileo for our visit to Paros. The journey took about 31/2 hours and was really relaxing. The weather conditions were perfect so the captain had the crew put the sails up. We don’t actually sail but it looks impressive. We had a nice lunch on board. We get 2 meals each day on board. You could actually manage with just those meals which always include bread, salads, cold meats and fish, hot dishes, cheeses, fruit and several types of desserts. I stick to the salads and fish.

We got to Paros at about 4 pm and had signed up for a guided tour. Our local tour guide was nice and very passionate but talked relentlessly. On top of that she had a singsong voice and added emphasis to the ends of words (‘olive treesa, boatsa, catsa” etc which made it hard to listen to her.

We took a bus to the other end of the island and walked through this traditional village to see a museum that showed how the houses were furnished back in the early 20th century. It’s nearly deserted now with lots of empty houses.

It was interesting but most of us wanted to see how they are used now. Then a local lady said there was someone with a loom who makes the traditional woven bags so we went over there and many of us had a quick look in the kitchen and out the back. The houses are a collection of rooms that are a bit higgledypiggledy. All have flat roofs and smallish rooms. The kitchen is quite 1950s with an old style oven and washing machine under the bench. The bathroom appeared to be out the back and up an alleyway.

After that visit we went to this cute seaside town that was the home of the pirate Barbarossa. More of the typical small fishing boats. We had a glass of rosé and some bread there. It was after 8 pm by this stage. Then back to the main town where the boat was moored. We went with Kristina into a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church where a mass was just ending. Everyone seemed to go through this ritual of kissing the various religious paintings when they arrived and left. It all seemed a bit like idolatry to me but maybe it’s just the ‘false’ idols that the 10 commandments makes a sin to worship.

By this stage our group had dwindled to just 5 but we hung in there and followed her to this ancient castle place. We lost the explanation a bit but it seems like some 5th or 6th century noble made this fort out of bits and pieces of the architecture remaining from all the previous occupations of the town. It’s a bit weird but still older than anything we’d ever see in NZ. On the way we passed through some pretty streets with nice shops and lovely restaurants. Often the best local restaurants seem to be inland away from the sea where there is more shelter.

Finally, behind the castle we were able to sit and watch the sunset which was rather lovely.

We found a nice restaurant on the way back. I think it was rather more up market than appropriate for our casual attire but they were excellent hosts and the waitress (we suspect she was the owner) gave us 2 shots of mastique (a local liqueur which is the flavour of the macaroons we had in Athens) to make up for the long wait we had for our meals. The meals were just appetisers as we had eaten at lunch. Bruschetta for Barb, grilled octopus for me and a Caesar salad for Mike, washed down by a glass of local red wine.
On the way back we saw this very appropriate sign outside a shoe shop.

We didn’t finish until nearly 11 and it was after 11 by the time we got back to the Galileo.
All good so long as we were back by time of departure at 4am. Off to Mykonos tomorrow.