Paros

by Al

So, we live (sort of).

I barely know what day it is now… It seems it is Wednesday night at 7:25 pm here. We left for the airport at 1:40 pm on Monday, sat on the tarmac for two hours in 90 degree heat (there was a turbine problem which blocked us from leaving and kept the AC off) and then landed in Heathrow at 1:00 PM local time on Tuesday.

We took the tube into London and went to the British Museum for a while, both feeling completely wiped from not really sleeping on the plane and it being the middle of the night for us. The British Museum was cool though we only got to stay for a couple of hours. We looked at the Greek, Roman and Near East collections, took a few photos. The spoils of Empire!!

We wandered around London for a while and had some rather nasty food. It was everything one hopes for (or fears) in British cuisine. Weirdly, we saw Starbucks places everywhere (remember folks, that chain started in my home town around thirty years ago and only really expanded in the last seven years). Seriously, we saw more Starbucks than McDonalds (like six to two). We had coffee at one, but it was pretty anemic. Getting non-sugar sweetner was weird. We found a local coffee chain in London called “Nero's” that seems to be Italian in inspiration. It looked like a local coffeeshop in Seattle but we saw more than one. Good drinks though.

We flew to Athens on a red-eye and got in at 4:00 am. So far, both times that I've been through customs, it has just been having my passport stamped and nothing else. The British customs asked me literally two questions and sent me on. The Greek one grunted at me… Took the bus to Piraeus and caught the ferry to the Cyclades and Paros. It is grey and rainy (like Seattle is normally) but ok. We were packed in stowage with a family on the way out but we finally are alone now…

The first place we planned on staying was dark. A lot of places seem shut down (this was at around noon), either because of it still being the off season in a way or because of hours.

We got a nice clean room at a little place with marble floors everywhere. Tomorrow, we will be taking a speedboat to Mykonos so we can go to Delos. There are no boats direct from here.

Some day I'll catch up on sleep and figure out what my internal clock is set to. There seem to be Internet Cafes everywhere.