Athens to Toronto, September 30, 2025

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise. After taking several pictures from our room, we heading down for breakfast, which was included. After packing and a picture of the pigeons and white doves lined up on a wire, we headed down for our shuttle to the airport, a half hour ride. We got there early and relaxed in a lounge before going to the gate. The flight was full with some oversold seats. The plane was a 777, 400 passengers. It’s always a zoo getting on, but boarding by zone seems to work well. It took eleven hours without any delays. When we got to Customs Passport control, it was the first time it was not crowded. It took us five minutes to exit thanks to the kiosks. We hustled down to where we wait for Red Car. Our driver showed up within minutes and already had two passengers and just like that we were on our way home. Because we had carryon, there was no delay. From touch down to exit, including the walk to boarder control, was half an hour. The fastest ever. 

It was a lovely holiday. Hope you enjoyed my blog, which I primarily write for my sister. Until next time, cheers!

Paros to Athens, September29, 2025

We woke up to light rain. Our host took us to Paros airport at eleven and our flight was scheduled to depart at 12:35. At the airport, we were left standing in a line until 1:45 when we were advised our flight was cancelled due to weather, low clouds and we were instructed to pickup our bags. They were checked for free because we were a little overweight for carryon, 8 kilograms on Olympic. 

We were amongst a throng of passengers outside the terminal trying to figure out what to do. If we had made it to Athens airport, we were scheduled to be shuttled from the airport to the Avra hotel at 2:30. We had prepaid our hotel, dinner and breakfast and were fearing now that all would be lost. Our options were waiting for the bus to take us back at the port or a €40 taxi. There were no taxis. Jill was frantically looking for options on her iPad. She found a ferry leaving at 7pm which would get into Piraeus around midnight. We would then have to taxi to the Avra in Rafina, a €100 trip. 

Jill was positioned at the bus stop while I held my position for a taxi. I had a few couples ahead of me. A woman at the bus stop asked Jill if she would be willing split a fare with a private transportation service she had used to get to the airport. Yes! The trouble was that time was of the essence to get to Parikia, the Paros port, in time to catch a 2:45 ferry into Rafina, which is exactly where our hotel is located. 

The people in front of me scattered to various private vehicles. A taxi arrived so the 3 of us hopped in and she cancelled her private transfer. We told the driver we needed to get to the port in half an hour in order to catch the ferry. He said he would do his best by taking a rough route to avoid the traffic. Up he went on narrow winding country roads in order to miss the horrendous traffic. Our new travelling partner had just booked a ferry ticket online, but Jill was not able to as it was too close to departure. Our driver put it to the floor. He said, do up your seat belt and we went on the ride of our lives. He was a great driver gunning when he could. Narrow rough roads, blind hairpin corners and lots of I’m sorries from the driver as we went up to go down and around to miss the traffic. We arrived at the port just as the ferry was ready to dock. Jill ran across the road to buy tickets while I unloaded our luggage from the cab. Our hero driver asked just €20 each for the horowing ride. A bargain. The bonus is that Rafina is a five minute walk from the Avra Hotel and a nice dinner awaits. It was a Goldenstar fast catamaran ferry with stops at Mykonos and Tinos. Travel time four hours. I took some pictures from the ferry to show the dramatic sky.

We arrived  6:45 to a beautiful sky. We were upgraded to a sea view room which overlooked the beach. Tomorrow is go day. We are both looking forward to getting home.

Paros, Greece, September 28, 2025

We woke up to some clouds and a not so good forecast but it was better than expected. We took the bus to the north coast of Paros to Naoussa, a two Euro fare. We were in Paros ten years ago when we cut short our trip to Budapest for reasons in the blog explained back then. We had rented a car and one of our stops was Naoussa. I had to read my blog to jog my failing memory. The alley ways of Naoussa were filled with shop after shop of mostly high end merch, not our thing. After wandering around and taking some pictures, we caught the bus back to Parikia, the port town.

We stopped at Hellas for two takeaway pork gyros and then picked up some pork and veggies for the meal we were planning for dinner. It was nice to be back where we moved our table and chairs back out to our patio to enjoy our alfresco lunch with some white wine. 

After I had a short snooze, we had a scrabble rematch. Jill cleaned my clock again with one of the highest one word scores to date, 63. I started to prepare dinner. The freezer in our fridge was not closed completely due to a zip lock bag. It froze our cucumber and onion. Jill humped it to the market while I started preparing. The best knife was a serrated bread knife. Good thing we had a wooden cutting board. Whenever we don’t have all that we are used to, I say, “it’s better than camping”. We make the best of what we have. In this case, it was a two burner plate and a mishmash of utensils. 

We had garlic, a chicken cube, white wine, an onion, cubanelle pepper and boneless pork. I prepared a tomato, and cucumber oil and vinegar salad. While I was cooking down the onions, garlic, and peppers, Jill said we still have one pepperette, so I sliced it up and in it went. Then she said we still have some salami so in it went too, along with the previously browned pork. More white wine then rice, with a big dollop of hot mustard and the rest of our olives. Jill doesn’t like figs so she didn’t share my stewed figs in Metaxa. A treat for me with a coffee. 

Tomorrow is go day. Our host is getting us to the airport for the flight to Athens where we will spend a night at the Avra Hotel before our flight home. It’s been a wonderful holiday. Thanks to my sweetheart for all of her hard work planning, booking, getting deals, arranging tickets for flights and ferries. The logistics were not for the faint of heart. 

Ios to Paros, September 27, 2025

We were up early as we were apprehensive about the winds. Once packed up, we walked to the port and saw that many of the boats have moved out overnight when the winds weren’t as strong. I took a picture of a round stone mosaic by the port. I can’t imagine how painstaking the process was to create this beautiful piece. We emptied the fridge as our final task then checked out. We settled in at Kriki by the ferry dock where we shared French fries, a beer, and I had a Greek coffee. Until the seventies, it was called a Turkish coffee but due to bad blood, it was renamed. Much like ordering a black coffee, an Americano. I order a Canadiano for the same reasons.

Our ferry was late due to rough seas with 4 to 7 foot swells. Our trip was rerouted to go to Naxos before Paros which got us in at 4:30 rather than 1:15. We both took Gravol and had no issues. We settled in at the lowest deck, mid-ship and were even able to have a snooze.

Once we arrived in Paros, it was cold. The wind was blustery. We humped our bags to our hotel, 15 minutes from the port. Our host upgraded us to room with a queen and a single, great for opening up our bags. We were tired of eating out and wanted to do some home cooking. The market was ten minutes away and we were able to find what we wanted to make a tomato, red pepper, cucumber and oil and vinegar salad. We also bought smoked salmon so we could make a cream tagliatelle pasta. Jill brought capers and chilli peppers from home, so we were all set. It was delicious. We moved the outside table and chairs in, Jill adjusted the lighting and we dined like a Pharaoh with his Queen. 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸

We watched The Block as we dined, just like we would at home. We are happy to be winding down. Tomorrow is going to be cool and windy so it may be a day of scrabble. It is the end.