Camping in Paros

We found the girl holding the sign for the campsite we had registered for. We had found it on hostel world and it had AMAZING reviews and looked really fun, which was why we were dragging Bobby along. The girls at the port were really nice and put our bags in the shade and told us we were just waiting for the bus for five minutes. The Australian one told us about how  the Greeks were "a vicious race of people" when we asked about the craziness at the port. When we got off the boat, there were tons of men trying to climb on barricades and wave signs in our faces for accommodations. It was like walking a particularly grueling red carpet with papa razzi everywhere. The girl told us that shes been hit and knocked down and that a few years ago someone was stabbed there! We'd never seen it quite so bad. Always a little nuts but not like this. So the bus (really a van) came and the girls loaded bags on top and we were off. The island really didn't look very populated. Paros and Naxos are the biggest and closest of the islands, and I thought it would be really busy. There were many square, short, pueblo looking white buildings and houses, and a lot of empty space. We got to our campsite and were surprised. It looked quite primitive. We checked in and got a tent. It was legitimate camping. Not like the place in Rome with beds and activities. I was nervous because thought they were technically "five man tents", they looked small and putting three of us in there looked like it would be tight. We decided to deal with it later and get some food. We went to the little restaurant at the site and waited for a really long time for the guy to notice us. Jane and Bobby got spaghetti carbonara and I had moussaka and thought of Nancy. It was good. There were lots of little cats and kittens around and they were so cute. One was sleeping on a chair next to us for our meal, on the head of a broom. He was comatose. There was also a baby tiny puppy named Alfie at the site, that was abandoned in a plastic bag on the side of the road when he was a new born. He was 4 weeks old and his brother died. They were taking care of him until he was old enough to go home with the family that ran the restaurant at the end of the summer. SO cute. We changed into our suits in shifts while we waited to pay the bill, and then hit the beach we had been told about. It was RIGHT around the corner from the camp. We all just wanted to take a nap, but it was REALLY windy. We read (Bobby had just finished Wicked, which I've been wanting to read since college and I was running out of pages in my book so I got to read his). After a while (I think Jane and Bobby napped but I didn't), We decided to walk over to the other rocky beach that was suggested to us and was a little less windy.

It was a much longer walk than it looked, and my toe was doing really well with sand all in the flap. Gross. We had to climb over a lot of really interesting rocks that were shaped like waves and water. It was pretty cool, but hard to climb and wade through with all our stuff. It was pretty crowded, so we kept going to find a spot. At one point I stayed in a nook in a rock with our stuff and my book (all I wanted to do was read) while Jane and Bobby went to scout out a spot. They came back and had found a good one. We rested there and I read while they swam. When they came out, I went in and they weren't lying, the water was great. You can't sink. Seriously, Dad, even you wouldn't sink. I swam around and around humming to myself like a nut and feeling like a hippo because you barely have to do anything to move. I just sort of galloped along. It was fun. We watched the water taxi to town go back and forth loads of people and contemplated checking it out. We decided we should just hit the restaurant we passed near the first place we beached ourselves and go back to the camp and shower and figure out the tent. So we did. I tried stuffed grape leaves (I really wanted to like Greek food, they have good yogurt and those fun spinach pies), but they weren't very good. Jane had a noodle bake thing and Bobby had meatballs, both of which had the sweet, cinnamon taste of moussaka and apparently all Greek tomato sauce based dishes. We headed back to the campsite and took a look at our stuff. Bobby decided that he wanted his own tent, and he didn't want to use the tent in his back pack and have to re-pack it all dirty. So he got him self a pack and we finally were able to get mats and sleeping bags, both of which were awful. We would have no padding. Jane and I got our tent all set up and showered, and met bobby later at the restaurant/bar/everything where he had his computer and we were supposed to find a place in Santorini. We didn't know when we would get here and he was hoping for a night ferry the next day, so we found a place and booked it for the day after that. Hostelworld is the slowest website ever and the connection was bad so it took a long time. We had a beer or two and Jane and I had some snickers while we worked on it. We had wanted to hang out at the bar, since the reviews online had said it was so fun and the people were great, but there wasn't really anyone there. We got a welcome shot and chatted with the bartender a bit, and then got cheaper beers at the mini mart and went across to the eating area when she told us we couldn't have them in the bar (duh, we felt bad). I couldn't keep my eyes open, so we finished those ones and went to bed. I think Bobby went back to the bar and hung out but I'm not sure.

In the morning, we got up in time to get the bus/van to the port to figure out ferries. We booked one for 1 something that afternoon, because that was the best option, and got some breakfast. We sat and ate while we waited for the van to go back to the camp. I looked up at one point and it had left. We ran to the girls at the meeting point and they tried to call the guy but it didn't work. They told us we could take a public bus so we went to figure that out. We bought tickets and found the right bus. It was pretty brutal. It was REALLY hot and crowded and slow and bumpy and I had no confidence that we were going anywhere near our campsite. I had my nose in my book for most of it anyway. Bobby knew where to get off some how, but we almost couldn't get through the people and he had hand stuck in the door and let out this loud whistle to get the drivers attention to stop and re open the door for us in back. We walked back to the site, and it wasn't THAT far but man did I not want to do it. I was nervous about time and trying very hard not to say anything about the fact that I had lobbied hard for us to pack up our bags and bring them just in case we needed to get an earlier ferry. We got back to the camp (which had disgusting bathrooms with no toilet seats, showers with no shower heads, just a pipe, non potable water, and no organization to speak of) to see when the bus was going back to the port. I don't know where that guy goes but the reception girl called him and he wasn't coming back. We had very few options and had to take a cab. GRR. She called one for us and we packed up and cleaned out. We returned the useless mats and waited. Finally the taxi came (Greek time) and it was a fancy BMW. The A/C was amazing. We got to the port and waited at the gate for the ferry. It was really nice, all inside numbered seats like an airplane. I read and blogged on bobby's laptop before crashing hard. We all napped and then played some cards. The journey was another 6 hours or so, and we arrived in Santorini at 7:30 ish. We had emailed with the hotel woman telling her we were coming a day earlier and she had called and then written back that she could put us in her other hotel for the same price. We weren't about to be picky on the most touristy island on a weekend in July, so we took whatever she'd give us. Jane wrote back a few times with her about getting picked up at the port at the right time. We were hoping we were clear in our email!