We had an hour or two to fill while waiting for our accommodation to be ready. We decided to have a Freddo Espresso at one of the many restaurants on the waterfront beside the harbour. We couldn’t help but notice the omnipresent American accent. Yes, fellow diners, agreed, Naoussa had changed. Nigel and Laura, have lived on Paros for half the year for many years and they too have noticed how much it has changed. Nigel, an honoured member of the F1 Paddock Hall of Fame which acknowledges his significant contribution to Formula 1, was a wealth of information. It is far more up-market, and the little fishing village has disappeared under the weight of new restaurants and the mushrooming of boutique shops crowded into labyrinthine lanes. It still has a magic and fabulous people like, Elpida (Hope) who comes from Thessaloniki to run a wonderful bag shop called ‘Egg Bags’. We share an obsession for hats and bags.

 Bungalows Marina, Naoussa, is an air-conditioned one-bedroom apartment with a delightful balcony, wonderful lounge/dining room and a pretend kitchen. There is a tap- cold water, a bucket for washing up, a bar fridge and a portable electric hotplate with two burners. I never worked out how to isolate them so when I cooked, they both heated up. The location was brilliant- just a couple of hundred metres from the town square and while parking was a challenge, we generally found a space close by.

While I am not really a beach person, I have to admit that lazing on a lounge, under an umbrella, sipping alcoholic beverages and reading a good book is just a fun thing to do. We tried out a few beach clubs and decided that Farangas was a favourite. It was here we met the incredible Ivy and Igor, from Miami. Ivy, who looks twenty, was about to celebrate her fortieth birthday with Igor an obviously incredibly clever and competent individual and they were about to join friends on a neighbouring island. It was a treat to pass the time with them.

Having the car was such a benefit. We got to explore much of the island and even a few archaeological sites. Paros is not on the top of the list for archaeology, but there are a multitude of places to visit. Signage is terrible and the sites unrecognisable as having any importance. We visited the ‘Ancient Marble Quarries (Marathi)’ where we found Anastasios hard at work in his little workshop carving marble he had sourced from a nearby cave. I hasten to call him a sculptor, but he is eking out a living and we purchased a ‘bowl’. While the island is peppered with marble quarries, genuine ‘Parian marble’ is very rare. We have no idea of the quality of the piece we purchased. That was not the point. We also ‘bush-bashed’ our way to ‘The Tower of Hellenistic Period’ purported to have been built about 300BCE. We assumed it was the Tower – then we found the sign lying on the ground in the scrub. We were fascinated by the number of shells and wondered if the sea had been further inland. It was a question that will hang as there was no information readily available. 

The situation with the car was compromised the day we had to return it to the port at Parakia. It was a good plan. We would check out, find a petrol station, and fill up then drop off our bags at the hotel where we would be staying for a couple of days before catching the ferry to Rafina. Google maps was taking us through impossible ‘streets’ which we came to realise were pedestrian zones. Neither of us could maintain our composure. Abuse was hurled caught and hurled back. We were lost for almost an hour. Eventually we asked a couple of locals and when we received a duplicate set of instructions, we followed those. Finally, we arrived at a car park and walked to the hotel about two hundred metres away. It was then we discovered how close we were to the main road and the sea and how useful it would have been to have an actual paper map. 

The car return went seamlessly. We found the dealer at the port, paid him cash and stood amongst the chaos and appreciated that arriving on Paros early June was a great decision. The crowds were swelling and it was only going to get busier as the summer progressed.

Our host at Casa di Roma was Dee, a native of NZ who had made her life with her partner here in Paros decades ago. She recommends a traditional Greek taverna where we queued and later met up with Rexine and Garry who were also staying at the hotel. Fellow Queenslanders we traded stories and agreed to meet up again the following day. We also fell into conversation with Steve and Alice from Manchester who were delighting in some ‘couple’ time away from the kids. It’s amazing how as travellers we are so prepared to engage with total strangers often simply motivated by the need to converse and socialise with people with whom we share language and just an interest in travel itself.