Paris pre Christmas 2008

We don't know if it is the storms in Kos, or the festive Christmas atmosphere, but one morning we look at each other and say "lets do it... lets go home for Xmas!" Perhaps it was always going to be too tempting to know that we still have our booking and all we have to do is get to Paris to connect with our return flight to NZ.

So here we are in Paris and it is Christmas, probably the most wonderful time to be here. The city is aflame with festive lighting and decoration with Christmas trees being sold in every street corner store. We have trouble deciding the highlight for us. Maybe it is Galleries Lafayette Department store with its Christmas Tree the height of several stories through the central atrium... or maybe it is the Eiffel Tower shining blue in the night sky... and then again, what about the trees lit up on the Champs Elyses - or the storefront window displays especially for the children...? Oh well, maybe we are in culture shock... from the Greek Islands to Paris?

Now, how on earth do they manage to get those chooks to look so real in the window? -When you have a close look their bums are plucked!

Emily is busy making Christmas fruit mince pies for her many customers and followers of her culinary website www.dernieremiette.com, so we go exploring. Our glee is completely bubbliing over when we find a boutique selling hand knitted childrens' finger puppets. We spend ages in there choosing which ones we will buy and for who...

Helen, Emily and Marc make us very welcome and organise for us to 'house sit' a friend's house in a posh gated community in the centre of Paris - the 16th Arondisment. It is a real treat. We feel as though we are riding a magic carpet.

We also ride the Metro to Marc and Emily's apartment in the 11th Arondisment, very quickly becoming familiar with the 'system'. We spend a flying visit catching up with Helen who drives us all over Paris to make sure we have seen all the sights, and in one particular excursion we have a mission to purchase the best macaroons in Paris. As the light fades at 4pm on our last day, Helen and Emily queue for the Holy Grail of macaroons so we can take some back to NZ for the family.

Christmas Comes to Kos

We notice the lights going up around town and each night it looks prettier. We hear that the Xmas tree is going to be lit up in the town square tonight at 6.30 pm so go along on our bicycles to join in the fun and festivities.

It has been a glorious winter day with hot sunshine and no wind (for a change). Tonight it is crisp and cool but not too cold.

The moon comes up over the castle behind the Turkish Minaret in the town square as the town brass band plays Xmas carols which we all sing along to. The children are queuing up to have their faces painted. The crowd counts down in Greek and the Xmas tree lights up. Light projectors spread a kalaidescope of moving lights in star shapes around the buildings.

We stop to take photos of Santa with the children but are not too impressed with his beard.

Tomorrow is going to be a market day in the town square with lots of people selling their home made crafts and xmas gifts.

We take photos of the crowds and festivities including a wonderful carousel, then ride home on our bikes for dinner and an early night. We have been up late last night (1.30am this morning!) at the Yacht Cafe, attending the regular Friday night quiz night.

The market day consists of lots of stalls loaded with Greek home made delicacies and colourful home made xmas decorations. We buy small round Greek sweets which are like deep fried honey and batter with cinnamon - by the time we have finished those up we feel quite sick.. oink oink!

High Winter Winds and Hot Swims in Kos

7 December 2008



We are now spending a bit of time dodging the wind which has been howling in from the south - straight into the cockpit, so need to keep the washboards in while we are on board as it brings with it lots of red dust straight from the Sahara Desert. It is not cold - just fierce!

There is a good strong high sea wall around the marina so the water is very flat inside contrasting with the waves crashing against the wall from the outside. The fuel dock which is outside the wall gets a fair thrashing and would not be tenable at all in a southerly wind.

We regularly go to sleep with the sound of the wind howling around us.

This brings with it problems of being a bit stir crazy, so the bikes are coming in handy. We take a long and energetic bike ride out to the 'hot springs' we have been told about. It is around 10 km with a gentle uphill to start with to get us warmed up and then a real slog up and over. We find the "therma" which is down a winding metal road from the main road high above where we leave our bikes. It is all very Greek style and rustic - hot sulphuric water bubbling in a deep hole in the black sand and seeping through the warm sand down to the sea shore. We lie in the hot water until we cannot bear it any more and then swim in the sea to cool off. The ride home is a fast freewheel downhill past the marina and straight to the ice cream shop...mmmm. A well deserved treat!

The Christmas lights are all up around Kos Town and it is even more lovely than usual.

This morning we wake up to a rainbow over the boat.

Greece on 42c to the Euro

Week ending Monday 1 December

Yes we are still swimming!... even if it is only to clean the waterline for the last time this year maybe!

Another busy week is behind us while we watch the international financial carnage continue to rip the stuffing out of the NZ dollar exchange rate. We rehash our budget for 2009 as our tenancy on Ngake Street comes up for renewal and we drop the rent to retain our tenants for another year.

Despite the double whammy we are still optimistic that we can continue with this life and will find ways of achieving our budget. We buy 500g of beef for 5 Euro and make a large pot of goulash with lentils - enough for 3x2 meals. A new toaster ensures we can make toast with yesterday's bread (1 Euro per loaf), local jams and honey jazzing it up for a high energy morning snack..mmm. (We stop blogging and make some right now...) Lots of fresh olive oil, tomatoes, Kos lettuce and cold meats make up our lunches, while hot soups and eggs fill in the gaps. A 1 Kg pot of yoghurt is Euro 3.30 when on special, closer to E 4 normally. The pork in Greece is very good as is the chicken and veges. We count the Euros as they go out and are in the process of building up an accurate picture of what food is costing us. We are using a plug in (electricity included in our marina costs) electric hotplate for cooking rather than the gas which is Euro 14 for a 4 kg bottle.

We are aware that everyone is affected as some of our British cruising friends talk in shocked tones about the Pound Sterling now at 1.2 to the Euro when it was x2 not so long ago.

Each day vanishes as we continue to work on the general maintenance on the boat while the weather stays warm between the regular gales that are now coming through from the south. We are becoming accustomed to changing the additional springs over from one side of the boat to another as the wind changes direction from the south to the north west and north east which brings in the ice from Turkey. The sound of the wind howling during the night makes us feel cosy not threatened.

In between the work on the boat we find time to spend with Werner and Hannah our German friends and neighbours who will be leaving this week, and Swedish Lars and Ingela from SY Baravara (in Kos Marina for 3 days on their way to Alanya) who take a photo of us for their website on their mobile phone and txt it straight to their blog - check it out on www.baravara.st.

The big surprise of the week is when Brits Andy and Brenda (see photo) from SY Deep Blue turn up here in Kos. We first meet them in Venice in early August as they are on the same marina as us. We have a great time catching up with them and take a bike ride with them today to Asklepion 4 km from Kos town. Asklepion, an amazing site on 3 massive terraces with panoramic views across to Turkey (see photo), with its origins in the 3rd century BC, housed the Medical School of Hippocrates. Kos is the birthplace of Hippocrates -known as the founder of modern medicine; the Hippocratic Oath originates from here. His holistic approach to medicine was based on clean air, good diet and healthy living including lots of exercise. Later we visit the deserted (presumably only at this time of the year?) International Hippocratic Centre and walk around the overgrown gardens containing all the species of herbs that Hippocrates used in his healing methods. (Some leaves go home for the pot!)

Of course we have been going out at night again, and there has been a little bit of socialising thrown in thanks to Werner and Hannah and also to our new friend Ian at the Yacht Club Cafe who runs a quiz night each week - we will be regulars (see photo). However, on Monday morning Andy and Brenda depart for Turkey and Wednesday we say farewell to Hannah and Werner (Werner has a new haircut thanks to the team on SY Matelot). We will be feeling very forlorn once these guys head out and leave us to mind the fort until early in 2009. However, there are lots of projects lined up and if the past 3 weeks is anything to go by, the time will certainly fly by.

Second Week in Kos

We start the week with all kinds of plans and lists of things we have been going to attend to for months. Most of the list is complete, with the outstanding item being the cutting and polishing of the topsides which is almost complete. We have both retrained as contortionists as we polish the hull from the inflatable dinghy but it is really good for the abs and shoulders.

We have some wonderful German neighbours - Werner and Hannah - from close to Frankfurt. We will really miss them when they go home on 3 December as have had some fun times with them. They take us on a bicycle tour of Kos on Thursday and then introduce us to the best local souvlaki washed down with ouzo on Friday.... oh dear!

We have sent emails to all the wonderful cruisers we have met during our travels and made sure we keep in touch ready for next season. Richard has received more photos of us racing in Poros - wonderful to have shots of the boat under sail with us both on board, although Richard is down to leeward and not featuring.

This weekend we have had our first taste of winter weather and as we write this blog the wind is howling outside and it is raining - feels just like Auckland!

We now (for better or worse) keep up to date with the news via our laptops and followed the ABs defeat of Wales via live updates on the BBC site. It was excrutiatingly slow but at least we got the result as it happened. We went out to a local bar here to see if we could view it on TV but it did not feature on any of the Sky Sport channels, of which there were plenty.

This coming week we are promising ourselves a trip to the hot springs - have not got there yet.