Naxos

There are so many stories to share from Greece that I barely know where to begin. So I'll start by giving a tour of Naxos. Naxos is the largest island in the Cyclades, and the island where Colin lived for three months. We spent most of our time on Naxos, and I felt like I got to know it pretty well, too. Most days we spent around town, walking to the beach and exploring different places to eat. But one day we rented a car and Colin drove me around to see some sights: one of his lizard-catching sites, the highest point on Mount Zas, a huge sculpture ("kouros"), and another beach up north. I'll write another post about that expedition!

So first things first, this is how you get between Athens and the islands: the Blue Star ferry. There are others, but the Blue Star is the budget option. Island life really revolves around the ferry schedule, which is pretty cool.

And then here's a quick view of the town (Chora). I took this from our hotel room window on my first morning, and the clear, blue sky is totally typical. According to Colin, the weather is perfect every day. I didn't believe him after spending the first part of my summer in cold and rainy Boston, so I packed my raincoat. But it's true! Other than being windy, the weather was always this perfect.

In this photo, you can see the standard low, square, white-washed buildings of Greece. You can also see the portara (ancient ruin from the temple to Apollo) on a separate small islet. There is a little walkway connecting the islands so you can walk over to the portara. You can also see the marble breakwater extending to the left of the island with the portara.

And here's the portara! 

Another cool bit of history on Naxos (and throughout all of Greece...) is the Venetian castle. The castle walls still stand, and new buildings inhabit the insides. I took this photo from the roof of our hotel, so you can see how the castle is totally integrated into the town.

And here's the view of the portara from our hotel balcony. This was actually a luxury room. Life in Greece, particularly on the islands, is a little different from in America. Water, for example, is extremely scarce. There are no tubs or showers like we have here, but just a shower handle to rinse off quickly. Bathrooms are tiny and completely tiled--since there's no shower stall, the whole bathroom is your shower. (They're often about the size of an American shower, and yes, you end up spraying the toilet. You try to avoid spraying your towel, though.) You also can't flush anything - even toilet paper. That took some getting used to, but I found myself still looking for the trash can next to the toilet after I returned.

Here is the main road on Naxos. I didn't get it in the picture, but the harbor is just on the other side of those planters on the left. On the other side of the road, those are all cafes and restaurants. Nobody ever eats indoors, and most of the restaurants barely have anything other than a kitchen indoors anyway. The outdoor spaces are well-lit, well-decorated, and otherwise just a normal restaurant. Except they're outside. It's awesome.

Most of those restaurants probably serve octopus because it's everywhere--hanging from door frames, chairs, clotheslines. Octopus are apparently a very sustainable seafood option, according to Colin. That's great news because I love octopus!! Not only is it delicious, but it has the added fun factor of eating something tentacled and weird-looking.

 This is the harbor. Sailboats were everywhere, despite the wind and huge waves that would've capsized me in about thirty seconds. The wharf where the large ferries dock is just to the right of this photo. The island in the distance is, I think, another part of Naxos. But the next island over, Paros, is so close that I couldn't always tell. During the day while it was clear, you could look across and see houses on Paros. We took the good old Blue Star across to Paros for dinner and shopping one night, and we felt oh-so-classy to be jetting off across the Aegean for a dinner date. :)

The most important part of any island is obviously the beach. This is St. George Beach, which was just a few minutes' walk from the center of town. (It was even closer to Colin's apartment. He definitely had his priorities in line.) The beach was sandy and protected, with unbelievably clear water that is so characteristic of the Mediterranean. There were almost no waves at the end of the beach closest to town, but the waves became increasingly large as you moved along the shore to the unprotected side. Colin and I bought snorkels since the water was so clear. Unfortunately, the snorkeling was better in the part with big waves. I opted not to snorkel on Naxos since I'm small enough that I just get bowled over in big waves. Colin, however, snorkeled to his heart's content and reported back on the fun things he saw.

The beach was fairly crowded (by Gulf of Mexico standards, but not by New England standards) close to town, but practically deserted if you walked a quarter mile towards the other end.

Nearly everyone on the beach was playing paddle ball. We never did buy a set, but instead enjoyed swimming, snorkeling (Colin), and reading on the sand. And yes, I did get sunburned but not from the beach. I got sunburned from walking around town before we ever got to the beach! After that, we went through two or three bottles of sunscreen in the 10 days I was there.

After swimming, you obviously need ice cream. The town has these beautiful round benches perfect for enjoying a snack by the harbor. Especially since in Europe you get to pay a lower price if you get your food to go!

Sunset from the roof of our hotel. Dinner in Greece typically starts around 8 or 9 (they siesta in the afternoons--so civilized!), which means we could spend all day outside without rushing to fit in dinner. I hate when dinner takes away from my time in the sunshine.

And sunset over the portara. Why don't we build temples in such majestic locations anymore?

This is just a fun picture of me under a strangely-placed door, but it shows a little bit of the "labyrinth." The labyrinth is the part of town just above the port that - true to name - consists of narrow, nondescript winding stone paths that I swear go in circles. Businesses located in the labyrinth hand out business cards with maps on the back so that you can find your way back. It's a beautiful area, but don't expect to go anywhere efficiently.

Just because the labyrinth is narrow and confusing doesn't mean restaurants don't have outdoor seating. They just place the tables right in the walkway. Here I am eating dinner at a restaurant in the labyrinth on my last night on Naxos.

That pretty much covers the chora on Naxos. I'll leave you with this last photo, which I took on our last night from a terrace bar. We had heard that the town would be holding a parade and setting off fireworks for Saint's Day, so we picked an outdoor bar with a good view of the port and waited for the festivities to begin. I don't have any photos of the fireworks, but it was a really special way to end my trip. And, to follow up on an earlier post, it was my first good fireworks-viewing in at least two years!

Snapshots of Greece

Photos of Greece are up!

Over the next week or so, I'll be writing all about my Greek adventures. But I don't want to scare you away with piles and piles of photos, so I posted an album online that you can look at (or not). Even culling that album took a lot of work--I take a lot of pictures... I captioned the photos so that you can relive my ten days abroad, and I recommend looking at the photos in slideshow view because some of the landscapes were so gorgeous that even my little point-and-shoot produced pretty pictures.

But still, the photos don't do it justice. The islands were just unbelievably beautiful, and the food was delicious, and the history impressive. I can't wait to share some stories!

Photo teaser! This is the portara on Naxos, part of the ancient temple to Apollo.

Say Cheese

In the meantime, before blogging about Greece, here's a mini-adventure of sorts. For my 25th birthday (yes, an entire year ago), Mom sent me a cheese-making kit from beloved Zingerman's in Ann Arbor. Unfortunately for cheese-making, I was traveling a lot that summer and fall and never had time to make mozzarella during fresh tomato season. And this year, the tomatoes weren't ripe until just about the time I left for Greece. Mozzarella-making therefore waited until my first day of age 26, but it was oh-so worth the wait.

Step 1: Mix together a gallon of milk, water, and citric acid. Stir "vigorously" while heating to 90 degrees. Remove from heat and slowly add a rennet tablet and water.

The instructions make a huge deal out of how you can only use pasteurized milk, not ultra-pasteurized, which they think is fairly common, so I was afraid my milk would be all wrong. (I didn't see any ultra-pasteurized in the store, but who knows? Maybe there was fine print I was missing and I would buy the wrong kind after all.) After all that worrying about milk, I was super duper excited to see the beginnings of curds and whey.

Step 2: Let mixture sit for about five minutes, then slice the curd into small pieces with a knife. Heat to 105 degrees while stirring, then remove from heat and continue stirring.

At the "slice your curd into small pieces" point, I began to get a little nervous about my success. My curd looked pretty much like the photo above--that is, plenty of small pieces were already broken off and floating around, and the curd was pretty small and lumpy. Not at all like the smooth, custard-like curd in the illustrated instruction manual. But I swished around the pot with my knife and hoped for the best.

Step 3: Pour off whey and spoon curds into microwaveable bowl. (There is an alternative water-bath method that doesn't use the microwave, but it seemed more complicated, and the instructions assured me that the end result was the same.) Microwave for one minute and pour off remaining whey. Add salt, fold into one piece, and continue microwaving in short intervals until curds are 135 degrees and stretchy.

After microwaving for one minute, I had something that sort of looked like mozzarella! What the instructions failed to mention, though, is that the cheese will be HOT. The manual did mention optional rubber gloves, but I assumed those were to keep your hands clean, not cool. My fingertips were fairly burning as I folded the cheese into one piece. Next time, I'll just buy rubber gloves.

Step 4 : Stretch the cheese like taffy.

If not wearing rubber gloves, this stage is enhanced by dancing around the room, blowing on your fingers between tentative pulls. At this stage, the instructions also recommend tasting the cheese. Yummmmmmm.

Step 5: Form into balls, braids, logs, or whatever sculpture you wish. Submerge in cool water for five minutes, then ice water for 15 to keep the cheese silky.

Because my hands hurt, I opted for two simple balls. Next time maybe I'll get all play-dough on my mozzarella.

Notably, it's so hot in Boston that my ice cubes didn't last the whole 15 minutes. Whoops. If my cheese isn't silky enough, I'll blame it on the weather and my lack of air conditioning.

Step 6: Buon appetito!

The tomatoes here are nowhere as good and ripe as the ones I had in Greece, but they're not mealy and pink anymore. This was my first tomato and fresh mozzarella salad of the season, and it tasted so much better because it used my homemade cheese (and homegrown basil!). The best part: the Zingerman's kit came with materials for 30-40 batches. Since the rennet tablets will keep for years in the freezer and everything else can be stored indefinitely, I plan to eat fresh homemade mozzarella for years to come.

Come on over and I'll share.

Hey there, 26!

Happy belated birthday to me! 25 was a pretty good year, and so far 26 is starting off great, too. I thought I was going to have a totally quiet, uneventful birthday by myself, but that didn't pan out. Here's the happy breakdown of my busy day:

• Having a birthday on Saturday is great--no work for me!
• Despite being tired after three days of jet lagged work, I went grocery shopping and cleaned the kitchen Friday night so I wouldn't have to on my birthday.
• I woke up before 7:00 on my birthday, which was a bummer, but it meant I had all those extra hours to be lazy before feeling guilty for needing to start the day.
• I used those hours to chat with Colin, eat a leisurely bowl of cereal with milk (a luxury I hadn't had before grocery shopping on Friday), and read news and blogs. 
• I had a friend in town from New York for the weekend, so I met her for breakfast #2 (hours after my bowl of cereal). 
• Then we went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner art museum, where I happily discovered that admission is free on your birthday.
• Although the forecast called for thunderstorms, they never appeared. So we headed down to the river to kayak in the nearly 100-degree weather. Kayaking is definitely preferable to sailing on hot days because of all the splashing involved.
• We wandered through the Common and public garden before getting a snack--I had lemonade and a delicious fruit tart.
• Then we window shopped on Newbury Street until we were hungry again.
• We made our way back to Cambridge for dinner with a few other friends-of-my-friend, and then topped the evening off with ice cream. I opted for my usual summer favorite, mint chocolate chip.

Despite not doing anything particularly birthday-y, it was a fun day. It was nice to be low-key after a big vacation and a few tired days back at work. And since Colin comes home from Greece on Thursday, I'm thinking this year is only going to keep getting better!

(On the subject of Greece: I had an incredible trip, and I will blog about it shortly! I'm still sorting through photos, of which I have many. :))

Happy 4th of July!

While watching the fireworks tonight, I had a couple realizations. First, I have had a very, shall we say, interesting fireworks-watching experience in Boston. 

Last year I went to the Esplanade to watch the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. (I was going to link to my old blog post about that, but when I went to find it, it wasn't there. I guess I only imagined blogging about that adventure.) The evening started off wonderfully, and then lightning appeared in the distance. After a few minutes, the concert stopped and security told everyone to leave the Esplanade and find shelter. I hadn't made it any farther than the bathroom when they opened the gates again. Apparently thunderstorms were imminent, but since no rain had started, they were going ahead with the fireworks. Of course, as soon as the fireworks started, so too did the downpour. That was the first time I ever watched fireworks from under an umbrella. I was soaked, but still happy because I love fireworks no matter what! The storm blew over before the show ended, naturally.  

My second interesting fireworks experience was last Thursday. The city of Somerville (which is just down the road from me) holds their annual fireworks extravaganza on the Thursday before the Fourth of July. This year, that date fell right in the middle of our weeks-long thunderstorm spell. (I notice a trend.) It stopped raining that afternoon, and Somerville decided to go ahead with the show as planned. I made my way to a friend's balcony to watch, noting that it was sort of misting-raining outside. There was also a heavy fog over the city... so much so that when the fireworks began (10 minutes early to beat the weather!) you could only see half of them. The top half of the firework would disappear completely into the fog. Every now and then, you couldn't even see that much. Instead, the firework would just light up the clouds and tint them pretty colors. By the end of the show, the fog and the smoke from the fireworks made it difficult to see much of anything. 

And that brings me to tonight. The weather was perfect tonight. The Boston Pops concert played all the way through the traditional 1812 Overture and the fireworks were clear against a cloudless sky. Unfortunately, I watched from home on the television because I was packing.

And that brings me to my second interesting realization. Last year, Colin came back from Greece on July 4th and was horribly jet-lagged while watching fireworks on the Esplanade. This year, I was packing my bags while watching because I'm leaving for Greece in the morning. Can't wait!

Hope you all had perfect weather, too, with lots of grilling, swimming, and fireworks-watching and a total lack of umbrellas.