Day Four: Friday

12Jun11

I’m going to have to use my Day # with the actual day of the week. Every day is starting to blur together.
So, I started the day by running. FINALLY. I didn’t push myself too hard because of the hills and the elevation change, but I got what I need to done. It was beautiful. There weren’t very many cars on the street so I wasn’t going to get hit by a crazy driver. The sun was coming up on the other side of Parikia and I was just floored. How lucky am I to be here?

After the group was ready, we split into a boys vs girls teams for the day for filming. Kellie took the girls and we went to interview Yannis, a shoe maker. Kelly wanted to get some shoes for her sister so Yannis made them on camera. Hand made shoes. They were leather but he had these gorgeous cloth ones. (We went back later on Saturday and found out you get to pick the fabric color and he makes them in about 40 minutes, forms them to your feet.) He was very nice. Actually, all of the people on Paros are friendly and helpful. Yannis told us that since he was happy he sang a song in the shop for us.
The next interview was a jewlery shop next door. They had antiques, jewlery, and furniture. The had these earrings that were mermaids, but no bigger than the top third of my pinky, with SO much detail. He said they used a magnifying glass and its silver that they oxidize for the color.
After the interview Kelly and I came back to the apartment and made lunch. We had to hurry back into town to grab a couple more interviews. I got stuck with the boys since I had to leave for a meeting with Bernie (the programmer from ParosWeb). We interviewed a tabacco shop who has candles made from beeswax. The shop owner gave us this soda that is originally from Crete and has been around since before Coke. It tasted better too.

Since I woke up early, I was dragging by the time we had our ParosWeb meeting with those of us super nerds. I was falling asleep during the meeting and felt bad that I was, but I couldn’t help it. I’ll basically be serving as a graphic designer, but (hopefully) will also be coding as well. I’m going to design the user interface for the virtual tour. We’ll be using GMap3 to create part of the tour.

We had more down time then a small group of us went into town to meet Gabriel to grab another interview around 8. She was a small shop keeper who had a lot of herbs, spices, and cheese. After the interview, we were all hungry and Gabriel suggested this tapas place. I know I’m saying this a lot, but AMAZING. Totally beats Barcelona Tapas downtown in Indy. This is also where the drinking started. Great food and four wine glasses of sangria later, Cristin and I left to find the jeweler from Thursday. It took me a few tries to find the place, but we found it.

Here’s a little fun fact: The streets in Greece are all confusing and intertwined because when pirates were more prominent it would confuse them when they went in to raid the village and they all lead to the water.

We’re making lots of friends through just the interviews alone. It’s great to feel welcomed by the community and you can truly feel the appreciation for what we’re doing for Paros and Parikia.

Anyway, we went to the jeweler then Cristin and I found part of the group at the burger place and hung out for a while. Then we headed over to Apolo (Or Aplo) where they had the pineapple and chocolate cake shots from a few nights ago. Spiro (the owner) greeted us and we got the pineapple upside down cake shot again. A couple of us got fruit daquiris and they were delicious. (I haven’t really had anything that wasn’t, but I need to emphasize this.) Somehow, we got some more of the group up there and Spiro brought the chocolate cake shot. Susan asked what kind of liquer it was and he went “Ahh, no. Secret recipe.”
After Aplo, we went back to the tapas place to find Gabriel, Michael, Kellie, and Kathryn still there (and still drinking). We ordered more sangria. Karen, the fiery Scottish owner, is a blast. When reading the following, you have to have a Scottish accent in your head when you read Karen’s part.

Kelly: So it must be fun working here?
Karen: You want to give it a fucking try?

Karen: So you’re a JAFA?
Kelly: A what?
Karen: Just another fucking American

Karen: We could rename this bar to “just another shithole.”

That is only a couple of the hilarious things that came out of her mouth. I had another 3 glasses of Sangria. Cristin, Matt, Alex, Kellie and I started to walk home and on our walk home was the grand opening of The Dubliner. After paying the cover, if you take your receipt you can get a drink for the equivalent, so I got another drink. There weren’t many people dancing so we went back out to the bar. These semi-creepy guys started talking to Kelly and wanted to buy our group shots of tequila. After we took them, Alex and Matt ushered us out and I’m glad they did.
After walking the rest of the way home I felt horrible. I ended up puking in the trash can and busting the blood vessels around my eyes again. I managed to brush my teeth and set my alarm so I could fall asleep.

Overall, it was a really long but great day.

Filed under: Greece   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: alcohol, beeswax candles, businesses, filming, fun fact, gmap3, greece, parikia, paros, parosweb, running, scottish