Castles, Cake, and Open Road

I haven't had much time to myself to update my blog, but we conquered Corfu and are now spending our last night in Athens! Corfu was full of wild beauty--turquoise water against lush mountains, explosions of bougainvillea and hibiscus, and gnarled olive trees scattered everywhere. Since I didn't do any research for this trip, I didn't realize it was a place you go to get away from it all--and on vacation I want to be in the middle of it all...so honestly, I was a little bored and we struggled to fill the six days. But we still had a great time and found some fun things to do!  Of course Taylor got his beach time in and bobbed with Elowen in the water, and they also spent plenty of time in our rooftop pool. Our little slice of the island was a resort town called Barbati (with no sidewalks--walking was terrifying), but we also took a day drive to Paleokastritsa, which has seven beaches and is allegedly a spot where Odysseus lands in The Odyssey. The wa...

So you know in that last post I said we weren't lugging a thirty-pound baby up any hills? Well, I lied, because I wanted to get a picture of Elowen at the Portara. So up we went! It actually isn't even very far, I'm just out of shape. But we got these gems!  On our last day in Naxos, we also drove to a hotel complex that was started in the 1960s but abandoned; it now serves as a giant canvas for street artists, most particularly the Balinese artist Wild Drawing. It was fascinating, but you have to keep one eye on the art and one on the ground--there are lots of large open holes in the ground that want you to break your leg. We also drove to what is considered the most beautiful beach on the island, Agios Prokopios...but I preferred Aliko overall.  And finally, we took Elowen around Naxos to say goodbye to all of her frie...

Since parking on Naxos is almost impossible, we've mostly stayed close to our lovely stone home. There's one pay lot that closes sporadically, which means you may lose your car until the attendant comes back, and otherwise cars and motorcycles are packed against the curbs willy-nilly with no room for our little Peugot to squeeze in. And God be with you if you want to leave and then park close to your own door again! Despite that, we did take our littlest buddy out for a short roadtrip into the countryside; short both because she's still recovering from her stomach bug and because a lot of things here just aren't baby-accessible. I mean, you could hike up to the cave where Zeus was born with a thirty-pound baby strapped to you--but do you want to? And the answer on this trip, my friends, is no. But speaking of Zeus's cave...Naxos is the island where he was raised while he hid out from his father Kronus, and it's renowned for its agriculture and animal husbandry. ...