Day 6 Paros Island

I finally get it!

I enjoyed a yummy dinner last night when I found a table at last amongst the hundreds of restaurants that are all booked out.

Then, today, when I went out to get a quad bike they didn't have any. I finally found one but I didn't want to rent it for €50 as by then I had spent €65 euros on pair of fabulous sandals!

I had stuffed vine leaves and souvlaki with red wine for lunch and bingo! I realized what all these people are doing here!

You will think I am stupid, but I felt like I was missing something.

I came to Greece because I wanted to experience another culture but there is no culture here - there are only tourists on holiday.

They are here to take a summer break from their normal lives. Like we would go up the coast to relax on a beach or maybe to Bali or Thailand - Europeans come to the Greek Islands.

Well now I don't feel guilty for wanting to nap on my big wide bed with the Mediteranean air blowing in through my door.  I'm going to relax doing whatever I want. I don't even have to do yoga if I don't want to.

I brought a young writer from Singleton's book with me - Blair, The Same Daughter by April Klasen. I'm going to spend the afternoon reading.

Caio :-)

I got bit hungry before dinner and went out for ice cream but ended up having a chocolate crepe so now it's 11pm and I'm out for dinner. The place is still packed with people eating and wandering around.

A motorcycle burglar alarm went off and started up the cicadas in the gum trees. They have gone back to sleep now. Eucalyptus, olive trees and grapes are all that grow in this climate. There mustn't have been much shade before they discovered our gum trees.

It's really wierd seeming to be the only single person amongst all these groups of people. I'm almost a little bit jealous.
But I'm not. I'm just not into this tourist scene. I'm a traveller. Not a tourist.

Honestly, Newcastle has better beaches. Maybe not better sandals, but we have the best coast line. I really just don't get this place.

There is something that is hard to explain unless you understand.  People think they are separate from each other unless they are aware that we are really all connected. These masses of people they are all connecting separately with each other.  And then there is me. I feel completely separate. I don't understand a word that is being spoken around me, and its not Greek, its French and Italian and Spanish. It's just a resonating hum of sound and yet I know that everyone, every cat every tree and cicada (they are chirping again) are an integral part of a whole and nothing is separate at all.

They are connected to their friends yet they think they are separate from everything else. I am separate from all of them but I know I am part of one big whole. But I still feel separate - that must be ego feeling.

Anyway. Ommm. My Sangria is here. I'll probably feel much more linked in after a glass or two. Salute!