When we come to Karpathos, as I’ve said before, we have an in between sort of experience. Not quite tourists, but not quite locals either. One of the reason’s for that Mr. Mad Cow’s island heritage. Another is our Karpathian house. located steps away from the main harbor in Pigadia.

I should put that our in quotes, because the house doesn’t exactly belong to Mr MC and me. It officially belongs to his father who inherited it from his aunt, who died without child of her own to pass it down to. Her intent was for the house to go to the descendants of her brother, Mr MC’s grandfather, the one who grew up in Othos, and since she passed away, Mr MC and I have done our part to follow her wishes. We’ve come back frequently and made ourselves very comfortable in her former home. And to be perfectly honest, I have become very attached to the place.

First of all, as you can see in the picture above, the house is in an amazing location, steps from the harbor in Pigadia. As if the fact the house is on the island of Karpathos weren’t enough of a wow factor. We stay on the top floor, which has a lovely wraparound deck from which you can see the harbor.

The house itself is rather old but not the oldest on the island. Today, I saw a fantastic traditional Karpathian house in the village Aperi. It dates from 19th century, and it’s in such great condition it could be a museum. However, our house is old enough to have one hell of a ceiling in the living room in our preferred quarters on the top floor.

Don’t be too jealous. I deliberately did not include a picture of the bathroom or the kitchen. Or any other room for that matter.The rest of the house is rather rustic. Not quite camping, but not exactly quaint cabin either. When we come to Karpathos through Rhodes, we often stay in this wonderful little one-star hotel while we wait for our connection. I say wonderful because the hotel is not only cheap, it’s conveniently located 5 minutes away from Diagoras airport. And for an extra 5 euros, you can have air-conditioning. Well, that’s about the standard the amenities are at our house. Minus the air conditioning, which you don’t really need thanks to harbor breezes and the lack of humidity in the summer on the island.

Not that I am complaining, mind you. New furniture would be nice, but the house also needs a new roof. And the windows could use new shutters. So, as the Greeks say, σιγά σιγά. Slowly slowly. In the meantime, the Mad Cow family will keep coming, and I will be very sad when it’s time to pack up and move on to the next destination on our trip.

Since the Vachette arrived on the scene, Mr. Mad Cow and I have had an unfortunate tendency towards overpacking for our trips to Karpathos. The first trip, when the Vachette was one, in addition to two massive suitcases, we lugged along a stroller, a carseat and a travel crib.

The second trip with the Vachette, we minimized a bit, but we still had a cumbersome load: one manageable suitcase, one massive suitcase, a stroller and a car seat. This year, however, I was determined to be minimalist. Achievement unlocked! Two manageable suitcases, a booster seat, and our carryons.

Now to achieve this, I had to seriously think about what was worth bringing and what was worth buying on the island. Our house has a washing machine, so that helps keep the clothing load manageable. Mr. Mad Cow brought exactly one pair of sandals, while the Vachette and I brought equal amounts of summer footwear: two pairs of sandals and one pair of flip flops.

First of all, we decided to leave the beach tent and beach blanket at home. Most of the beaches in Karpathos have lounge chairs and umbrellas that you rent for 7 euros a day. And in gorgeous Lefokos, on the west side of the island, you can get them for 6 euros a day. So this year we decided to not bother with our own set up and support the locals who a great job running the beaches. Sometimes, these chairs can fill up fast, especially in August. However, this is not a problem for us. The Vachette is an early riser, so we always have our pick when we get to the beach.

Beach toys are another thing that don’t need to take up any space in your suitcase. Our first night here, we let the Vachette pick out a new set of sand toys at one of local shops. We also bought her a kite at the toy store. These purchases together were less than HALF the price of a meal out. And going out to eat in Karpathos is a very reasonable affair. Definitely not worth bringing with us all the way from the US.

It’s also not worth bringing a month’s worth of sunscreen with you. I brought one partially used bottle from home for our visit to Athens, but once that ran out, I’ve just been buying sunscreen from the pharmacy. Also, I’ve heard European sunscreen is supposed to be superior to American varieties*.

But here are two items we wish we had brought with us: 1)tupperware in an assortment of sizes and 2) one of those big blue plastic Ikea bags. The Ikea bag was an oversight on my part. I completely forgot how perfect they are for lugging a family’s worth of stuff to the beach. In its place, we’ve had to make due with Mr. MC’s backpack and an assortment of flimsy plastic bags, which the Greeks give out like candy. The tupperware, however, is available to buy here. It’s just really expensive, especially compared to what you can find at TJMaxx. The Mad Cow family is more than happy to do its part to support the Greek economy, but not for overpriced poor quality tupperware. Instead, we’ve been carrying our beach snacks in an assortment of plastic bags. At the bright side, the bags make it for me to dispose of watermelon rinds.

*For example, Mexoryl was approved in Europe over a decade before it was in the US.

I don’t know what it is about the Eastern Mediterranean and cats, but from what I have seen in these parts over the course of my travels, they are more like rodents than cosseted pets. In Greece, stray cats seem to be more plentiful than jobs. They are mangy. They are gross. Worst of all, they freak out my cat-averse daughter.

For the most part, they are harmless. I leave them alone, and they reciprocate. Unfortunately for those of us who are not cat people, some tourists like to feed them. That’s when they can become a nuisance. The apartment we rented when we visited Samos had cat food in the kitchen, among other more useful amenities. Clearly the owners were not Greek. This meant the local strays got used to being feed, and they would come purring to our terrace. Fortunately, the Karpathian strays are not as comfortable with tourists. The Vachette freezes and yells “Cat” whenever one comes near us, but they never come too close and go away before she really gets upset.

Something must be going with the stray cats at night. For the past three nights, we’ve heard some cat fights going on outside. I don’t know where they are exactly taking place, but they sound vicious. Though I have not seen any cat corpses in the morning.

(Photo, Greek stray cats on the island Leros, by Colamc, and I must say this photo is more flattering than what they really look like. Because of the Vachette, I cannot get one of the local Karpathian variety. Trust me, they are not attractive.)

This is the second in series of posts about island life about our not-quite-tourist experience as we spend three weeks in Karpathos. Click here for the first one.

When we lived in Zurich, we got used to dealing with Swiss opening hours. With a few exceptions, everything was closed on Sundays and public holidays. To further complicate life, stores often closed early on Saturdays and the day before public holidays. And it was not unheard of for small shops to also be closed on Mondays. My favorite Zurich yarn store, I’m talking about you!

In Greece, and in particular, in Karpathos, we have to deal with what Mr. Mad Cow and I call “siesta hours”. Most businesses shut down during the hottest point of the day and then theoretically reopen at 6 for a couple more hours but sometimes it’s more like 6:30 or 7. I say that because several times Mr. MC has left the house at 5:55 to do a shopping chore (the green grocer, the hardware store, etc) only to find they have not opened up again. The one place that seems to reliably open again at 6 is the closest pharmacy, which you can see below closed during the midday.

Some things, like the island farm stand is only open in the morning. Or at least, only until the start of siesta hours, and it’s really worth it to make the trip. There is nothing like a locally grown Greek tomato, and the local melons are currently ripe like candy. In fact, the melons are so good, we’ve taken to calling them by their Greek name since they are so otherworldly.

Interestingly, when asked, Mr MC could not come up for a Greek word for siesta, and two visits to online Greek-English dictionaries did not yield better results. The best we could find was the literal tranlation for “afternoon nap”. Mr. MC even found a Spanish-Greek online dictionary and it yielded the same result.

The Vachette has taken to Greek siesta hours with the same level of unpredictability. Even though she no longer takes regular naps, she’s been keeping later hours, just like the local children, and certainly could use them, since she is still getting up at her usual early hour. Today, she refused to take a nap when I wanted to lie down, and then she melted down when I woke up because I had taken a nap without her. She later fell asleep in the car, so we took a bit of a drive on a road we have never been on before and discovered the view featured above.

As part of European Tour 2016 Edition, we are spending three glorious weeks on the Greek island Karpathos. This is the first in a series of post about island life, or at least as we experience, in our not-quite-tourists-but-not-quite-native way of doing it. I hope you enjoy

In Greece, it never rains in the summer. In fact, the modern Greek word for summer καλοκαίρι literally means “good weather”. All that fabulous sunshine comes with a price. You need to be aware of your fresh water usage, because you’re not going to get anything raining down from the sky for several months. The islands get their ground water supplies in the winter, so every year we hope for a wet one to replenish our beloved island. Some winters, unfortunately, are rather dry, leaving the locals, and the somewhat locals like us, to feel the pain in the summer when the municipal authorities shut off the water at some unknown time during the day and then turn it back on sometime the next day at an equally unpredictable hour. Tourists staying in hotels or holiday apartments, of course, never have the water turned off. But that’s another topic all together.

To deal with the possibility of water getting cut off, Karpathian houses in Pigadia are equipped with big water deposits on the roof. Think of it as a reservoir to collect water whenever the municipal water is turned on so there is something available if/when the water gets turned off. Long story short, when you are staying in a house, you do your best to use water sparingly, because the last thing you want is to run out before you got a chance to rinse the shampoo out of your hair, which has happened in ours. Not to me or the Vachette, fortunately. Washing her hair is a torturous experience as it is. I don’t need any other complications. But I digress.

One thing about this water, it’s not potable. To get potable fresh water, you go to the βρύσι, or in English, “spring” or “faucet”. Like in Athens at the ruin sites, these spring/faucet things are easy to find throughout the island. In fact, there are two of them with two-minute walks from our house. Here is a picture of the more attractive of the two.

Another necessity that can be in scarce supply on the island is gas. Yesterday we had to go to four gas stations before we could find one that still had some gas for sale. We only put 20 euros’ worth in the tank. On a side note, Mr. Mad Cow got to have the same conversation about how he was related to Karpathos at each one. So at least that was entertaining. Fortunately, the gas tanker came in today, so everyone should be able to fill up again.

As you know, we’ve done a healthy amount of travel with the Vachette. Through experience, we have found that talking up a destination makes the Vachette more excited about the future trip. For London, we talked about how she would get to make a new friend. For Athens, it was seeing the Parthenon. The only problem with talking up the Parthenon, it brought up a very valid question: What is the Parthenon? The answer to this question, an ancient temple for the goddess Athena, has opened up the door to Greek mythology. The whole question of worship could have been a very awkward one for this areligious household, but the Greek myths are so rich as stories that the Vachette has not asked any other complicated questions. In fact, she is very excited about the whole concept of goddesses and has since decided powerful Athena is her favorite.

This new interest has made for some very interesting pictures on our big trip. Instead of saying cheese and smiling, the Vachette likes to strike a pose of strength and yell Athena, as you can see in the photo at the top of us posing in front of the Parthenon itself. Or in the photo below, as we all posed Athena-style in from of the Temple of the Olympian Zeus.

As if the myths told by her father weren’t enough, the Vachette got treated to some quality Athena time at the new Acropolis Museum. You can borrow a family backpack from the museum, and with it, you can go on a complete-the-sticker-book Athena hunt looking for various representations of Athena throughout the museum. As if the air-conditioned reprieve from the heat weren’t enough to boost the Vachette’s mood, this Athena image hunt was right up her alley. We had one problem. She had no interest in any other deity’s image. Still, it was a fabulous way to get an almost five year old excited about our shared Western heritage.