Wow, it's been a log time since I wrote here the last time. I have been busy vacationing.  My mom's friend and her kids have been with us for the past week or so, but they left yesterday.  Last week we went on a baot trip.  It was yacht with sails.  So maybe it was more of a sailing outing than a boat trip..... We went to little island also in the Kyklades called Skinoussa.  Sailing to the island took 3 hours, the weather was really good, it was hot on the land(  ca. 42-45°C) so it was really nice to be out on the ocean.  I got to try to stear the boat, and that's what I am doing in that picture down there.  Stearing is not as fun as you'd think, but it is fun to be able to say that you have steared a yacht, 'cause lets face it not everybody have done so.

Today is my last whole day on Naxos.  Tomorrow I will have a manicure and a pedicure and then sail off to Crete.  I will only be one whole day in Crete, but I am sure it will be a great day... the hotel we are going to stay at is a luxury hotel.  We were not looking for a luxury hotel but we got one.  We had talked to the man at the travel agency here and asked him to help us find a hotel in Crete and he was more that willing to help us with that.  We had set him a price limit and he stayed within that. ......How did we get a luxury hotel?..... well he got us a big fat discount.  I am looking forwards to going to Crete. 

In 3 days on Wednesday I will go back home to Iceland, so this is my last Naxian blog.  But I think it will be good to be back home...be in the comfort of your own home and your stuff.  I miss the sofa.... and my computer.....I have realized how important it is to me..... I wonder if that is a good thing or not.  Well I can live without it and use computers at internet caffeés, but there are programs on my computer that I am ridiculously attatched to, like Photoshop, I have been missing that a lot.  I have taken lots and lots of pictures. I've had to empty the card in my camera a few times. But I can't load the picturers anywhere on the net easily because they are too big and that is why I want my Photoshop, it can fix that problem....  But anyhow... I will be able to photoshop and compute in my own computer soon. I am excited about going back home but I am also really sad about having to leave Naxos.... but I am hoping to come here again someday.  I have even been thinking about hurrying up and learn Greek so I can come here next summer and work here for the summer. The man at the travel agency wants me to come here and be a guide for tourists. But I am not so sure, it would surely be fun but guiding is a difficult job....But I'll see....

Today is Saturday and the weather is really nice. I went with my mom to a castle today.  A part of the Naxox town is very old, from about 1200. I went to that part of town today and it was very beautiful.  There is a lot of tiny little streets and you can very easily get lost.  It's like a maze.  The town is located in a very big hill or a small mountain, it depends on how you look at it.  So there is a lot of steps. And when I say a lot I mean A LOT.  Anyhow, we walked up a lot of steps in the old town, but at the top there is the castle... It's not really a castle, it's more of a fort.  The castle is called Kastro.... I think the English word castle comes from the Greek word kastro.  The root is kast in them both....a little de-tour here.  Inside the castle there are a lot of little houses and a big church, everything is ofcourse in white except Kastro which is kind of brown. By the gate into Kastro there is the Venitian museum.  I went to look at that, costed me 5 Euros. An Italian family moved into that house in 1203-1207 in the Venitian invation in Greece.  The family was of French origin and their name was De La Roche but later they changed their name into Della Rocca(italian). The Della Rocca family ruled in Naxos and where really rich. In the museum you can see how they lived. You can see their beds and clothes that they could have worn and the lady's mirror on her dressing table, the childs bed and clothes.  You can also see the misters study/office, on his desk they had is journal, he was writing his observations in it in French, and by the book there were his glasses. It looks like he just wrote in is journal and took his glasses of and went away. So amazing, you could also see their dining room and how the table was set.  It was a set like a true Italian feast, I think. It was all really pretty and nice.  It is just so amazing to be in such an old place.

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Now it is the end of my 3rd day in Naxos. I went today with my mom on drive around the whole island, which is not big.  We saw a Kouros, that is an old statue that was made 6000 years b.C. but was never finished.  So it has just been lieing there on the ground unfinished for 8000 years.  It is amazing.  Also today in our drive we visited a lot of small mountain villages. Those willages have no roads that cars can be on. The only transportation there that is not your own feet is donkey... But I just walked. And on our walk through a very small street, I saw a very little baby cat. It was so cute that I just had to pet it a bit and take a picture of it, and the kittens owner came out of her house and gave the cat some food.  The cat's owner is an old little woman that just smiled at me..... One other thing I've noticed here, in the traffic....Honking!!!  The horn is the most important part of the cars here... They are always beeping.  They beep everytime that they make a turn or just whatever it is very strange.  And people also just park whereever they feel like it...In the middle of a roundabout or in the middle of a small oneway street.... Very strange!

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