Both the Lonely Planet and the Cruising Guide talk about the food in Greece, saying that there will be no mistake that you are eating in Greece rather than in France. The best meal we have had so far was at the café run by the Greek guy that returned from Brooklyn. Meatballs are a big thing here and he prides himself on his meatballs filled with the spice cumin inside. He is written up in about 3 different guides as the “restaurant of choice” so he feels the secret is to only use home grown vegetables.

Before we left the US, we had been in San Diego visiting Steve’s mom. While there, we also drove over to visit Steve and Sandy Lindquist in Palm Desert. They have been to Greece a time or two and absolutely love Greek salads.

As a “send off” treat, they decided to share their favorite Greek salad with us. The capers ideally should come from a little grocery store in Santorini, - the place next to the fish taverna, perhaps called TaSixiva, perhaps located on Perivolos Beach. If you absolutely don’t have any of those big Santorini capers, use the Safeway capers.

Anyway, I’m hoping Steve and Sandy won’t mind if I share their recipe as it was so good:

1 cucumber sliced – the English type is best
About 20 cherry tomatoes, sliced
A red onion, also sliced thin.
Yellow hot peppers, sliced thin
Kalamatos olives – about 1/3 a jar
Feta cheese – (dry it first to get the moisture out before adding to the salad)
Dried oregano
Juice of 1 lemon
Red/orange peppers
Olive oil
Santorini Capers – the bigger size is best

Mix the cut up items, then pour the lemon juice over the salad and toss. Add the oregano and 4T of olive oil and toss again. Dish into bowls and make sure everyone gets a big piece of feta and capers in their bowl. Add 1 T olive oil and oregano on each salad.

I decided that once we arrived in Greece I would sample Greek salads often. Well, I’m sad to report, after about 8 Greek salads, I have yet to run into anyone serving them with capers, and certainly not the big capers. Although this may not seem like a big deal to you, after having the Lindquist version of the Greek salad, it is almost like finding out there is no Santa Clause. I am determined to find one as good as the Palm Desert version.

Today we went to visit the oracle at Delphi and once again I passed up the Russian Salad (2.5 euros), Fish Roe Salad (2.5 euros) and Tuna Salad (5.5 euros) so I could taste the Delphi version of the Greek Salad (6 euros). Alas, no capers, no peppers, not much oregano and a bit of a disappointment.

In Seattle, the average lunch for two at either our favorite Mexican place or Teriyaki place seems to run about $25 including tip. Here we are finding Greek lunches running about 11 to 15 euros for two people. The tourists eat at about 1230 – 130 and the Greeks eat lunch at about 4 pm. Dinners are really getting going at about 1030 – p.m. Some will open for hungry tourists at 800 to 830. It’s a bit of a different world. Lunch is the big meal with dinner consisting of reheating what they prepared for lunch.

Like the Italians and Spanish, everything closes up from about 1 – 5 or 6 pm. In fact, we are waiting for the Hummingbird Fishing Shop to reopen. It’s now 7 pm and he is still closed. He not only sells fishing lures, weights and kid’s floats, but he also advertises himself as the town’s only WIFI connection. When we first arrived into this port, we tested to see if there were any free WIFI's in the harbor. This year we brought with us as part of our 280 lbs of luggage a special commercial grade WIFI antenna that will amplify any WIFI signal so we can pick it up from the boat. Last year we could have used that antenna many times. This year we are still waiting to find one unlocked WIFI that we can use.

In this town, Galaxidi, there were two unlocked WIFI's, but neither would give us an address so we couldn’t get on the internet. There was one powerful locked one, apparently run by the Hummingbird Fishing Shop, but without the code, there is no access. So, we wait and hope the Hummingbird lands soon so we can upload this to the website and check emails.

The restaurant across from the boat in Galaxidi has a different sort of twist to draw in business: they have a big parrot that freely roams from table to table. After Delphi, we stopped in for a cold drink before getting back to the boat. Things were slow in the restaurant and the bird took an immediate fancy to us, sitting about 4 tables away. Next thing we knew he was at the table next to us. Steve put out his arm and the parrot hoped on.

I must admit, I am not a parrot fan. Yeah, I like them from afar, but, I’d rather not have them up close. Well, this bird really liked me and wanted to get personal. I swear this is true: as the bird crawled over my arm, onto my head, he said “Cracker” in English before departing for the next table. Now what are the odds a Greek parrot in a little out of the way place called Galaxidi can speak English? That’s the only word we heard he speak. Check out the photo of the parrot. I’m trying to look like I maybe like parrots.

Okay, so how about a true tourist story. Today we took the city bus from Galaxidi to Itea, then on to Delphi. We toured the Oracle at the Apollo Temple, saw lots of ruins and very old rocks and then toured the museum. The way they work it is after they have discovered these really old sites, they take all the good stuff and move the statues, etc to the museum. They charge 6 euros to visit the rocks and remaining pieces of the temples and an additional 3 euros to go through the museum. We had been told by other yachties last night that it was better to visit the outdoor archeological sites first, then the museum because the museum is air conditioned and it really gets hot here in the afternoon.

The artifacts are really incredible. Much of the things come from the 500 BC era. I really liked the photos of the archeological digs, where you see the photos of the statues being dug up, then look to the right and see them here in the museum.

So, the tacky tourist story: there are two big male nude statues in the museum, one next to the other with a three foot space between them. I told Steve that we had the opportunity of the year, maybe of the decade, if he were to approach the two statues, rip off his clothes and “strut his stuff.” Then I would take the photo. We were just getting the scene staged when one of the museum ladies came rushing up to us and, in English, said, “No staged photos!” Opportunity missed. Apparently this idea has been tried before.

Steve says he wasn’t going to rip off his clothes. Whatever. Now we can only hope Photoshop can recreate that scene. Maybe the photo will appear on a later website update, maybe not.

A quick word about beer: the grocery stores here sell Amstel, Heineken and a Greek brand. The first two are about twice the price of the Greek beer. We have been conducting a series of taste tests over the last few weeks and hate to admit it, but, we’re sticking with the “twice the price” brands.

Its 730 and the Hummingbird is open, but somehow we can’t seem to connect. Life is normal. They say it has something to do with their server.

We have a Moody 39 ft yacht moored to our right (a British couple) and a Targa 52 ft catamaran to our left with 8 Greeks on board. A boat from Panama just entered the harbor. Tonight the harbor man came by and said we had to pay. Price was 9 euros for the 2 nights (4.5 euros a night.) That’s a far cry from the 80 euros a night fee they tried to charge us in Sicily! I am still amazed that it is July. These Greek harbors are definitely not full. The local people tell us things will change in August when all of Italy will launch their boats and the flotilla will come over to Greece.

Tomorrow we leave for Corinth and plan to meet up with Stephanie. She gets back into Athens tonight after midnight, then will find her way to Corinth tomorrow. Considering she’s found her way around the world so far, I don’t imagine finding Corinth will be much of a challenge. However, I think finding a hotel room in Athens at 1 am might be a bit of a challenge, but, I’m sure Stephanie can handle that quite easily.