Yasas, Blogonauts!

In Greece, "Yasas!" is the flexible, universal term that means both "Hello" and "Goodbye." Enter a shop? Yasas! Say good-bye to your host? Yasas! Strike your thumb with a hammer? Well, that involves another term altogether.

On Sunday we boarded the subway en route to Piraeus and beyond.

Piraeus is the harborside city that has served for millenia as Athens' seaport. Its name has such an "ancient" ring to it, as if ships bound for the Trojan war could have set forth from its docks. In fact, that is essentially possible. Piraeus and its port have been known to exist since at least 2600 BCE, more than 1000 year before the suspected date of the Greek assault on Troy.

Today, we are far less irksome in our intentions. We have tickets to sail aboard the ferry Speedrunner 3 to the island of Sifnos. The Speedrunner is no mere tug. It is a huge vessel (there's a helicopter landing pad) designed to carry crowds passengers and many of their vehicles across a wind-whipped Aegean Sea. And we were lucky: on a day when wind and wave prevented other ferries from leaving their moorings, the Speedrunner cut across the white caps with speed and ease.

Sifnos is a relatively small island in the Cyclades cluster. At this time of the year, most of the tourists have returned to their mainland homes. So although we did not really have the island to ourselves, it was apparent that businesses were their summer season.

The weather did not really help to extend the season, either.