Melissa, Sifnos and Song

The Beauty of Kamares Sifnos

Jam at the Cameron

Our Miss at Absinthe

SL and Missy on the Chrissopiggi Path

On Missy's first day, we simply enjoyed the sun on Sifnos, ate octopus and Greek salad, and visited the local tavernas.

One of our haunts was the Old Captain's bar, where we had become friends with the owner's girlfriend Kelly. Kelly had loaned me an old guitar with a missing string two years ago before I began bringing the Travelcaster.

“Well this ain't no Shakespearian sonnet,

I got Kelly's guitar, it's got five strings on it.

And what I need most is a big dose of Sifnos tonight.”

(From Big Dose of Sifnos © 2010 J. Lubert)

The following days were filled with exploring tiny bays like Heronissis, where we sat enjoying the fish that the owner of the sole taverna there had caught that morning, or Chrissopiggi, where we had to walk up and over a mountain to get to the beach and taverna.

Our nights were spent lingering over long dinners including one at the restaurant Absinthe, where, yes, we all tried absinthe! It was surprisingly good, and no one went blind!

It was a musical time as well. When I was helping Nefali with her guitar, a Frenchman visiting from Paris showed up with his guitar and an impromptu jam had the whole restaurant singing. This resulted in two more invitations to play at the local campground. The first was with Jean, our Parisian friend, and his buddy from the campground, also a Jean. There were about 75-100 people enjoying the night. This must have been a hit, because I was approached in town and asked to play again at the campground, this time with an American entertainer Andy, and his wife who were scheduled to play that night.

It was tremendous fun and Andy was a real entertainer who had the whole crowd singing and dancing. He was very generous in asking me to play all the solos and join in on the harmonies with his wife. All the seats were full and I received a huge compliment when a woman asked Lorraine to get me to turn more towards her so she could hear me better. She had heard me play at the Cameron, and said, “I came just to hear him play.”

Leaving Sifnos was like leaving an old friend, but we had the siren call of beautiful Paris beckoning, so off we went on the ferry to Piraeus, taxi to Athens, flight to the city of lights.