Anna Kouda - One of Greece's Most Delightful Greeks

The best places to travel are where you can both see interesting new things and meet wonderful new people.  The island of Paros, Greece provides both.  One of the Cyclades Islands, it is fairly easy to get too but slightly off the beaten track for the hordes of tourists who descend on Greece in the summertime - which makes it a good destination for a low key and relaxed holiday.  The sleepy fishing village of Aliki is where I settled in for much of the past month with my San Francisco engineer friend Kathleen Price - renting an apartment from the very wonderful Anna Kouda, owner and manager of Ikia Studios.  Between hiking and swimming, Kathleen worked on her novel and I painted.  Although we did not run into Tom Hanks (he and his wife own a place on Anti Paros, a nearby smaller island), he and other celebrities do make regular appearances in Aliki where the friendly local Greek farmers and fishermen leave them alone.  The beaches nearby are heavenly, the locally grown food and wine fabulous and the charming Anna a breath of fresh air.

For some of my watercolor sketches from Greece click here