If you want to understand an island, skip the museum and go to the harbor at eight. That is where the day is decided: what will be on the plates tonight, who is in a good mood, whether the wind will let the boats out.
On Naxos, the small boats come in loaded with sardines and the haggling starts on the quay. The children watched, fascinated, as a cat stole a fish from under a crate and nobody tried to stop it.
We bought six sardines, had them grilled at a taverna for a few coins and ate them with our fingers, sitting on a crate. It remains the best meal of the trip.
