Paros
We arrived in Paros and we were brought by a “domatia†guy in the harbor to a nearby hotel, Vila Stratos, kept by an American from Alabama. She moved here a short while ago, bought the hotel and was enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the island.
We dropped the luggage in the large room that they were renting for E50/night and we left for a stroll in town, where the main features are the port and the old winding streets behind the kastro. The town has an interesting church that looks to be quite old, where we saw a baptism ceremony. Right from the square in front of the church it starts the old town, the main commercial street full of shops and some restaurants that winds all the way till the other part of the harbor. We went back and forth, took lots of shots and enjoyed a perfect sunset, maybe one of the best we saw in Greece. We checked the bus station to see how we can go the next day to the marble quarry and it turned out that it was a bus at 8:00am going right there in 10 minutes, so with this info fresh we went for a Greek dinner of fish with tzatziki, etc. with ouzo and wine. Latter I left for a late stroll and shoot in the port promenade where the restaurants aligning the sea shore where full till late hours in the night and returned way after midnight feeling that I was the first to leave the party. In the islands it does not look that the Greeks are going out less than before. In the morning after a quick taste of Greek coffee and tyropita took the 8:00 am bus to the marble quarries. The ride is about 10 minutes but the “marmaria” is not a big deal. However it offers a very pleasant walk in nature by yourself. The place was famous in antiquity, the Paros marble being used in most of the sculptures of the ancient world, Venus of Milo, being sculpted out of this marble. After one hour stroll that brought us all the way to a sort of power plant, we returned and hitch hiked towards Lefkes, a tiny village specked on the slope of a valley. The hitchhike worked only partially because the guy had to drop us not all the way in Lefkes so we stopped a taxi coming our way and for E5 he dropped us in the village. The village has charming winding streets and small squares that are full of restaurants and cafes that invite you for a taste of spanakopita of the cheese pie, or just to sip a frappe in the shade listening to the cycades. We took lots of footage and pictures and stopped in the middle of the village for a frappe and returned to the bus stop at 11:00 to catch a bus or a taxi that would bring us back to Parikia, the way Paros Town is called. It was almost impossible to get a taxi, all being busy and probably having a taxi stand that we did not know about, so we took the bus at 11:20am that dropped me at the stadium from where I walked to Stratos Villa to take the luggage. However, not being clear where the villa is I kind of lost my way and lost some time but eventually I arrived at the hotel where the goodwill American owner helped me to carry all the luggage to the boat and even found a friend with a motorbike to make the process easier. All things considered we missed the boat that was inching out of the harbor when finally I got on the pier and we found the hard way that the Greek ferries do not have any ticket refund for the missed boats. We checked the ferry schedule and luckily in two hours it was another boat leaving for Naxos, a slow ferry, bought tickets for it and relaxed in a harbor café to rest after the events. Paros is the hub of ferry transportation for the Cyclades and here is the best place to switch boats to directions that are not on the main routes. If you check the ferry schedule here are listed the most boats than you would see in any other harbor. The boat came at 2:30pm and we boarded for the 50 minutes ride to Naxos.
Naxos
We arrived in Naxos and feeling weird I parked myself to a travel agency, whose nice host explained me everything is worth seeing in the island, more info than I was able to grab in my current state. We denied any offer of accommodations and we rented a car for E30, not an easy thing to do at 5pm in the evening where most of the cars are gone, and after we checked the ferry schedule for the next day boat to Santorini, we promised to bring the car at 1:30pm the next day. We drove all the way on the western coast of the island, passing nice gulfs, a white monastery and a ruined castle and we arrived after one hour in Apolonas, a tiny village/resort on the northern tip of the island where we got, after seeing another hotel in town, a charming apartment overlooking a bay in sunrise at Flora’s apartments for E60. Driving in the village needs some skills with its very narrow streets. Right near Apolonas is the statue of a kouros, young Greek that represents the god Dyonisos. We visited it and we settled for a 9pm bath in the sea followed by a Greek dinner at one of the restaurants on the beach owned by the locals that all of them are related to each other as Flora told us latter on.
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