Naxos - Party Pension!

Ferry arrived at Naxos and were picked up from the port. The pension we had organized at a discounted rate over the internet, sent us to it’s sister hotel which was a bit strange and a bit disappointing when we realized it didn’t have breakfast. All was made better by the afternoon tea of olives, feta cheese and rose wine from a huge barrel. The room is very nice with a small balcony and kitchenette which is all we really need. We got talking to another Aussie, Anthony and decided after a quick, cool swim,to head down to the Temple of Apollo to watch sunset. The temple is on a small headland and has an impressive doorway which remains standing. After sunset we had a big Greek feed for dinner then headed home. We hired a car with Anthony the next morning to check out some of the small villages and archeological sites around the island. The first stop was to see a couple of Kouros. This should have been easy to find but we found very difficult thanks to the signage being rather confusing or nonexistent. After a few detours, short walks and river crossings we made it. The Kouros turned out to be very old giant marble statues of men. Next stop was the town of Halki which is famous for the production of a local spirit called Citron. The Vallindras Distillery still uses the equipment from 1896 to make the Citron so it is very interesting to see where it is produced. We tried the three different types of Citron as well as an Ozzo and Cherry wine they made. While we were in town we also visited the L’Olivier gallery which showed work by local artists. There was lots of beautiful pottery and jewellery as well as some amazing marble sculptures. By this stage we were getting pretty hungry so we into a very cool looking bar but all they could offer us was ham and cheese toasted sandwiches. The Baklava and coffee made up for the simple lunch. We then stopped off at one of Naxos’ many beaches Plaka. This was a beautiful stretch of fine white sand and crystal clear water, it was just a pity that it was a bit too late and chilly for a swim. It was then time to return the car and head back to the hotel for Yani’s, the owners, birthday party. We arrived back at the hotel and were told we were too late for all the food but would have to drink. This seems to be a favorite hobby of the island people we have met. It wasn’t long before we were both supplied plates full of greek salad and a few leftover meat skewers. The food, although cold was very good. We ate, drank and were merry for a while but jumped at the opportunity to go for a walk as we were slowly being smoked out by the locals. When we got back the party was still going, we think it had hit the 10 hour mark, and had a couple more drinks before everyone called it a night. The next morning Damien headed out for a quick swim as the hotel was only 20 meters from the beach. Much to our families delight the free Wifi at the hotel made it possible to have skype chats with everyone. It also meant it was a pretty slow start to the day but exactly what we needed. When we did finally get out of the hotel we headed up the hill to the old town. This was a maze of small, twisting alley ways, low archways and stairs leading to painted doors. It was fun to get lost then try to find our way out again. Apparently it was designed this way so that invading pirates would get confused and loose their way making them easier to defeat. It was then time to get organized, next lot of accommodation, food for breakfast and ferry tickets. Jobs completed it was then time to laze on the beach, not a bad day. Naxos is a popular island due to it beaches. Today’s task was to get on a public bus, find a beach and not move much for the rest of the day. We did exceedingly well at this task. We caught the bus to Agia Anna, found a nice spot, swam, read our books, reapplied sunscreen and that was about it. We hadn’t intended to do as much sightseeing as we have on the Greek Islands as we were hoping to actually have a relaxing time and this is the first time we have actually succeeded. We headed back to the hotel, had showers and prepared to head out for tea but were persuaded by Yani’s and his friends to stay, drink, eat and dance, Greek style. It was a very funny night but when a couple of German girls, Lisa and Melinda suggested we go for ice cream we couldn’t say no. It turns out the girls were supposed to be camping at one of the other beach areas tonight, but when they got there the place was empty. They then returned to the hotel to stay a couple of nights, but there were none available, meaning they will be sleeping on the rooftop balcony tonight. Hopefully it doesn’t rain.
Ooops, shouldn’t have said that, sorry girls. It was windy and did rain a bit last night so our two German friends on the roof didn’t sleep so well!

Santorini

I could really get used to the Greek way of doing things. All the hotels have port pickups which makes it so much easier especially with all our stuff and the narrow winding streets. We were mobbed by people trying to sell us accommodation at the port so it was nice to see the name of our accommodation waiting for us. We hadn’t realized it yet but Perissa, the area we are staying in was not our favourite part of the island. Our accommodation was cheap, but ok, if not a bit funny. It was a 2-storey apartment with tiny kitchen and bathroom on the lower level and a small bedroom upstairs. We lazed around at the hotel, and went for a walk around town. The reason we choose Perissa is that it is on the beach side of the island. We were not overly impressed by the beach, especially after seeing so many great beaches yesterday. Perissa beach has no sand, rather small pebbles, and it is black. As if that wasn’t bad enough there was earth moving equipment driving up and down the beach moving large rocks around. The front of the beach is dotted with cafés all with sun lounges and umbrellas on the beach. We had a paddle in the water and then returned to our room for dinner. Next day we hired a quad bike from the son of the hotel owner. The hotel (John and Katerina’s Hotel) was nice and they were friendly, but there sons business next door was a bit shifty. Firstly despite staying in the hotel, they made us pay for wifi, they told us that the small supermarket next door (probably another family member’s) was cheaper than the big one down the street, which it wasn’t as we had suspected, and the bike they hired us was old, slow and struggled to make it up the hills.
Nethertheless we did make it up to the monastery and then up the biggest hill on the mountain to an ancient village remains. The ruins were very cool, unlike many ruins which are often only the foundations of one or two buildings, this was in fact a whole town. There were hundreds of buildings, lane ways, squares, a theater and preserved carvings and even an intact 6th century BC church. We had a late lunch in Kamari where again we got taken for a ride. We ordered a couple of cheap takeaway souvlaki’s but somehow ended up eating in, and getting more expensive meat plates. The food was good, but we were still a bit annoyed. After lunch and a walk along the beach we headed to Thira, which is the main town on Santorini. This was when we realized we had stuffed up, and were on the wrong side of the island. Thira is amazing, one of the most beautiful towns we have visited, reminding us of the Cinque Terra in Italy. Thira is built on the side of sheer cliffs that drop steeply into the bay. The whole island is actually a volcano crater, so the cliffs are various layers of volcanic rock. The villages are like postcards, with tight winding lanes, white buildings and blue domed churches. We didn’t stay long as daylight was running out and we wanted to visit Oia for sunset. Again we were a bit short on time here in a village very similar to Thira, narrow laneways and white buildings perched atop the volcanic cliffs. We found a good viewing spot and enjoyed a Frappe as the sunset. It is not peak tourist season yet but there were still a lot of people about, it would be very busy come July and August.
After the ride home, which took ages on our little bike, we grabbed a souvlaki from the place down the road. I think the best bit about where we are staying is that there is a 24hr bakery and good cheap souvlaki shop just down the road!
Next morning we headed back to Thira, our plan of hitting the beach delayed by wanting to explore the narrow laneways. We parked the bike near the main square and headed up the hill. The area we had been in yesterday had a huge volcanic rock formation jutting 200m out from the sheer cliffs. The walk to this took us past blue roofed churches with views of the volcano in the middle of the bay. We also got to see some very nice hotels and pensions, many with pools and spas overlooking the bay. We walked out onto the rocks, which surprisingly at the very end, had a tiny little church. Over the next week or so we started to get used to the concept of tiny Greek churches in the most inaccessible locations imaginable. The rest of the afternoon was most unusual and frustrating! Wandering through the laneways Christine suddenly had to run off to find a toilet, nothing serious, just too much coffee in the morning. It then somehow took us 3 hours to find each other. Damien waited where she had left him, while she waited back at the bike. After an hour Damien walked up the road to the bike in case she was there, but Christine had taken the laneways back into town. Heading back into town Damien grabbed lunch in the main square which was where we were headed next anyway. Then it was back to the spot where we had last seen each other and finally back to the bike where we found each other! Our time in Thira just wasn’t meant to be. Christine had a late lunch and we headed to the red beach. After a coffee and relax in a seaside café it was time to head to the lighthouse at the southern tip of the island for sunset. Christine had quite a successful shot at riding the quad bike, I think she is coming around to letting Damien get a bike back in Melbourne. Sunset was better than the previous night. There was only a handful of people and a clear view of the sun hitting the water, although it was nice having the white buildings in the foreground last night. Another souvlaki near home and a few beers were a good finish to a strange day. Our final day on Santorini we took a boat cruise to the small volcano in the middle of the bay. Again we booked through the place next to the hotel, and soon wished we hadn’t. It didn’t end up too bad, but after heaps of pickups in the bus we were on the boat, for some more pickups. We were on the boat early and got seats, but after the last pick up the boat was so full that some people didn’t have seats. On the volcano we had to wait for everyone (easily over 100 people) to pay the entry fee. This was good in some ways as a lot of the people walked of to start climbing the volcano. There was only one guide, who had to speak in multiple languages. We stopped 2 or 3 times on the climb with the guide giving different talks at each point, despite the big crowds he did do a good job. There are theories that the story of the lost city of Atlantis is based on Santorini. He also gave the history of the volcano’s eruptions and how Santorinin is thought to have looked hundreds of years ago.
The next stop on the tour was another island to swim in hot springs. This was fun but jumping from the boat into the cold water to swim to the warm water was tough! This time of the year the hot springs are only warm, but still about 10 deg warmer than the sea water. After a mud bath we swam back to the boat for our last stop on another island for lunch. We had a quick souvlaki before walking up to the top of town, which again is high up on volcanic cliffs. The tour finished as it had begun, with heaps of drop offs in different ports around Santorini. The ferry from Santorini to Naxos was an early afternoon ferry, which meant that we had the morning to look around Perissa. Since the first afternoon we hadn’t spent much time here. We wandered along the beach again and then visited the local souvlaki shop for one last time. Then it was time to head to the port.

Milos - Greek Islands

We arrived at the port of Milos and were greeted by our host Petros. This seemed strange, as the internet advertised we were only 150m from the port. He loaded us into his car and gave us a half minute orientation around town and we were there, the drive took less time than loading the car. After dumping our stuff we headed back to the port for dinner. There is quite a bit of a selection but we choose a mamma and papa type restaurant which was overlooking the port. We had bread and Taziki dip, Greek salad and a Mousaka which was really good so we were thinking of Lyn as we ate. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and collapsed happily knowing we didn’t have to be up early in the morning. After a huge sleep in we finally got out of the room at about midday. Petros gave us a map and basically planned three full, jam packed days of sightseeing for us. This being said he quickly sent us on our way because there wasn’t much of the day left. We headed for the bakery to get some breakfast and swung past the bus stop to see when the next bus was to Plaka and realized there was one about to leave. After a rash decision we jumped on realizing that we were not wearing the best shoes or had enough water for the day. First stop in Plaka was the café. Neither of us function very well before caffeine so it is a necessity we are slowly learning to budget for. Having that out of the way, we headed up castello hill to a church with views of the whole island. On the way up we bumped into an English couple who had been on the bus, we would bump into them a few more times today. The views were fantastic and we had the place to ourselves which was nice after our last two stops were very busy cities. We headed back down the hill and headed for the next town down the road. Here there were some Catacombs and an ancient theater to see. When we arrived, the Catacombes had just closed, damn Greece and their 3pm closing times. The ancient theater was nice, but in the middle of restoration, and in the area was also the site of where the statue of Venus de Milo was discovered. We continued down the road to a traditional port village, where the houses were built into the cliffs, on the beach. The ground floors of the houses were garages to store boats and fishing gear. We walked along the shore line escorted by one of the local stray cats that was intent on getting some pats, it is amazing how friendly the stray animals are in Europe. As it was getting late, we thought we had probably missed the last bus, so headed home across country dirt roads. It was not a long walk and had some nice churches and views along the way. For dinner back in town it was souvlaki time, ‘a souvo a day…’.

Petros the owner of the hotel had suggested we should do a sailing boat tour around the island to see some of the coast line in areas which are not accessible by road. He’s a local so knew better than us so off we went. The boat was not very big but only had 5 passengers including us and the two crew members John and Joanna. It was a nice warm sunny day, although as we sailed out of the bay the breeze was a bit chilly.

We cruised along the coast, past the towns and villages we had walked through yesterday. There was a number of small fishing villages like the one we had seen. There was some spectacular coast line and rock formations. Soon John pulled the boat up in a secluded bay where it was time for a swim. Jumping off the boat into the water was a very cold shock, I thought the water was meant to be warm? We swam around the bay with our snorkels, not a lot to see but still fun. The beaches had nice sand, and was a chance to warm up.

Our next stop was a beautiful cove with sheer white cliff walls, clear blue water and a series of caves and rock formations to explore. Again it was off the side of the boat into the water for a swim, this time we swam through a cave which bought us out the other side of the cove back into the sea.
Back on the boat we enjoyed a beer and pasta lunch (not so greek!). While we dined, John was trying to start the little dingy we had towed all the way out here. After an hour of trying he accepted it wasn’t going to start. John and the 5 guests still piled into the boat, only it had to be powered by the oarsome Damien. We paddled around and through a few more caves and coves. Finally it was back to the sailboat to head back to town. Everyone had a turn at captaining the ship on the way home. Then we spent the rest of the journey drinking cold beers in the sun on the front of the boat. Back at the Hotel we were joined by Laura and Morris, the English couple we had seen the day before. We had drinks on our balcony before heading down the street a souvlaki. They will be travelling around Greece for about 3 months in total. We had decided we needed some wheels to explore the island a bit better. There seem to be different laws concerning the licensing needed to hire motor bikes on each island which meant we couldn’t get a scooter on Milos. This meant it was either a tiny gutless car or we could spend a little more and get an awesome buggy for the day. You only live once so the buggy won. Our first stop was an amazing beach called Sarakiniko which consisted of wind sculpted white rock formations. There wasn’t much sand to lie on but the crystal clear water contrasting with the white rocks was stunning. It also had the added attraction of cliffs to jump off into the water, which by the way was very cold! We spent most of the morning here, lazing, swimming and taking heaps of photos! From there we drove along the coast, visited a few more beaches which were also very nice and then ended up in a small seaside town. This had a nice beach with trees on it which had been painted white of course, a not so subtle reminder that you are still in Greece! In this sleepy town we had a coffee in a café right by the water, Frappe, Greek Style. We got chatting to the waitress who was lovely although not from this island.
In the afternoon we visited a couple more nice beaches before spending some more time lying in the sun and swimming. It was then time to return the buggy and head back to the hotel. We ate dinner in the same restaurant that we had been to on our first night. The food was great again, the old guy was lovely and gave us free dessert and raki shots. Then it was time to get some sleep, before our early ferry ride in the morning.