From Paros to Naxos

Thursday morning Pam and I drove from Drios into Paroika. We had about an hour to wait until our ferry arrived and we could board. We sat across the street and had a cup of coffee and a little breakfast while waiting for the ferry. The ferry to Paros was a traditional ferry, one hull with cars and trucks loaded on the bottom and people upstairs. The ferry from Paros to Naxos is a high speed ferry and is a split hull design, like a catamaran. As it came into port you could see the ballast tanks being filled in the rear so that it was level with the dock. The huge rear door opened and people and cars could disembark and then we could board.

The trip to Naxos was about 30 minutes and completely uneventful. We got a cab at the port and shared it with two women who we going the same direction, just not as far as us. We are staying in Agia Prokopios which is about 6 kilometers south of Naxos Town. We arrived at the hotel, Hotel Dimtra, which is a block from the water. The owner, Dimitri, went into detail about the three blocks surrounding the hotel and what restaraunts to go to and then where to go if we rented a car.

After getting to our room we immediately changed to our bathing suits. Then we walked down to the beach, we got lunch at Nikos, which was yummy. The aubergine salad is the best we have had in Greece. We finished lunch and hit the beach. We were able to rent chairs for the day, which is nice, as our beach chairs are in Ardmore and bringing them on a plane would have been a pain anyway. The beach here is lovely long sand beach and the water is clear and blue.

In Europe it is not uncommon for women to take their tops off on the beach. In Greece it is not as common as it was in Barcelona or Mallorca. As we were walking down the beach though, I noticed a woman not only topless but bottomless, this section of beach is nude. This is not necessarily a good thing. All in all the entire walk along the beach was about a mile or so.

That evening we took the bus to town and walked along the water front. We stopped at an outdoor café’ to watch the sunset and played backgammon.

Afterwards we walked around town and found a little plaza where we found a nice restaurant, Sciorocco and had a very nice dinner. It is family owned, the sons and daughter were taking orders while Mom and Dad supervised. After dinner, I was waiting for Pam on the plaza, sitting on the low wall there next to the Dad. He speaks very little English, but we tried very hard to communicate and succeeded, he taught me ‘Good night,’ Kalinischte’ and I taught him good morning.

Tomorrow we have plans to rent a car and tour some of the island.