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Published: August 8th 2007
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Greek Island - Naxos
Instead of doing the usual Mykonos, Ios, Santorini stuff - we thought we'd escape the 18 year olds and head to two of the other islands in the Aegean.We had a long trek over from Turkey with planes and ferries etc. but it was well worth it in the end. The first thing we thought when we got here was this place is paradise. We checked into an apartment no more than 10 metres from the beach with an awesome view out to sea.The best thing about Naxos is that, although it is one of the largest islands in the Cyclades, there is no international airport there so it is yet to be spoilt by the hundreds of tourists on package holiday deals that usually ruin paradise places - bruvs with white socks and sandals!
We really relaxed here and spent most of our time on the beach but we did manage to get out and about for a couple of days. We hired a "little dune buggy" as you can see by the photo and go-karted at a maximum speed of 30k around the supposed asphalt roads. I think we drove for about 4 hours
and only spotted about 10 cars! Anyway, we made it to a distillery in a little place called Chalkio where they made, and still do make, the greek tipples of Citron and Ouzo in very primitive ways. They have to add water and sugar to the stuff that comes out of the distillery as otherwise it would be about 75%!p(MISSING)roof - Greek moonshine... Squeel piggy squeel! Still we tasted it, and it's pretty darn good. Another place we made it to was Agiousos beach. It was a bit off the beaten track, and the suspension on the little buggy had had it by the time we got there but there was absolutely no-one around so we had the beach to ourselves and it was well worth the trek. Sals hands were shaking like a pensioner with parkinsons by the time we got the buggy back!
Greek Island - Paros
After a quick ferry ride accross the Aegean we landed in Paros, not as nice at first glance as the port of Naxos but still another island to explore so all good. We ate Moussaka, drank Greek beer and red wine at the oldest restaurant on the shore. The
Greek yoghurt they make has to be the best stuff to come out of the place!!
We managed to catch buses to remote beaches not far from where we were staying at the port of Parikia, the nicest one being Kolimbithres, surrounded by volcanic rock and water as clear and as blue as you can fathom. The beach itself split into little round sections due to the formation of the rock and we later found out the name of the place translated in English means "Basins". We also managed to ferry over to Antiparos, a little island just off the west coast of Paros, hired mountain bikes (good idea at the time.....not so good for the ass afterwards!!) and rode along the coast to an ancient cave that exists 177m above sea level, consists of 411 steps leading down into the most impressive staligmite/staligtite creations we have ever laid our eyes on!! Needless to say after that day we managed to burn off most of the Moussaka and beer we had been guzzling!!
Athens
I guess when you travel, you have to take the rough with the smooth, but our first day in Athens really was rough. We
made the 4 and a half hour ferry crossing from Paros without a problem but then the fun started when we got to Pireaus harbour.
We were hassled by taxi drivers first of all, telling us that the Metro was on strike. yeah right mate.... whatever........ but then we found they really was on strike when we got to the gates of the station.... gutted coz the place we were staying was only about 15 minutes away by Metro. We then had to find the right bus to take us there, and after about half an hour of messing around found it. It was only as we got on the bus to pay that I then realised my wallet was missing and my pocket was unbuttoned. I assume I was pickpocketed somewhere en-route. Luckily there wasn't much coinage inside but it was still a major hassle ringing all the card companies to cancel them. Because our hostel was only 100 yards away from the old bill, I tried to report the theft as a crime. They basically laughed me out the station. Ah well, life goes on - we still have our health and our passports and that's the
main thing.
Our first full day spent here involved seeing the sights in the city. We were within walking distance so we wandered over to the Acropolis and surrounding area. We were somewhat dissapointed with the condition of the ruins (after seeing Ephesus) because there was lots of major reconstruction going on. The Parthenon itself and the Temple of Athena were both covered with heavy scaffolding which made it hard to get a nice picture (you can judge for yourself by looking at them) , however it's still amazing to see things as large and structually difficult to build still standing to this day.
The streets of Athens are incredibly noisy and traffic is mental. Basically, pedestrian crossing are few and far between, even if there were lots of them no-one would obey them anyway, so you have to just run across the roads and hope for the best that you don't get hit. We also know this because our hostel is situated on a main road and traffic runs all through the night.
We had a good chance to get around the flea and fruit markets in the little back streets in the surrounding area. We
were really impressed with the selection of souveneirs..... well, basically tat....... that they had to offer. There was a little bit of the Turkish hassling going on but it was nowhere near as bad and we managed to pick up some bits and bobs to send back to Oz.
To sum up, we loved the islands, would have loved to spend another couple of weeks there exploring them all and Athens has some great sights to see if you can get over the hussle and bussle of a busy city.
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Stevo
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Fun in the Sun
Howzit Dude and Dudette. Glad to see your both having fun and enjoying yourselves - not like the rest of us working stiffs. Keep on having fun and sampling the local brew where ever your trip takes you and hopefully I'll see you soon.