We arrived in Naxos via ferry from Paros, and Fads and Mark arrived an hour later from Mykonos where they had had a great time. Our rooms were fantastic! We were right on the beach, overlooking the restaurants and bars set up on the sand. We had French doors that opened onto a small balcony. The view was amazing!
On our first evening we were happy to chill on our balconies and watch the sun set.
We were worried that the bars and restaurants would be noisy but the bars closed early and the restaurants weren't noisy anyway - just pretty with their lights on!
Unfortunately, Fads, Mark and John all felt unwell at various stages over the next couple of days. There didn't seem to be any clear reason why. We had a quiet day on the first full day, with some people heading out and some spending the day in our beautiful rooms. I went for a walk along the beach and found a very cool peninsula with a ruin on it. I felt a bit like I was on my own deserted island. Very cool!
John managed to hire quite a good bike so he had lots of fun exploring the island.
Over the course of our four days there, we all got to see, among other things, the Temple of Apollo. It sat out on a rocky peninsula near the main town and was quite striking. It didn't feel right to me though. I'm quite convinced that it's not supposed to look like this. The temple was never finished but I reckon these pieces are not meant to be columns and a lintel but some base pieces or some other part. Got to google that.
There were great views from the temple back over the town.
There was a busy square near us where all the Greek men would sit on one bench and all the women would sit on another bench. It's funny how they were so segregated but this is fairly typical in Greece where men often hang out drinking coffee all day.
Fads and I visited a pharmacy (in an attempt to fix some of the upset stomachs) and the inside of the shop was amazing! The walls were lined with antique, custom-made cabinets and the top shelves were filled with old ceramic jars, the type that they used to store medicines in in past centuries.
The old part of town was gorgeous - all white-washed buildings and narrow streets. Of course, there were the obligatory Greek cats......
The ruins of a restaurant were perched on yet another rocky peninsula and it was cool to explore them. As we looked through the glass-less window frames we could see straight into the crystal clear water.
We spent every evening on those lovely balconies.....
When everyone was feeling better we hired a car to explore the island. Not just any car though - it was a convertible from Fantasy car hire! With the two guys looking cool in the front and the two hot chicks squeezed into the back we set out in style!
This church was lovely. It was set right in an olive grove.
The landscape was really arid and rugged. It seemed that on every remote hilltop there was a church. Take a close look at the hilltop below.....
Here's a close-up.
We ate a lovely lunch at a restaurant with great views over the surrounding valleys.
We found this ancient marble quarry where there was an abandoned statue. It was never finished and it looked strange just lying there. It was interesting to see how they carved the statue straight from the rock where it lay, rather than take the block of marble somewhere else then carve it. The statue is 11 metres long!
We also explored this old tower. Like other parts of Greece, families here hundreds of years ago used to feud with neighbours, so they built these towers for protection.
While we were wandering around town one day, we saw the following sign. Firstly, I got very excited about seeing Mamma Mia on a Greek island (the movie is set on another Greek island) and secondly we couldn't help but notice the mention of unlimited alcohol! We cacked ourselves laughing at the spelling of Meryl Streep! John said he always wanted to see Meryl Strip!
We rolled up to the outdoor theatre and, sure enough, we could have as much local alcohol as we wanted - for the 15 minutes before the show started. Oh well.
The show was a blast! Fads and I hadn't seen it for years and I don't think the guys had ever watched it all the way through (it took an outdoor movie theatre in Greece to get them to watch it at all!) We all thoroughly enjoyed it. Fads and I sung along to the songs of course......
We then went to a bar and saw an awesome moon again. We could hear lots of voices coming up from beneath us somewhere so we went exploring. We soon found a heap of people crowded into a lane. To cut a long story short, they were all Italian workmates on a work-sponsored holiday. We decided (jokingly) that we wanted to work for this company so we were introduced to the boss! He turned out to be fun, just like the workers we had met, and we all had a really good time. What a night!
Til next time,
Heather and John
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