naousa at sunset, paros, greece // august 2021

Blue taverna

#morning vs #night in #naousa #greece #paros #pretty 🇬🇷✌🏼😳 https://www.instagram.com/p/ChtiGQNM-kq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Linardo,Naousa

Naousa Paros cat summer 2019

#greece#paros#naousa#myplace#somanysummers#somanymemories

Today we also celebrate our Venerable Mother Theoktiste of Lesbos. What is known about Saint Theoktiste is owed primarily to the prayer book written by St. Simeon Metaphrastes. It recounts that Theoktiste lived during the 9th century and was born on the island of Mithimna, Lesbos. She was orphaned from a very young age and became a nun in her childhood and was raised in a monastery in Lesbos. At around the time she reached the age of 18, pirates captured Theoktiste, along with other young women, on one of their raids of Lesbos. On their way to the coast of Africa, their ship anchored at the port of Naousa on Paros island. They let their captives land to get over their bout of sea-sickness and this is when Theoktiste managed to escape from her guards and got lost in the woods. She wandered for many days and wound up at the temple of Ekatontapyliani. At that time, the island was nearly deserted because the people could not bear the frequent raids made by the pirates. So, she took refuge in this temple for over 35 years. During this time she ate wild plants and drank Holy Water (which exists until this day under the Holy Table of the main temple). At some point, some hunters from Evoia, visited the island of Paros to hunt in the woods. One of their dogs discovered the saint. She asked for a covering and then appeared before the hunter and narrated her life. She requested the hunter to return to Paros on his next journey and bring her Holy Communion. The following year, the hunter returned to the island with the Holy Communion. Before he was about to leave the island, he went to wish her well and found her dead. He buried her where the present chapel and tomb is. There is a tradition that says that after seven years, the hunter returned again and took the holy relics with him, leaving behind only one bone which is now found in a chest near the chapel. May she intercede for us always + Source: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Theoctiste_of_Lesbos (at Paros, Greece) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cktp2UCLw-T/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Naousa, Paros, Greece.

Sept 2021

Naousa, Paros

EUROPE TRIP PT3

This was our second part of the trip was Greece. We intended to stay on the two Islands: Santorini and Paros. First stop was Santorini, Imerovigli, we stayed a hotel called Honeymoon Villas which had spectacular views and pool. It was one of the reasons we booked the hotel. By the time, we arrived at the hotel it was really late. We were greeted by a local cat we resided outside our alfresco/balcony area. I adotped the cat as our own. We received complimentary wine where we enjoyed a late drink by our balcony with our new cat before bed time.

The next day , we had a early boat cruise that toured us around various island and swimming areas. It went for half the day. I really enjoyed it until I got motion sickness. I got to snorkel and swim in the ocean. The water was nice and warm. I really liked it. On the boat they provided us food and unlimited drinks. It got a nice tan napping on the boat. After the cruise, we headed back to the hotel to refreshen up.

For dinner, we headed to Oia to watch the sunset. We watched the sunset while enjoying our meal. People say the most beautiful sunset is in Oia but in my personal opinion the most people sunsent can be seen anywhere in Santorini. We watched and shopped around Oia and then headed back to the hotel's pool bar for a final drink. I was sitting by the pool while Matt when to order drinks at the bar while he was there he was spoke to a couple who were newly engaged after chatting a while to them it turns out I knew the girl. The girl started to walk up to me I couldn't see her very well in the dark and it was Vanesa who I worked with at Goldman Sachs in London nearly 4 years ago. What a small world! She now lives in Frankfurt with her Vietnamese born German fiance. Both of them work at Goldman Sachs Frankfurt. We caught up with them the next day by the pool.

The next day, we just spent most of the day lazing around the pool. In the evening we walked to Fia which is the main town in Santorini. On our way there I think I saw the best sunset. I did a bit of shopping, I bought these silky long and flowy maxi dresses to wear on the trip and back home. I think the restaurant at Fira was where I had the best food and drinks on the trip. The rest was on a roof top looking out the sea. It had really fun and nice vibe. That was our last night in Santorini. I would love to go back and just laze around the pool again and do long strolls as the sunsets.

The next day, we caught a ferry to our next island, Paros. Paros was much cheaper than Santorini where we stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. Our first night we just explored Naousa which was 20 minutes from our hotel. We stayed in Paros the local town. We booked ourselves to a lovely restaurant in Naousa where ironically, we bumped into an Asian American couple from our Cappodocia tour! When you keep bumping into people like this it just feels the world is so small. Or like minds end up the same places. That was a really nice suprise. This restaurant was bougie. Everyone was dressed to the 9s the venue was beautifully designed, it had the typical white walls, colourful flowers and scandi furniture. Everyone looked amazing , luckily we got the memo and dressed accordingly. After dinner, I discovered lukumades, they are like donuts so yummy! I had it twice first in Naouse and second time in Athens.

The next day, we lazed around the pool and had a nice seafood dinner in Paros. The following day, we took a ferry to Mykonos for a day trip were we had lunch there and spent the day walking around the town. We took photos by the famous windmill. Mykonos is famous for their beach parties we didn't see that part of the island. We were mainly around the town. For dinner, we headed back to Paros town where we met up a Canadian couple who we met on our Cappadocia tour. The husband was a surgeon and the wife was an IT consultant, Priyanka. They were such a lovely couple, they booked at this fine dining restaurant on the rooftop where the food looked beautifully plated. On our last day, we took a ferry to Anti Paros a small island only 30 minutes away. The small town is really charming much quieter than anywhere we have been too. It had very similar look to Mykonos, lots of white lane ways. We had lunch there, walked around the town and coast. We hired a buggy in Paros and took it with us to Anti Paros. We drive the buggy around the island. We stopped by at Anti Paros Caves and went inside. It was very similar to the Perth caves that Paolo took us. We headed back to Paros and hired banana lounges at the beach. We ordered cocktails , listened to music and chilled by the beach. We had our last meal in Naousa again at this very popular restaurant called Barbarossa. It was the mostly lively restaurant I've been too. People were in a such happy mood, people dancing and singing out loud.

The next day, we had to say goodbye to Paros. We caught a ferry to Athens. We arrived Athens very late. We had a quick stroll around our hotel where we got a drink and retired early. The next day, we explored the various famous Greek ruins and museums: Acropolis of Athens, Parthenon and the square. It's a memory I would like to forget but it did happen just a mental note to be careful in crowded place. I got picked pocket where my passport was stolen. For 3 hours I was in a state of complete stress as I was flying out of Athens to Singapore the next day. Disaster was avert, the great Australian embassy saved me and gave me an emergency passport to get home so everything was fine again. What I was mostly upset was I lost my travel wallet that Sophia and Nhirushni got for me when I went to live in London, and my old passport with all the stamps of all the cities I've been. I've been so many it was the physical record of all the places I've been too. Luckily, I've managed to recorded most of the places I've been in this blog. That passport was with me for the best part of my life. It's gone now. The thieves just wanted my money they didn't need my passport. Anyways, that got sorted. To cheer myself up I went to a dessert cafe called Little Cook. It was a bright, colorful fun place , it was supposed to look like a place from Alice in Wonderland. A little sweetness made the sour pain less painful.

Yesterday's pain belongs in the pass, today is a new day! I left the pain of my passport misery behind and looked forward to Singapore where I will meet my dear friends Sandy, Thang and their son Leo. We had a long stop over in Singapore so we decided leave the airport and visit our friends. We got to meet little Leo who was around 6 months old. He was a very big and fit baby. He was well behaved and liked all the sounds I made. I felt like we hitted off really well. I got to see their new apartment. They took us out to kbbq and one of Singpore's big department shopping centres. We had coffee at this cool coffee shop that had coffee beans from around the world, Bacha Coffee. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long and had to check in to our flight back home. This was the first time we fly in premium economy and surprisingly it was really good I would definitely try to fly premium if I can. It was like business class except the chair didn't fully recline flat. After a few hours, we made home in one piece.

Overall, looking back it had an amazing trip but saying that losing my passport did smeared the memory but I don't want one incident be the story of the whole trip. As you can see lots of happy memories were made. I have happy apple to remind me.

naousa

Greece. Family vacay. Paros. Anti Paris. Naousa. Santorini. Athens

The Paros Post

Tonight marks our last night in the Cyclades. We are feeling somewhat gloomy about leaving the Greek Islands. Our beaches and tiny, white washed towns that we have grown so accustomed to will soon just be a fading memory. 

Paros has been a real treat - the icing on the cake. We stayed on the northern side of the island in a place called Naousa, a bus ride away from the port town of Parikia. 

Naousa used to be the port town of Paros, before Parikia sprung up. There are still boats here; a variety of boats ranging from super yachts to bedraggled, sun baked fishing dinghies nestled tightly along the stone wharves of the town, with fish taverns opening straight out to the water. Octopus legs dry in the sun outside restaurants and the town is less busy than most of the other main centres we have been to. We have walked many laps around the city centre; Sophie’s morning walks have taken her through the town, around the town clockwise, around the town anticlockwise, she’s zig zagged and loop-de-looped and exhausted all possible routes so I think she may be ready for the infinite possibilities that Athens holds. 

The main thing I have enjoyed about Paros is that we have a beach pretty much on our doorstep, and the old port a short 10 minute walk away. I have missed being near the ocean and we have enjoyed some lovely swims. At our beach stops we each have different approaches. Upon arrival Sophie and I are usually straight in for a swim - Stacey may join us or she may soak up a spot of sun first. I have purchased a delightful pair of goggles that I’m a bit hesitant to wear out of fear of coming face to face with a large ocean creature. Sophie has been dabbling in ocean swimming - pushing herself with a minute or two of freestyle and backstroke over the preferred breaststroke. We’ve also dabbled in a few seconds of butterfly but have concluded that this is a waste of time and wonder why it even exists - surely no one is getting around this way outside of the Olympics. Back on shore - Stacey is our sundial - trying to work out the right balance of sunblock - sun time - rotation to achieve her desired overall even tan - current challenge - tanning the sides. I am eager to get a bit of sun on my bottom, just a gentle dusting but nothing too severe. Sophie will put up with the sun if she can sit on a mermaid rock and sort stones. She and I rendezvous with our books in the shade after a short while, as Stacey keeps sun-dialling, rotating and ensuring she’s getting the sides. 

We decided to rent a car for two days this stay, and we did about 6 laps of the island I think. We are quite savvy now with rental cars and always shop around when we are looking for a car. Our car days took us to the mountain towns of Lefkes and Kostos, and down to the sea side villages of Piso Lavadi and Aliki, where we enjoyed port side dining experiences at some of their many fish tavernas. 

My favourite stop was Lefkes. Lefkes is perched on the side of a hill, flanked by olive groves that would be centuries upon centuries old, with a giant, beautiful church in the middle of town. As we were walking into the town I could hear someone playing a piano in their house, there was an old woman sitting on her porch reading a book in the evening sun and it seemed like we might be getting the briefest of glimpses into the real Greek way of life. A lot of Greece feels like it has been designed for the tourists and it is hard to tell what is real and what isn’t. The sun was just setting over the olive groves out of town, and all of the dusk midges were out in force catching the light, which actually cast the whole scene in a rather romantic, golden hour tone. 

I had been giving some recommendations for some beaches to hit in Paros, but was disappointed to find that they were the dreaded beach clubs - beaches that are managed by restaurants/resorts where you have to pay between 10 and 50 euros to have a spot on a beach chair. They are usually packed with tourists and covered in rubbish. Not our jam at all. 

Our main beach day started with two beach club related false starts I was beginning to feel a little bit despondent. I decided to try a different tactic. I went onto google maps, zoomed in nice and close, and scrolled my way along the coastline of Paros, looking on aerial view for a suitable, unmanaged, un-clogged-by-tourists-and-their-beach-chairs beach. Hmmm. My eyes spotted a perfect little bay on the south side of the island. Hmmmm. There was a dirt road with a tiny parking lot. Hmmmm. This might work. We loaded into the car and zoomed off on a wing and a prayer, ready for an adventure. With some downloaded girly pop playlists blaring, my mood started to lift. As we got closer, and the road went from tarmac, to concrete, to a bumpy, rutted dirt road with loose chickens and goats wandering around, my doubts started creeping in again. Could I really have found a decent bay? We got to a parking lot with one other car in it and I was ready for the adventure to be a bust. I peeked over the hill, and there it was. The most perfect, white pebbled bay, peeking through the brush. 

Turned out it was a nude beach frequented by the few locals who knew about it. We had our picnic, stripped off and had a nude swim - when in Paros, aye? 

I tried the same technique the next time we were looking for a beach to spend the day at. I had located a couple of beach options for us to try, so off we trotted towards the coast. Our first option we quickly realised was probably not going to be a go. The deeply rutted concrete road down to the beach was very, very one way, and there were multiple ‘no parking’ signs as we descended the hill. In theory, the roads we were driving down were nothing worse than anything we might do in New Zealand, however the practicalities of taking our tiny Fiat Panda down a dirt road when we had been specifically told we were not to take our tiny Fiat Panda down a dirt road made the decision to turn around rather easy. 

The next spot on the list was close by, down another much more easily navigated dirt road. The beach was the most perfect sandy beach, protected from the wind, with cypress trees providing some shade along the edge of the water. Perfect. We set up camp, had a swim and read our books for a couple of hours. Sun-dialed, bottom dusted and freestyle swum. Delightful. 

We are coming up to two and a half weeks as a trio and are all very familiar with one another. Our evenings have fallen into a comfortable routine, shower order - Sophie, Emily, Stacey. After showers we keep on top of what’s happening in the rest of the world. Stacey keeps up to date with all her creams and tinctures. I do a spot of computer work be it blogging, work, or my small list of secret projects. Sophie reads or tries to triple her move goal. We feel a bit like we are on school camp: singing the same three songs on loop, pinching ourselves that we’re actually on this trip, sharing our peak and pit for the day, and then usually make some comment about how fast or slow time is passing. Stacey is in charge of lights out and we put up with the 10-30 minutes of Sophie chat as she keeps thinking of very important conversation topic “Who has been your favourite polite-boy waiter and why?” “We’ve probably been eating plenty of polyphenols this trip, the defence chemicals in dark fruits and vegetables.” Ahhh bliss. 

The Greek Islands have treated us very well. Each is different in its own right, which we weren’t expecting at all. Each island has had its pros and cons, but we have loved aspects of each island and have been treated very well by the cyclades. 

I must admit, at times the thought of home, and the use of a full kitchen, washing machine, dryer and an Ollie Dog cuddle seems very far away indeed. Mike has done a great job of starting to lift the dahlias and I am feeling like I am missing out.

We are now on the ferry to Athens, where we have 5 nights in a house with our own rooms (!!!!!). Then Soph and I head to Turkey and Stace heads to Italy. Time is going simultaneously fast and slow. 

Naoussa is one of the most popular villages in Paros with a pretty incredible architecture, a beautiful Venetian Port, and alluring cobblestoned narrow streets, just like the one we are showing. #paros #naoussa #cyclades #greece #greek #visitgreece #greekislands #europe #urban #city #streetstyle #architecture #cityscape #streetphotography #igtravel #travelblog #travelphoto #travelinspiration #traveller #traveldiary #meanderluster #viajeros #tipsdeviaje #viajerosmexicanos (at Naousa, Paros Island, Greece) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpOaTDQsp0z/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#greece#paros#naousa#nightout#myplace#somanysummers#somanymemories