Travels and Island Life

Well, after almost three days of traveling, we finally made it to Naxos! Quick recap of our travel days: long plane flight to London (I read Peter and the Starcatchers, watched the descendants and fast forwarded through warhorse and sharon had fun adventures in business class thanks to her sister's miles), we had a layover in the labyrinth that is Heathrow (where Sharon and I got iced tea and pancakes from starbucks), had a three hour flight to athens and an hour bussr ride to Piraeus. We passed out, and then woke up at 5am to catch our ferry to Naxos. We grabbed some delicious breads for breakfast (i had a flaky cheese pastry which was DELICIOUS and a latte). The ferry ride was mostly pleasant -- we arrived early enough to get seats inside at the front, which was great until the sun started blaring down at us, making our area incredibly hot. Five hours later, we arrived in Naxos. Basically, the island is everything we could have hoped for and more. We're staying at a small pensione, and a representative from the pensione picked us up from the ferry and we had a nice chat with him, and another greek guy staying at the pension's other location. I am quickly learning that Grecian people speak Greek fast and English just as fast, with an accent -- we've been doing a lot of nodding and smiling. However, he did inform us that they were playing Mamma Mia at the cinema that evening. That is the moment we knew we were in the right place. Basically, Mamma Mia is one of the main reasons we started this trip in Greece....soooooo that was an amazing coincidence.

Our room is perfect and charming, with a little balcony and a comically small shower. We set our stuff down and went to the town center to get our first pitas! They were SO GOOD. Then, we ventured down to the beautiful beach, where families were playing and it wasn't at all overcrowded. We walked along all of St. Georges' beach and back. We came back to our room and intended to rest for a moment and ten go out to dinner, but we ended up falling asleep around 6pm and not really waking up until 12:30am. It was actually so nice to catch up on sleep (less nice to miss dinner).

This morning we woke up early and went to a bakery to grab breakfast. Sharon and Kelly had chocolate croissants and I had delicious cheesy pie-like-pastry. I love flaky bread with cheese. Oh my goodness. Sharon and I decided to try Greek coffee (although the man who sold it to us was like "are you sure??"). It was actually quite delightful -- it had a very warm and full flavor. We took our coffee down to the port and just sat and watched the town wake up. Much to our delight, an adorable dog came over and sat with us for a while. We decided to hike up to the Portara, which is the ruins of the door to an unfinished temple. The views were breathtaking and we reflected how surreal it was that we were in Greece. The winds were pretty intense and we wandered off the hill and up to the Kastro (or the castle). We walked through small, quiet winding streets in an effort to get to the top. One lady came out of her door and spoke rapid greek at us (which we clearly didn't understand... We're really trying to pick up some key phrases, but also scared to use them?) and she attempted to direct us to the Kastro ("kastro?? Kastro??"). It was pretty hilarious, and with much pointing and pantomime, she actually set us on the right path! We walked through incredibly old streets and buildings, until we finally reached the catholic church and remains of a tower. Wr wandered a bit more and took another route down from the Kastro. People were beginning their day at this point, so we walked through the maze of streets as pretty noticeable outsiders. Although, that's kind of the best thing about this island - it's not completely overrun with tourism. Kids run around, and it has a kind of small-town feel to it -- like everyone knows everyone else. After the Kastro, we meandered down to the pebbled beach and up to the Grotta for more intense winds and beautiful views. Then we shopped i n the old market street, and came back to the square for an incredible lunch. Kelly and I split these amazing spinach cheese pies (flaky bread...so good) ad then I had lemon chicken that was incredibly flavorful, while sharon had tomato sauce covered beef, and kelly had stuffed zucchini. Now we're resting in our room, before we rent bikes and explore the two beaches that our guidebooks say are the best on the island. I can't wait to swim in the warm ocean! So happy to be here!