A day in Naxos and finally relaxing!

Yamas, most important news is my cold has finally broken, I didn't use a whole packet of tissues for the first time today. It was also the first stay where breakfast wasn't included so we ate muesli and yoghurt with juice and some peppermint tea we purchased last night (missing my cups of tea). Then we headed out. 

Naxos is a huge island - so I can't for the life of me figure out why two crazy 20 something backpackers decided to walk around it 33/34 years ago! no wonder we ran out of water and had to come back to town. 

First stop today was Apollo's gate, the ruins of a seemingly unfinished temple built in 530BC, what's left is the door frame and loads of huge blocks which would have made up the floor and walls. 

Mike and I climbed all over this when we were here way back but now it's nicely cordoned off for tourists, well lit and has wonderful paths to follow around for different vistas. The Wellington like wind (see my hair in the top photo) made for quite an adventure but unlike home the wind here is warm!

The walk out to Apollo's gate was via a walkway where the waves were breaking over the path but no matter how hard I tried I was always too late to get a shot of Steve being hit by a wave. 

Next we explored the old town which the newer town has built out from, you know you're in the old town as there are walled parts to walk through which are 6feet deep and the buildings are all made of stone vs the more modern (although still really old) buildings that are rendered and painted. 

The narrow winding streets get narrower and narrower the higher up the hill you go, and are winding around we assume so invading troops would get lost easily. 

We ventured beyond the vast array of shops and tourist accommodation to the side away from the port where, as Steve commented, it is kinda weird walking through residential alleyways past peoples open doors and windows. Nobody has a yard here, not many have a roof garden either that we could see, they all have wee verandahs and some have a small courtyard inside their front entrance that is open to the sky. The buildings are all 2-3 stories high and have shutters. You can't walk more than a couple of metres without encountering a cat, they are sleeping in the sun on walls or the paved pathways. Everything is painted white with accents for the doors, shutters and verandahs only. 

This set of photos (above) - looking back to Apollo's gate from the old town, walking through the wall, the churches here are different to Santorini and my new favourite snack food - puffed corn, not salted quite yummy. 

Photos on the left here - the two on the right are in the old town, top to show you how narrow these paths get, below walking through the wall gate. On the left side top, there are loads of signs around asking people to pick up their cigarettes, and bottom is us on the beach with the Taverna's behind (next paragraph). 

Next we decided to see if the beach to our south was a little more sheltered than the port so walked there via a peninsular where we saw boats struggling in the waves, but as predicted the beach was very protected. Here it was like Thailand or Malaysia with beach bars and cafes you access walking along the beach. Their google ratings all about the same so we chose a wee taverna and had the best time - in fact it was the first time we have said to each other that we could spend a month here in this spot it was lovely. 

I know it sounds like all we do is walk, eat and drink but maybe it's because the food is such a highlight so I keep talking about it. For lunch we opted for a beautiful salad of lettuce, chicken, carrot, saltanas and walnuts with some kind of yoghurt dressing drizzled sparingly - so yum, and for our other dish a pork souvlaki. Thinking we had ordered moderately for once! the owner brought us first bread with a massive bowl of tzatziki, a greek salad starter then our souvlaki came with pita, chips and more salad! Then once we'd finished (or not finished there was too much food) he brought us dessert! 

Needless to say we stayed here for a few hours, had a few drinks and people watched - Rach you would have loved it! especially the Americans who feel it is ok to sit in a restaurant in togs when they did not have very flattering physiques. There are lots of Americans here too even though the cruise ships don't come in. Or the amusement at watching people go for a swim and broaching the initial cold. 

Naxos is much cheaper than Santorini. In Santorini this meal at the beach would have cost well north of $100 with my 3 x $6 glasses of Rose and Steve's 2 x 500ml beers ($8 each), I think we paid less than $70. 

For dinner tonight we had Pita Gyros to try and keep our costs down a bit, in Santorini they cost $14.50 each, here $7 each! admittedly the Santorini ones were far superior in taste but not worth double the price. 

These pics. Right hand side is my greek salad, Rose and view in the beach taverna.  Bottom left is my Gyro and view from our balcony. Top left our room has these nifty doors and screens - hard to photograph.

Right - a cat gathering on our steps, below that wandering the streets, I love how in Italy and Greece Pharmacies are really easy to identify with these green crosses (or red if closed). And on the left of this set some of the alleyways have really low arches to duck under and navigate. 

Naxos is a bit dirty too, the buildings aren't all perfectly painted and the alleyway streets aren't terribly clean but it all adds to the charm. 

As I mentioned it's May day, on a few occasions Mike and I were caught out on May day while backpacking with all of the banks (life before Eftpos or ATMs) and shops closed, Ferries on strike etc so I had wanted to be here not Paros just in case knowing some things would be open. I'd say it's about 50/50, the pharmacy we went to yesterday and it's surrounding shops are closed but the supermarket and half the tourist shops are open. 

When I say supermarket in these blogs - in Italy and here in Greece - so far we've only been to tiny packed in Four Square / Fresh Choice at largest kind of size, most are tiny (other than the Asda in the UK with is bigger than any I have ever seen before). It is quieter here and we do feel for the vendors who must be struggling while they wait for the tourists to arrive - 2 weeks apparently when we will sadly be on our way home. Happy May Day everyone.