Santorini to Naxos

Yassas, I started to write this from the Santorini Ferry terminal where, due to checkout time / ferry time misalignment we have 2.5 hours to kill. Right now we are sitting in an expensive cafe enjoying a pizza and local beer / wine. I've also taken this moment to do some work, payroll, write a press release, catchup on emails kind of things. 

Our morning was pretty quiet, breakfast arrived a bit later closer to 9am - french toast and scrambled eggs today with creme croissants. Then we had til midday to packup and people watch before Benny - who threw both of our packs on his back this time and raced along ahead of us - took us to our transfer car. 

The photographers started before 8am today, we also discovered the "wind dress" version too, where a woman or group of women wear these dresses with huge trains which get thrown up into the air for the photo. Crazy stuff. With two cruise ships in there were many groups of Americans on small group tours stopping at our gate as well. 

Left at top is looking down on the 2 cruise ships and looking up from the Ferry terminal at our wee town. 

I forgot to mention my other bug bear, the drones. In Oia there are signs saying strictly no drones, sadly not in Imerovigli. There are also cats everywhere (although I soon learn nothing like Naxos). Not as many dogs here as there were in Rome. In Rome most were designer dogs carried in front packs or strollers whereas here they are wandering along. 

We saw a school yesterday, all concrete as there is no grass on the island, it is a volcano. On the outside away from the caldera the land flattens off and there are black and red sand (ground up rock) beaches, Steve and I didn't go there this trip but I remember from 33/34ish years ago. From the bus we could see huge houses facing the beaches, vineyards scattered around and local towns assumably with no tourists. 

There are a few kinds of ferries, the huge cruiseship sized ones we are waiting for, massive catamaran's - like more than twice the size of the ones that once crossed the cook straight and smaller boats more like our cook Straight ferry sizes. Ours is a little late so the queue is getting anxious. As it's a 90+ minute trip we paid for Business class, cost us an extra $20 in total and it was completely empty! there is table service here and we had a wine / beer, took a nap and read our books. 

Top right, me setting up in the business class lounge with nobody else there, bottom is Steve waiting to board and top left as we walked onto the ship. 

I do need to say it was like squid games loading the boat, as it was running late they wanted everyone on so they could push off as quickly as possible creating a ridiculous crush of people trying to get through one small door and have their tickets checked at the same time. It was almost impossible to move with the giant bags everywhere and people just shoving. I did not enjoy that experience at all. Upshot the ferry was well underway before we got through the gap and could head up to our lounge on deck 7. 

Farewell Santorini. 

Naxos is completely different to Santorini, more rustic, soooooooo much cheaper and not even vaguely as busy. We took the 15 minute walk to our wee apartment and Eva who met us spent about 30 minutes explaining everything from the washing machine (yay) to showing us where to go on the map. First job was a full load of washing, a trip to the supermarket where we got some muesli and yoghurt for breakfast to go with the fruit our hosts left, and then to the pharmacy for a $16 tube of toothpaste. 

Right - Our cute wee apartment, bottom pic is our gorgeous bathroom - this is the cleanest, best stocked placed we have stayed yet and they have all been fantastic so far, right is Steve walking ahead of me up one of the streets on our way to the apartment. 

After this we dearly needed to get our steps up so hung the washing and headed out for a stroll before dinner. 

Pics to the left here - top left is one of the churches we are right next to, like 5metres away and yes the bells ring, top right our cute wee apartment is above a womens clothing store, Naxos has heaps of womens clothes and jewelery stores. Bottom left is the view from our deck and bottom right is one of the many many fountains around the town for drinking water (don't drink from the tap in the room, just from these). 

It is still ferociously windy, and as the sun set the wind cooled down so we didn't walk as far as planned and stopped at a Taverna for dinner. The waterfront here is a long line of food places, many offering great meal deals with greeters outside. We chose the Taverna after their greeter explained to us they source 90% of their food supplies locally on the island. We have learned to order too much food, a salad to share, a protein plate to share and a snack. This dinner was a green pomegranate salad, moussaka and they convinced us to get a plate of pita bread (I eat pita bread too now) which was divine. I had a Limoncello Spritz and agree Don they are pretty good! and Steve had a local beer. 

Full of food but a tad cold we did a short wander along the promenade, there were young people everywhere, pre-teens, teens and youths, we figure their parents are all working in the shops and food places. The shops are all in the winding narrow alleyway like streets of Naxos town so run up the hill or parallel to the main strip. Our wee house is up a few wee streets and flights of steps so has a lovely view. 

Top left - yummy pita was hot with two dips, Steve who "forgot" his shaver cable starting to grow a mess on his face (we sat outside in a covered courtyard was fabulous), the promenade at night and our taverna had a bougainvillea which might have been the other reason I liked it. 

Few other photos from our first evening in Naxos. 

Top left - the street art here is a bit different. Right watching the sunset with the promenade in the background. Bottom left this is a town full of bougainvillea which are tree sized and the sunsetting. 

Tuesday 29th April - tomorrow is May day and I dearly wanted to be on a larger island so things would be open.