Piraeus to Naxos

Piraeus. Noisy hotel, uncomfortable mattress, but very convenient to ferry terminal. After our 6:30am breakfast we caught our 7:25am ferry to Naxos without a hitch. This route goes via Paros, and once we had arrived at Paros we were glad we had booked “airline seats” cause it got pretty crowded pretty quickly (and some people were booted out of the seats they were in that they hadn’t booked). No blood shed or argy bargy (but there was a very cross looking American woman impatiently waiting for these sweet old French women to get their asses out of her seats! She had a lot of ‘tude’ and fair bit of ‘cat’s bum mouth’ going on). Probably tired and stressed.

Naxos is everything a Greek island should be. Our little studio apartment is on Agios Georgios (St George’s beach), only 300m to the old town centre, 10m to restaurants and 0m to the beach (as you can see by the pics). Perfect. The owner is a charming man called Michailis (Mike) whose buoyant laugh and constant smile makes him a big, welcoming, all-knowing and very helpful presence.

At this moment it is 6pm. The sun is starting to droop but there are still people on the beach. Some are walking, some are swimming, some are playing some kind of ball game with paddles, others are baking and reading and sipping tall drinks, minus the umbrellas (in the drinks…there are plenty of umbrellas on the sand to shade those wary of the sun, of which there aren’t many – although we are definitely the palest people here!). It is a bit of feast for the senses. The sounds of waves lapping, dogs barking, kids giggling and squealing with delight, a saxophone playing…..and NO traffic. The light smell of salt is in the air, which beautifully completes the scent of the deep-fried and char-grilled ‘whatever’ that has been ordered at the café next door. In our own little studio apartment there is still the aroma of lunch that Nic cooked (excited to have a kitchenette for 6 days!) with tomatoes, oregano and garlic dominating.

We took a dip in the Adriatic this afternoon. Not having been in the water since last summer, the coolness on the skin did take our breath away, but once submerged, it was refreshing and exhilarating. Could get used to this laid back lifestyle. Shame one has to work for a living!