Our next stop in Greece, after Athens, was the island of Paros. Another destination chosen because we found a nice looking apartment that had great reviews about the place and the area.
This is the first time I’ve fallen behind with the blog. Paros was over a month and two countries ago. Our next stop after Greece was Jordan – it was just so consuming that I didn’t have time to write anything or organize photos. Let’s see how much I can remember….
Paros was about a 4 hour ferry ride from Athens. Our first Greek ferry experience.
The ferry was at 7am, so we had to get up in the middle of the night, lug all our luggage out into the street and try to flag down a cab. It wasn’t fast, but we eventually got a taxi to the ferry terminal.
There was a lot of action at the ferry terminal – lots of people, lots of noise. There was a large crowd near the entrance to the ferry. We went over to the back of the crowd, assuming it was the line for the ferry. I’m not sure which one of us realized first that something else entirely was going on. First I noticed there were a lot of police, then I started wondering why some of the people near the entrance to the ferry were carrying a banner. Then someone started shouting in a loudspeaker. I went back to the ferry office to find out what was going on and the woman at the counter said (in a completely matter-of-fact and monotone voice) ‘That ferry won’t be sailing today’. Turns out the ferry workers were staging a 24 hour strike, the very day of our first ever Greek ferry excursion.
Brett and I started calling around to hotels….as did every other tourist at the ferry dock after realizing they were stuck for 24 hours. We eventually found one about a mile from the terminal. Somehow we managed to motivate the kids enough for that walk with all our luggage after very little sleep.
We killed time by walking around and exploring our neighborhood which was much different than the more touristy areas we had been in Athens to that point. We impulsively bought the kids new backpacks, this time on wheels to make it easier on them to travel with. After a quiet day and evening waiting out the strike, we eventually got our ferry the next morning.
Our Airbnb host was waiting for us as we got off the ferry. She drove us to our apartment and gave us an amazing introduction to the apartment and to all the different places to visit on the island. She also gave us some cake that she had just freshly baked. What she told us in that first half an hour gave us the rough outline of the itinerary that we followed for our 9-day stay on Paros.
Our place was right next to a beautiful beach, Parosporos, that we went to visit on our first evening. Ironically, we had so many places to go visit, we only ever made it back to that beach one more time during our stay.
Here are some of the highlights of our visit to Paros:
Byzantine Road
The Byzantine Road is the oldest trail on the island (~1000 years) and connects the towns of Lefkes to Prodromos. The road is about 4km long (8 km roundrip) and is paved with Parian marble. If we had thought about it longer, we might have decided to start in Prodromos so the uphill portion of the hike was first. We went downhill from Lefkes to Prodromos then turned around to walk back uphill after the kids were tired and hungry. Nevertheless, everyone really enjoyed it. The road itself was incredible – mindboggling to think of all the effort of building that road where it was with marble slabs. The views were breathtaking, especially on the way to Prodromos when you come over a ridge and are able to see the ocean, with views of Naxos across the water.
Lefkes was a beautiful and typical whitewashed Greek village.
Korakas Lighthouse
The lighthouse is located at the very tip of the Korakas cape in northeastern Paros. We parked at the Monastiri beach and hiked about 1.5 hours on an incredibly beautiful rocky landscape to get to the lighthouse. The views on every part of this hike were incredible, especially when the lighthouse came into view. We had a few moments on that hike where anxiety started to set in with the high sheer cliffs down into the sea below and our little oblivious and distracted 6-year olds. It’s amazing how much lower the anxiety level is now than it was walking around cliffs earlier in this trip.
Kalamia Beach
We were so excited when we found this amazing little beach and we ended up returning again during our stay on Paros. It’s an amazing sandy beach with a number of tavernas around it that serve drinks on the beach. There are really beautiful rock formations around the beach that the kids loved scrambling around on when they weren’t in the water. The kids also liked having their own ‘island’.
Mycanean Acropolis
Near Kalamia beach was a sign for the Mycanean Acropolis. We followed the signs that led us to a trail up a rocky slope. As it turns out, there’s not much left of the Acropolis but the hike up the rocks was a lot of fun and the views from the top were breathtaking (why can’t I find any pictures?!!). It was fun (and a little unsettling) to see how much confidence the kids have scrambling up rock slopes compared to when we first started this trip. We were always having to tell them to stop going so far ahead of us instead of telling them to hurry up like we did when we were in Spain a few months ago.
Naousa
The town of Naousa was very pretty and we really didn’t do it justice. We only had enough time there to realize that it was worth another visit. Beautiful whitewashed buildings, narrow roadways, and pretty harbor. There seemed to be a maze of narrow roads with lots of small stores, some with typical souvenirs but many that had very unique art, jewelry and handicrafts. Unfortunately many of the stores had already closed for the season (the week before we got there) and those that hadn’t were closed for a mid-day siesta.
Parosporos
We loved the place that we stayed and if we hadn’t been so busy exploring the island, we would have loved spending more time at the local beach. The beach was large and was mostly deserted. There are a couple of restaurants along the beach to get food and/or drinks.
Parikia
Parikia was the closest town to our apartment – about 1km away. Even though the town was so close, we had to drive because there were no sidewalks. It is a beautiful whitewashed village, the kind you imagine when you think of a Greek island village. There’s a picturesque shoreline with restaurant patios lining the beach and as you enter inland, there is a maze of beautiful, narrow cobblestone streets lined with wonderful old whitewashed buildings. Everyone we encountered in town was so nice and welcoming. We became regulars at one of the beachfront restaurants, ordering the grilled fish every time. It was perfect – after the kids finished eating, they would go out and play on the rocks and give Brett and I some peace to enjoy a drink and some uninterrupted adult conversation.
We also met a very kind and welcoming jewelry designer in his little studio shop in town. Brett and I both bought rings there and enjoyed spending time chatting with the old man. The kids kept themselves occupied while waiting outside the store.
All in all, Paros was pretty amazing. All the villages are so picturesque, the coastline is varied and beautiful, and the people are so warm and welcoming. We were amazing by how many churches there are on the island – mostly all small chapels that look like they wouldn’t fit more than one or two families. They are similar in design and all equally beautiful.
There are so many places to go that we could go back again and keep ourselves busy for at least another week.
Onward to Crete!