Greece - Paros & Naxos - Travel Story
Written by Thomas Dembie Tuesday, 06 April 2010 02:37
Paros & Naxos, Greece
First Taste of the Islands
The city of Paroikia, the capital and main port of the island of Paros, is the largest on the island and most worthy of your time. The old part of town is gorgeous. The buildings are bright white with vibrant contrasting colours used for the doors, roofs and window frames, the walkways are made of large dark grey stones with contrasting white grout, and the streets are speckled with colourful flowers. Even though Paros is a transportation hub, the number of tourists blends in well with the locals. If you wander for 10 minutes in any direction you’re liable to be the only tourist around. Outside of the city things remain calm, peaceful and pristine.
The waterfront in Paros is beautiful, lined with restaurants and bars. I decided on a place called Restaurant Pizzeria Black-White for dinner that night. My meal consisted of mousaka, salad, fries, Alfa Hellenic beer and some ouzo to finish it all off. The mousaka was excellent. It's the Greek version of sheppard’s pie with scalloped potato on the bottom, vegetables and ground beef in the middle and a thick béchamel sauce on top. The beer was a bit on the sweet-side, but still a good lager. Ouzo, much like Pastis, tastes like liquorice. The servers there were very nice and threw in a free drink at the end of the meal.
The island of Naxos is much larger than Paros and doesn’t have the same charm, but is still beautiful in its own right. Much of the afternoon was spent wandering through the maze of old buildings. I also spent a bit of time on the beach since I managed to see most of what the island had to offer.
Like Paros, the waterfront is lined with restaurants. I had a nice meal of chicken souvlaki, pitas, tzatziki, salad and local olives accompanied by a nice glass of local fruity white wine. An excellent meal for just over $6! After wandering the streets and catching a few minutes of the opening Euro 2000 match between Sweden and Beligium I headed back to Paros on the 22:00 ferry.
Paros Photo Gallery
Naxos Photo Gallery
