Greece

Since we’d crammed the tripping around Naxos into the first day and a half with Olly and his GF we had a good 4 days to just lax out and soak the rays

Our days consisted primarily of

Getting up in the morning strolling out (the big 10m walk) to the beach and having a swim over to the rocks

Sitting out in the sun reading a book, writing postcards or just having a nap

Dragging ourselves back up and off to another close by beach for some more lay-abouts,

A game of beach mancala

Or another dip and some snorkeling

Then some dinner and back out to a beach for a stroll

And the now obligatory jumping around wherever we are photos

We were just about to get on the ferry from Tinos to Naxos but we decided to check emails before we hopped on. Lucky we did as there was an email from a mate who I worked with in NZ saying that he and his girlfriend were going to be on Naxos around the same time as us and we should drop him a line.

So thinking we’d get off the boat and have to do a bit of searching to find them, we were pleasantly surprised to find a welcoming party waiting for us at the port. It wasn’t really that hard to see them as Olly was the only redhead in the mass of people.

Their plan was to hire a car for a day and trip around the ancient sights of Naxos. As this was something we were gonna do at some point anyway we were keen as to jump on board.

Some old temple remains

Walkabout to find a tower and church……… which we didn’t find

Hot and sweaty walk up Mt Zeus to a nice cool cave

Startings of statues that were left to time after being broken in transport from mountain to town

Apollonas town, where we ran out of petrol, still 30ks and 1 hour away from the ferry the guys had to catch in the main town

Naxos main town

Alone again, time to get down to the serious business of sitting on a beach and snorkeling around rocks.

So we were on the ferry from Athens, and after a quick stop of in Syros we arrived in Tinos.

Hello syros, goodbye syros.

The Tinos main town is pretty cool, yet another Venetian town, winding cobbled streets and alleyways up to the church on top of the township. Because we arrived on a Saturday we were one of the only touristy types there as all the Greeks pilgrimage out on the weekend to come to the top church.

The old ladies crawl their way to the main church from the gates as they enter, on holy days they crawl the whole street (must have been about 700m).

Room with a view

Our first full day in Tinos and we decided (because there was a slight breeze) that we’d tackle one of the old donkey paths that are still maintained on the island. We went from the main town and went up up up to another small village (Kitikados)

So weird that in the middle of the island, surrounded by mountains are little outposts scattered everywhere, still inhabited and working as they did hundreds of years ago

When we were in Kitikados, church must have just been getting out as lot of geeks in their Sunday best were passing us heading back down to the small main square. Then out of nowhere as we were walking under a balcony a man pulls out an elephant gun and starts shooting off into the distance. Rachel still maintains it was a shotgun wedding.

Anyway from Kitikados, we headed on to a beach we saw down a valley. And to a much deserved swim.

Our next day in Tinos and we were ready to really start seeing the island and the island was really ready to show us what it could do.
So we hired a scooter and decided to go to the furthest and least visited beach we could go to. What should have been a quick 40 min trip was elongated by the 50cc scooter having to battle up steep mountain roads with two people and massive head winds.
Oh my goodness the winds, it was insane the ferocity of the gusts that would blow around the scooter and almost throw us off line. Not to mention the max speed of 20km and hour we’d get into the head wind.

We eventually made it to Livida Bay, and it was totally worth it as there was not a soul around but us.

Yes we do like to jump around

The only upside of the winds is that they whipped up some waves to have a bit of a play around in

The next few days were dominated by the winds as they increased and made it a bit uncomfortable to go to any of the main exposed beaches. We did go out for another scooter ride to find a sheltered bay (unsuccessfully) and had to turn back to one we had seen right at the start of the ride. But at least it got the adrenaline going.

Anyway we were told by some locals that the winds were pretty specific to the group of islands close by Tinos, Syors and sometimes Mykynos. So we were pretty keen to head onto our next island Naxos.

We arrived in Athens airport late on a Thursday night and hopped straight on a metro to the city centre (yet another city with a working subway system, come on Auckland pick it up). Stopped off at the Omonia station to get to our hotel (hotel elite). Apparently we had forgot to consult the lonely planet (which is our travel bible) when we had booked accommodation, as a direct quote says ‘once a smart address, omonia is known today for is prostitutes and pickpockets’, we can confidently add druggies and tyrannies to that list as they are quite abundant at all times of the day. Hey, it was right next to the metro station and pretty cheap so can’t complain too much.

We only really had one day in Athens before heading to the islands so we got up bright and early for our continental breakfast of bacon on toast, greek translation = pre packaged sliced ‘ham’ (I think/hope it was ham) and stale bread. Then on the metro and off to the Acropolis.


Very impressive entrance to the acropolis

It was pretty much a follow the signs walk through of the archeological site, except that when you get to the upper level is an absolute crush with massive American and Asian tour groups all crowding round there tour guides.

While walking through the different sites, we were playing shade hopping as it was so incredibly hot, 30 odd degrees. And I hear you people from Texas and Australia scoffing at that but when you’ve been living in Scotland with an average max of 6 degrees for 6 months it’s a pretty big jump.

Oh Rachel what good posture you have

Quick Jamie hurry up or you’ll miss the prayer circle

Later that night we walked back down to plaka (touristy area) and got roped into a large (quite empty) restaurant by two very enthusiastic waiters. In fact the place was completely bare except for us, but there were lots of large long tables already set with food in front of a stage with a lone keyboardist playing Greek versions of all you 70’s – 90’s hits. Anyway we took a table up on the balcony and were told (even before we could order) the food is on it’s way… hmmm.17

Almost immediately after we were seated in came large groups of tourists, it was like looking down on a map of the world. It took us a while but when the trio of 60 something singers came out we clicked…tourist trap. There were groups of Americans, Chinese, Russians, Japanese, French, Indians, Greeks and our little two man NZ contingent hidden away up top away from any possible chance to get pulled up on stage.

Ahh well it was way over priced and the main was pretty below average but it was a crack up seeing the way the singers and dancers played up to the different tables of tourists. And the bottle of wine helped too.

Then next day it was straight up (at 5:30) and off to Piraeus to get on our ferry to the islands.


Goodbye big dirty city, hello nice sandy beaches