First Hotel Stay

Up until this point we had stayed exclusively in Airbnbs, but St George Hotel was a good price and right on the beach. The lady we made the booking through met us when we arrived. She was the only one there who spoke any English, so this was helpful. After we checked in she brought us up some orange juice, water, and wine. This wine looked different though. The colour was a rusty orange, kind of like an apple cider vinegar. I was very eager to try this new exciting wine. Sweet mother of… I don’t know that I’ve ever tasted anything quite like it. I will use the word unique. I suppose it’s one of those things you have to be exposed to early in life like Vegemite for the Australians.

I immediately screamed at Andre that this must have been the wine that Cory and Sherry had told us about. Now, I am never one to let alcohol go to waste, but I just couldn’t do it. I was later told that this was a special wine they make in Naxos. I went online to find out more but didn’t have much luck. My best guess was that it was a product called Retsina. This is unique to Greece, not just Naxos. It is white or rosé wine with added pine resin. Greeks have been drinking retsina for thousands of years. I read that the tradition started because Greek winemakers did not have airtight containers, so they covered their wine jugs with pine pitch. The pine pitch both sealed the bottles from incoming oxygen and also added the signature flavor. Sorry my Naxos friends but this was not for me. I did have some lovely reds while we were there though which was a treat.

Slimmer Pickings

Looking around the beach front we saw that there were probably about 8 places to eat, but at this point in the year only 2 remained open. one being Greek Taverna Manolo. It was just steps from our place and the food was outstanding. The restaurant is owned and operate by Manolo and his wife Patra. They also have two dogs, Marlo and Foxy, who keep an eye on things. Honestly, everything we had was delicious. Patra is a fabulous cook and her dolmadakia were the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve been eating a lot of them all over Greece. It would not have mattered if every restaurant on the beach was open because I would have just kept going back to Manolo’s.

In town there were still plenty of places to choose from as there was more steady traffic which made it worth staying open. Our favorite place in town was Scirocco Cafe and Restaurant. They made the best tuna steak. It was cooked to perfection (medium rare)  and melted in your mouth. They staff there were warm and welcoming and we got some good travel tips from one of our servers for traveling Sri Lanka.

Another place worth mentioning was Barabbas. It was recommended by our friends Sherry and Cory. They have hand written menus and serve a variety of traditional foods, along with daily options of the catch of the day. One evening they had Dogfish as an option on the fresh catch tray. I had never heard of dog fish, which is a type of shark. I stuck with my vegetarian options. And wine. Red wine.

Cat Fight Central

There have been tons of cats throughout Greece, but I’ve never seen as many stand offs and fights as we did in Naxos. They were a feisty bunch. Andre took on the role of street bouncer and would try to break up the fights by clapping and yelling at them or charging whichever one he felt was the “bully”. I’m not going to lie, some of the stand offs were epic and humorous. I even chased a few cats.

Not all of them were fighters. This guy kept to himself and stayed out of trouble. He was happy as long as you didn’t disturb his pot time.

One evening as we walked home from dinner we came across an unusual “Littlest Hobo/Lassie Cat”. The Littlest Hobo was my favorite show when I was young. Although I would cry at the end of every episode because the dog was homeless (It never occurred to me that this was his choice) and as he would head on down the road I would spiral into sadness. My mother always told me that she wasn’t going to let me watch it anymore because I got too upset, but she’d always caved in to my begging.

One day a few years ago I decided to try to find an episode or clip. Never do this. Never look up something from your childhood that you have great memories of. Just leave it be and remember it fondly. I’m sure as I watched it my face contorted into a pained expression. It was terrible. The acting was cringe worthy and it looked like it was filmed by an intoxicated individual on a cheap handheld camcorder. Well, at least I’ll always have the song. It will always be great. I sing it a lot. I do not do Karaoke but if I did this would be my go to song.

Anyway, as the cat approached us he appeared to have something to say, tilting his head to the side and meowing. He trotted a few feet ahead and then stopped and turned back and spoke again. This continued up the street. One time he waited until we caught right up beside him and again he spoke and scampered onward. Then he stopped dead in front of our hotel door and looked in the entrance just waiting for us. How did this cat know where we lived? Why did he feel the need to lead us home? Was there a carbon Monoxide leak? I had so many questions. I wanted to see if he would follow us up the stairs and try to come in to explain himself better, but Andre told the cat to beat it. I scowled at Andre and the cat sashayed away as if to say “I tried to help you, but if its gonna be like that then you’re on your own.” As we went to go upstairs I turned back to see the cat being cornered by two others but it just ignored them completely and hopped up on a chair to relax like it ran the neighborhood. By the time we walked the flight of stairs to our room and opened the patio door they had all disappeared. It was spooky. I wish that something had been a bit off to make this story more interesting, but nothing seemed out of sorts and so now it’s basically a boring cat snory. They can’t all be good.

Town and Beaches

Naxos and Paros are just a short ferry ride from one anther and they are both worth seeing. Paros town itself is very polished and quaint, while the main area of Naxos is larger and feels a bit more industrial.  That being said, they have some really beautiful things to see like the Apollo Temple ruins. The The people we met there were wonderful and I would go back just to see Manolo and Patra, and of course eat a steady diet of her dolmadakia.

The weather in Naxos was still very hot but it was also super windy. Excellent for windsurfers, and we saw quite a few of them. The upside of the wind was it kept you from being a gross sweaty mess. The downside was that you were sure to get a face full of sand if you were sun tanning on the sand. Oh, and the flies. When we were in Paros we noticed that there were many black flies when we were on the beach. It was a nuisance to have to continually swat them off but it was tolerable. In Naxos they were worse. I actually spent very little time on the beach because of how irritating they were. Well that and the sand blasting I got with every gust of wind. I chose to sun myself on our balcony instead. I put it down to the time of year and the longer hotter summer weather stretching on. It may very well have gotten worse in Paros as well during this time. Overall, I enjoyed both Naxos and Paros, but they too are becoming popular tourist spots and if we were to come back to Greece I think we would opt for less known places. Manolo told us that in the peak season the beach is packed like a sardine can. 

113 days in…

Last stop in Greece is Athens.