Scrabble, Motor Bikes, and Beaches Oh My

The ferry to Naxos was nice. We sat on the top deck and found a new and fabulous use for my iphone...Scrabble. Eric and I passed the 3 hour ferry ride quickly and arrived in Naxos before dinner time on Saturday, October 3rd. We stayed at a place called the Windmill. It reminded me a bit of the Clermont hotel but had a burner and fridge in the room(clearly making it a little more classy).

Naxos is a quaint little town with lots of restaurants and nice greek people. On our hunt for dinner we came across a mexican restaurant and decided that no matter how wrong it was to eat there we were going to do it. It was the best decision we had made all day. Delicious margiritas, tacos, and enchiladas. Such a good break from feta and cucumbers. After dinner Eric was dead set on finding the UGA football game on tv. We sat at a bar for a long time flicking through every ESPN station possible. The nice greek owner refused to believe it was not on her satilite tv. To Eric's dismay we finally had to call it a night after looking for the game for over an hour (which prob was for the best since UGA lost to LSU). By the way, Eric did follow the rest of the game by watching the scores tick by on my iPhone.

Sunset at the temple of Apollo in Naxos

The next day, October 4th, we rented a motor bike and cruised around the island. Our goal was to find Mt. Zeus and climb it but once we found it we quickly decided that was a little too ambitious. It was prob over a 2 hour hike and bees were swarming all around the trail. The beach made for a much better afternoon. The rest of the day was nice and relaxed. We cooked some pasta on our burner in the room and made a nice little candle-lit meal (the candle being my head lamp).

This bike was crucial for getting around Naxos. 

This cost around 10 Euros a day and only 3 Euros to fill up.

Mt. Zeus

"candle" lit meal on our balcony in Naxos

Just a little monkey business

The following day, Monday, we hopped on a ferry to Paros, a small island about 30 minutes away from Naxos. It was a great way to spend our last day and night in the islands. This island was beautiful with lots of beaches and amazing people. Our hostel, Blue Paros, was great. The family that owned it is Jewish and of course loved to find another Jewish friend in Greece to chat with. We again rented a motor bike and discovered 2 of the best beaches I have seen. One was so secluded that only a few other people shared the beach with us. It was surrounded my mountains. The next beach was surrounded by these amazing rock forms that you could climb on and lay out on. It was really neat.

One of many frequent stops to look at the map. Unfortunately just being an eagle scout would not suffice for Eric this time.

Koumbithres beach in Paros

Once we got back to our side of the island the owner of our hostel showed us an amazing restaurant to eat at that was across from their hostel. We dug into some saganake (friend cheese recommended by Eric's dad) and a pork dish (kontosouvli). They both were fantastic. The remainder of the night was spent battling over scrabble again on my phone (which I have proven to be way better at than Eric).

Tuesday, October 6, we hopped aboard another boat and made the 4.5 hr journey to Athens. IT took us a few hours to find our hostel and settle in to our room. The first night was spent ordering Dominos and relaxing. 

Our time spent in Athens was good (although we had heard quite the opposite from many other travelers). The acropolis was very neat although all of the construction kind of kills the mood. We spent the remainder of the day getting lost in the winding streets of Athens and cooking ramen in our hostel. Our french roomates taught us how to play a dice game called Yam's that is a chinese game a lot like poker. 

The Parthenon. 

This would have been much more enjoyable had scaffolding not been present in every view.

View of Athens from the Acropolis platform. The lady who took this photo was a complete moron by the way. For some reason she really wanted her friends in the photo.

At the top of the Acropolis

Our final day in Athens was a blur of wondering around the city, grocery shopping, strolling around the market and using the internet. We knocked out most of the site seeing our first day so the second was more relaxed. I had read that the Agora Athens market was a must see while in the city. We found this market and eagerly we began walking through it. I had no idea that this was a meat market and the dead lambs, rabbits, and chickens would we hanging in plain site with blood dripping from them and their eye balls bulging from their skull. After about 2 minutes we both felt extremely sick and pretty much ran the rest of the way through the market. On the other site we were happily greeted with the produce section. Of course we found it necessary to cross back through the meat section so we could snap a few pictures. Needless to say I don't want lamb or chicken for a long time. 

Not happy

The rest of the day we spent in a little hidden gem of a cafe that was tucked into a side street near the market. It was a brewery/coffee/internet place that was cozy and had wifi. We headed back to our hostel a few hours later and made more ramen and headed to the Athens airport. Next stop Dubai and we can't wait for another taste of the middle east!