Five Seconds in Mykonos

I can tell you very little about this hedonistic little piece of Cycladic paradise other than some practical logistics.

The port is a three-euro, 15-minute boat ride from Mykonos Town.
To reach the bus 'station' take a 10-minute walk through the beautiful backstreets. Include extra time to account for weaving through the hordes.
The bus 'station' is really a narrow series of parking slots that buses back into at precarious angles, heedless of the gormless tourists who stand in front of it.
The bus takes seven minutes and costs Euro 1.60 to get to the airport or, in a taxi, Euro 29. You choose.

After four days in quiet Paros, we were overwhelmed with our hop through Mykonos. We only did it because it was the closest airport with the most reasonable flight times. Fortunately, what we saw of the island IS really beautiful:

 And it's really working that turquoise colour scheme:

 

 

The airport is tiny so arriving, like ridiculously early, is not a great option. But, just for a bit of fun, when your flight gets cancelled/delayed because the British Airways computing system goes down, you can count the number of people who can't register facial expressions because of bad botox. My goodness, I've never seen anything quite like it.

Paros: The Beaches

Despite Paul's fears of being a passenger in the front of the car (borne of his family's bad driving and not mine), the beauty of hiring a vehicle was the freedom it gave us to explore the island. Paros is a fairly small island and one main road circumnavigates the coast. Our map knew what people were about and listed the island's best beaches. We were spoiled for choice and decided to take on a different beach each day.

Ambelas 
Upon arrival, we stuck close and visited the three tiny beaches in Ambelas, all with a very local crowd. The first beach is just off the main 'town' section. It's a tiny stretch of golden sand, complete with car park and one beach restaurant that also provides umbrellas and sunbeds.

The second beach is locatable by looking for Thalami Ouzeria. Just to the left of the outdoor seating, a sign reading 'Beach' points you down to a set of stairs and a cliff-backed strip of sand awaits. The third beach is another 200 metres down the road; follow the parked cars to find a sandy cove where you can park your blanket on beach or rocks.

Upside: Close! A local crowd, very chill
Downside: not very much beach at high tide

Molos Beach 
Molos beach advertises itself as secluded and beautiful, two things impossible not to love in a beach. With a kite surfing school in the middle and one local taverna at the opposite end, you could easily suntan naked and no one would bother you. We didn't test this theory out but we did take shelter under a scrubby beach shrub and proceeded to watch the wind carry away the kite surfers.

Upside: Beautiful; quiet; good breeze
Downside: No amenities so you're peeing in the sea

Golden Beach 

Golden Beach boast blue flag status and with that, came the tourists. It was by no means busier than many of the beaches of Naxos, or of any of the other Greek islands I've been to. But there seemed to be a secret code to hiring a beach umbrella and reserving a space near the sea, dropping your towel and leaving seemed to be best practice. I like to worship the sun but I date a white person and so we did battle with the wind and set up our hotel-borrowed cheapo brolly.

Upside: lots of options for lunch/drinks; beautiful sand
Downside: so.many.people.

Naoussa, Paros

Naoussa is something of a hidden gem, at least that's what we were told. The man in our hotel in Naxos told us definitely not to miss it. Local guides hyped it as rivalling Mykonos. And so on our first night in Paros, we took the car 5ish kilometres up the road for dinner.

Our first struggle was to find parking. The town is right on the water and the road leading to the old fortress town is blocked off to vehicles. When we eventually parked and walked, we were greeted with a stunning little port, home to the yachts of the rich and not so famous.

The geography of the town is a bit difficult to explain, but turning out of the main promenade lots of restaurants line a little quay.

Further in, narrows lanes with little artisan shops and restaurants wind their way down into another wide pedestrianised street.

I continue to be obsessed with all the beautiful doors and windows.

We arrived in time for sunset and the light played beautifully on all of the white buildings. And as the sun went down, people came out in droves. The lanes got busy and tangled and finding a restaurant with a free table became very challenging. The day's beach zen quickly left us. Eventually, we had a very mediocre dinner and then a long wander past the yachts, making up stories as we went before heading back towards the car.

I get why people love Naoussa and it's clearly a beautiful place. But after a few hours there, Paul and I were ready to head back to our little village calm. And that's where we stayed for ensuing evenings. To us, Naoussa wasn't worth the stress.

Paros: A Journey by Car

Booking holidays between Paul and I usually work in this way: I get excited about holidays far too far in advance; I nag Paul about booking time off of work; I book flights: I nag Paul about booking accommodation; I get fed up nagging and book most of it myself; I nag Paul to book the final bits.

This is how we ended up staying at Margarita Studios on the wrong side of the island. Although Paros isn't huge, a majority of accommodation on the island is centred near the port in Parikia. Our place was clear across the island in Ambelas, on the eastern coast facing Naxos, the island we'd just left. It's only 15km away but to get there on public transport, you must take a bus to Naoussa and then another to Ambelas. The latter bus leaves three times a day. 

Thus, a car seemed the only viable, albeit expensive, option. Because of the impending Brexit drama, the value of the Pound versus the Euro has drastically dropped. In 2015, £696 got you Euro 1000. Today, £902 gets you 1000 Euro. Thank you, shitty politicians. 

All that aside, this was the first time since summer 2016 that I got behind the wheel. No one in my family trusts me with their beasts of vehicles, which I only partially understand. So what if I have to approach every roundabout and have someone remind me of the correct way around it?

For the skeptical, I got it right every single time. But I was nervous driving in a new country. The roads weren't crazy busy but there were a lot of narrow lanes and paths. In looking for lunch one day, we got lost and found ourselves in a system of one ways up the village of Marpissa, a village founded in the 15th century.

I couldn't get enough of the white on white on blue. And all of the colours on the houses just accented the beauty of this small town.

 

 Just down the road from Marpissa, and on the way to lunch, we found this old windmill:

And Paul practised his best 'do I look European' face. Considering that lots of people spoke to us in Greek or Italian first, I think we did an okay job.

Still Marpissa:

We traversed the Eastern half of the island over the course of the three days we were there, finding bakeries, cool towns (more on Naoussa later) and hidden away beaches.

There are worse ways to spend a holiday.

Naxos: Potamia Villages

Nestled in the middle of Naxos, lies a series of three small villages called Potamia. With 300 year-round inhabitants, sleepy and beautiful are two good words to describe the environs. George's mum's summer house lies nestled around the village and George spent lots of his childhood summers here. 

The original plan was that Paul and I were going to rent a scooter and make our way up 9km of winding roads to spend an afternoon with Gil, George and co. After spending ten minutes scooting around Naxos Town the day before, Paul crashed the scooter turning onto the main road. Flip flops, my ankle, Paul's arm were all minor casualties in the world's slowest turn.

Fortunately main road and casualties are both terms I use loosely and the biggest loss in this event we call Scootergate is that the day's fee, €30, was non-refundable. Paul, sans pride, walked the scooter back to the rental place and we chose our own two feet for the remainder of our time on the island. 

And so, we ended up meeting two of Gil's Taiwanese friends for a silent taxi ride up the middle of the island. It turns out that 9km of winding road feels like a lot longer than 9km and both Paul and I were grateful that we hadn't attempted it on a scooter. 

We arrived with a late afternoon sun beaming down on us and took to the many paved walking paths in the area. George regaled us with stories of his youth and 'guess how old this is' style tourism as he pointed to churches and buildings that dotted the horizon. 

I love Greece for the beaches but I must admit that Upper, Middle and Lower Potamia were utterly charming. There are 37 churches, which amounts to about 1 church for every 8 people in the community. The oldest, Agios Mamas (not pictured) is from the 10th century Byzantine era. I can't quite wrap my head around that. 

Shaded paths gave way to wildlife in the form of lizards and turtles and Kieran continued to snap photos of plants to insert into his Plant Finder App. Yes, it's a thing.

Notes of history were all around us--from abandoned wine presses and water mills to beautiful stone walls--there was a peace in just being in this space. It turns out that medieval Venetian nobles used to holiday here so if it's good enough for them, it's definitely good enough for me.

In the long term, I imagine I would go stir crazy in a place like this. But for one afternoon with friends, walking, eating fresh everything in a local taverna and stargazing on a rooftop to end the day, it felt like exactly where I needed to be.