Naxos, final island

Day #27, 28 and 29 - Naxos, Greece

I think im losing count of my days...not sure if its actually twenty seven....oh well. Alaina has pointed out to me that she cant see some of the passages in my blog....(lol why has no one else told me sooner? No one else reading this blog...? Lol) so i am going back to the old method of paragraph...pic...paragraph...pic.

So coming to Naxos, i had one goal in mind...just one. And that was to meet some Canadians. I have pretty much been in the greek islands for almost two weeks now and i have yet to meet a single Canadian. Sigh.

Anyway, on the boat, i met a lovely German couple, both twenty five and travelling on a shoe string. Th are both students and had masssssive packs. The reason for this is that they camp at the islands intead of staying at hotels or hostels. Very frugal! Awesome idea, just dont inow if i could do it.








Our first night was spent eating at a seafood restaurant...with a million seafood items on the menu. Since its octopus is generally not available in canada, i had that. Deeeeelicious.


By the port was a beautiful sunset. Not quite like the others, but pretty to look at nonetheless. :)


Naxos was definitely much more lively than Ios...more ppl, more shops open, more restaurants. It was great, a nice change from the ghost town the day before :)


Our next morning started off at seven thirty to do our four hour hike...starting in the middle of nowhere, going to the middle of no where. Our hotel drove us to the start of the hike in some random town that was twenty mins drive away.





The first hour of th climb was purely uphill, ranging from a fifteen to forty five percent incline. Thank you candice for telling me to do so. Many stairs and inclines before my trip, they definitely helped.

There were a lot of goats in the hills...so i assume they are who these make shift troughs are for...in the middle of nowhere.



After uohill climbing for about an hour, we reach the top of the mountain, and the church. This church is only accessible by walking and a priest makes this hike everyday to care for the church.



We lit candles in honour of our loved ones.


Beside the church was a mini mountain which i climbed. The photo got cut off (sigh) but its taller than it looks!


The view from the top was incredible. We could see the clouds in the horizon, valleys of trees and little villages below.


But it was ridiculously windy below. I sat on the edge and almost got blown away!


No, my whole trek was not made of easily walkable paths. I think its just cuz i only was willing to take out my cam during those times. The rest of the time i was too busy tripping, slipping and falling over.


Panoramic! Beautiful eh?





I only seem to have photos while we are still near the top of the mountain. On the way down, I was more concerned with preserving my life than taking photos.


See that little tip on the mountain on the right? Thats where i climbed up to in the morning. Yay for 13 or 14ish kilometers :)


Finally we reach a small little village for a short break and then we are supposed to do another 1.5 hours down a paved road to get tp the town we need to catch our bus in. Four hours through rocks, trees and random terrains was bearable because my mind was distracted to stay alive. Another hour and a half on a paved road would have killed me. Luckilym one of my group members had rented a car for a day and coincidently drove up there and found us! Yayyyyyyyyyy
We made it to the next town in just ten mins :)



We visited a local distillery, alcohol made of citron. Everyone knows i am not a fan of alcohol...but i thought this stuff was bearable. Must have tasted amazing to everyone else!

The next morning, i decided to have a very healthy breakfast of waffles and FRUIT ....yum :) i love being on vacay


One of the main attractions of Naxos is the arch of apollo, which, conveniently is right beside the port


Theres a small stone path that leads up to it...





And it perches on top of a hill that gives the most glorious view of the town.


Here's the arch. Lol not much to it.





I decided to spend my last day on the nearby beach. Coming to the end of the season, the beaches were rather empty so it was great.


I spent the day with lorenza talking about life, love, and everything under the sun. It was a great afternoon with great company.


Also, along every beach in greece, there are chinese people walking around offering massages to people. The going rate is 20eur for thirty mins, but i talked her down to ten because i spoke a tad of mandarin. The extent of my mandarin is limited...ie bargaining. So i had a beach side massage. Thanks to the blowing sand, i got a very intense back exfoliation as well.


For din, i had mixed seafood on the grill again. I think grilled octopous has become my new favourite dish.


In naxos, there is this delicious dessert shop that sells macaroons, cookies, and a million other delightful treats. Yummmmmmm. The pistachio gelato was especially declious. Unfortunately, i was too eagar and forgot to take a pic before devouring it. :)


And here concludes my travels of the beautiful greek islands. Back to the mainland of greece, to athens, to spend my last day in europe.


Athens is a pretty ghetto city except for one area of town. Of course, if you visit athens, you must visit the acropolis.


When i arrived, there was a greek concert going on playing the most beautiful greek music - great background music for touring the acropolis


When the parthenon was built, it was built a tthe top of the hill so that they are closest to the gods and so that they can see everything that is going on around the city. Ie. Nice view





I went around dusk, so there actually werent many people there at all. Except this guy exposing his bum in my pic,


The parthenon was massive but i was disapointed to see all of the scafolding all around it. Kind of destroys the beauty of the ancient site. Just makes it look like a work in progress. Why couldnt i be born twenty years earlier??












Acropolis at sunset? Gorgeous.



















Kind of cool, on one side of the acropolis, there was the sunset, and on the other side it was the moon. Do you see the little white dot? Its not a dust spot, its the moon!



After sunset, we were ushered out of the acropolis rather rudely. Not a fan of a lot of ppl in athens, i feel like i get snubbed a lot.



As our tour comes to an end, we have our last dinner together as a group. We say our final goodbyes, give our hugs and maybe even shed a few tears. Im going to miss you guys!


I spend my final day in europe visiting one moe tourist spot, the ancient town of agora.






I would have more to say about it, had i not forgotten my ipad in the hotel room, the ipad that held my audio guide. Speaking of which, I LOST MY IPOD. I dont think i can properly express how crappy it is to travel without music. Sigh.


Anyway, i actually found agora nicer than the acropolis,because there were far less people....and much less scafolding.

















I ventured back into town to head back to my hotel. The Plaka area of athens is worth going, but NO WHERE else! Lol





The metro system is quite nice, i think they revamped the metro a few years back when the summer olympics were held there. Everything runs on time here...not on greek time lol.





Soooooooo i guess this is the end of my europe journey. Im a bit sad that i had to end it off in athens, but i suppose this city is a necessary evil to get to the greek islands. The greek islands are absolutely amazing ..if i had to choose my fav, it would have to be Mykonos. Beautiful windmills, beautiful beaches and beautiful people. Goodbye greece...I will be back again one day :)

Location:Naxos, Greece