Greece Adventures Day 5 (3/7/17): Castle, Cats & Coasts

Exploring the Kastro and having fun on the beach, welcome to Day 5!

♥

In the morning we visited the last site we had planned to visit, the Kastro. It's a fairly large area consisting of narrow roads which surround the castle itself. The castle isn't very big and exciting (there's actually just a museum inside now), but the surrounding grounds offer some lovely views in all directions, and the winding paths are so beautiful.

This is the Roman Catholic Cathedral which is tucked away inside the Kastro. It's a tiny building, but pretty nonetheless.

We decided to take it easy on our last full day in Greece, so we took the bus to a beach 20 minutes away from Naxos Town, Agia Anna beach. Compared to Agios Georgios, it's definitely busier as it is more popular, however, the water is deeper so there's more room for swimming (which is basically impossible to do at Agios Georgios), and the waves are slightly larger. Georgios is a nice quiet beach that is most suitable for families with small children, but we wanted something a bit more exciting, so to speak.

Some Ancient Greek literature - a classic...

For the entire three days that we had stayed in Naxos, we didn't actually go to the main town square until the night before the day we left. We had made friends with a jewellery-shop owner in Old Town,  and she recommended to us a restaurant that her brothers own.

And that reminds me - everyone in Greece is so gosh darn nice! The people are so unbelievably helpful and jolly, and there's always something 'on the house'. It was quite a change from English stiffness...

Anyway, I diverge. The restaurant is called Scirocco and is similar to the restaurant from the day before, Oasis, in that they're both very cosy, yet busy. We had to wait a bit for a table to become free, but it was worth it. The seafood pasta I had was perfect, not lacking in both quantity or quality of the 'seafood' aspect. It's definitely a place I can recommend to anyone!

♥

I love you

xxx

Greece Adventures Day 4 (2/7/17): Portara, Naxos Old Town & the Beach!

A day of good times and good food. Enjoy Day 4!

♥

The best thing about staying in a hotel so close to the town was that everything interesting was within 20 minutes walking distance. The Portara, the giant doorway to an unfinished temple dedicated to Apollo (or Dionysus, no-one's really sure) looked tiny in the distance, however, it was only a 15-minute walk from our hotel along the seafront.

The doorway itself, though impressive in size, isn't much to look at, unless you're a marble-slab enthusiast. It leads to nowhere, though seeing as it's so old and you can't go right up close to it, it could very well be a portal to some alternate universe, and take you back 2,500 years ago when it was built.

Not very probable, but my imagination likes to run a little wild sometimes...

It's hard to show with only these photos how enormous the structure actually is, especially when the chunks of marble look like lego blocks! The doorway stands 8m tall - that's an elephant giving a piggyback ride to a giraffe.

And that's definitely the best way to describe it, yep.

(I think that sugar rush from the chocolate I had earlier hit me whilst writing this paragraph!)

The Old Town is one of the most strange yet peaceful places I have ever been to. The narrow paths are beautiful, and all different from each other in unique ways. The cobbled path and whitewashed walls were the only constants linking each road to the next. For some reason, it was quieter here than on the seafront a few metres away, so it felt like stepping into another world, far away from Naxos' busy port.

We headed to the beach in the evening, to the nearby Agios Georgios beach 5 minutes away. I love beach holidays, they've always been a favourite of mine, and this one was no exception. The water is extremely shallow for quite a distance out as the beach is in a bay, which also means that there are no waves. No wave usually equals to not so much fun, but it's amazing how a few friends can turn the smallest wobble in the water into such a fun experience!

That evening we had dinner at the Oasis restaurant, another fantastic restaurant that had amazing food. It was obvious from the full tables that it's a popular place to eat, and I doubt we would've had a chance if we didn't reserve a table the night before. Whilst the Antamoma restaurant was all about fancy food and aesthetically-pleasing plates, Oasis served hearty meals in a homely environment.

♥

I love you

xxx

Greece Adventures Day 3 (1/7/17): Akrotiri & Hello Naxos

Day 3 was a chill one, spent mainly travelling and eating. The best things in life.

♥

We spent the morning exploring Akrotiri, an archaeological site in the south of Santorini. It used to be a Bronze Age settlement, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption around 1627 BC and was preserved due to the volcanic ash. It was alright, but me being me, and disinterested in just about anything historical, I got a little bored... If you like seeing these sorts of things, it's a great site to check out though!

At noon, we hopped onto our ferry that took us from Santorini to Naxos. It was a large fancy ship that looked too expensive for the price we paid for the tickets, but we weren't complaining! The journey took roughly two hours, so we spent that time trying to figure out what horrible incident happened based on randomly generated words from a ghost hunting app, involving a cliff, coin, guilt, about six different people, and a dog.

We gave up in the end.

And this tragic tale will haunt our lives forever.

(Just kidding!)

And here we are, welcome to Naxos! I have to admit, I loved our time in Naxos more than in Santorini. There were fewer tourists in Naxos as it's a lesser-known island, and we spent more time having fun and eating out. Naxos has some wonderful beaches too, unlike Santorini's rocky cliff faces.

We stayed at the Kallisti Studios, which had the most beautiful rooms. Each one had a different theme, and the furniture and design of each room were so cute and fit together so harmoniously.

Practicality was a little lacking (why is there no stool at the vanity?! I had to squat every time I wanted to check myself in the mirror!), and the A.C wasn't in the most sensible spot. There was a large built-in wardrobe directly below it, meaning that the air didn't circulate as it should've and even with the A.C turned on, we still had an uncomfortably hot room. Nonetheless, the other room we had on the ground floor was fine, so I assume the 2nd-floor room (above) was a one-off.

Our first sit-down, proper meal of the holiday was at the Antamoma Restaurant, a very highly-rated restaurant in Naxos town which had gorgeous views of the sunset.

Yes, more sunset photos. Who doesn't like sunset photos?

I would highly recommend the seafood orzo, it was an absolutely delicious dish served in such a stunning way. There were little dots of sauce around the plate of orzo and prawns balanced neatly in the centre. You know it's going to be a good plate of food when they serve it with dots!

♥

I love you

xxx