A brief stopover on Paros

Probably not all visitors to the Greek islands can say they’ve experienced a Naxian thunderstorm, but we sure can. Last night there was a little bit of thunder and far-away lightning in the early evening, but at 4am there was bright, bright lightning, and crashing thunder just overhead for about half an hour. We didn’t bother getting up to have a look, I’m sure one thunderstorm is much the same as another, but I did wonder what sort of morning we’d have for our walk to the ferry.

When we woke again the rain had stopped, but by 8am it had started again. Oh dear, we have to truck our luggage to the ferry port in half an hour. So we prayed for a window of clear weather for the 20 minute walk to the terminal, and then, having just read Luke chapter 12 in our daily reading this morning, we trusted that God knew what we needed. Being the worrying type, I kept reminding myself “God knows what we need, God knows what we need.”

We set off at 8.30am in overcast, threatening, windy weather, but the rain had stopped and stayed away until we were safely on board the ferry. How good is our God!! The worst we got was wet toes from the many little puddles along the way, but I’m grateful for air dryers, and I had my socks and shoes dry and warm by the time we departed Naxos port.

This next bit is for my eldest son, if he bothers to read it. When this massive ferry comes in to port, it comes in drifting. Seriously. For all the world it looks like it’s about to clean up the wharf, sliding sideways, then pulling away again at the last minute. I’m pretty sure they throw the anchor in some time during the process, and next thing they’ve slowed and they’re backing up to the wharf. It’s very impressive to watch!

The sea was a bit choppy this morning, unsurprisingly, but the first voyage was short, just 45 minutes to Paros. As we travelled, the sky looked to be clearing even more. The onboard entertainment screen was a wealth of incredibly useful information. Apparently a snail has 25,000 teeth, and the sheep population of Australia is more than 10 times the human population. Not only that, but most people walk approximately 185,000 kilometres in their lifetime, which is 4.5 times the circumference of the earth. A blue whale’s tongue weighs as much as an elephant, and cows produce more milk when listening to music. Pigs’ anatomy doesn’t allow them to look at the sky, and cats can hear sounds in ultrasonic frequencies. Giraffes do not have vocal cords, but cats can produce 100 vocal sounds whereas dogs are limited to just 10. The elephant is the only mammal that is unable to jump (thank goodness), and dolphins keep one eye open when sleeping.

After that, they just kept recycling the little tidbits, but I’m sure you’re as glad as I am to have learned those facts.

Choosing to take the early ferry to Paros, to allow for potential delays and also to allow a little bit of exploration of this island neighbour to Naxos, turned out to be a good decision. We had about 10 hours on Paros in the end, actually a bit more if you count the time spent waiting for the delayed ferry to arrive for our journey to Syros.

It was still quite chilly when we arrived in the main town of Parikia, but the sun was shining, and our first task was to locate the luggage storage, which turned out to be the kitchen of one of the local cafes. Okay, whatever it takes. Next we headed to our favourite, Gregory’s, for a warming coffee. Gregory’s is clearly a chain, as they have an outlet on Paros too, and no doubt we’ll find them elsewhere. From there we popped into a travel agent in the main square, to grab a map of the town, then set about finding a few of the sights amidst the typical blue-domed churches, whitewashed houses and narrow ancient streets. The sun stayed, and although still cold and quite windy, the day was pretty.

The first landmark we found was Frankish Castle, built in 1260AD by the Duke of Naxos with architectural materials from ancient buildings that existed on the hill and the lower city, where the ancient city of Paros extended. It was easy to see the ancient pieces of marble used in the construction. Since then everything has been built up to and around it, which is typical of these islands and Greece in general - layer upon layer upon layer.

We wandered for a while through the little streets, kind of getting lost, kind of not. It’s hard to get really lost in such a small area, even when the streets do look pretty much the same - white walls, blue doors, stone pavements, a church on every corner (just about). The churches are white and bright on the outside, dark on the inside, but they smell really nice. We found our way back to the beach, wandered along for a while, then headed back into the old part of town to walk the narrow streets some more.

Eventually it was time to find some lunch, and being a cold day, something hot felt like a good idea - cheese and ham pie, spinach pie, and a rather decadent chocolate mousse cake (to share). Yum.

What else do you do when you have the better part of a day in Parikia? You have a pedicure, of course. Hubby, fascinated, watched............. YouTube clips on ancient civilisations. In my opinion the pedicure didn’t measure up to those I’ve had before, but it was a nice way to pass half an hour.

We were already finding ourselves coming back to streets we’d walked before, so with time still on our hands we decided to go a little further afield, and locate a few of the ancient landmarks highlighted on the map. The first one was a perfectly organised pottery workshop of the Hellenistic period (300 - 200 BC), comprising 6 kilns of various types, two tanks for the preparation of clay, and other spaces. To date it is the only pottery workshop surviving to such an extent in the Cyclades.

A little further up the hill we came upon a sculpture workshop from the end of the Hellenistic period, 200 - 100 BC. The workshop housed a school for young sculptors, and the archeological discoveries include several unfinished sculptures.

We continued to wander up the hill, into what appeared to be a more well-to-do area of the town, with larger and more well-kept residences. It looked kind of like a new subdivision, if such a thing were possible. Along the way we met some goats, who were very curious and friendly, and I just love the way they have to stand on the furniture!

We enjoyed the view, and snapped some of the lovely flowers growing wild in the fields and in the crevices of the low stone walls. It was all very pretty.

Back down the hill and into the streets of the old town again, we snapped a few of the more interesting doors, and some of the more decrepit ones too. Wandering along, we met Katerina, who asked us where we were from, told us she lived in the old town in her grandmother’s house which was 400 years old, and assured us we’d probably just photographed her door. She runs an Airbnb, which she encouraged us to look up and to recommend to our friends!!

The door to Katerina’s grandmother’s 400 year old house

And then, wandering some more, we met Marcos, or rather Marcos met us. We must have looked lost, rather than just wandering aimlessly, because he introduced himself, said he was a local and asked if he could help us with anything. We said we were looking for somewhere to have dinner, preferably something hot! As luck would have it, Marcos has a restaurant, he was about to go and open up, and we were very welcome! We followed him about 100m, and sure enough, he had a great restaurant. It was still early-ish, but he invited us in, sat us at a lovely table in the sun overlooking the beach, and sat down to chat with us until his chef arrived about half an hour later. Marcos was just lovely, middle-aged, exuberant, and a wealth of life experience and knowledge. We enjoyed chatting with him about Greek culture, the Greek language, his life story, and he touched on some of his sadnesses and joys.

He helped us to “read” the Greek words on the wall - “pizzeria” (self-explanatory) and “estiatorio” (restaurant).

When his chef arrived, we ordered and had probably the most delicious meal so far in Greece - amazing “green seasonal salad” with leaves, walnuts, bacon, capers, olives, cherry tomatoes, and the most tasty dressing, some typically lovely Greek island fried potatoes, and a wonderful chicken dish with capers, garlic, mushrooms and creamy sauce. Marcos gave us lovely bread to mop up the sauce. Oh it was good!! When he delivered the meal he said “Enjoy your meal, and fall in love again” - what a lovely sentiment!!!

Finally it was time to farewell Marcos, go claim our luggage from the kitchen (none the worse for wear for the experience), and head to the ferry terminal. The ferry was late, which apparently is not unusual in the Greek islands, especially when it’s the last port in a series of ports throughout the day. But an hour and a half late?? So we waited. In the cold.

Finally, around 9.45pm, the ferry departed Paros, heading for Syros. The entire way - all one and a half hours - a group of locals regaled us with traditional music, singing and dancing. Clearly they’d had a good day. It was all a bit of fun, and we tourists enjoyed the spectacle.

It was good to finally get to our hotel, just across from the port, so a quick 5 minute walk from the ferry, for which at 11.30pm we were thankful.