Day Excursion to Picture Perfect Paros
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Tuesday was a massive day for me. Up in time to catch the 7.00am ferry to Paros… arriving at the port of Parikia, the capital of the island around an hour and a half later.
Paros is a beautiful island. Touristy but no where near as expensive as its near neighbour Mykonos and some say, resembles how Mykonos was 20 years ago. Paros has all the charm with its white washed stone Cycladic houses… you can easily get lost wandering through the labyrinth of narrow picturesque alleys of homes, shops and small churches.
With only a day available to me, I confined my sightseeing to Parakia where I visited the Byzantine Monastery Panagia Ekatontapiliani (Virgin Mary of the 100 doors) from the 4th Century AD… wow! Walking around in the heat, I passed by the Ancient Cemetery from the 8th Century BC, the Frankish Castle built by the Venetians in 1260AD, charming windmills and so much more.
As the sun was setting, along with many other people, I was patiently waiting the arrival of our ferry back to Syros. Scheduled to depart at 8.00pm, it duly arrived at 9.00pm. Disgorging a number of passengers and vehicles, loading a few more, it finally got us back to Syros around 11.00pm. By the time I made it up the hill to my accommodation, I had clocked up a fairly impressive 11.32km for the day… well worth the journey.
Other than that, I have mostly been taking things easy this week. As is popular with many locals, I often pick up a takeaway from To Kastri, the restaurant run by a group of local ladies. The food is authentic Greek, delicious and very reasonably priced. Evenings you may find me sitting at an outdoor cafe, watching the world go by or as is the case in the Harbour, watching how the poor souls on the luxury yachts live their lives.
Since the early hours of Wednesday morning, the wind has been gusting up to around 50km, with very little reprieve in the heat… not pleasant. I have my ferry ticket for Friday, departing Syros for Sikinos… fingers crossed the weather won’t stand in my way.
