Athens and Paros, Greece

After a mid-week dinner party at my house in Wimbledon on Wednesday night with Brea, Dylan and new flatmate Vicky, I only got 3 hours sleep before getting up on Thursday to head to Stanstead airport for my Athens flight. Brea and I flew Aegean air, departing London on a 10:20am flight, but that meant leaving my flat at 6:30am to get all the way to the Northeast London budget airport. We slept on most of our transport during the day - the train, the flight, the metro into Athens....but arriving at our hostel at 6pm, we had renewed energy from, believe it or not, the heat! So warm and sunny! (It had been raining in London the entire night before our departure).

After showering and getting ready, we joined other Athens Backpackers guests at the rooftop bar with a view of the Acropolis for a cheap pint of beer which I turned into a drinkable shandy by adding a bit of lemonade. And soon after, Minal arrived! Minal is my friend from India who I met while I was working there 3 years ago, and I haven't seen her since. She was with her friend Anita from Australia and the four of us headed out to dinner. We walked along the pedestrian street around the base of the Acropolis, and ate a delicious meal at Filistron, a restaurant I had found online. We got there a bit late to get a table on the lovely rooftop bar, but we had a delicious meal of potatoes/cheese, a feta and tomato salad, and I can't even remember what else, but it was all washed down with a pretty darn good house white wine - 500ml for 4 Euros!

It was an early night for all of us, as Minal was flying out to Paris the next morning and Brea and I wanted to climb the hill to the Acropolis before the heat was unbearable. We breakfasted with Minal at 7:30am and were up crawling around Acropolis hill by 9am. It was already sunny and hot, so we were glad to beat most of the crowds and the midday sun. Friday in Athens was our only full day there, but fortunately it was possible to see all the touristy bits in one day.

We joined in on the Greek siesta time, which is apparently around 2-5pm. After a nap, and some online research, we had a slight scare that we wouldn't be able to get to Paros island on Saturday because a travel agency told us all the ferries were sold out. It's a 3 day holiday weekend here in Greece (which we didn't know about) and we *really* didn't want to get stuck in Athens another day. The nightlife is fun and all....but we want to see the islands!

After a bit of sleuthing, I was actually able to book an alternative ferry around the same time and subsequently booked the ferries for the rest of the week, just for peace of mind (and there is only one ferry a day, so it makes the choosing easy). All our 3 ferries for the two of us are less than 100 Euors, which I think is pretty good for all our island transport. We walked to the local ferry ticket office to pick them up and tickets in hand, we were ready to enjoy our (last) evening in Athens.

We ate at Mamacas on Friday night, and in typical Greek style, we made a 9:30pm reservation and didn't find the place until 10pm. It was only half full, which worried us (is this place any good?) but by 10:30 all the tables were full of locals with family and friends for a Friday night meal. We enjoyed our meal until 1am, we weren't rushed (our waiter even gave us a complementary plate of strawberries and apricots) and there were even tables being seated when we left shortly after 1am.

Turning the corner down a street where we had seen several people coming and going, we saw that it was full of really hip bars with the nightlife spilling out onto the street. Everyone appeared (i.e. sounded) like locals, and with the good music and warm weather, this was definitely the place to be! We weren't up for a late(r) night since we had to get up early for our ferry this morning, but we were both really surprised at how vibrant the nightlife scene in Athens is. I would definitely come back just for a weekend of sun, bars and restaurants sometime.

As it was, we were back at the hostel and in bed around 2:30am. With a schedule of staying up late, getting up early before the heat to do stuff, taking an afternoon nap for a few hours and then staying out late again, we felt like we were starting to adjust to island life quite well!

This morning's ferry to Paros took 5 hours, but we had comfy shaded seats on the top deck. It was a beautiful day on the calm and bright blue waters. I spent the time napping, writing and reading and soon enough we were pulling into Parikia, the port of Paros island where our hotel owner was waiting for us to take us to Naoussa, on the other side of the island to stay at Villa Galini. Naoussa is a bit nicer and more laid back than Parikia. We late lunched and hit the beach at 4pm. Yes, sounds ridiculous, but we were there from 4-7pm, and it was hot, sunny and perfect.

I love the weather here. It's a dry heat, you can sleep when you want to (well, I can, I'm on vacation) and it's sunny and warm so late! The sun sets around 9:30pm and that's when the dinner scene starts, with the cafes in full swing by 11 and the bars getting going around 12:30am.

Tonight Brea and I have dinner reservations at Thea restaurant, which is supposed to have an amazing wine cellar and selection. Our hotel owner is kindly giving us a ride back to the port where he'll be picking up other guests, so we'll save on a one-way taxi tonight, which is nice of him. Our hotel owners are a Greek man and his Philippina wife. They are both very nice and for the price (30 Euros/night for a room with twin beds and our own bathroom) we have a great deal.

Tomorrow our plan is to day trip to nearby Antiparos to see some caves (Dad, there are stalactites and stalagmites!), spend the afternoon on a beach and have dinner in Naoussa on the waterfront. We leave on Monday midday for a short 1 hour ferry to Naxos island. I will try to write another update from Naxos! Until then, I'm going to work on my tan...