From Naxos, we took a short, hour-long ferry ride to the neighboring island of Paros and walked 15 minutes to our seaside hotel in Parikia. We've been accumulating plenty of credit card points, and we were able to splurge a little on this hotel by using points. The beautiful ocean view from our room's balcony and the free breakfast was a nice treat!
Since we arrived before we could check in to our hotel, we dropped our bags off in the lobby and walked around the town of Parikia. Similar to Naxos, the town was very cute and compact and had the quintessential white buildings and small streets full of shops. We got our 100th kebab for lunch (kidding, but only kind of. Turns out kebabs are the most economical meal choice for budget travelers in Greece!) and headed back to our hotel to relax and do some more trip planning while enjoying our sea view. That night, we grabbed dinner by the sea and were joined by various cats roaming around us. In what was becoming a predictable dinner pattern, Carson ordered moussaka and Melissa ordered a Greek salad.
The next day we enjoyed our buffet-style Greek breakfast at the hotel and waited for a shuttle to pick us up to go on the boat ride around Paros and Antiparos that we had booked in advance. Antiparos is another small island just west of Paros that is known for amazing beaches and being quieter/more luxurious (famous people come here a lot, and apparently Tom Hanks has a house here). We knew we wanted to spend a day out on the water in Greece (ferry not included) and had read great things about a boat cruise called Captain Ben's in Paros/Antiparos. Unfortunately, Captain Ben's was already full when we tried to book, but we were able to get on their sister boat named "Mamma Mia," which sounded like the perfect vibe.
We boarded Mamma Mia with about 20-25 other people, who were mostly young travelers like us. With the Mamma Mia soundtrack appropriately playing in the background, we headed out to sea. Over the course of the day we stopped at five different locations to either swim/snorkel or have beach time. We we had seen some incredible beaches and water in Croatia and Naxos, but somehow this was even better; this was in part because we had most of the swimming spots and beaches all to ourselves. The second location we went to was a cove where we snorkeled, swam into a big cave, and saw a ton of fish. Carson even saw a lion fish which was really cool. We made some new friends on the boat named Carter (from America) and Kunsulu (from Kazakhstan), a couple that was living in Belgium. We had never met someone from Kazakhstan, so we really enjoyed talking to Kunsulu, and it was nice to catch up with someone else from the states (and Carson finally found someone he could talk to about American sports). The boat stopped for lunch on the beach of a small island south of Antiparos. We played beach games and chatted with our new friends while the boat crew cooked up a feast! They prepared a Greek salad, rice, kebab skewers, octopus, and swordfish. All of the food was delicious, especially the fish. To top it off, we had some ouzo to end lunch. After lunch, we stopped at a couple of other swimming spots, and at the last spot we actually met up with Captain Ben’s boat. Captain Ben's boat looks more like a pirate ship and had way more people on it (we ended up being glad we got Mamma Mia instead), but it also had a giant inflatable water slide into the sea from the top deck. We got to go down the slide a few times and watch some of the crazier people (probably Aussies :) ) do tricks off of it, which was really fun. We finally boated back to the dock and shuttled back to our hotel to relax after a long day on the water. That night, we met up with Carter and Kunsulu for drinks at a small bar, and as we were walking around town we found a bar that had trivia the next day so we planned to come back as a team.
On our last full day in Paros we took the bus to the town of Naoussa, on the north side of Paros. Naoussa is a little more upscale than Parikia and is known for its pretty white buildings and luxury shops. Naoussa also has some nice beaches, but we were pretty beached out from our boat day so we just walked around the town and looked into shops. It was cute, but we didn't find it all that different from the other cute Greek towns we had already explored. Before heading back to Parikia, we stopped at a wine bar to try some local wine. We were the only ones there, and ended up talking to the owner for a while and hanging out with her two dogs. She told us she spends half the year in Athens and half in Paros since the slow season in Paros is reallllly slow and everything is closed.
When we got back to Parikia, we met up again with Carter and Kunsulu for trivia at a British sports bar near our hotel. Trivia was a busy event at the bar, and there seemed to be a good amount of locals there. Questions were shown via Powerpoint on TVs around the bar and we answered on a piece of paper. Every team swapped answer sheets when it came time to check them, and we graded others' answers like we were back in elementary school. The questions were a good mix of topics and it was fun to be at such an international trivia night. Our team only placed in the middle, but we had a great time. After trivia, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and went back to our hotel to get much needed sleep before our upcoming long travel day.
The next morning, we took the public bus to the airport on Paros. We thought this would be pretty straightforward, since we were going from the main town on the island to its only airport, but even though the bus left on time, it took forever before we were dropped off at the airport. We assumed the bus would be direct, but it seemed to stop at every small town on the island first. Fortunately we left with plenty of time for this hiccup and arrived to the the smallest airport we had ever seen - only one gate! We flew to Athens, where we annoyingly had to go back through security (don't get us started on how inconsistent airport security screening/customs procedures are across the globe). We finally made it to the airport lounge to eat and relax before our next flight to Istanbul.
Paros and Antiparos were wonderful last stops on our Greek adventure. Paros definitely feels a little more upscale than Naxos, but still has similar charm and beautiful beaches. Overall, Greece was an amazing country and we would love to return. As difficult as it is to answer the "what country has been your favorite?" question we often get, Melissa has been saying Greece. It really had everything - riveting history, welcoming people, stunning beaches, mountains and hiking, and delicious food that even felt kind of healthy (a big win after all of the cevapi)! It was also really great to have Brad join us on our journey and to share some of our experiences with a friend. While all of the islands were unique in their own way and we would love to see more (Crete! Milos!), our favorite island was Naxos. If you have plans to visit Greece in the future, take us with you!
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