We left Antiparos late in the morning and took the ten minute ferry over to Pounda Port. The bus to Parikia Port dropped us at the edge of town, right by our guesthouse.
We are staying in Katerina Studios (owned by Katerina of course) and for the great price of €65 have a wonderful good sized room with great shower and patio overlooking the pool. The location is excellent, just on the edge of the “old town” pedestrian area, and about ten minutes walk along the waterfront from the port.
Katerina’s husband owns the local “Steakhouse Restaurant” called M∏PIZO∧A∆IKO, (this is exactly why I do not try to write the actual Greek names of things. I mean, really? That spells “Steak House?”) so we went there for chicken and bacon pitas for lunch.
By the time we ate it was 14:00 and just intensely hot, so we went back to our room to hang out, read and nap till it cooled around 17:00.
We set out to explore the town and eat dinner, and didn’t return until after midnight.
The big sight in Páros Town is for people who can’t count: The Church of a Hundred Doors, really named Ekatontapiliani.
“Hundred Doors” is easier.
It is a Byzantine Church so very old-style, brick-like, and dark inside.
I counted about twenty doors.
In the old part of the city is the Frankish Castle, built in 1260 by the Venetian Duke of Naxos (Yes, amazing, huh? Venice ruled over here as well.) using the old Greek materials (columns, lintels, etc) from the Temple of Athena, built in 600 BC here in the ancient city of Páros. So if you want to see the remains of the Temple of Athena from 2600 years ago, look at the remains of this castle.
The neighborhood around this little castle on the hill is my favorite area of Páros, and if I return I will look for a room here. It is all narrow, twisty-lanes, with colorful details on the white homes, and bougainvilla everywhere for that “classic Greek” look. here are several viewpoints and even a small plaza up by the high church here so you can look out over the sea at sunset.
The waterfront restaurants are pretty empty during the afternoon due to the direct sun, but once the sun sets the entire town fills up as people come out in the (relative) coolness of the evening to walk the pedestrian-only shopping streets in the old town lanes.
Even the main street right along the harbour and waterfront is closed about 19:00 to traffic, and it is solid people from that point on.
Gail liked getting into the shopping streets and seeing all the (same to me) island stuff. I got tired of the carved fish and evil eyes, so I enjoyed getting out of the shopping streets and into the narrow back neighborhood streets where the old people were sitting out, smoking and talking and kids were kicking soccer balls against the walls.
It is the Daphne Restaurant and I would really recommend it.
We got a lovely table for two at the front (street end) of the garden, behind the old rock wall, by a triangle-shaped window. The local cat climbed up into the window and fell asleep, and it was pretty entertaining to watch tourist after tourist walk by, take photos of the cat, pet the cat, “OOOOOO” and “AAAAHHHH” over that damn cat…
Anyway, we walked in to the empty garden restaurant at 20:30, and within twenty minutes the fifty or so tables were filled.
Good to know.
We got along great with the waiter for some reason. I can think of one time in Baden-Baden Germany, once in Rab Croatia, and once in Praha, Czech Republic where we really hit it off with the server.
So get this: after talking a while, we were ready to order.
I ordered the crispy shrimps with something, and then a pasta with some seafood. He looked at me and said, “No. You should have the octopus, cooked slowly in wine, and marinated in oil, served on something…”
I don’t even like octopus, and Gail?
She shuddered.
But for some reason I looked at him, thought about our conversation and said, “OK. And what for the main?”
And he ordered the local lamb shank on mashed potatoes for me.
Totally changed my meal.
He looked Gail up and down and decided her salad was good for her.
As usual I ordered the house wine, red for me and white for Gail.
He smiled and said, “Excellent choice.” He lowered his voice. “It is the same wine from the same local winery that we charge €45 a bottle for. You will love it, a rich, soft Cabernet."
And so we ate a really fantastic meal, and guess what?
I like octopus and guess double what?
So does Gail.
It especially paired well with her crisp, white wine, from the same winery.
And the lamb… with the Cabernet…
Well, we ate and lingered and there were real candles lit all around the garden so it was magical. The waiter brought the three of us a shot of masticha, the local drink, and he threw it back with us after a special toast (in Greek).
We wrapped it all up with an espresso and crime brûlée.
A fantastic dinner for about €45 total.
We met maybe our tenth? fifth? American of the trip, a guy from Salt Lake City who has a house and lives summers here.
It is fun to watch the ferries come and go. You just don’t realize how much life depends on the ferry system, how many different ferry companies are coming and going to which places. Some of the smaller ones are like commuter “bus-boats” while others come in a dwarf the entire city, swallowing up cars and trucks and hundreds of people heading to Santorini or Athens or Wherever.
We took the bus north to scenic port town of Naoussa (second largest town on the island; one shopping street and lots of boats) where we caught a boat-taxi over to Kolimbithres Beach, maybe the most famous beach on the island.
OK, I’ll say it right off the bat: this is a too-short visit to an island that deserves four to seven days, simply for the number of beaches. Beaches like Golden Beach (they say it is the best sand) and Ioannis up by the lighthouse, Krios and Marchello available by taxi-boat right from the main port, and Aliki in the south.
But two days is what we had. I didn’t want to cut Hydra or Milos short and I could have simply skipped Páros, but I wanted to stop in and see it.
This, right now, is when I wish I’d cut a couple days in Israel or Egypt and stuck them here.
C’est la vie.
The bus is surprisingly easy to use here and runs frequently. Our hostess printed out the bus schedules for us so it was easy to get around. I mention this because I have trouble finding accurate, up to date bus schedules online (I am right now wondering about Milos. Will we need to rent a quad?) but you should know that on this island you can arrive on a ferry and get most places around the island pretty easily.
Kolimbithres is an interesting beach, granite rock outcrops like fingers into the sea with flat spots to lay on, parts to climb around and interesting holes washed out. Between the fingers of rock are little sand coves, some small and private for the first four people there, others crammed with beds and umbrellas.
We are in a big cove, and our second row beds cost €15 for the day (front row is €20). We have the services of a guy who runs drink and food orders up to the bar for us all. The drink prices are totally outrageous here however.
It is really crowded, wall to wall people, not like the quiet days on Koufonissi.
We got here early, on the second boat at 10:30, and good thing as they have been sold out of beds since noon. But, it makes for great people watching. Women topless and in thongs, men in speedos or board shorts, that is normal here (and Mykonos and Antiparos and most places we have been) so if you are scandalized by skin this is not the place for you. Even the little kids run around naked, or with a bikini bottom at most, and you hear more Italian and Greek than anything else.
It is warm: 86 F and humid
To me the afternoons are sweltering. Mornings and evenings are wonderful for swimming, walking and laying out in the sun, but I like to hide up in the room or a cafe from about 14:00 until 18:00 or so.
In this heat the water feels perfect, cool but not cold, the kind of water you can swim in for an hour and not be chilled. I hate that initial “sticky” feeling of salt water when you get out, but once dry my skin actually feels softer.
Weird.
You can sure get addicted to this slow beach life.
We caught the taxi-boat, then the bus back to Páros town about 17:00, took showers, and went out walking again. Remembering last night, we found a place to eat by 20:00 (and sure enough it filled up just after).
This time we chose a place really hidden back in a turning alley, called Cuore Rosso, or The Red Heart. It is a place "bringing together… a passion for Greek and Italian cooking…”
This too was a really good meal. Gail had a pizza primavera, which was like a fresh salad on a perfect crust. Lettuce, cheese, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, all on a tomato and basil pizza crust cooked in a real, wood fired, stone pizza oven.
I started with a snack called Gnocco Fritto, which was simply pizza dough rectangles fried in olive oil, dipped in tomato sauce with fresh basil. Perfect with the very generous liter (and topped off to make a liter and a quarter) of the house red wine.
For dinner I had something really different: two pieces of Tartufata Lasagne. That is truffle lasagne; bechamel sauce, burrata with truffles, sautéed mushrooms and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. That was really good. I also had two slices of traditional Bolognese lasagne. But the truffle lasagne… yum.
Once again I finished with an espresso and crime brûlée, and the treated us to a Limoncello, on the house.
We walked the back streets looking in on life here before returning to our room to crash around midnight.