Day 5 21st May 2023. Athens to Naxos

It’s Greece’s election day, all people intending to vote have gone or are on their way to the villages in which they are registered to vote, for most Greeks this is the village of their family.
Our alarm went off at 5am, thanks to packing last night we were in the hotel Lobby checking out at 5:30am.
Our driver took us to the Port and pointed out our ferry as we drove in. We were both expecting something small and fast looking. Instead we got a boat similar in size to the Sealink Ferry to Kangaroo Island.

I joined the queue to get on board while Deb went off to buy replacement ferry tickets for our remaining trips in Greece. Deb had success and was done by about 6:10am, meanwhile, I had joined the wrong queue, there were two queues and I picked the wrong one! I jumped queues and met up with Deb near the boarding end of the ferry.

We boarded and found our seats with a bit of assistance. The ferry left on time at 7am. The ferry goes to Syros, Mykonos, Naxos, Ios and finally Santorini. So we get to see a couple of extra Islands.
This begins our exploration of The Cyclades, a group of Greek islands south east of mainland Greece in the Aegeon Sea. There are approximately 220 islands in the group with 29 main islands, it is centred on Delos, said to be the place where Apollo was born.
It was approximately a 3.5hr ride, knowing this we sailed “club class” in comfy seats and plenty of legroom, think business’s on a plane without the flight attendants and the plane!

We reached Syros at 9:12am, it’s a town set in a bay with slopes rising from the waters edge. The slopes are covered in cream/whitish Mediterranean style homes, all tiered up the slope. The stop was very quick, we were heading back our of the bay at 9:16am, on our way to Mykonos.

We arrived in Mykonos at about 9:50am. Every building you can see is brightly whitewashed. Again the island looks very hilly and rocky, with all the homes built on the slopes as in Syros, but Mykonos looks more wealthy, the houses look more substantial and cared for. We left Mykonos bound for Naxos at 9:58am.
Naxos by about 10:25am, it took less than 5 minutes for them to have the boat leaving Port again, it’s a very well run process.
We were met by a driver and taken to our accommodation, 18 Grapes. We have a very comfortable room with views out over the water to Paros.
Naxos is the largest and most fertile of the Cyclades, green and mountainous. There is an unfinished Temple to Apollo on a hill as you come into the Port of Naxos, there is also a famous stone, the Portara, that has greeted visitors to the harbour for the last 2500 years, yep, we didn’t see it. Maybe we might catch a look on the way off Naxos in a few days. FYI the cost of petrol on the island is a bit higher than in Athens, 215 Euro per litre, that roughly equal to A$3.50/litre, almost double the price at home.
We are on the fringe of a small village called Agios Prokopios, the most recent census gave its population as less than 250. It’s very much a tourist area with hundreds of sun lounges and umbrellas for hire on the beach, many tourist knick-knack shops on the main street along with many restaurants. While Deb caught up on a bit of sleep I walked into the village and had a look around. There is a small marina, with 3 or 4 fishing boats and 2 or 3 cruise boats.

Quite a few of the locals have small areas of their gardens set aside for growing veges, nothing unusual there, but the scarecrows were next level formal, Vonnie and Tom you’re going to have to lift your scarecrow game!

We had a big repack in the afternoon to make it easier to find stuff while we are in the Cyclades, we are now basically living out of one suitcase
We took a short stroll down the hill into the village to Traditional Family Tavern Giannoulis. We got there early at 5:30pm, expecting to beat the crowd, but no, the tavern was full. I’m sure some of the people there were still there from lunch! But the waiter that met us at the door asked us to wait 5 minutes and he would have a table ready. And sure enough he did. We sat up high next to the kitchen entrance and overlooking the tavern soaking up all the atmosphere. All the wait staff were so charming and friendly with a great sense of humour. A dip with fried beans and bread landed on our table as we looked at the menu.
We chose a Greek Salad with local feta, a Meze entree and meatballs for main, thinking if we were still hungry we would have desert. First to hit the table was the best looking Greek Salad I have seen, beautiful plump tomatoes, along with olives, cucumber, capsicum, onion and a slab of local feta sitting on top. It tasted as good as it looked. We were half way through the Salad when our Meze plate was served. It was huge, filo triangles of cheese and others of spinach, mini filo rolls of cheese and another of mixed filling, zucchini fritters, tomato balls, pickled beetroot, meat balls and tzatziki, oh, and plump fava beans in a tomato sauce. And again, when we were half through that plate our main arrived, three big plump meatballs that were as light as they could be swimming in a delicious tomato sauce. Needless to say, we didn’t finish it all, but we gave it a red-hot crack!
When I asked for the bill the waiter came back with a small plate of cakes and an ouzo for both of us served with the biggest smiles and warmth. What a great experience!
On the way home we called into a small, no tiny, supermarket to get some water. The tap water on Naxos is funky and everyone advises not to drink it. 6 x 1.5litre bottles for 2.20 Euro, I had heard that bottled water was more expensive than ouzo, so not quite sure how inexpensive the Ouzo is.
It was a fun enjoyable night, we are already planning another visit before we leave.