2014.08.04 – Athens – Syros (Greece)

We had an early wake-up at 5am as we had to commute to Pirareus for our 8am departure to Syros. We checked-out of our hotel after reluctantly paying our stay in cash. We took the 5:30am subway and quickly made our way to the Pirareus dock. We stopped at the nearby ATM for another cash withdrawal. We boarded our first large ferry boat (Naxios) as we arrived in the E7 dock area. It appeared like the ferry was fully reserved. When we boarded, we did not pay attention to the sun’s direction and as result we got baked on our seat facing east. The four hours ferry sailing appeared fairly long (and warm) to us. Upon our arrival at the Syros dock, we inquired about the bus service to the small town of Galissa. We waited 30 mins for the bus scheduled for 12pm. The dock area was rather chaotic traffic as a result of the ferry passenger disembarkation. We arrived in Galissa and easily found our hotel, Hotel Maistrili, which was located very close to beach. After settling into our room, we had a quick lunch of pita souvlaki. After that, we headed to the beach which was very nice and not too crowded. We settled in the shade of a tree using our camping mattress. Jenny and I enjoyed very much the water while Victoria stayed on the beach. We had supper at a nearby restaurant. The hotel staff appeared to sympathize with our Booking.com constraint, but they insisted they could not do much to help. The staff helped us to book a taxi for a pick-up at 7am the next morning as we needed to catch once again a 8am ferry – this time to Paros. We really enjoyed our nice balcony and super comfortable chairs. Jenny also appreciated the integrated clothes line for drying our clothes wash. Late in the evening, the hotel staff dropped by our room to give us some breakfast supplies since we would be missing the hotel breakfast tomorrow morning.

2014.08.05 – Syros – Paros (Greece)

We woke up in plenty of time to pack our luggage and step outside for our 7am taxi. A quick ride into town, we were dropped off at the dock in front of our ferry to Paros. This smaller ferry boat offered more comfortable seating than our first ferry boat. The crossing took less than 2 hours. As we arrived in Paros, we headed to our short one night stay at Hotel Dina, in the heart of town. The narrow maze of alleyways reminded us of Venice. Our host Dina allowed us to drop off our luggage until we could check-in later in the afternoon – as it was not even 10am yet. We enjoyed walking the alleyways filled with boutiques along Market St – our hotel’s pedestrian street. Jenny allowed herself to be tempted by a silver necklace. We had coffee at the dock while we observed the various ferry boats getting unloaded and loaded. At 1pm, we returned to our hotel to check-in to our room. The hotel and room were immaculately clean. After resting until 4:00pm, we headed to the beach for a swim. The water was a bit colder than in Galissa, but still warmer than in Corfu. Back at the room, we showered and set out for supper a Taverna Mira located right beside the sea. We marvelled at the sunset. Although we had expected to catch an outdoor cinema this evening, we discovered that cine Rex was some distance from our current location. Hence, we opted to wait until tomorrow. A very nice first day in Paros.

2014.08.06 – Paros (Greece)

We had a slow morning wake-up. We walked out of the hotel for breakfast at one of the many cafe on seafront. The service was a bit slow but we were clearly not in any rush. Jenny and Victoria headed out for more boutique browsing while I sipped another coffee at a sidewalk cafe. We were back at the hotel for our checkout from the Dina Hotel which we were only able to reserve for one night. The rest of our stay in Paros would be at Nostos Studios which coincidentally was owned by another lady named Dina. Dina #1 escorted us to our meeting point to be picked up by Dina #2 as per our email exchange from yesterday and earlier in the morning. After greeting Dina #2, we packed our luggage in her small Fiat and she drove us to her hotel along a major road out of Paros. Dina and her parents greeted us very nicely. Jenny was initially disappointed with the room, namely because we had steps down to our room. She eventually got use to the room after I agreed to sleep on the bed off the kitchen area. After settling in, Jenny and I took a walk down the road to assess the commodities available in this area. We identified a few bakeries, groceries and more importantly the location of the cinema Rex. We bought a few groceries on way back to the hotel. We headed to the beach in front of our hotel to cool down. Although the beach was not sandy, the pebbles on the beach were very inviting. Jenny and Victoria spent a lot of time collecting the best white pebbles they could find. Back at our room, we showered before walking back into town. Although the walking distance was not really far, the road was subject to a lot of speeding traffic and no sidewalks. We stopped for our evening meal at the closest restaurant we encountered. After our meal, we walked around until we felt it was time to walk over to the outdoor cinema. The cinema was already opened by the time we arrived. It was our first outdoor cinema experience – just like the drive-in, but without the car. We watched Transformer 4 which was a long movie that required two intermissions. After the movie, we had no problems walking back to our hotel even after 11pm.

2014.08.07 – Paros (Greece)

Jenny and I walked to the bakery this morning while Victoria continued to enjoy some sleep. We spent quite sometime on our balcony which provided a partially view onto the sea. At some point Dina called our room to see whether we wanted our room serviced. We welcomed the offer as our small washroom needed some attention. Later we headed back down to our (almost) private small beach for some swimming and pebble treasure hunting. Later in the evening, we made our way to the Taverna for supper. We enjoyed yet again a beautiful sunset evening. Later, we walked around the town’s many narrow alleys before returning to our hotel. A very nice relaxing day in Paros.

2014.08.08 – Paros – Ios (Greece)

Although Nostos Studios offered pick-up and drop-off services, it appeared Dina was booked for 11am hence we opted to walk from our hotel to the dock for our 12:45pm ferry to Ios. Although the sun made us for a warm walk, we managed to get to the dock without a big sweat. As usual the dock appeared very chaotic with some many people queuing for the ferries. We discovered that most were headed somewhere else than Ios. Once we boarded our Blue Star Ferry (Itako), we seated ourselves at the snack bar court where I wrote up earlier parts of our trip journal. The 2.5 hours crossing went by fairly quickly. At Ios, we were greeted by our hotel owner/host which promptly picked up our bags and gave Jenny and Victoria a ride in his car to the hotel. The hotel was fairly close to the dock. Our Hotel Helena owners/hosts were very friendly and provided us with some good tourist info. After spending a bit of time at the nearby beach, we understood why the owner encouraged us to take a day trip to the Manganari Beach. The beach sea bed was mostly covered with weeds. In the evening, we took the local bus up to Chora, the village built on the side of the mountain. We discovered the village was composed of narrow white alleys crisscrossing the village. The area reminded us a bit of Venice. It took a bit of trial and error navigation before finding the Thai Smile restaurant. Who would think that you could eat some of the best Pad Thai on a Greek Island? Later we took the long and enjoyable Ancient Steps down to our hotel area. Before going to bed, we had agreed to visit Manganari Beach the next day.

2014.08.09 – Ios (Greece)

We had a nice breakfast at our hotel. We headed to the dock area to catch the 11:30am bus to the Manganari Beach. The 45+ mins bus ride was amazing. We kept on wondering how costly this paved road to the beach must have been. Once at the beach, we were more or less enticed to rent two sunbeds and an umbrella for 9 euros. This was the first time we splurged on beach rentals as in the past we had always managed to simply rely on our camping mattress and some tree shade. The beach sand was one of the finest we had seen and the water was clear and beautiful. After some time in the water, we ordered take-away panini sandwiches from the beach restaurant for lunch. Jenny was afraid of missing our 5pm bus back to town – so we dried-up around 4:30pm. We waited beside our bus until its doors opened to let the passengers board. The drive back to town offered once again some amazing views – unfortunately the road would also make for very strenuous cycling. Back at the hotel, we showered and walked up the ancient steps to Chora for supper at Neil’s Restaurant. We wrapped-up the day by walking down the ancient steps to our hotel. A great beach day.