Greece! Naxos Part I

Sorry for the delay. My attention got eaten up by the GRE for a while, but now that’s over and done with and I can get back to focusing on other things, like finally finishing these darn blog posts.

Alright, so last time I wrote, I talked about the lovely island of Ios, land of goats and happiness. Also the land of developing some kind of rash. Cliffhanger, I know. Well wait no longer, my friends! This post is all about our next stop—Naxos. And trust me, you’ll want to read this one. We’ve got sunburned octopus, dancing zorbas, goat pipes, and lemon bossa vibing.

a sign we walked past about a hundred times in Naxos. i still have no idea what any of it means.

The boat ride from Ios to Naxos was less than awesome. I was rocking an evil, itchy, prickly rash and the ferry wasn’t nearly as nice as the ferry from Athens to Ios. It was more like a floating food court. By the time we arrived in Naxos, I was pretty darn cranky. We were met at the dock by our landlord, Taki. He pointed out a few things as he drove us to our hostel—a little place in the middle of the newer part of Naxos Town.

It was… a bit of a disappointment after our hostel in Ios, I’ll be honest. I didn’t take any pictures of the entire thing, but this is a picture of the wall. Please take a moment to gape in awe at the splendor of the color scheme.

This is the color of Heaven.

There is nothing more relaxing. Awash in the hot pink glory of our walls, I flopped down on my little bed and whined for a bit (mostly along the lines of “WHYYY DID WE LEAVE IOOOS?!”) before we decided to go find a pharmacy.

The pharmacy was easy enough to find. Taki had given us directions, and all pharmacies have a green cross outside—easy to spot. The pharmacist gave me a tube of cream and, with hope of rashless tomorrows, we set off to find some supper. As we were walking along the sidewalk looking for somewhere good to have dinner, somebody hollered “BRENDAAAAAA!” and nearly scared me to death. It was Taki, sitting in his lovely little flower shop—his second business. We chatted with him and then asked for a suggestion of somewhere to have dinner. He suggested a restaurant in the nearby town square called Scirocco. What Taki may be lacking in interior design skills he more than makes up for in restaurant recommendations. But like I said, food will be a different post. Suffice it to say that wasn’t the last time we ate at Scirocco.

After our delicious dinner, I was feeling much more cheerful. Britt and I went exploring a bit and walked down to the pier where our ferry had dropped us off earlier.

Naxos Town at sunset, by Britt

By Britt

The Portara at sunset by Britt

 And that, my friends is why we left Ios.

The next day, we went exploring in old Naxos Town. I had an inkling that my rash was due to the sun, so I kept a scarf wrapped casually around my arm as we wandered around. I say “casually,” but I felt like a complete weirdo. We kept referring to it as my withered arm.

Here, have some pictures of Naxos Town.

Overlooking Naxos Town by Britt

by Britt

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE! I really WAS there. In SHORTS. by Britt

Catholic church, by Britt

By Britt

by Britt

by Britt

by Britt

by Britt

And have some pictures from the museum we went to while we were wandering about.

Kouros. These little figures were all over the place in Naxos.

More kouroi.

Jewelry. It's so interesting to think of who wore this back when it was new.

Ancient safety pins! These seriously blew my mind for some reason.

Headlessness was also common in Naxos.
In case you can't tell, this is a headless statue holding a smaller, equally headless statue.

Carbonized figs (figues), walnuts (wall nuts), and grapes. Omnom.

A little iridescent glass acorn.

Needles made of bone.

We came across another museum housed in the Venetian castle that lorded over Naxos Town. It was set up in my favorite museum style, where everything is laid out and arranged as if you were just wandering through someone’s house. There was some very cool stuff, though for some reason we didn’t get very many pictures.

View from the castle window by Britt

Old camera by Britt

View of the Portara by Britt

by Britt

A sprouted aloesparagus! by Britt

by Britt

by Britt

After the castle, we found our way back down to the pier. Naxos Town isn’t very large, so wherever you end up you’re pretty much guaranteed to get back to the pier if you walk downhill. The pier is lined with shops and restaurants, so we just strolled along looking at souvenirs and things. As we were walking, we spotted this.

by Britt

Efi! by Britt

That lady in the picture is Efi, who is, in a word, adorable. She came over to us while Britt was taking the picture and told us about the dangling octopi. It’s a Naxos staple, apparently.

Step 1: Catch an octopus.
Step 2: Throw the octopus on the ground forty to fifty times.
Step 3: Trim the octopus and hang it up to sundry for twelve hours.
Step 4: Grill the octopus over charcoal, then cut it up and drizzle with lemon and olive oil.
Step 5: Eat the octopus.

Efi took an especial liking to us because we were from the US and had both been to New York. She had just returned from New York (hence the shirt) and was absolutely crazy about it. We talked about New York and Naxos and she asked us if we’d been up to the Venetian castle yet. We told her that we had. Then she told us about a concert that’s held there every night with traditional music and dancing. We would have to buy tickets, but she assured us that she could get us a special price. She wrote us a note that said “Give these girls the special price. They are my friends! Efi.” So we left Efi and headed back up to the castle, where they did, indeed, give us a discount—€5 cheaper than we’d heard them charge two other tourists when we were there earlier. It helps to know people, even if you’ve only known them for ten minutes.

We headed back to our room and rested a bit before getting ready for the evening. It was my first opportunity to wear the dress I’d bought especially for this trip—a lovely, floaty white thing. We went to Efi’s restaurant for dinner, where we had the legendary octopus. Again, food is another post. But oh my goodness, it was delicious. Mmmm.

After dinner, we went up to the castle to wait for the concert to start.

And you know what? I’m going to make the concert its own special post.