Naxos, a white and blue island

These 10 days were not actually planned, but when my lovely Anne, my second mum, the one from NZ, told me she was coming to Europe, I did not hesitate much and quickly booked my ticket to go and see her. There are some people in the world that you cannot fail to see and she is one of them. Plus her two sons Jon and Pete, my bros were also around and Dan's boat was moored in Naxos, ready for me to sleep in, so instead of just having a week end off, I went for the holiday option.

Last time we had caught up with the Vandies, it was in France, 2 years ago, then the year before that it was in Mallorca... everytime in a different place, everytime I did the trip to see my second family :-)))

Of course, you will tell me there are worse destinations to catch up. And Greece had been on my list since forever so even if I had little time to explore Naxos, I am still happy I had a glimpse of it.

Naxos did meet my expectations and corresponded to the idea I had of a Greek island.
Small villages with white houses, blue and green shutters, paved streets, built in the mountains or along the shore.

My first contact with Greece was Athens though. As soon as I got off the plane, I suffocated from the heat. It was around 40 degrees, with not even an inch of wind, unbearable!
I took the bus from the airport. No worries as Jon had told me which one and where to get off. Once inside, it was getting a bit more tricky. I absolutely had no idea of when to get off as all the signs on the bus stops were in Greek... I somehow managed to read a few and recognised them on my map so unboarded at the right place.
Waiting for Jon on the beach, I had the most expensive coffee of my life, 3.80 euros, what a rip off really but I was just too glad to shelter from the sun!

Jon and I had a nice dinner in the old town, and I had my first tries of Greek food: saganaki, tatziki, tarama, moussaka, all very good and new to me, so interesting for someone always keen on discovering new things!

While Jon was off to work, I went to discover Athens before taking the ferry to Naxos.
At 8am, it was already incredibly hot. Man, I really wonder how people can stand it or decide to come on holidays at this period of the year. If it was not for the Vandies, I would have never come in August!

Anyway, a cold water bottle in my bag and my camera ready, I first visited the Olympus theatre,

then the Acropolis. It was packed with tourists everywhere. I tried to see the major ruins like the Dionysos amphitheatre,

the Parthenon,

the Agora and other monuments close by.

I gave up at lunch time, too tired and hot to keep going.

I took the ferry and 4 hours later, around 21h30, I was in Naxos, pulling my hand luggage and looking for Dan's boat, Ultima Noche, moored somewhere. I had a big grin on my face when I saw it, so excited to sleep on a sail boat again! I could not reach it though as it was too far from the dock. A neighbour helped me to pull on the lines but we still failed so we borrowed a plank from another boat. When I brought it back, they invited me for a gin and tonic. Why not, I said? Here I was, on their boat, sipping my drink, happily chatting with this very friendly english couple. That was it! I was back to the world I loved, the yachties'. People with a special spirit, everybody helping each other, inquisitive, eager to know other people, helpful and kind. It could not start better!

An hour and a half later, I left them to surprise Pete at the Flisvos windsurf cafe where he was working as a professional dishwasher... we were happy to see each other and after a drink, he took me to my first roof party. In Naxos, all houses have flat roofs so everybody has chairs and tables there. I met lovely guys, all in their early 20's, all working at the beach cafe or in the sailing center, all tanned and looking beautiful... The evening finished late at the bar 'on the rocks', drinking and dancing.

I woke up and discovered Naxos, a lovely village with the old town by the port,

View from Ultima Noche

then we dove from the rocks with Pete and walked through the village, loving all the houses

The image of Greece I had in my head was just there!

We headed to the beach for a swim before he starts working... Handsome Pete!!!

Then I found people to play with a beach volley ball in the afternoon and watched an amazing sunset...

and took pictures of Fleur, Tory, Nyshke and Domininique having fun in the water trying to jump on each other shoulders while the others were having tequila shots at the beach cafe...

After this first relaxing day, it was time for action on the 2nd day! I woke up, had a nice breakfast then visited the old town, wandering in the streets, going randomly and loving the houses, with nice doors painted in blue, green, and orned with beautiful flowers. An explosion of colours and contrasts.

Then I went sailing on a hobbie cat with Pete and Nyshke, and finished the day with a windsurf session, with unfortunately light winds.
I had a ball, such a fantastic day, chilled out in the afternoon on Ultima noche, listening to Jack Johnson... so cool to live on a boat really and have time on my own too!

I had a great evening, we met up with some italian guys speaking german and started having Ouzo drinks at the cafe, then ended up at Pete and Tory's place on the roof. The others left to go to a full moon party in a different place but I went to bed, wanting to make the most of the day after as I had decided to rent a scooter and visit the island.

I did well as they came back really late in the morning. I headed south on my scooter with Michael, an italian guy who had decided to join me. We visited Plaka, then Mikri Vigla, an amazing beach in the south, almost deserted, with crystal clear waters, no wind at all in this kitesurf spot!

Windmills, churches, beautiful views over the sea, it was a lovely drive.

Then we visited an archeological site, the Demeter temple on the way to the mountains.

We had lunch in a very nice village, Halki,

and Michael came back to Hora while I kept on visiting the island on my own scooter.

Everywhere there was nice white villages, built in the heights of the hills, not many tourists compared to the shore, lovely paved streets. Apiranthos was another amazing place where I almost got lost, going up, left and right without thinking just admiring the houses, and not knowing how to go back at the end!

A last stop at Filoti where the church was amazing,

Marble...

then it was time to head back, I was starting to feel tired after this short night.

Another beautiful sunset,

a pasta dinner with the italian guys at Fleur's place and we caught up with Jon who arrived on his birthday day to spend two days in Naxos and Jake, Pete's best friend living in Paros who had come just for the night. Another night 'on the rocks' drinking and dancing. Pete was in very high spirits as were Tory and Jake!

The day after, after a yummy breakfast at the cafe with the guys, I had a fantastic hobbie cat session with Fleur while Jake and Tory were sailing on an another cat. We had some pretty good wind and I even managed to slide to the front of the boat, struggling to come back on the trampoline. So much fun!

Anne arrived in the evening and we just chilled out on Ultima Noche, having drinks and catching up with Zuzana, Jon's girlfriend, her sister Linda and Tory.

Pete had the day off on thursday so we all rent scooters and went to Mikri Vigla to go kitesurfing and windsurfing. Jon and Zuzana fell of the scooter, a dog crossing just in front of them. They had some pretty bad bruises and wounds but still managed to take it easy!

The wind was crazy, 25 to 30 knots: unfortunately I went kiting on a kite a bit too big for me, an 8 whereas I should have taken a 7 but there was none left... I had not been kitesurfing for a year, was using a new equipment I did not know well and the spot was crowded. I was over powered and struggled to stay on the board. I had a few nice rides and after an hour, ended up crossing my lines with another kite. I saw it coming, the guy did not move and with the wind, my kite just rolled around his. Shit shit shit!!! I managed to free it, thinking i had pressed the quick release but in fact, whereas I had started to wind my lines to swim back to the beach, my kite went full power again and kept dragging me for at least 20mn... I really freaked out and was really relieved to make it safe and sound to the beach... 1 hour riding for 2 hours spent to undo the bag of spaghettis I had made to wind the lines around the bar! Fortunately, a greek and an english guy helped me to end this nightmare and I was really grateful to them as this was a real lesson of patience!!!

On the way back, Greg and I saw two girls falling of their bikes and one of them broke her front tooth. She was bleeding and in shock so I took her the scooter to the hospital. Man, what a day it was! Jon had left back to Athens and after some nice pasta at Zuzana's place, I was back to Ultima Noche for an early night.

Anne and me went around the island the day after. This time, I took the road going North, which turned out to be the most amazing.

Unspoiled, no tourists at all, nice road, narrow and winding, churches all over the places (I had to restrain Anne to 5 stops or we would have stopped every 5 mn!!!),

sheeps, goats, windmills, amazing sceneries.

I even picked up some figues on the way too happy to have Mother Nature feeding me, and we had a nice coffee at Apollonas near the beach, after admiring the statue of Dionysos at Kouros archeological site.

The scooter was a bit struggling with going up the mountains and we just made it to the next gas station located in Koronidas... 25km away! We stopped at a very nice place where you can see both sides of the island and the sea.

A last stop at Apiranthos for Anne to discover this nice village I had already seen and were off to Hora again, me quite tired after driving all day long. We had a nice dinner with the girls in the old town, in a Greek restaurant having some kind of Greek tapas, then a few drinks to finish the night in the usual bar but there was nothing really exciting so my last night did not end up being a very late one...saved!!!

Ultima Noche on Ultima Noche in Naxos, then a last breakfast with Anne and Pete, and I was on the ferry stopping at Paros then Athens. I caught up with Jon again, after struggling to find my way from Piraeus to the center, not being able to read the names of the stops on the bus stop! Fortunately a young greek helped me out, so funny to get lost because you cannot read the alphabet!
Jon made me visit his super yacht of 200ft, very luxury then we had a swim, an ice cream and a nice dinner on the beach. A nice chat and a very good mojito to finish the evening, both of us being very tired.

Back to Barcelona, after a 2 hours delay of the flight at the airport because of a strike in Barcelona... man that was a tiring holiday but I really had a good time, was happy to see my friends, made new ones and had really good sailing activities.

Next adventure, Greenland in 3 weeks! :-)))