Paros

but I think I saw enough. It was a nice town, in spite the incredibly fat dogs. The restaurants on the beach boulevard (old town side) were lovely. At the time being, there was festival in town and they gave free food and ouzo to everyone. We thought that was strange, but cool. (The same repeated then in Athens.) I don’t quite understand this greek thing with rusk, cheese and ouzo, but people seem to enjoy it. Also we ran into some interesting art galleries. An art school filled with Americans was ending their cemester and they had a exhibition and a party in town. (I wonder who those people were and why they studied art all the way in Greece, ‘cause after seeing the exhibition I’d say they didn’t have any superior artistic talent. But I guess it’s fun alright to study on a greek island for one spring.)

love it :)

..it’s too crowded in July and August. Everyone seems to be there, prices go up, and locals get less friendly. It was still worth a visit though but we only stayed for four days all together. One of the days we escaped the busy beaches around Parikia and took the bus to the small village of Lefkes and then went on to the beach Pisso Livadi. It was a really nice trip that showed us a different side of Paros, still touristy, but less crowded and much more relaxed.

Paros Island! I dreamt of this land in my childhood and youth, of this country
glorified by Homer!

One day I made up my mind and, having provisionally studied all routs and ferry
schedule, started my trip to this island.

Paros represents in fact 2 islands, but if you do not know about it you will not
notice this feature.

When the ferry opens, the blinding blue sky stands before your eyes, then an edge of
a hill appears, multicoloured roofs, light walls and only then the whole berth with
the colourful boards and signs is seen. The scooters are flying forth and back and
your eyes meet the scores of eyes of greeting you locals. When you, snow-white,
disembark from the ferry, your mind immediately splits: what to do the first? Whether
to stand and look at this sweet, warm and alluring world or to hurry to settle
yourself and then after some rest to start exploration.

Only here you start understanding that there is no rush, you can do whatever you want
and when you want. It is a strange feeling at the beginning.

For a moment I had a feeling that I was here already, probably in my previous life or
maybe I imagined this place so often that many things seem familiar now.

You will definitely need a scooter unless the goal of your trip was to stay in one
place and calmly sunbathe. It is impossible to sightsee the most interesting points
afoot, the distances are great and main attractions are located high enough above the
sea.

If you climb up the mountains you start understanding that little has changed here
over the thousands of years, that a small wall, fencing the pasture is actually very
high – several meters and that the foundation of it is deep beneath. New generations
of shepherds simply added new rows on top of it.

People are hospitable and friendly, if you stride the road, they will stop to let you
pass or they will take you to their car and bring to the place you hurry to.

In contrast to Athens and the continental Greece, the life here is leisurely and
simple.

Though every day of 14 spent on this island I was roaming about Paros, I have a
feeling that I missed a lot, that there are so many places to look at and things to
experience.

I will come here again and again to get closer to this mystery.

Second time all the bars were moved or closed!

but still a great place to go. It used to be a backpackers haven, but still has the wonderful Magaya Bar, Golden Beach, Paroikia and Naoussa. Anti-Paros is amazing to see with its cavern of stalactites and stalagmites. Apparently Anti-Paros is rumoured to be a favourite haunt of Tom Cruise and George Clooney (but I didn’t see’em).