Day 1 – Paros: Getting there & Exploring Naoussa

Hello friends – I’m back! I’ve been looking forward to going to Greece all summer and we’re finally here!!! Let’s see how long I can keep up the blog post trend this time around. For now here’s an inside look into the first part of our journey…

Getting there. Our flight to Athens was overall smooth, only 1 hour delayed so considering all of the summer travel craziness this was nothing. However we had to grab a connecting flight from Athens to Paros and by the time we got off the plane it was a tight 2 hours to get through customs, grab our checked luggage, re check in and check the luggage for the Paros flight and go through security. Surprisingly customs was a breeze but it took us almost 40 mins waiting for our luggage to come out. At this point we had an hour to get our luggage, go back on line to check in and get through security. I don’t really experience anxiety often but missing a plane or train to my final destination definitely triggers that. Thank god for Stelios remaining so calm and positive saying we’re going to make the flight (as I check my watch every 5 minutes.) Luckily we made the connecting flight with 15 min to spare.

Travel tip: pay the 6 euro for the fast track security line, it’s worth it and that’s basically equivalent to a Dunkin iced latte nowadays – so just do it.

Since we had a few minutes to spare and I could feel myself crashing at this point, we decided to get some frappes at the airport cafe. To my happy surprise Greece has plenty of nondairy milk options available. Bless up. So with our frappes in hand we walked to our gate and got ready to board our flight.

Another travel tip – dress comfy and LIGHT for your airport days. The buses that take you from the airport gate to the plane on the tarmac have no AC – it’s HOT.

I took another mini nap on the plane to Paros and when we landed our taxi from the hotel was waiting for us ready to go. I definitely recommend having your hotel coordinate an airport taxi pickup – we had the whole shuttle to ourselves and got to chat with the cab driver and got some local recs. We decided to stay in Naoussa for our stay in Paros, it’s the “bougier” town compared to the Port of Parikia. We checked into the Paliomylos Spa Hotel – the woman at the front desk was SO nice, showed us to our room and we got to soak in our first views from the balcony. Paros is truly picturesque.

Paros travel tip: if you don’t mind a 10 min walk to downtown, book a hotel or air bnb in the outskirts of Naoussa. Personally I prefer not to stay in the center of downtowns to avoid the crowds, it’s more of a local feel walking through the town at night, plus you save some dollars along the way.

We showered, and got ready to explore Naoussa and get our lay of the land for the next few days. On the walk to downtown we stopped at Deck – gorgeous view but incredibly overpriced for 2 espresso martinis and 1 calamari appetizer. We later found out it’s because they have a famous chef. After that we split and walked along the water in Naoussa and stopped at Agosta for a glass of wine by the water. It’s crazy how many outdoor restaurants they have lining the Aegean Sea with couches, filled with people chatting relaxing, and getting ready to start their evening. After a quick drink we ventured into the center of of Naoussa – it’s like walking through an all white walled maze – every twist and turn you stumble upon is a new restaurant or boutique. It was super cute but you can also end up going in circles if you’re not paying attention. As we were wandering down the alleys we heard Latin music and stumbled into a cute shop called Sisterhood and chatted it up with the two sisters that owned the store – I loved their energy and the fact that they actually got to know us instead of immediately pushing us to buy something. The conversation was great and I bought some jewelry, we might go back tomorrow and convince them to come out with us for drinks after. They also told us about a bar that has Latin music on Sundays & we can’t wait to check it out.

By now it was dinner time (for us at least – I still can’t get over how Europeans eat dinner 9-10pm) and we had an 8:30 dinner reservation at Yemeni Wine Restaurant just around the corner. Both the experience and the food was INCREDIBLE. We honestly may go back before we leave – it was the best moussaka of my life, and the flavor of the dishes blew us away. The couple sitting at the table next to us were from New York so we ended up chatting for awhile – they had just come from Naxos which is the second island we’ll be going to.

After dinner we did a few more laps through the Naoussa downtown and eventually stopped for Loukoumades for dessert. I told the guy I had a dairy allergy & he was kind enough to give us 2 seperate orders for the price of 1 – the cinnamon & honey is my fav and Stelios agreed it was better than the chocolate with ice cream on top. After divulging in dessert we were in desperate need of water so we popped back in and it was only 50 cents for a bottle – Stelios only had 5 euro on him and the guy goes do you have anything smaller ? And Stelios was like no, and the guy replies “Avrio tote” (meaning tomorrow then) – I’m sorry WHAT?! I know it’s only 50 cents but THIS would never happen in America. Europe is such a vibe, so hospitable and trusting. But at the same time we know we’re going back there before we leave to give them business – but still, That’s incredible. I love Greece. That’s all for now. I wrote this at 4am because I couldn’t sleep. Good night.