Day 3 – Paros: Monastiri Beach & Taverna Glafkos

Today we woke up at 12:30pm after our wild night out. It was the best sleep I’ve had in weeks and I wasn’t hungover. #Winning

Since we missed the free hotel breakfast we popped into Chamēlothōrēs – the pastry shop nearby that we had passed every morning prior. It’s shelves were filled with breakfast bites, puff pastries and dessert. We ordered 2 frappes, I had the Spanakopita (spinach & feta pie) and Stelios had the Tiropita (cheese pie) – all for 8 euro. The breakfast pies were good, but we’ve have better (Stelios’s mom makes incredible homemade Spanakopita so compared to that I gave this place 3 stars).

Since we had such a late start to the day we changed up our original plan of exploring Piso Livadi and took a quick 12 min drive to some closer beaches instead. We stopped at Kolymbithres beach, one that our taxi driver recommended but it was small and very crowded. So after a quick look around we left and drove 8 mins further to Monastiri beach. This one had a MUCH better vibe. A full beach bar and restaurant with lots of space for swimming. This beach was a great size – a little tinier compared to Santa Maria but also had some great perks- it wasn’t nearly as windy, the beach bar had speakers with chill music playing, and the water was still and tranquil with a huge sandbar so you could swim out 1/4 mile and still touch the bottom. There was also a ton of yachts posted up in this area. I was still tired so I passed out and napped on the lounge chair while Stelios went swimming. We hung out until 5pm.

There were a few flights of stairs to exit the beach a different way then we entered and behind it was Monastiri beach bar – it had epic views of the island below us. We decided to stay and enjoy a drink & quick app before dinner so we weren’t starving later. We split the beet salad & meatball appetizer. Both were perfect.

We zipped back to the hotel, showered, and quickly got ready for our dinner reservation at 8pm at Taverna Glafkos. It was an adorable restaurant tucked away along the Aegean sea in Naoussa. They specialize in seafoood so we ordered dolmades and a whole grilled sea bass to share for our entree. Similar to how some steakhouses in the city bring out the filets to choose your cut prior to cooking it up, at Glafkos they bring out the full fish to make sure the size is to your liking – talk about a fresh meal for dinner.

Stelios and the waiter start talking in Greek, & Stelios tells him he’s from Chios and the waiter says a lot of the people at this restaurant are from there. As I come back from the bathroom I see Stelios chatting it up with a woman who works at the restaurant. Her name was Erato & apparently she grew up across the street from Stelios’s parents house in Chios and they played together as kids. What a small world! We find out that Erato and her husband own the restaurant & they’ve been living in Paros for the past 15 years, but still visit Chios during the holidays. A few minutes later Erato’s husband came over and introduced himself & their 13 year old son – they were ecstatic to see Stelios, another Chioti (person from Chios) and childhood friend of Erato’s dining there. They sent over a round of wine on the house & surprised us with lemon pound cake and 2 shots of Mastica for dessert. Nostimo poli (it was very delicious). We thanked them both for their hospitality and made plans to meet up with Erato tomorrow night for drinks to thank her and her husband.

After dinner we were stuffed so we walked around Naoussa harbor to walk off our meal. We strolled past all of the yachts and fancy boats docked in the harbor and took in the view of the city lit up at night. It’s definitely a different perspective seeing the city of Naoussa at night vs the day – but both settings are spectacular. We decided to call it an early night around 11pm so that we could be energized for tomorrow & have a full day. I set the alarm for to wake up at 8am – a full nights sleep & fresh start was much needed.