Greek Islands

TINOS

Tinos - pretty.......boring

Hello everyone-it's Monali writing for the first time. Dan finally got bored of writing the blog so he
decided it was my turn.To be honest,I was quite enjoying doing nothing!

So we left Athens after a few days to head off to Tinos  (a very tiny Greek Island). We had initially picked
this Island for the exact reason of it being small, and we thought we could hang out on the beach, grill fish,
read our books and do absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas.....welcome
to the Island of gail force winds, rain and near freezing temperatures. We were picked up by a lovely Greek
lady named Nikoleta who took us to her guest house (Nikoleta's Rooms) and showed us a very nice room with a very disgusting bathroom. Now I am sure every woman will agree with me-it does not matter where you sleep, but a clean bathroom is essential. Luckily while another room was available, it did not seem to come with any heating. So i spent the first night sleeping with about 5 layers of clothes. This is crazy-I thought Greece was warm!!!!!!

Enjoying the Greek warmth!

We awoke the nex morning feeling more positive and decided to take a walk, only to find myself literally swept off my feet when I stepped out (unfortunately it was not Dan, but the wind that was responsible). The next few days were pretty uneventful as we tried not to go out at all due to the cold and got very, very, very bored. There are only so many books that one can read and we eventually tried sleeping for long periods of time just to get through the days (and to think some of you were jealous).

The only interesting information regarding Tinos is the fact that it houses one of the most famous icons in Greece in the Church of Panagia. The icon was found in 1822 and there are mass pilgramages from all over Greece to come to this Church. The church is situated at the top of hill and there is a rubber strip down the side or the road so that worshippers can crawl up to the church on their knees. Dan and I took the heathen approach and simply walked up to the church only to find out that no-one is actually allowed to see this supposed icon- instead you have to pray to some golden doors in the knowledge that the icon sits safely behind them. Call us cynics but we were really left wondering how special this major attraction is considering the following: it was found around 100 yrs ago; no-one will actually state the age of the icon; it appears to draw alot of tourist business that the island would otherwise not have and it was found on a remote Greek Island fairly far removed from where JC used to hang out.

Crawling on hands and knees to the Icon

Oh, one other interesting fact on Greece which I never knew about-you can not flush toilet paper in the toilet  but have to put it in a bin near the toilet as Greek plumbing is notoroiously bad. Going to the bathroom was not my favourite Greek experience as a result.

We almost ran onto the ferry for Naxos 5 days later. It is safe to say we will never return to this Island!!

NAXOS

The first thing you see arriving in Naxos is magnificent  (the ancient temple of Apollo, not the idiot in the foreground)

Naxos was a breath of fresh air after our Tinos experience and definitely somewhere we would come back to. This was mainly due to our accommodation which really made the whole experience. We stayed at the Pension Sofi which was an inexpensive guest house rated #1 by Tripadvisor. We soon found out why. It is a family establishment run by a man by Panos and in all our travels, it has been the best place we have EVER stayed. It wasn't that it was luxurious (although it was extremely clean), it was the fact that Panos treated us as guests of the family. There was no restaurant but there was a small kitchen / reception and every morning one of the family would insist on feeding us fruits and making us greek coffee. In fact, Theodoros (one of
the family), showed me how to make his special Greek Coffee.

Starbucks, Greece

Panos would try and feed us wine and olives and salads every day. When I innocently voiced that I liked the oranges sold in Naxos, we were bundled into their car and they took us to their private orchard some distance away so that we could pick as many oranges and figs as we liked. This was then followed by a trip to visit the pigs and sheep (who aren't looking forward to Christmas and Easter feasts). It was better service than a 5 star hotel and I look forward to returning. They even gave us a goodbye gift (a fridge magnet) which was really touching.

Pigging out at the orchard

As far as wondering around Naxos itself, we headed to the mountains for day and visited a 'Kitron' distillery which is a local drink distilled from the leaves of the Kitron plant. Being out of season there was not much else going on out in the countryside so we settled on walking around and relaxing in the main town for the rest of the time. Naxos itself is a very nice town with and old labyrinth style set of streets built into castle walls as well as the usual sea front full of cafes and tavernas. Of course our main hobby was eating and we found great Mexican food (via Brazil) and chicken gyros.

We also spent much of the week planning our trip and now finally have our round the world trip tickets in hand!!! We are currently sitting on the boat taking the 5 hour trip back to Athens. We then fly back to the UK where I will proceed with getting my Indian visa and then off to start our volunteering in India.