Today was......

Brandon and I are quickly realizing how quiet a place Naxos is. If you want a fun night out, this is not the place for you. However Naxos has the nicest beaches we've seen, and the water is probably the prettiest here. Beautiful turquoise and blue of all shades... Brandon has said many times now that Naxos is his favorite place so far.

Yesterday we didn't wander far from the hotel, and spent the day swimming, tanning, and walking up and down the beach. Because of that, I didn't really get any pictures except for our food and the sunset. 

Here is our breakfast! We have finally gotten some eggs to go with our toast! The cookies were a sweet treat from the owners, who haven’t been in Naxos until yesterday, so they stopped by to say hello and drop these off. The apricots are from Grandpa. He doesn’t speak any English, but when Marianna was helping me with laundry, he stopped me before I went out and gave me a bowl full of them! They were delicious, and they certainly didn’t last long!

Our lunch! Just a grilled cheese sandwich with some kind of meat we can’t read, tomatoes, and olives. We want to be sure to have variety in our meals!

Our dinner was one of the fanciest we’ve made. We bought a small bag of cheese tortellini, and cooked up some “spaghetti” sauce (it’s pretty much just cooked tomato), and sprinkled in a little feta. I guess it doesn't sound so fancy now that I have it in black and white, but usually all we have is Greek Salad and sandwiches. I’m so glad we bought the noodles!

The sunset was absolutely beautiful. I ran off to the beach while Brandon stayed at the apartment and watched the noodles, and I got to sit for 15 minutes in the sand, take pictures, and watch the sun set. It’s kind of nice getting off on my own for a few minutes once and awhile. Even though Brandon is the one person I could spend all my time with (good thing too, because I’m sorta stuck with him!), I felt refreshed tossing my own thoughts and feelings into the receding waves. I’m also very proud of this picture because it’s the most accurate sunset I’ve taken! All the others have been too purple, or blue, or orange. I probably took about 50 to get the settings right….

 

Today Brandon and I actually set our alarm clock to wake up! We wanted to visit some sites and drive around before it got too warm (it’s warmed up nicely). I thought we would visit 4 or so sites, but we only got to see two, and one was really just a drive-by… We did see some WONDERFUL beaches, though! We walked around a little bit, and it was really just fun driving around and seeing all these beaches.

Here is a sailboat going out… to do something. Every time a sailboat is in view, Brandon takes a thousand pictures, and we drive around, see the same boat from the a different angle, and Brandon wants to take a thousand more pictures. He really likes the sailboats. This one is particularly pretty because it’s all white, and the sea is so BLUE and CLEAR!

Here is the tower of Oskelou Kastraki. I think it’s been converted into a house, so we just drove by it and snapped a picture…. it’s not even a good one because there are power lines and tanks etc. everywhere.

Here we are at the sea! There were lots of large rocks in this area, so we had fun climbing around them. The water is still perfect!

It's so pretty and turquoise!

We made it to our second archaeological site, the temple of Dionysus. He and Demeter were greatly worshipped on the island of Naxos. That might be why he was hanging around when Ariadne was crying from her abandonment. On this site there have been four temples, each one sort of adding/altering the last, and also getting bigger each time. The last temple has been restored, and you see me standing next to one of the massive columns.

Here is a picture of what the final temple looked like.

This is a column that the archaeological team fashioned, so we can understand how the top of the column was designed. Pieces of the scroll work and the collar-looking-thing holding it up have been found on the site, so it’s nice to know this is accurate decoration. The column itself is not what the temple’s finished columns would have looked like.

 

There was a tiny museum on the site of Dionysus’ Temple, and it was full of ritual pottery, temple fragments, inscriptions, and history…. but they wouldn’t let me take any pictures! It’s been a good five hours since we’ve been there, and I am still thoroughly ruffled by this. I would have been content with pictures of just the signs…. the pieces were interesting but it was the plaques of information that was the most awe-inspiring (to me).

As soon as we read everything we could, I dashed out to the car and wrote down a few of the best tid bits I could remember….

There was a roman general, Antonious, who claimed to be the “New Dionysus” and both he and the mythical Dionysus were worshipped at the temple. His statue is in the Archaeological Museum in Naxos City, and I was able to get a picture of him there, thankfully.

It’s hard to tell, but this is a really big statue. At least 3x as wide as a normal man.

 

Also, the temple was converted into a Christian basilica by the Venetians… big surprise there. But I don’t think they necessarily changed the building too much, just it’s function.

Most other information I will just have to get from textbooks and online. It was pretty cool, so I hope you enjoyed it too!

Tomorrow Brandon and I are either going to tour the island some more, or visit castles and cathedrals back in Naxos City.  We’ll see. There is just so much to see on this little island!

Until again!

Naxos at a glance....

Well, it's been a few days since I have written, and I didn't think we had done too much, but as I look back at all my pictures I realize we haven't been idle.

So the weather here hasn't always been the best for going to the beach. The breeze, while nice when walking and exploring, is a bit too cool to lay out most of the day. We have still managed to lay out once, during the hot part of the day, which is actually perfect beach temperature. We even got warm enough to get in the water, which was a lot of fun. The beach itself is nice, but Brandon did some research and found out that Plaka beach is an unofficial nudist beach..... Which when I first heard it didn't bother me, because I thought, "everyone here is old, and probably classy, so no one will be stripping down..." wrong wrong wrong. I haven't seen much, but only because any body that looks remotely unclothed and I am quickly running in the other direction. Brandon laughs at me for getting all awkward. He remains eerily calm during all this... but that might be because he knows if he were to strut his stuff he would be the hottest guy in a 2 mile stretch. Or maybe he's just better at keeping a level head.

So the next day we decided to head into Naxos City. It's relatively big, and there is a lot to explore.

Here is some of the fresh catch of the day. I assume they are drying, but I'm not exactly sure why they need to.

More of the catch of the day! It might be slightly difficult to see, but these fish are seasoned! I don't know what they are, but don't look too bad!

The gate to Apollo's temple! It's the first thing you see when sailing into Naxos City. Construction began during the reign of Lygdamis, around 530 BC, but it was never finished by the time he was overthrown in 506 BC. Then the Christians moved in, and they took the marble to be used on other buildings, churches I think. They left the doorway because the marble pieces were too big to dismember. You can see the three pieces that make up the top and sides, which are very large.

We stopped for lunch at a place overlooking the harbor, which was really nice. Brandon got the moussaka, and I got the pork souvlaki. To be completely honest, a lot of the reason I get it is because of the tzadziki.

The harbor! There are a lot of fishing boats, sail boats, and touring boats here. Brandon and I also noticed they don't use docks... just tie the boats up next to each other. It makes for a better picture, at least.

We decided to go to the archaeological museum at 1430, and after we paid found out it closed at 1500... great. Well we weren't planning on staying too long. How interesting could a small island museum be? It turns out it was really cool. They have a ton of artifacts (sculptures, pottery, weapons, statues, jewelry, etc.). They were nice enough to let us stay a little over, but I think it was mostly because the receptionist was talking with a friend and didn't mind sitting there an extra 10 minutes. This disk, I have no idea what is really is, but you can see the swirl pattern that you will see ALL over Greece. It's one the most popular jewelry designs, so it was neat to see some examples of it's use to them.

These statues were by far the most popular Cycladic figurine. They probably had a few hundred of them, so I decided they were important enough to get a picture of. Don't the heads look like the Easter Island heads?

This is a piece of pottery from a later civilization, and you can see how detailed they could get with their depictions.

Look at all this glass! It's from the Roman period. I hadn't realized how crafty they had gotten with glass at this point in time.

I guess this the castle. We weren't able to go inside, but this is one of the massive walls, and I think the main door.

We just kept wandering around the streets. Most of them are small, windy, and quaint.

It actually got a little warm, and we started the day out in jeans. We stopped to get a frappe, a milkshake, and played some backgammon on our new set for about two hours. It was a nice way to cool off.

Today we decided to head back to Naxos City and visit the ancient site of Naxos, which was closed by the time we got to that area yesterday. These are banquet slabs that are build over top of the graves of the ancestors.

Here is a piece of pottery on one of the slabs. I liked this one because you can see another one of the most popular designs in Greek jewelry.

After we got done at the site (and I have plenty more pictures, but I refrain to hopefully make this easier to read), we decided to walk around a little more. This little cafe had such cute tables I had to get a picture.

Brandon and I are still wandering around. Some places are a little small for Brandon, but I don't have to duck at all!

Stopping to eat, that's why he's so happy! Not really. Well sort of. He was happy to be getting food, but we just had a good day.

We don't normally order appetizers, but we wanted to try some of the Naxos's famous cheese. This is a soft cheese in some banana peppers. It wasn't too bad, and hopefully we'll try a few more cheeses before we leave.

I forget what this is called, but it's a pasta dish of some sort. Looks yummy, huh? It was.

I got the souvlaki again... I should branch out, but as soon as the waiter said tzadziki I caved.....

We got the rental car while we were in town, so we decided to drive out to Demeter's temple. And I swear the signs and roads are so much worse here than any other place we've been too. I was a little tired by the time we made it. But it was really cool. It's actually only 1/3 Demeter's temple, then 1/3 Christian church, and 1/3 Christian basilica. It's kind of cool how they did the reconstruction of it, so you can sort of see what all three looked like. But to be honest, the church really only added walls, and kept it a big room. It was the basilica that changed a lot of the temples structure.

I guess reconstruction on it has ceased, but it looks to me like they have all the stones lined up to work on it some more....

Dinner tonight. Brandon and I got some chicken, and he slow cooked it with onion, pepper, tomato, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was sooo good!

Tomorrow Brandon and I are thinking about just driving and stopping at every site we see a sign for. Hopefully the signs are relatively accurate, and we don't spends hours driving and not seeing anything. We might walk up the mountain, and we also might try and lay out at the beach. We have lots of options, so we'll just play it by ear.

Until again!

Potatos fit for the gods....

Well, we got to Naxos yesterday evening after a smooth ferry ride from Santorini. We were actually able to get one last look of Oia from our boat, and I snapped a picture, but it was a little hazy. And as you know, before we boarded the ferry, I was blogging away, trying to get caught up with everything we have been doing.

What I look like when I'm blogging.....

Brandon and I have also done a little research about Naxos, and we are both very excited. It has a lot of history, and is tied closely with many myths. It is said to be the romping grounds of Zeus as a child. It is where Theseus abandoned Ariadne, and where Dionysus sees her tears, falls in love, marries and immortalizes her. It's the biggest and most fertile of all the Cycladic islands. It has the tallest mountain in the Cyclades, which helps trap rainfall for the island. Hence the potatoes. Naxos is know for it's potato growing industry. I'm not sure if they're in season yet, but we'll be sure to try some in Moussaka at some point. But I digress...

As soon as we got off our ferry we located our bus ticket office right away... just in time to miss the bus, though. I thought that the bus came every half hour, but later in the day it turns into every hour. We didn't dock until 1830, and with the rush of people and such we didn't get our tickets until 1900, which is when the bus came and went. Well, there was a little cafe right across the street from the bus station, so we sat with some coffee and waited the hour out.

Before we went to the cafe we "filled" up on bread and honey.... to save money, you know? We were tempted to get a pizza, but who needs pizza when you have this feast?

It's a pity we missed the bus, because we were on the bus when the sun set, and it was beautiful. I rushed out as soon as we got to our stop (leaving poor Brandon with the luggage... sorry Brandon) and was able to get a picture of the after effects.

I hope all of our sunsets will be at least this nice.

 I got a pictures of our hotel, which is a really nice, family run business. The daughter, Marianna is the one who attends to us. I think her family asks her to help us because of her English speaking skills. We know she is in school because she offered to give me her number so I can call her in school if I have any problems. She might be around 16 years old, maybe a little older. No worries, I declined her cell phone number, and won't be bothering her in school.

The bathroom is one of two exceptions I'm making with hotel photos... You can see the sink on the right, shower in the middle, and toilet on the left. The entire place is very clean, but I must say, there won't be any problems having to go to the bathroom in the middle of your shower.....

This is awesome! They have, and refill daily, a basket full of jams, honey, bread, coffees, teas, and HAZELNUT SPREAD! I won't have to buy dessert!

This was my breakfast this morning, lovingly made by Brandon. It's a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato. Yum, huh? (It really did taste good, though.)

The sunset tonight! It's nice we're so close to the beach, so we can get pictures without poles or wires in the way.

We haven't done too much yet. Only as far as our beach and the grocery store. Tomorrow we plan a little more adventure!

Until again!

Bittersweet....

Well, the past two days have been full of adventures. Brandon and I got a car for two days, to better see and explore the island. Santorini is a really beautiful place, especially because it's essentially a desert. I think that's something important to remember when looking at the landscape, because sometimes it can look rather brown.

The same as in Crete, I wish Brandon and I could stay longer. But I guess good things give away to more good things, and we are really looking forward to going to Naxos.

Currently we are at the port, waiting for our ferry to arrive. We have a few hours before it will get here, and it will take two hours to get to Naxos. Thankfully, it's a big ferry, so no sea sickness, and it's a good thing because not only is it cheaper, but it's another windy, choppy day out on the sea. It's the first day that there are breaking waves beyond the shore line.

Anyway, two days ago Brandon and I decided to explore the towns of Santorini. The entire island only takes about 40 minutes to drive across, and that's with traffic. We saw the black beach, walked around little towns, and went to the wine museum, which was a lot of fun, and very informative. We almost did a wine tour, but that was 80 euros a person. And we already had the car, so why waste a day on the bus?

This was how we started out our day. Brandon made omelets! They were absolutely delicious. They had egg, pepper, onion, olives, and feta; some gouda cheese and tomato on top. Yum!

We first drove down to Amoundi Bay in Oia. You can see on the right the stairs that you can walk down, or take a donkey. There are a lot of hills and donkeys here! You can also see it's a tiny port, and some cute cafes to take a break at. We only walked around a little, and went on our way.

The water is so crystal clear!

We stopped in Pirgos, which was an adorable, windy little town on a hill. If you look closely enough, you can see three cats taking naps here at this little shop.

The tourist shops were a little different and a little less than some of the other places we have been. You can see the winding street here, and this is how all the streets were. Brandon and I wandered around them for a good half a hour.

Here's a door we came across in Pirgos. The entire town had a charm to it. It also had a lot of churches/monasteries.

Here is one the churches we came across. I really wish we knew more of the history about some of the places we have been to and seen. It was a cloudy day, but the bells on this tower is still quite pretty.

We don't know what this was, but it looks to be some type of castle. Only parts of it looked to be in use, as in a church, but other parts were demolished to the point Brandon and I wouldn't wander farther in for fear of the integrity of the structure.

One of the churches that seemed attached to the "castle".

Back on the road, we drove up the highest point on Santorini. Close to the top of the hill there was this little shrine/church. There are Monks that live in the bigger church closer to the stop that I think keep the candles burning here, but the bigger church was closed to tourists for the day. A lot of Greece seems closed on Monday's, or at least closes early.

You can sort of see Brandon here, so you see how small this room was.

Here are the bells of the big church at the top of the mountain. I thought I might as well get something from it.

Look how high we are! It's not the biggest mountain in the world, but it's big for Santorini! You can see Oia! (And Pirgos, and Fira, and all the others....)

We kept driving down to Kamari to see some black beaches. There are other black beaches in Perissa, south of the mountain, but they weren't very nice at this time of the year... The sand it rather gravely, but I think I'm just spoiled because of Michigan's nice sand.

We got a gyro platter to split! Yum!

I have a lot of pictures from the Wine Museum, but because it's underground, the lighting makes the photos turn out like this. I thought I would post a few, though.

An old bottler! The entire contraption was pretty big. Bet David is glad technology has advanced a little! Although this does look like it would be easy to use.

Look at this barrel! I wonder how many Brandon's it could fit inside? Probably quite a few!

We did some wine tasting at the end of our museum tour, which was included in the price of our pass. We tried one white, one red, and two dessert. I didn't like the white or the red, but I liked both dessert wines. The best I've ever had!

That fairly covers what we did on Monday, and yesterday we decided to got to the Archaeological Museum (always our favorite stops), and the site of Akrotiri. We were going to go to the site of ancient Thira, but it was closed by the time we got there. Oh and we also went and tried to go to the red beach, and we saw the black beaches of Perissa.

This gold figure was pretty cool, I think. It's hollow, and made from a cast. The horns and legs were soldered on after the head and body were made.

Here is a fresco of some monkeys. I guess a lot of the fresco's at Akrotiri were of women, plants, or animals, and they didn't feature men very often. One interesting tid bit, all the monkey's except one are painted in profile.

Drinking cups anyone? These would definitely add some charm to our cupboard.

This is the top of a flower vase! It looks like they took their flower arrangements pretty seriously.

A portable oven is not a new idea! How cool is this?

 Cast iron pan? Well, it's actually bronze, but it is a baking dish.

They called this a sauce boat. I call it a gravy boat! It's so funny to see so many things I thought were more modern inventions!

Here we are at the site of Akrotiri, which was actually kinda nice, because it's indoors! They have what looks like a moveable building popped over top of the entire excavation site. And they keep it cool, and the humidity down. Wouldn't you love to be an archaeologist here?

Some pots still left in one of the rooms. Aren't they pretty? You can also see an empty space on the right where one of the pots was able to be removed.

Some places we walked looked like ash and dirt, but other times you can see that there is probably buildings underneath that haven't been excavated yet. You can see how deep they go in this picture.

A lot of the stones didn't look like they had been polished for the buildings, but some might have been palaces or buildings for higher up officials.

Here's our meal on our way to the red beach! I have a fish fillet sandwich, Brandon has a cheeseburger and a beer, and we split a feta pastry. Not exactly the most healthy food but it was sooo good!

Here's our meal on our way to the red beach! I have a fish fillet sandwich, Brandon has a cheeseburger and a beer, and we split a feta pastry. Not exactly the most healthy food but it was sooo good!

You have to take a little hike in order to get to the red beach. It's not very big, and it was pretty busy that day. It wasn't even that warm because of how windy it was. We stopped by, took a picture, and left. I wouldn't have been able to get our of my sweater for this beach.

We finished up our day by walking back town to Oia. We watched the sunset, took and took pictures.

Oia, as the sun is setting to the right.

Oia, as the sun is setting to the right.

A shot of the street. It's such a quaint place. I'd love to go back!

A shot of the street. It's such a quaint place. I'd love to go back!

The sunset itself wasn't too special, but the sky was so pretty afterwards.

The sunset itself wasn't too special, but the sky was so pretty afterwards.

The donkey's are going back into the country for the night! It's was a hard days work for them, they deserve a rest.

The donkey's are going back into the country for the night! It's was a hard days work for them, they deserve a rest.

We found a really great bookstore, calls Books in Atlantis (I think). It seems to be run to American/British students. Well, about our age, I think. Brandon was able to find a book for 5 euros, which is nice, because they seemed to almost be struggling, and we wanted to help their cause. And because Brandon found a book, we decided I could get dessert. It doesn't make nearly as much sense when I type it out as it did in my head last night!

We found a really great bookstore, calls Books in Atlantis (I think). It seems to be run to American/British students. Well, about our age, I think. Brandon was able to find a book for 5 euros, which is nice, because they seemed to almost be struggling, and we wanted to help their cause. And because Brandon found a book, we decided I could get dessert. It doesn't make nearly as much sense when I type it out as it did in my head last night!

Our last view of Oia! It's really pretty with all the lights, and you can see all the cities in their crescent shape along the caldera.

Our last view of Oia! It's really pretty with all the lights, and you can see all the cities in their crescent shape along the caldera.

We get to leave on our ferry soon, and I look forward to it. I just also wanted to say quickly that if anyone wants to come to Sanorini, Maria's Place was absolutely fantastic! The hospitality and prices I think are very good, and it's in a good location. So keep that in mind when you're planning your own trip to Santorini!

Until again!