The trip
From 1-15 August I have been to Naxos, Greece. It is an Greek island in the Mediterranean, not far from Ios and Paros. We left Bergen on the 31th of July, traveling with bus to Stavanger. There we stayed at Park Inn hotel, a nice, average hotel.
On the way to the hotel one of my girlfriend’s bag’s wheels broke. So the rest of the trip we have dragged it along on the remaining wheels or lifted it. The next morning we traveled to Sola airport, and left for the island of Santorini. From there we took a boat over to Naxos. A short bus trip later and we were at hotel Semeli.
It was a small hotel about 700 meters from the beach. The room was quite underwhelming, lacking anything except a few chairs and a bed, a tiny balcony, and a tiny bathroom. It was quite cheap, so I guess we should have expected that. That evening we met the other two we know that was on vacation by the same beach, and ate dinner with them.
I am not going to go through each day like the first ones, because most of them mostly consisted of sunbathing and swimming at the beach, eating lunch and dinner at the beach cafés and restaurants, and maybe a drink at one of the beach bars. A couple of days we also took a taxi or bus in to the Naxos City center, where we ate and shopped.
Naxos City
We spent a couple of evenings at Prime, a Scandinavian bar on the harbor in the city center, and also went to the karaoke bar On The Rocks. If you ever travel to Naxos, I recommend eating at Flamingo, a restaurant with a great view of the harbor. They have great food and low prices. I didn’t care much for the live Greek music, but maybe you do.
There are also other good restaurants, bars and clubs you can check out. The Mexican restaurant that I never remember the name of Escoba (thank you, Jannike), and many others. In the older parts of the city near the harbor you can find the classical small tourist shops, some galleries and museums, and most other shops you are expecting in a Greek tourist city.
Learning scuba diving
We woke up early (8:30) one day to go scuba diving. This was the first time for all 3 of us who went, and it was a great experience. The instructor was really friendly, and made the whole experience a joy. We had 45 minutes of theory, followed by about an hour of diving from the beach.
Since it was a beginner course, we only dived to about 6 meters depth, but it was fun anyway. We saw some colorful fishes, touched some sea plants and learned the basics of diving. I recommend it, and I will be getting my diver’s license next year if my wallet permits it.
The trip home
Homeward we traveled the same route in reverse. Arriving at the bus station in Bergen we ended up in the longest taxi queue I have ever seen, and at last decided to walk home to my place, about 15 minutes walk away. Carrying our bags, and seven bags of tax-free shopping goods, we used about twice the normal time. Since we had already traveled for over 20 hours, we were exhausted when we came home. A warm shower and a thick duvet has never been so welcoming before.
Pictures
Agios Prokopios Beach sunset
We have literally taken more than 1000 pictures while on Naxos, and I will be posting an album here as soon as I can, when my new Internet connection gets up and running tomorrow. Today I am online through my iPhone again, getting value for my money on my unlimited data plan.
I believe that the picture above is taken with my phone, so excuse the quality. The pictures from my digital camera and my girlfriend’s DSLR are much better.
More details
I will be writing more posts in the coming week with more details about some of the things we experienced and learned at Naxos (see previous post), so check back later. And if you are my friend on Facebook, you can see more pictures that I won’t be posting here.
Extra: Dimitris
So it seems like every male in Greece are named Dimitris. The waiter on our favorite nearby restaurant, Colloseo (we called him Carlos until we knew what he’s real name was, and for us he will always be a Carlos), the bus driver on Santorini, and the waiter on Prime. The three only Greek men I got to know the name of, were all Dimitris.
