In the late 80s, Rick went on a "sailing" cruise of the Greek islands. We put "sailing" in quotes, because the boat never put up the sails--preferring to get along on motor power. This was a big disppointment, especially when the winds came up in Paros harbor and we were stuck there for three days. But he liked the town and the island, and there were lots of ferries from Naxos, so we figured, "why not?". Before the ferry ever left Naxos we found Allan and Linda on deck. They would be staying in Naoussa on the north coast about 20 minutes by bus from Parikia where the ferry arrived. We agreed to meet the following Monday.

We were met by Marina Zoumi and driven to Marili Apartments, about 2 kilometers from Parikia. Marina and her husband, Gianni are the owners and they were fabulous hosts. There was a even complimentary bottle of wine from their winery in our room. Their apartments overlook the Aegean and Parasporos Beach. Our apartment had two bedrooms, a small kitchen in between and a bathroom. We had a porch/balcony on one side and another porch which we shared with the couple in the apartment next to us: Graham and Morag from England. We were in the country, yet only a few minutes walk to the bus stop where the local bus to town took only 10 minutes. We stayed here four nights and could have stayed for weeks more! We would go back there in a heartbeat.

We did pretty much on Paros what we did on Tinos and Naxos: relaxed, wandered the narrow streets of Parikia, shopped, and tried several of the local tavernas. Again, we rented a car for a day and drove all around the island. We had seen Smart cars all over Greece and Rick had been dying to try one since the first time we saw one back in Italy in 1999. We picked up a convertible one evening and thouroughly enjoyed it. As is the custom, we got the car with an empty tank, and Rick without thinking, put 20E worth of gas in it. Even after driving all over the island all day, we couldn't get the gas gauge down below 3/4!!

As planned we took the bus to Naoussa where we were met by Allan and Linda. They gave us a tour of the town which has grown from a small fishing village to a popular tourist resort. As with all the Greek island towns, Naoussa has its taverna-lined waterfront and winding streets with shops and private homes. The four of us took another bus out to Dryos and hiked along the coast for several kilometers, passing several beautiful golden sand beaches and finally astopping at a beachfront restaurant for a "monster" lunch. Then we bused back to Naoussa, said goodbye to Allan and Linda and kept on going back to Parikia.

On our last day, we caught the bus for Pounta where we took the ferry to Antiparos. We wanted to visit the Caves of Antiparos. This would be the third caves we'd see (after Diros on the Peloponnese and Perama on the mainland). The stalactites and stalamites in these caves have been damaged by looters, but the caves are still impressive. The entrance is at the top of a high hill and the path within goes almost straight down. There are no guides, but there are handrails. On the way up we counted over 360 steps. The town of Anitparos is quaint like most other small Greek villages and we found a nice taverna along the waterfront for lunch. The bus back took a roundabout route, dropping us in Parikia instead of at the bus stop near the apartment. This turned out well, because we met several Aussies and enjoyed sharing our experiences in Australia with them. They would be on our ferry tomorrow afternoon as well.

Since our ferry to Crete wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:30pm, we slept in and took our time getting packed. Marina drove us to the port where we setted into a small taverna where we'd eaten before and had a big lunch. Again, the ferry was late, but we took advantage of the wait to chat up a couple from South Africa and our Aussie friends from yesterday.

To get the most out of the photos below, we suggest you check out our Paros journal. Otherwise, just click on any photo below to enlarge it. (Note that they are not necessarily presented in the order they were taken.)