This is part two of a two-week trip to Greece. You can catch up on part one here.
Day 3
We had an early morning catching the first ferry out of Athens headed to the small island of Paros. We had heard that the ferries can be chaotic, but honestly they weren’t as bad as we expected. This was our only trip on the BlueStar Ferries, and they are a lot nicer than the SeaJets Ferries we used the rest of the trip. I’m not sure if this is typical, or if we somehow ended up in a weird spot, but we walked on and stored our luggage in a tiny little closet next to a bunch of parked cars, then headed upstairs to the main deck.
We opted for the cheapest seats, which ended up being giant recliners. What we didn’t realize at the time was that, had we arrived earlier, we could have claimed a table and chairs by a window in a common area, but by the time we realized that part was open seating, it was too late. Our ride was only 4 hours, and with it being so early in the morning, we were content taking naps and spinning Taylor Swfit’s latest release, which dropped five minutes before our ferry left the dock, thanks to time zone math.
Having read that many ferries get cancelled due to high winds and waves in October, we were anxious about having a last minute change of plans, or at the very least, having bad seasickness, but everything went really smoothly. As the sun started coming up, we made a few laps around the outside deck to get some fresh air and enjoy the views.
Well before docking, everyone started getting up to grab their luggage and we all headed down to wait for the ramp to open. We then had about a 15 minute walk to our hotel – which normally wouldn’t be bad, but after carrying our backpacks and dragging out suitcases down a cobblestone sidewalk for that long, we were all extra glad we stuck to carry on luggage only (and once again glad we came in October rather than the summer).
We stayed at Magginas Studios and I cannot say enough good things about them. It’s an adorable, cave house style boutique hotel, and the room we got was perfect for our group of four adults (which was hard to find on this trip – most places were for two). It had a little kitchenette – including a hot plate, kettle, coffee, and dishes, a living room area with two twin beds (which could be used as sofas for a smaller group), a bedroom with a queen sized bed, a drying rack for our laundry, and a little patio area with a table and chairs. Spyros, the manager, was incredibly helpful and friendly, and went out of his way to send us a list of recommendations over the whole island.
We settled into the room, walked into town for lunch, and wound our way down the side streets of Parikia for some shopping, and caught a gorgeous sunset over the Aegean Sea. Still not quite over the jet lag, we then headed back home for a siesta and to get started on some laundry (the one downside of packing light on a long trip), then wrapped up the day with another snack run and a late dinner in town. After dinner, one friend and I decided to wander up the road in the opposite direction of where we had been. However, we didn’t get very far before the wind caused us to get splashed by a giant wave breaching the sidewalk, at which point we gave up and went home.
day 4
The next morning, we walked back into town and headed to the bus stop; our first stab at public transportation on the trip. The bus stop in Parikia had a stand where we could buy our tickets with cash or card, while other busses on the trip were cash only and you buy them once you’re already on the bus. For only €2 per trip, getting around the island was super simple. We started off with a trip into Lefkes Village in the middle of the island.
If I had to pick an absolute favorite place in the whole trip, Lefkes Village would be it. Tucked up in the hills with winding roads, little white houses with colorful doors, and pops of pink from the bougainvillea trees made it such a quaint town. The shops in the village also seemed to sell more handmade artisan gifts, as opposed to the more mass produced items everywhere else we visited. There were also significantly fewer tourists wandering around than anywhere else, though I’m curious what it’s like in the summer.
Next on our list was Naousa, but with no direct bus there from Lefkes, we had to make a stop back in Parikia, which ended up timing well for some afternoon naps while dodging another rainstorm. Naousa is little fishing village on the north side of the island, and we ended up getting there just in time to catch another gorgeous sunset. We did some more shopping, ate dinner, wandered into a tiny, ornate, orthodox church, and then got dessert before heading home.
Day 5
Just off the coast of Paros is a smaller island called Antiparos, and ferries run between the two every 15-30 minutes (depending on the season). Known mostly for its beaches, we wore our swimsuits and cover ups and brought our towels and change of clothes along with us for the day. My cousin has been to Greece eight times, and he gave us a whole list of recommendations for every stop along our trip. For Antiparos, he recommended the restaurant Captain Pipinos in the beach town of Agios Georgios (which seems to be a town name on every island), so we got off the ferry and right onto a bus and headed there first.
Agios Georgios was so much smaller than I was expecting. There were a few little beach areas and three restaurants in a row, and that’s it. And with it being the end of beach season, there were maybe a dozen other people in town. Just across the straight is the island of Tsiminitri. It’s an uninhabited island, but archeologists have discovered graves on the island, and from the beach we could see some sort of ruins.
We did stick our toes in the water, but quickly realized this wasn’t going to be the beach day we anticipated since it was so late in the season. Thankfully, Captain Pipinos was the only restaurant open, and while I’ll write up a whole separate blog post of all the Greek food later, this ended up being my favorite meal of the whole trip, so it was definitely worth the excursion.
After lunch, we got back on the bus and went back into the port town of Chora. Half of the shops were already closed down for the season, while the other half were offering major discounts on their goods as they were closing the following week. Despite our bad timing, we still enjoyed wandering around and talking to some of the shopkeepers. If I’m ever in Greece during the summer months, Antiparos would for sure be on my list of places to go back to.
We ended the night back at our hotel and used a local food delivery app to eat dinner on our patio. We needed the downtime in the evening to pack up our stuff so we could check out in the morning and catch another ferry for our next stop, Santorini.
Scream And Be Frees 
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