Naxos

High hopes and awful luck!

Today began with us getting up early to make sure we made our tour bus that would take us to the highlights of Naxos. We were at the bus stop 10 mins early and there were a number of other people waiting. One bus came along and a woman came out calling out a name. It wasn’t us she was calling, and no one else got on the bus either. We figured we were all waiting for the next one. The next bus arrived eventually and we went to get on only to be stopped and told that it wasn’t our bus. We were left waiting by ourselves - everyone else had left, and we tried to email and call but couldn’t get through. It’s now 25 minutes later. We head to their main office and talk with the lady - who was the one calling out the name for the first bus. She apologises and asks if we can do tomorrow, but unfortunately we leave tomorrow.

We head home confused and thrown off by missing the tour - which we were both pumped for. We still want to see something today, so we decide to catch the public bus to the Temple of Demeter. We catch the bus and were lead to believe it was a 30 minute walk, however it turns out to be a 50 minute walk from where the bus dropped us. It was 11:30am and already 28 degrees so we were hot and exhausted by the time we arrived.

The temple was in a great spot and had a very interesting history — one of the first marble temples and apparently quite experimental, but it wasn’t as aesthetically amazing as we were hoping. Maybe that was just because of how hot we were, but we were slightly underwhelmed. We spent half an hour or so there and then tried to call a taxi, but to no avail, so we began the long walk back to the bus stop hoping that someone might pick us up along the way. Again no luck.

We made it back to the bus stop with 10 minutes to spare, and fortunately there were a few other people waiting with us. But then bus after bus came and went and we were all worried that we weren’t going to be picked up. We told the others that we were having a bad luck day and that it was probably our fault, but eventually the bus did come and we made it back to town hot, sweaty, and exhausted.

We grabbed our bathers and headed to the closest beach and swam. It was very refreshing after we’d spent most of the day in the sun. We then sat at a restaurant by the beach and got a drink to quench our thirst then headed home to shower and go out for dinner. It’s incredible each place we’ve eaten at for lunch/dinner gives us a free dessert. Most of the serving people at restaurants, cafes and coffee shops are men - who would have thought. Fun facts: you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet. It goes into a bin next to the toilet and shops are open at such odd time off the day. 1 place we’ve been to is open 24 hours. It’s crazy

While our day didn’t go as planned we still had an amazing day and we’re lucky enough to spend some time at the beach. We are sad to be leaving Naxos tomorrow. But we are excited to head to Athens!Read more