Sailing Calista25 September 2023
From our berth in the Naxos harbour we walked down our pontoon and onto the main pontoon to where the ferry “Alexander” was stern to. The ferry was departing at 8.30am for Naoussa, Paros.
We were going over to Naoussa just for a day trip. It was a cloudy morning with very little breeze and the water was like a mill pond compared to the wild weather a few days earlier.
A photo into the bridge/helm station of the ferry while we were waiting for the remaining passengers to board and for the captain to take control.
It was a short ferry ride across to Paros and we arrived around 9.30am.
As we were disembarking from the ferry, the clouds were breaking up and the sun was starting to shine through, it looked like we were in for a glorious day.
Naoussa is a beautiful picturesque fishing village located in a huge bay in the northern part of the island of Paros. We decided to explore around the port area first.
As it was still reasonably early in the morning, everywhere was pretty quite. The restaurants around the small fishing port seem to mainly open in the evenings.
Linardo is a night club and famous for it’s pink door and joinery. All the women were stopping here for a photo, including me.
Near the fishing port there is a small castle called Kasteli which had been built by the Venetians. We walked along the small sea wall to reach the remains of the castle. Swimming along the rock edge were hundreds of tiny baby fish.
A big part of the castle is preserved except for the roof which is completely gone.
The waves were lapping gently all around the old Castle. When the seas are rough, the sea pounds into the castle through the arches. The interior was rather muddy from recently sea water ingress making if difficult to reach the other side.
The old fishing boat “Mamounas” was restored in 2019.
Artist Christianna Economou restores and converts old, abanded, traditional fishing boats known as “caiques” into pieces of art.These works of art serve as a tirbute to all the Greek caiques that have been destroyed in the past years and honor the Greek shipbuilding tradition as well as all the seamen and the seas. Through the programme “Fearless Boats” the programme has already taken place in six other islands (Schoinousa, Iraklia, Koufonisi, Donousa, Spetses and Amorgos)
We stopped for a coffee and juice at one of the restaurants overlooking the waterfront of the port.
Once we had finished our coffee and juice, it was mid morning and the shops were starting to open and the town was getting a little busier. We wandered around the lovely clean alleyways, it reminded us of Mykonos on a much smaller scale and less touristy.
As I was walking by, I had to have a second look at this rug and touch it. To my utter surprise it was actually hand painted. Incrediable, It looked so life like.
This signage design was very clever, with the use of the dashed lines portraying the shape of a bottle.
Love the street art of the boy reading a book. Looks quite life like.
We followed a narrow road out to the coast and came to a dead end so we made our way towards the water and rested on the rock ledge in the shade for awhile. As we were sitting in the shade enjoying abit of sea breeze, another couple came by, they were New Zealander’s from the South Island currently here on holiday.
After we had rested we then continued to walk along the ledge and stopped at “Fotis All Day Bar” for a cool drink. It was a very popular cafe and with views out across the bay.
There were a great variety of clothing, jewellery, giftware, sunglasses stores and the usual touristy shops. Not expensive like some of the larger islands. I resisted and didn’t buy anything.
There wasn’t alot to see in the small fishing village and we had seen it all in three or four hours. We didn’t fancy hiring a car and going further afield as we would have then been rushed, neither was it worth taking a taxi to another village. We sat in several cafes to while the time away over a coffee, juice or wine. Over lunch we enjoyed the ambience and people watching. It was lovely to relax and enjoy the moment without rushing around.
The ferry arrived promptly at 5.30pm to pick us up. It had been a lovely day out and we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves without the crowds like on some of the larger islands.
