Site seeing on Paros

"I Was in Greece for the Holidays, and You Weren't!"
The saga continues

A story by Quentin Schroeder

First, I want to assure you that I'm only bragging about this fact because right now I'm bored senseless. I anticipated being able to work this week but there's nothing going on at the McRobert Center for me to work on. Ergo, I've been bonding big time with my laptop. It's good times.

Second, I want to assure you that my missed exam from last semester has been taken care of. Not only were they kind enough to let me pass the course, they also accepted the exam I took without any marks being taken off. This resulted in my getting a 1B, which is the second highest of twelve passing grades. (The Stirling grading system is very different than the standard US one.) In short, I'm awesome.

And lastly, I have a bunch of pictures to share with you!

As I left it in my last post, we had just left Athens. We caught the 3 O'clock boat to Paros and were on our way at last!

The gangway for the boat was huge since it had to be able to hold big trucks and peoples cars and all that kinda stuff too. I don't think I've ever been on a big boat, but it was pretty impressive.


Being the geeky boy I am, I immediately started wondering about how they provided power to the boat and to the interior, and how the boat maintained a secure internet connection (which would be necessary for the ATMs I saw) and other technologically related things.







About half way there we stopped at a little island that only gets boats once a week. I don't remember the name of the island or the town, but I took a few pictures. The lights on the water were really pretty.



Petros (Alex's dad) met us at the harbor when we got to Paros around midnight and we all drove back to their house which is just outside of Naoussa.

I was too tired that first night to remember to take any pictures and it was dark anyways. I met the last person of the house, Alex's brother Stephanos, and saw Marrianna and Roland again. Then we got settled in for the night and probably did something else too, but I can't remember.

The next day, Alex took me up on the roof to get a view and see where I was.


It's hard to tell from this angle, but the house is the stereotypical "sugar-cube" style that you think of for Greece. Apparently this is not historically correct but has become the popular impression. I didn't get any more details than that, so I don't know what was the historical style.






On a slight side note, I was just ecstatic to see that there was a rose bush blooming in the middle of December. What a way to spend my "winter!"











And here's the view out across the bay from their roof. That second rise you can see on the top left is the one I made it to in my bike ride (which comes later).


I don't really remember what happened in order, and since we did a lot of site seeing throughout the 3 weeks I was there, I'm just going to use this post to show you the touristy islandy things I saw on my holiday.

They took me to Paroikia, the capital of the island, and showed me around there a little bit.

Here is a church which is unique I think because it is devoted to more than one saint. (Alex, you gotta correct me on that if I'm wrong.) Also, all the churches have that round top painted the same blue color. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing there's a story behind it.


I'm wistfully gazing out into the sea in this picture. Isn't it artful!







This is just one of the pedestrian streets in Paroikia. They're all very narrow and everything is white. And the edges of the stones on the street are all painted white and repainted every year for good luck. I'm not sure why it's lucky to paint the street, but it is.


Here's another pretty street with plants in it.




And more pretty flowers in December.


And an artistic shot of the pretty flowers. It's a little blurry though.











After walking through the streets and seeing the church, we ended up in a little cafe/bar and I watched the sun set over the bay. It was gorgeous.











At some point, everyone was pretty busy getting ready for the big Christmas eve party that they had every year, and I was getting a little antsy. So one night I spent a couple hours fixing up one of their old bikes so that I could go out riding for a bit. Some air in the tires, some oil on the everything, some tightening of the break cables, and I was set to go. The next day was gray weather, so it wasn't for a few more days before I actually got out, but when I did it was perfect.

I only vaguely knew where I was going, I just looked the maps enough to get a general idea of a direction and be sure I could get back home. I went northwest around the bay and tried to go up the tallest hill I could find. The road I was on ended up dead ending in someone’s house, so I settled for going back down and climbing the next tallest that looked accessible. Remember the photo from the roof top? Second rise on the left? Yeah, that's where I was. I biked up a ways, but it was pretty steep and the roads were mostly loose rock, so I walked the bike when it got too steep and rode when I could. Eventually, the road started to curve around the hill without ever going up to it, so I decided to stick the bike behind one of the stone walls that rowed the hillside and hike straight up to the top without a trail. I was probably trespassing, especially seeing as how I had to jump a gate to get there, but no one seemed to care.

The walls that I stuck my bike behind were even more predominant on the neighboring hillside. I think they were the walls made when people cleared the land and leveled it into tiers for farming. The tiers aren't quite there anymore, but the rocks of the walls have all survived.



Once I was at the top, I had a great view back onto Naoussa. It was a beautiful day, a little windy, and the view was just perfect.

I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but the series of big round structures with one tall one on the left of the town is the power plant. It provides power to all of Paros and to the next door island, Naxos, which is about twice as big as Paros.




Some of you may have seen this church already since I emailed it to Mom and Dad over the holidays, but I think it's still worth posting. I mean, it's a church all by itself on an island! I don't exactly remember what Alex said about it, but I think people go out there once a year on the Saint day to which the church is devoted.





Here's the panoramic view towards the opening in the bay. I didn't realize everything would be so rocky, but I guess that makes sense what with all the famous marble. Speaking of the marble, Paros was famous for its creamy marble and it was very sought after before they quarried it all out.


On another day Marilyn, Alex, Stephanos and I went into Pariokia to see the church there and get some food. This was also the day that Alex picked up her Christmas present, a nice Nikon SLR digital camera. But, back to the church.

Here's the front door which leads into a courtyard. All around the courtyard where rooms where people who had traveled to pray at the church could stay if they needed.






This is the bell tower above the door in the previous picture. Apparently all the bells used to hang from the tree in the courtyard (pictured right) but the church was like "all the other churches have bell towers! We want one toooooo!" and so now there are only 2 bells left on the tree. I think it's cooler to have bells on a tree. It would've made a great picture too.













Inside the church was very pretty. Carpet covering the whole floor, which was marble and a huge chandelier suspended from the central dome. Stephanos was also explaining that this church was built during a time when they were just figuring out how to put a round dome on top of a square base. (The key is the Pendentives.)



On another occasion, Alex and I went on a little hike and beach walk. This time we were further out on the peninsula I was biking along earlier. Blue sky, blue waters and pretty girl. I was a happy camper.

Here's a little light house with a single lonely power line running to it.

And here's Alex with hair in her face, just in case you couldn't figure that out yourself.















There was an outcropping of rocks out into the bay, so I scrambled out onto them and took some pictures back at Alex. She's quite occupied figuring out how to use her new camera. She actually has some really awesome pictures back at me which I'll try to upload later.







This is just pretty water. I'd like to say that we brought our swimsuits and towels and went for a quick dip, but sadly it was far to cold for that to be a healthy idea. I settled for taking pictures and putting my hand in the Mediterranean.










The rest of these are just random pictures that I took while driving around the island. This is taken from the road that cuts across the island, which means it goes pretty high. In the distance you can see Naxos, the next island over.



This is just another shot of Naoussa but from the land-side this time. A postcard worthy little town I would say.

Here's the picture in the opposite direction of the one I took of Naxos. The land you can see in the distance this time is Anti Paros, which is a little sister island to Paros.

And this picture I just think is beautiful. I'm really amazed with myself that I took an artsy photo. I always try and just end up deleting them or keeping it for laughs, but I really like this photo.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes my series on the natural and historical beauties of Paros. Tune in next time to hear about all the food, the parties, the dinners, and how we celebrate Christmas and New Years Greek style! (kinda)

As always, I love you all!