More Island Adventures

One of the most perplexing questions that I keep asking myself is "can this get any better" and every time I am met with an answer of "YES". It has been a week since we were on the island of Aegina, where I thought I had seen some of the most beautiful beaches and villages that I have ever come across, that is until I arrived here on the island of Paros. we have only been here two days but as I sit here writing all I can think about is how I get to wake up to the sun shining and the sound of the ocean waves outside my room, I am growing quite content with island life even if it has been a little chilly.

We arrived Friday night around 10pm after a 4 hour ferry ride from the port of Piraeus and were met by the owners of the Carmel Studio Apartments. Following a short 40 minute bus ride we found ourselves at Logaros beach and entering our hotel rooms complete with all the comforts of home. Around 11pm we took a stroll down the beach and stumbled across some restaurants where I decided to gorge myself with grilled eggplant that seemed to be stuffed with every kind of vegetable known to man…it was delicious. Sunday was met with a midmorning swim in the sea and I had planned on staying there all day until it started raining. It defiantly put a damper on the rest of the day.

However, Today seemed to be the complete opposite of yesterday when I woke up there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brighter than ever. We started off the day with a bus ride filled with amazing views towards the town of Paroikia where we went to see the church of 100 gates (or doors) then looked at the archeological museum. once we were back at the hotel all exhausted and ready for a nap, the owner of the hotel offered to take us the village that her husband grew up in, seeing that most of us were worn out only a small group of us decided to go and even though I was a bit reluctant because I was so tired, I knew I would have regretted not going.

The village looked like something out of a fairy tale all the houses were painted white with blue shutters and had an amazing view of the ocean. Pink and purple flowers grew on all the walls and there was a church at every corner. The one church that we were able to go inside of nearly took my breath away. The walls and ceilings were covered in murals and I was so overcome by how beautiful it was that I could barley think of anything to say while we were inside of it.

afterwards our lovely tour guide told us about the history of his town and what it was like for him to grow up during the Nazi occupation (one particular story that involved him taunting a German soldier when he was just four years old was especially entertaining). It was late by then but they had one more thing to show us, the oldest church on the island just around the corner from our hotel which was met with a beautiful sun set between two mountains. All in all the first full day of exploring feels like this cant get any better, but who knows every time I say that things always do.