Island number two on #jongmasjourney’s visit to the Greek Islands was the little known but incredible little island of Paros. Our tour dropped our bags into a van, and walked through the picture perfect white streets of the main town and shopping areas. Paros town is filled with the classic Hellenic architecture and cheap but delicious food. Walking through the streets was like stepping into a painting, with perfectly white walls and quaint flowers suspended from rooftops. It was already set up to be a great couple of days of exploration and amazing fun.
Evening number one was the big one for bonding with my fellow travellers, with dinner at the beach overlooking a beautiful sunset prior to a standard evening at the bar. The night was filled with games, challenges and laughs, so pretty much a normal time with a tour filled with Aussies!
The next morning was the start of and exciting visit to the temple of 100 gates. The church is a Byzantine church built as one of the early Christian monuments in Greece. The church in fact has only 99 ‘doors’ or openings, and legend goes that the 100th gate will only open when Constantinople (now Istanbul) is once again Greek territory. The church is filled with hundreds of stories, and legends including a Saint who hid without food or water for a decade and a quest for the cross of Jesus. Otherwise it is a standard church in its appearance and layout except for its mighty scaffolding around the altar.
Next stop was the fishing village of Naoussa, which is a beautiful area with amazing restaurants displaying octopi drying in the sun and Venetian cobblestones. Further down the streets is a remnant of a guardhouse built during Venetian rule, overlooking the entirety of the bay. Other than the smell, it’s a wonderful area, despite advancing tourism has kept its character and thanks to the radiant sun the town was amazingly beautiful.
Jumping on a bus again we made our way for lunch at the beach before participating in some watersports. Five young Aussies hanging off the back of a boat on individual tubes pushing each other around was brilliant fun! We spent the next hour on kayaks paddling to an island topped by a church.
The final evening was a fantastic Greek BBQ prepared by our hotel followed by some insane karaoke at the local club, and by this point the tour was incredibly bonded so we had an amazing night before prepping our leave for Santorini the next morning.
#jongmasjourney has one more Greece stop planned for Santorini, so stay tuned by subscribing on the left!
As Grandma’s friend Laurie always says…
“Love all around”
Jongma's Journey 