Exploring Paros by Car

We took advantage of our rental car today to drive all around the island, seeing lots and lots of stone fences, churches, cats, views over to Naxos, and more churches. David wanted to stay behind but we wouldn’t let him so he was in a fairly sullen mood that even a stop for pastries didn’t dissipate. We stopped near Nouassa at Kalybithres, which has a beach notable for its cool rock formations that reminded us of the Cote du Granite Rose in Brittany (photos below and on following page). The beach itself underwhelmed us so we didn’t stay long.

By the second stop (photos on page 57) at what we thought was Molos, David’s mood had improved considerably and he finally spoke a few words and even smiled. We had a nice time skipping rocks and hunting for the perfect beach stones to bring home. I found a nice egg shaped piece of marble and some beach glass. David collected a very heavy bag of rocks that he promises to cull later. We continued along a rough dirt road and found Molos, so we realized we had been somewhere else, which was actually much nicer. The winding roads were very disorienting. It took us a while to find the main road again, but we finally managed to with the help of GPS.

At this point we started to look for places to eat lunch but it felt like the entire island was closed down for winter. It’s obviously a super popular place for holiday homes and there are more being constructed everywhere, but it’s very quiet at this time of year. We ended up back in Parikia (Paros on the map above) before we found a basic little souvlaki place with a very friendly owner/waiter/cook. By this point we were starving as it was getting close to 3 pm. To get to the restaurant, we had parked near the main road and walked through the old part of town. It was surprisingly stunning.

My first impression of Parikia was that it was just another busy port, but the old town is really quite old and beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, especially of the windows and doors, which I was drawn to for some reason! After lunch, we went on a hunt for skordakia, the little firecrackers we had seen in Delphi. After several failed attempts, we finally gave up and went to visit the Frankish castle, also in the old town. Topher and I were very impressed with this 13th

century structure built with many pieces taken from ancient temples (pictured opposite bottom right). You can see how they sliced the columns up as decorative elements - very different looking. Built around the base of the castle were not one but four churches. We also stopped at a church that had been built partly on the foundation of an old temple.

The boys could care less and by this point were very much getting on our nerves. When we remind them they could be in school, they still don’t seem to appreciate how lucky they are! On our way out of town we spotted a store that might sell skordakia and this time we were successful. Every time I ask about them I get the same knowing smile. I bought two boxes and the boys had used them up within about 10 minutes of being home. Topher and I tried them out as well and they aren’t much more exciting than a cap gun, but they do look a lot like little heads of garlic!