Paros, Greece, Day 1, September 6, 2015

Yesterday was a rainy, cloudy day in Budapest and time to get to the sun.  We landed in Athens at 10:30 pm then took a 45 minute cab ride to Piraeus, the port,  where we got a cheap but modern very small room.  We arranged a 5:30 wake up call to get our tickets from the Blue Star ticket office then catch the ferry to Paros. 

The ferry was spectacular. It held 2,500 passengers with a large amount of reserved leather airline type seating. 

The four hour voyage to Paros was smooth and very enjoyable. We could have taken a faster catamaran ferry for twice the price but we were not in a rush. 

 Fast ferries

We got to the ferry docks an hour and a half before departure and sat in the lounge by the windows.

The lounge

View from the deck outside

Great views from the lounge

Our hostess met us at the port and drove us to her idyllic location overlooking the port of Parikia. They live below us with apartments to rent above.

Our ferry back later on in the day

We got settled and decided to walk to town, a three km walk down. It was not recommended since it was sunny and very hot. We needed to get provisioned and were hungry since the last meal had been on the plane to Athens. I had the daily special which was fresh fish with salad and a glass of wine for 8 Euros ($12 CDN). The fish was Gouna, a type of mackerel, which is split, heavily salt and peppered and sun dried for a day then charcoal grilled and seasoned with olive oil and lemon.

It was sensational. It is a fattier stronger tasting fish which appeals to my taste of the sea. It was recommended by our hostess and we discovered that it is unique to Paros. Jill had a Greek salad, which she was craving. We caught a taxi back and were wiped. A cold shower solved that.

A light snack of olives, cheese and Hungarian sausage with Greek wine overlooking the port as the sun went down finished off our day.