Come fly with me and explore GREECE! PART I - NAXOS
AHHHH, Greece, the country which has been on my bucket list to visit for quite a while now. And has finally happened - the white churches, blue domes, beaches, gyros, feta, olives, wine, ouzo, ALL CAME TO LIVE FOR ME. I’m one lucky gal. I discovered that Greeks don’t just love their food they live for food, more food and much more food. Ouzo, cheese, olives, tomatoes, pita, tzatziki, taramosalata, spanakopita, wine and did I mention, ouzo? My family stayed on the island named Naxos. Oh my, what a beautiful and relaxing island. Fair to say, absolutely picturesque. And don’t mind me, I’ll be using a word, picturesque quite a lot in my blogs. The 8 days paradise was at the ATHINA SUITES. Did I mention it was a paradise? The place is located right across from Plaka beach, and when I say, right across, it is literally across a very narrow street. Three steps and poof you are there. Once you arrive, by the way, it’s only 15 minutes ride from the Naxos airport, you are greeted by the owner, Athina herself. And this is where your holiday begins, you are welcomed with ouzo on the rocks, homemade cookies and fresh orange juice for kids. AND, 45 minutes later, poof, we were all unpacked, in our swim wear and enjoying the Aegean Sea. Simply a PARADISE. I’ll go into details about some amazing restaurants we found, but for now, I truly want you to imagine relaxing in ATHINA and enjoying everything the hotel has to offer. SO, I’m not much of a breakfast person, coffee is all I need, unless we are exploring the world so in this case, I couldn’t pass on what I saw. Every morning, the breakfast area was filled with delicious baked Greek delicacies made from scratch, wide variety of bread, olives, tomatoes, cuces, perfectly sliced bell peppers, a grant variety of local cheeses, homemade preserves, yogurt, granolas, fresh squeezed orange juice, Greek coffee and cappuccino per request. The first bite I took of the TIROPITA. I wondered, who was the baker behind this mouthwatering dish. Turned out to be a baker, Olga, who owned her own bakery for over 20 years in Athens and as of a few years moved with her family down to Naxos. Not a bad choice I might add. Now onto cocktails. The first time we had the most creative, mind-blowing, beautifully created cocktail was on our first night before heading for dinner. The cocktail list looked too good to pass on. I went for a drink with tequila and spice. OMG. The process of making this masterpiece was quite mind blowing. The bartender, George, wasn’t just a bartender with massive imagination for creativity, he was also a sommelier. He took time making each drink and at the end it was so worth the wait. By the way, the old fashioned weren’t too shabby either. Basically, you should try every cocktail on the list, trust me, you won’t be disappointed. Needless to say, our beach days were quite relaxing and quite enjoyable.
Now onto food. The Greek’s pride. Lunch at the ATHINA Greek salads and perfectly grilled octopus for mama and papa and for Izabella, seriously, one of the best Margharita pizza we ever had, outside of Italy. The dough, the cheese and the flavors of a dough from a pizza oven were a pure perfection. And also, worth mentioning the lamb burger accompanied with the Naxos pride, potatoes. AMAZING! Naxos peeps, love their potatoes.
And since you are already salivating, might as well chat about places for dinner, on the beach, close to the beach, with music or just people watching. First stop was PATOTOSPOROS. Tzatziki, saganaki, sardines, Greek salad, taramasalata here we come. Little sidenote, living in various cities before moving to Pittsburgh, I never had an issue finding taramasalata already made. In Pittsburgh, I haven’t been so lucky, so I had to start making it myself. So then, when I saw it on the menu the first night in Naxos, I just had to GO FOR IT. YUM. The place, turned out to be one exquisite and quite special spot to see our first sunset as well. Also, definitely worth raving about, MANOLIS TAVERNA, with a live band on Saturdays and Mondays; moussaka, dolma and fried lamb meatballs with Naxos potatoes. Literally music to my ears and stomach. AND, if you have love for authentic people and their hospitality, like I do, you absolutely cannot miss, GORGONA. As you enter the restaurant, you are greeted by elderly gentleman, turned out to be an owner and wine maker, “Ela mesa” (come inside), then with a heavy Greek accent he offers you wine, “Retd orr Vhite?” and as he hands you the wine of your choice, he takes a sip with you. You are automatically sucked in by his hospitality and by his gesture. The fresh seafood there is out of this world but the best part, it’s not even the food or ouzo you drink with the waitress Olga, it’s watching the owner offering wine to every customer who even steppes half a foot into the restaurant and chugs wine with them. And I thought I had a high tolerance to wine. Of course, his doesn’t really chug, and most likely he just takes a sip or even pretends, or DOES HE? :)) Absolutely worth checking it out.
And then for finale, the dinner on the beach, with never ending weddings, TAVERNA PARADISO. The most magical sunset, guitar player, feet buried into warm sand, cats everywhere, (BTW, we have never seen so many homeless cats in one city), the sound of ocean and quite fantastic food. PARADISO will ALWAYS stay PARADISO.
And in between side trips, which I will cover in my next blog, we did one fantastic tour with a private driver, around NAXOS, ILIAS CAR RENTAL It’s absolutely worth the time and money. The places Ilias takes you are not accessible by any transportation unless you have a rental car and the knowledge, he provides you with, could only be found on Google. :)) Naxos is enchanting island with a lot of history. Enjoy the car ride.
NEXT PART - PART II - SANTORINI
LA DOLCE VITA! YAMAS! OPA!