Category — Greece

After our expensive but visually amazing soujourn in Santorini, we were still looking for the non-touristy Greek experience we’d always wanted.  We jumped a ferry to another island named Naxos.

So I’m here to tell you that unless you go to some little tiny island that nobody’s ever heard of (or you happen to own one!) that there’s no such thing as a non-touristy Greek Island.  There are just different levels of touristy starting with Santorini at the top as the most over-touristed.

Naxos is probably about a 5 on the scale and we found a nice little apartment not far from the beach (once again did the “find accommodation when we get there” – it’s starting to become the norm to do it that way.  It’s a pain but it’s way easier to try and get a better price than over the internet.

Anyway, we spent 3 days playing on the beach and watching The Nanny reruns (ok – it was the first English language TV we’d seen in ages!!).  Our local shop was run by a mother and daughter who didn’t speak a lot of English but insisted on giving us freebies every time we set foot in the place.

We also finally gave away the gyros when we found the traditional Greek restaurant we’d been craving.  We tucked into moussaka, pastitsio and lamb with grilled vegetables like we hadn’t eaten in months.  The owner, also a Michael, was shocked that we had only eaten gyros since we’d been in Greece.  He never eats it – “never know what’s in that stuff!” he said..

Michael and his lovely wife stuffed us with massive servings and free bread, olives and roast potatoes for 3 amazing nights until we decided we had to leave or we would never fit into our clothes!

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A series of accommodation choices that came with no or really bad internet (as well as me swanning around doing little more than look at the view) has meant this blog is now quite a bit behind where we actually are.  So I thought I better get updated – also because it seems the internet isn’t getting any better!!

Wandering down the Turkish coast
Last time we talked, we had done our Aussie national duty and paid pilgramige to the Gallipoli battlefields.  We crossed the Dardanelles to see the horse used in the movie “Troy” but alas there was no sign of Brad in his skirt and took one of the very nice Turkish buses to Selcuk (pron. Sellchook).  Selcuk’s claim to fame is that it’s right next to the ancient city of Ephesus (yeah those guys that Paul the apostle wrote to).  Well the ruins were… ruins.  They were quite interesting actually but probably set us up to be over Greek or Roman civilisation ruins from there on in.

We stayed in the ANZ Guesthouse, run by the fast-talking, Turkish born Aussie, Harry and ate kebaps (by now our staple dinner) at his mate Ali Baba’s restaurant.  We also met fellow Aussie travellers Hanna & Ryan from Sydney.  Hanna is a writer and her blog has both inspired me to get back to keeping it up to date, but also tempted me to just put a link to her blog and let you read her more professional musings.  They were, after all visiting most of the same places as us! (see the website link on the left). [Read more →]