We spent two days taking long walks and now have spent two down days, trying to plan the last month of the trip. On the first long walk, we took the road to Gallini, about 3.5 miles away to try to hike we first failed on in the correct direction. I also had all the GPS points in my phone so we could follow them. From Gallini we found the right path, a dirt road, for the trail fairly easily and it offered sweeping views of the sea and was fairly easy. We walked past old Venetian “castles” and past two modern wind turbines before the trail popped out at the road that we walked to Gallini. We found the area where the path continued with some difficulty but then the GPS coordinates didn’t line up with a description or the path. Then it came to a road where we continued on until we came to a heavily fenced area- the landfill (in the trail description) but with no way to continue on as we were stopped by a landfill official. We tried an alternative path but a local stopped us and told us there were snakes there and no path so we had no choice but to walk back along the road again. It was disappointing and I was upset with the author of the book. Twice we tried this trail and twice we have found it unable to be completed with the instructions and coordinates given. We did meet some friendly goats, however and back at town bought some souvlaki to go and brought it back to augment our left overs…except it was so much food I think it created more leftovers, which was not the intention but it was ever so tasty. This walk was supposed to be 10 miles but ended up being a bit more than 13 because of the difficulties. Before returning to our room we bought round-trip bus tickets to Filoti to potentially hike Mt. Zas tomorrow and stopped in to book a day trip to the Small Cyclades islands with the same boat company we just took for this Saturday. Sadly, the port authority has now said that you need a Covid self-test to go on excursions so I guess we will now be excursion free. The booking office did not seem to know how we got a test and we don’t either. It seems odd we could be vaccinated to come but it’s not enough for an excursion. It is not impacting ferry travel. Also odd. Anyway, we will have to amuse ourselves on the island.
The next morning we intended to catch the bus at 7:20 to Filoti but just as we started to leave my husband didn’t feel well. We stayed in the room a few hours and after taking some medication and resting he felt better and wanted to go somewhere anyway. We had missed the bus but decided to do the rest of the beach hike we weren’t able to do the other day from the bus confusion. We walked to Vivlos (3.5 miles) and it was a great walk! The “road” was a dirt track with animals and farms and about halfway there- a huge surprise- The Temple of Dionysus. I don’t know why they don’t advertise this one (probably because there isn’t much left…) but it even had a small museum and we were amused just about finding on our walk. We continued on past the cows at the “dairies” (I think it’s just buckets brought to the cows) and the potatoes being harvested, up a small mountain path (on which we had to stop because a large truck came through- going about 2- where he almost didn’t fit between the rocks). We even passed baby cows and they were friendly- looking for their bottles no doubt.
The town was very lively and we stopped at a bakery to have the most delectable brunch- I had a ham and cheese croissant-esque item that was round like a pie. My husband chose something that was shaped like the typical spanakopita but filled with custard and cinnamon. Our son got a fresh-from-the-over nutella filled croissant, his favorite Greek breakfast. Then he didn’t expect the filling to be runny (because it was warm) and he got it on the shorts he was wearing for the first time today. We also bought bottles of soda and when we sat down outside at the tables to eat they brought us cups. Perhaps we aren’t supposed to drink out of bottles? Shame on Americans. lol
After our lovely stop we got distracted by the “tourist sites” here, windmills and a washing area where the women used to bring their clothes to wash them and gossip no doubt. I enjoyed going there and thinking about that. We’ve lost a sense of community now that we can wash our clothes in our houses, don’t you think? At home I can dry my clothes in my house too but here I hang them out on the balcony to dry. Anyway, this is a marked trail and we saw one sign but then no more. We realized the town was larger than we thought as we meandered through the little passageways and eventually found a path (fairly wide too) headed in the direction we were supposed to be going. It passed several small churches and an old Venetian watchtower. The last church we came to was quite remote and despite the fact it much be very difficult to get to it seemed well cared for. It had a commanding view of the sea. The guidebook told us to take the wide path down (there were two sort of paths- one up one down) but after half a kilometer it was hardly a path anymore and quite overgrown. It looked like someone had walked here at some point but not with a machete! The GPS point was not on the path, causing us to wonder if we had taken the wrong path but we just continued on and it ended at an area with a sign for the trails continuation- two GPS points in the book being incorrect again but we emerged victorious. The “trail” followed down a path taken by tractors taking their hay and we even walked along behind one so quickly that we had to take a break! We popped out at the road and as the “trail” is meant to end on the beach we were surprised to find we were a good way from the beach. We took a dirt road hoping for less traffic (although it was still not as little as I’d hoped) and one time when a car was passing we stepped to the side where some small fruits were growing and found that if you touch them they explode! This made for a few moments of terror and then delight from our son. I’ve been trying to figure out what these fruits are but I can’t find anything on the internet. One of the mysteries of Greece. We came out on the beach much further south than intended and went straight into the sea to cool off. We then walked down the beach a few kilometers and were shocked by the sheer quantity of old naked people. Why are they here? Some made me concerned for them as they were clearly burned already but still snoozing in the sun. At their age I’m not sure their bodies can take that! Anyway, as we came to the area of town we knew the bus picked up we began looking for a place to get tickets. We thought the supermarket would be a good bet but they sent us next door to a hotel reception and tickets in hand we caught the bus in moments. This is the first time the bus has really worked out for us. Having gone ten miles today we could have walked the 3 miles back but we’ve already gone that way and know that 1.5 miles of it that cannot be on the beach is unpleasant. The bus got us back quickly and we settled in for the evening.
After two days of lots of activity we have had two days of not much activity. It’s the weekend and the buses run less often on Saturday and almost not at all on Sunday, which contributes to this idea. We spent most of yesterday looking ahead on our trip, which still has 3 unplanned weeks and doing a little bit of work. It looks like Albania has begun doing rapid tests for low cost at the airport so it’s back on our list and that should help with the planning. It’s a bit like spinning your wheels when you first begin planning a trip but generally once it comes together it often progresses quite quickly. I hope anyway, because this is day 4 of planning this last part with no progress. Today has been more work and less planning although our day did start with an email from Expedia letting us know Delta had changed our flights to something with a layover that just cannot be made (25 minutes on an international flight) so we wasted (not spent) about half an hour paying for international calls to get it fixed. My husband had another flight already chosen so he was ready but it still took forever. We have not had a trip like this yet that hasn’t had some sort of change but it’s still really aggravating. I’m just glad we had not yet booked the flight back to Athens from the destination not yet chosen that now made the new flight impossible but we hadn’t booked it yet, thank goodness. It does seem likely now that we will be spending the night before in Athens but at least we will have a good nights sleep before flying home.
At this point, what is booked is: two more weeks here in Naxos in this room, a 11 day tour in Egypt and a 7 day tour of Turkey, leaving us with 3 weeks left. Since we have a tour of Cappadocia, Ephesus, and Troy in Turkey we will likely spend a week in Istanbul and then spend two weeks in Albania. We will probably split that time between cities and hiking. Getting to the Albanian Alps will take a couple of days I think so that will need to be factored in. Stay tuned- as we’ll have to plan it at some time!
Vacation in the Time of Coronavirus 