Paros - 14 - 19/10/25

Kalispera Malakas from Paros (and Anti-Paros)

So the day after I hit the Big 5-0, we set sail (on the ferry) for the 5-hour easy as ride to the island of Paros. 

We arrived in the port town of Perikia at 8.30 pm, and the first thing we noticed as the big ferry drawbridge descended was a beautiful old town square of grey marble, resplendent with trees and obligatory statues. Or hotel - Hotel Kontes was right at the port and within minutes we were into our new rooms and exploring the old town of Paros. Most shops were still open, we saw an impressive bakery (Ragoussis - more on that later) and the general vibe was that Paros is much bigger and more developed that little old Milos. 

We hadn't had dinner and even though it was 9pm, it was peak dinner time on the island. We found a restaurant full of locals and managed to squeeze in to one of the only spare tables. We got the ole' Greek Salad with pork and chicken souvlaki skewers and cips. This meal was HUGE. We ate what we could, rolled home, and crashed into a pretty good bed.

The next day dawned bright and we had breaky downstairs. Jen had sourdough with avo, egg, ham, cheese mayo and tomato and I had a weird thing called an oat cake that had peanut butter, honey and tahini. Not bad but I had the rest for lunch the next day. 

After breaky and some industrial strength coffee, we hired e-bikes for the day. Jen LOOOVES e-bikes and spends a good amount of time thinking about e-bikes, looking at places to hire e-bikes, looking at tracks for e-bikes and watching videos that feature e-bikes. 

We rode around the town, along the pier, up to a lighthouse, along a highway, up to a cool beach for a swim, to a lunch spot, back to the beach, up a huge hill where we nearly got run over, back along the pier, back to the beach and then we returned the bikes.

The cost for the day was 20 Euros for the bikes but the cost of the stress, worry, disagreements, wrong turns, near punch-ons, stacks and curse words was much, much higher. Fucking e-bikes... We made a bit of a rule for 2026 - e-bikes are great on deso paths where there are no cars, trucks or fucktards around!!

By 5 pm we were besties again and had a few drinks before we hit a recommended Italian joint called Dry. We had a few local vinos, Amatrician Linguine for me, and Prawn Spaghetti for Jen-Jen. Pretty exxy @ 75 Euros..

The next day we had a lazy breaky, checked out and grabbed a hire car - the very sporty Citroen. It was full of dings and old mate wasn't very worried about the condition that we returned it as it was the end of the season. Anyway we drove down to the south of the island on a very good main road - much better than Milos - to the ferry port of Pounda. We parked the Citro, jumped on the ferry - 1.5 Euros each -  and we were on the neighbouring island of Anti-Paros. This island is smaller and much less developed. There are only three main towns and because the strong wind was blowing from the north, we decided to head south. Before this though we needed a coffee.

We found and open cafe next to a car rental shop that had the sickest, meanest looking buggy out the front that you've ever seen. 40 Euros and 15 minutes later and we were away. It took me a few km's to realise that when my foot was to the floor, we were only doing 20 kph. I then flicked the button so that ALL tires would turn, and we were humming along in the slick whip - top speed 60kph. We headed south, stopped at a cave, but decided not to go in, before we discovered a sheltered perfect beach with about 3 people on it. We had a beautiful swim and thought "How good is this?"

Next stop was a seafood restaurant at the very bottom of the island called "Captain Pipinos." Lunch was Greek Salad and fresh caught, perfectly seasoned, shallow- fried calamari with salt and lemon. Washed down with soda water and finished off with espressos (even Jen-Jen) and free mini Magnum style ice creams - it was close to the perfect lunch.

A few clicks away was San Georgio church built on the rock that jutted out into a tiny bay. There was no one at all around and we spent a good half hour snorkelling, jumping off the pier and sunbaking. Perfecto. 

We then jumped back in the whip, fanged it back to the main town. This was 30 mins on the good highway and Google maps detour of two minutes on a sketchy backroad, but we dropped it off, paid the ferryman 3 Euros, jumped in the Citroen and drove to our new digs in the northern town of Noausa. 

This accommodation was at the top of hill and the view was amazing. We had booked three nights at Katerina Mare and Katerina herself came to meet us. She was a grand old dame who spoke minimal English but her grandson translated for her. Our room was beautiful, there was a general store 5 steps from our front door and the view from the balcony was to die for. Good times.

After a couple of pretty big days we were content for takeaway - 4.5 Euro gyros, a few drinks, TV and a sleep in - until 10am!!

The next day (17th Oct) we decided to leave the car parked where it was outside of our room and spend the day exploring the very beautiful dock area of Nouassa. 

We discovered beaches, harbours, restaurants, back alleys, ate food, swam, sunbaked, had a cocktail of two and then headed home to get ready for dinner... Phew. We even saw another branch of Ragoussis Bakery - see I tio;d you this would come back. It was huge, had every pastry, salad, roll, drink, hoy food etc... that you could ever want.  I grabbed something from there most days.

We decided that a tapas crawl was on the cards for the night. A small plate and a drink at each place. Righto, good plan.

The first place - Tsachpinis Bar (Sack Penis Bar... he he) supplied us with a house white and some more fried calamari. It was nearly as good as the one yesterday but huge! We then hit a joint called Medittereaneo and shared an octopus and potato dish with some more vino. Two seats away from us a was an Aussie woman called Wendy that we had met taking pictures this afternoon and we sat with  her while we had desert and ouzo. We then headed back to our verandah to look at the view and talk shit with Wendy for a few hours. It's one of the great things about travelling - the people that you meet. Wendy was a chef from the Sunshine Coast and we talked and drank until about midnight - which is very late for these old travellers.

The next day was not so good, very dusty.

Slept and chilled all day before we crawled back to the Sack Bar for burger patties, fries and steamed zucchini for The Dude while Jen-Jen had saffron, prawn, chorizo, risotto. Crawled back to bed - damned house white and ouzo...

We checked out of Katerina's early the next day and went to check out a little mountain village called Lefkes. Because it was early and Sunday, everything was closed. We walked around for a bit until we returned the car and jumped on the ferry to Naxos.

Each place gets better and better on this trip. Paros was great. Small enough to explore but big enough to have safe roads and all amenities. 50 is good my friends.

Ciao