Naxos

We arrived in Naxos at noon on Wednesday the 6th after the 1.5 hour ferry trip from Santorini (We had opted for a high-speed ferry which cost around 60 euros for 2 tickets).  We walked to a hotel that was recommended in our Let’s Go guidebook.  Hotel Grotta had a room available for 60 euros a night including breakfast.  We signed up for two nights.

After a warm welcome from the staff which included free drinks, treats and a thorough explanation of things to see and do, we headed to the beach because the weather was awesome.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing at the beach before heading back into Naxos City to explore.  We grabbed dinner for 30 euros at a nice place Bird had picked out from the guidebook.  After dinner we wandered the small streets of the Kastro and did some shopping.  Bird bought some earrings for 15 euros and we also got her sister a Christmas present.

Thursday, October 7
The weather had turned a little cool and cloudy over night and it looked like it might rain at any time, so we decided to rent a car for the day and see the island.  Renting the car along with insurance cost us 40 euros.  But when I got in the car to drive it away, I noticed it was empty, like way past the E.  So I asked the rental guy what the deal was (since in America when you rent a car it comes with a full tank and you must return it with a full tank (thereby paying only for the gas you use)).  Well, the man at the counter told me if I found it on empty I should return it on empty and pointed out the closest gas station on the map.

We made it to the gas station and a man came out to pump for me and asked me how much I wanted.  In probably the stupidest financial move of the trip I told him to fill it up and then proceeded to talk with Bird about our upcoming adventures.  I didn’t even think twice about it.

Looking back I can only assume I had these thoughts running through my head:

• I have no idea how much gas I need
• I have no idea how big this island is
• This is a tiny car.  How much gas can it even hold?
• The sign at the gas station says something like 1.40 euros which doesn’t sound terrible

When I hear the pump click indicating it’s finished, I look over and am stupefied to see that this tank of gas just cost me 55 euros (around 75 bucks!).  Oh, of course I forgot that they sell it in liters! Woof!  I barely had enough cash to cover it when the guy wouldn’t accept my credit card.

So with a full tank of gas, we head up into the mountains to explore Naxos.  And I’m determined to drive all day and use up all this gas!!!  We stopped in the small town of Halki and had an amazing hike for a couple hours through the olive groves.  The scenery was breathtaking.  Definitely a highlight of our time on Naxos.

We stopped at a market to grab some bread and cheese  for lunch and then we proceeded to drive through the mountains.  Let me tell you, I loved driving this tiny car on these tiny, curvy moutain roads.  There was no one around and the scenery was beautiful.  Unfortunately, Bird was not enjoying it quite as much and got a pretty bad case of motion sickness.  So we pulled into the seaside town of Apollonas to have our lunch and let Bird recuperate a bit.

Eventually we headed back to Naxos City and turned the car in after using less than a quarter of a tank of gas.  Blergh.  That was such a waste of money.  But a lesson learned and a story to be told.

That night we grabbed a cheap gyro dinner (7 euros for 2) and stopped by a travel agency to purchase ferry tickets to Paros for the next day.  These tickets were pretty cheap (only 15 euros for 2 (slow boat)) because Paros is just a short one hour ferry trip away.

Friday, October 8
After grabbing breakfast at the hotel, the staff shuttled us to the port and we headed off for Paros.  The last island we were going to visit before heading to Athens on Saturday.

Thoughts:
Naxos was fantastic.  The Hotel Grotta was amazing and we would highly recommend it.  We saved money by eating breakfast at the hotel each morning.  Naxos is a big island so renting a car was a good idea so we could explore other parts of it especially when the weather was too poor for us to be at the beach.  Of course, we wasted money on gas but that’s okay.  We also saved money by opting for the slow boat tickets to Paros instead of the fast boat which would have been almost double the cost.