We started the next day leisurely, as we became convinced that this was probably going to be the most down time on the trip. After a good breakfast, we sat down and decided what to do with the day. Given the fact the Naoussa was all but done for the season, we abandoned plans to visit other smaller villages such as Lefkes, which were likely to be even more closed up, and decided to head to the main town of Parikia instead.
We stepped out into brilliant sunshine with the emarald blues and greens of the Aegean shimmering in the distance. We made our way through the village to the bus stop, and took a while to get the ticket vending machine to get going. Finally with the help of a local village woman, as well as visiting elderly Greek gentleman from Australia, who did not have exact change, we managed to buy ourselves as well as him tickets to Parikia.
Parikia is where the ferry docks, and as such, there is always a flurry of activity, between arriving and departing passengers, hotel pick ups and touts. The windmill at the centre of town was the hub for all this frenetic coming and going.
Our first order of business was to see the famous Church of the 100 doors, which claims to have just that - a 100 doors. So far 99 have been counted and the legend goes that the day the 100th is found, Istanbul will revert as Constantinople to the Greeks !
I was wearing shorts and hence decided not to enter, but Gordon did and got some great pictures of a beautiful baby girl getting baptised. There was a staircase to visit the upper floor and I climbed up and managed to get a glimpse of the nave of the church.
Thereafter, we wandered around till we came to this wonderful cafe under some very welcome shade where we stopped for lunch.
Post lunch was some more meanderings into the heart of Parikia.
We made our way back towards the bus stop. All the craziness of the morning had subsided, and the windmill was serene and calm without the crowds.
The ticket kiosk at Parikia also had problems with vending tickets and it took us a good part of 20 minutes to coax out two tickets. We took the bus back, schlepped back to the hotel and snoozed the afternoon away.
Before we headed for dinner, we went back to a store we had visited the previous evening, as we wanted to buy the beautiful Moroccan lamp that they had, but we had to get them to ship it. After finalising the transaction, we headed for a fast food pizza dinner at the Food Bar, a kind of self service cafeteria in the centre of the village, following which, we accompanied the almost full moon back to the hotel.
