Naxos
Day One
We decided to do laundry on our last day in Crete, but had to hang-dry our clothes overnight. Our ferry left early, so we had to wake up even earlier to pack up. We were predictably running a bit late, so we had to walk with urgency / lightly jog to make it in time (the place we were staying was only a 18 minute walk downhill--we made it in 12).
The ferry was a few hours, and actually stopped at Santorini on the way--we were very impressed by the speed and efficiency of the Greek ferry system. It only takes about 10-15 minutes for the boat to dock at the port, let everyone off, load, and depart, all with very few people needed at the port. And these boats are larger than planes! Think about if you could arrive at the airport 15 minutes before your flight left!
We arrived in Naxos around noon. This time, the rental car was waiting for us at the port, and the person renting it to us was much nicer than the people in Crete.
Jack had a coworker who just went on a sabbatical to Greece, and provided us with a lot of restaurant recommendations in Naxos and Athens. For lunch, we went to a place off this list. We had eggplant spread, spaghetti with garlic red sauce, house wine, and, you guessed it, a Greek salad, specifically a Naxian salad. We’ve learned that each Greek island tends to have its own specialty type of cheese and one of the Naxian cheeses is Mizithra. We’re pretty sure that a Naxian salad is a Greek salad with Naxian cheese and Cretan rusks (dried bread).
After lunch, we met our host to check in to our room. It was very cute, spacious, and cozy. We took a quick nap, then spent some time walking around and shopping. We were staying in the “old town” of Naxos, which is full of narrow, winding, stair-filled paths--usually only a few feet wide--without any real streets between them. It was chaotic and super fun to navigate, made more challenging by the fact that cell reception ranged from “very bad” to “nonexistent” in old town.
We soon fell in love with the vibe of Naxos—not too crowded, cute shops with handmade art and gifts, delicious restaurants, and so much history and culture. We stopped by a restaurant near our house, Labyrinth (a fitting name), and had a glass of wine and a potato appetizer. We then attempted to find the major tourist attraction, Meatloaf, by the dock but were unsuccessful. Meatloaf, of course, is the name of a very friendly fat cat who hangs out around the water. However, we made friends with a scruffy old orange cat near our house, who we named Veggie Loaf. He lived on a porch, but would come down to greet us every time we saw him (and politely yelled for scratches).
It was approaching sunset, so we got an Aperol spritz to-go and went to the temple of Apollo. It was definitely one of the most beautiful views we’d seen so far on the trip—the beautiful sunset through the arch of the temple with the waves in the background cannot be beat. The temple itself isn’t ruined, but unfinished! The construction was started by the “tyrant of Naxos”, and soon after it started, he was overthrown by the Spartan army.
For dinner, we found a cute outdoor patio in the old town, and had one of our our favorite dishes of the whole trip, fried zucchini balls with a yogurt sauce. We walked back to the house and petted about a million cats on the way home, including Veggie Loaf.
Day Two
The next day, Jack made coffee in the apartment before we drove to nearby village of Eggares to go to an olive oil museum. The museum was run by a run by a local olive oil producer and was very small, just one room. The tour guide walked us through the entire olive oil making process, featuring old tools that were used in the olive oil production process. The best part was after the tour, when we were able to try up to our heart’s content of flavored olive oils, olives, marmalades, spreads, and desserts. We sat outside and made friends with a cat and worked on our postcards. We were intrigued by some of their menu items, especially the spicy olive oil margarita, and ordered that, a zucchini salad, and an orange olive oil cake. Everything was delicious! Jack went inside to make a few purchases and made friends with the employee whose family has owned a hotel in Naxos for generations. Jack mentioned we were on our honeymoon and she gave us a free tote bag and bottle of wine, with the stipulation that he shares it with his new wife.
In the afternoon, we decided to go to Alyko beach—a popular beach on the west side of the island surrounded by ruins of an old hotel. The beach was SO WINDY. We walked around the ruins of the hotel and were amazed with all of the unique graffiti. It was also kinda spooky walking through the empty hallways. Fact about how old the hotel is and what happened.
We wanted to go to this place for dinner because Jack’s coworker recommended it and it had a lot of yummy looking vegetarian options. We got there around 8pm and they said they were booked until 9:15pm. We decided to put our name down and go grab a glass of wine at a wine bar. We went back to the restaurant and got some spicy cheese spread (which was actually pretty spicy!), fried cheese with honey (which has now become one of our favorite dishes in Greek cuisine), and stuffed bell peppers with potatoes on the side (we later found out that Naxos is known for its potatoes, which makes sense as Hannah declared these the best potatoes she’s ever had). We wanted the vegetarian Moussaka, a popular Greek zucchini casserole, but they ran out at that point. We also got a fancy bottle of wine—(explain how the wine is made and what is special about it).
Day Three
Before we came to Naxos, we’ve heard tales far and wide of the magic of Kitron, a liqueur made from Kitron leaves, a citrus fruit that looks like a large lemon, and is produced only on this island due to a Protected Domain of Origin (P.D.O.) status. Hannah decided it would be a good idea to schedule a tour and tasting (which is putting it lightly) at a Kitron distillery at 10:30am. The distillery that we went to, Promponas, is a family-owned business over 100 years old.
We first did a tour of the distillery, with an amazing tour guide, Sophie, who was the daughter of the current owner and brought so much personality and fun to our experience. The tour group was small, just us and another American woman from Arizona. Much to Jack’s enjoyment, she made our tour into a competition by asking the three of us trivia questions throughout where the winner gets an extra shot of Kitron at the end. However, she was a bit of a misandrist and started the women at 0 points and Jack, who was a very good sport and loves a challenge, at -3 points.
Kitron is made by distilling a base alcohol with the Kitron leaves, which have a very strong smell and flavor to them. Then the base liquor is diluted down to the desired ABV, and sugar is added to sweeten it. The distinctive green, yellow, and clear color come from food coloring that is added. The colors are part of the PDO definition of Kitron, and cannot be changed while still calling the drink Kitron.
We also were able to fill and place the label on our own Kitron bottles. During the tasting, we tried six different drinks: Ouzo, Raki with Kitron flavor, Raki with honey, cinnamon, and cloves, white Kitron, green Kitron, and yellow Kitron. Kitron is a We also had a variety of Naxian snacks and desserts including bruschetta, cheeses, olive tapenade, pepper and Kitron marmalades, chocolates, and candied Kitron rinds. She gave us extra tastings of our favorites and even let us try the homemade limoncello. Each time we tried a new drink, we had to cheers and scream “Yia Mas” at the top of our lungs, and if we weren’t loud enough, we had to try again.
After the tour and tasting, we quickly rushed back to Old Town Naxos so that we could go to the Archeological Museum before it closed in the early afternoon. We saw a lot of interesting artifacts, mostly pottery and ceramics, and ran into a few archaeologists from the US who specialize in ancient Greek ceramics who were able to answer all of our questions. We then promptly went back to the house and took a much needed afternoon nap.
Day Four
Today was our day to drive around the island! We left the house around 10:00 and went to our first stop—the temple of Dionysus. Little did we know that basically everything in Naxos is closed on Tuesdays. At the temple, we were able to walk the back way around through a potato farm to see the backside of the site from a bit of a view. We missed the small museum that was next to the site so instead we read the Wikipedia article in the car on the way to our next stop.
We quickly stopped for coffee and, say it with me, “Greek salad!” before driving to the temple of Demeter. This site was a pretty far walk from the admission gate to the actual site—we considered jumping the fence but thought it would be smarter to just get some pics from afar and once again read the Wikipedia page in the car.
Our next stop was the village of Chalkio, which is home to the oldest and only other Kitron distillery on the island, Vallindras. We quickly did a self guided tour of the distillery and tried some of their liqueur. We also realized that the village was home to several shops with handmade art and gifts. We did some shopping and bought a table runner from a woman who showed us her loom and explained she’s been weaving for decades!
On the next stop, we finally got to the main event: Mount Zas. This mountain is one of the many alleged birthplaces of Zeus. We opted for the shorter but more intense hike that started at a natural spring and stopped by the Cave of Zas on the way up the mountain. The cave is home to several different species of bats, and hikers are encouraged not to explore too far into the cave. We quietly looked inside the cave and continued on our hike. Archeologists have found evidence of human use of the cave dating back to the Late Neolithic period (~3100 BC)
Most of the hike ended up being less walking and more rock scrambling! We agreed that it was maybe the toughest mile either of us had ever hiked before, partially because we were hiking during the hottest part of the day were a little low on water. However, the whole journey was beautiful and making it to the summit was breathtaking and absolutely worth the trek.
The next stop was a small chapel nearby–we started the walk to the monastery that a sign claimed was 1km away, but after walking over 2km and the monastery still not in sight, we decided to turn around as we were in desperate need of water at this point. We were pretty tucked at this point, so did some quick driving through the last few villages. When we got back to our house, we decided to get some pizza for takeout while we finished packing for Athens. We walked down to the port, ordered our pizza and Greek salad ofc, and did some quick shopping while we waited. We took the pizza back to our house, petted Veggie Loaf one last time, and enjoyed it with the complementary wine from the Olive Oil Museum.
