It's All Greek To Me...Literally

After our time in Athens, we were headed to Antiparos, a very small island about 1km away from a bigger island, Paros. We took a ferry from Athens and I had a bit of an awkward moment during the voyage. I was looking for a washroom, and I saw the sign for one. However, there was only one door with an icon on it that wasn’t clearly a man or a woman. Since there was only one door, I assumed it was a family washroom with stalls. I went in, went to the bathroom but when I came out of the stall there was a man next to me washing his hands. He sort of gave me a weird look, but I just smiled and said “hi”. I came out as another man was going in. To my embarrassment, there was a woman’s washroom 10 m down the hall and I had just make a complete fool of myself. But, it was fine. This is my life. Other than that, the ferry ride was great! We arrived in Paros and then took a smaller boat to the island of Antiparos. The sun was setting and it was a beautiful arrival for us!





We had a great apartment right on the harbor with a balcony and a beautiful view. I was so happy that we were staying there for 8 nights. I was able to take out my clothes and really settle into a place which was quite a change for me. Antiparos was a charming island with lots of little shops, young families, and lots of cute couples. I was very glad that we chose this island instead of the more popular and busier islands of Mykonos and Santorini. We basically did the same thing every day so this blog post won’t be written in chronological order. Instead, I will go through the daily schedule with pictures from multiple days.

We would start off the day by getting to the beach by around 9:00. We found an awesome secluded beach that had lots of trees (great for Dad!). The trees also gave me a place to finally use the hammock that I’ve carried around with me on my entire trip. It was a perfect place to relax and read.









Dad and Kristen went swimming more often than Ingrid and I, but they have the scars to prove it. They both hurt their feet by walking on rocks/coral. After Ingrid "nursed" Dad's injury, I was able to capture a shot of him taking a little break. I think it's his model shot of the trip. :)


We often stayed at the beach until 1:00 PM. Dad usually would only stay for 45 minutes. One day he lasted an hour and a half which was a record for him. Us girls would read, listen to our i-pods and of course, take fun pictures. We usually tried to do anything to avoid the topless people (usually 55 yrs. or older) that were on our right and our left. As a side note-it is weird that people lay out in the sun without their top on and then put it ON to go swimming. Very weird.

Our afternoons were spent in our apartment enjoying the air conditioning. Being outside in the heat of the day was pretty painful, so we would buy bread, cheese, and meat and enjoy lunch before a nap or hours of reading. We did a LOT of reading in Antiparos. My Mom sent 5 Emily Giffin books that we all shared and we just couldn’t put them down!


I haven’t read a novel “for fun” in so long and after my time in Antiparos, I had read 7 new books. So great! We were even reading while “swimming”.


One time, Kristen and I were reading our books in bed and she was trying to be funny by knocking my book out of my heads (yes, she is really mature I know). Anyway, she ended up missing the book and punching me in the face. It hurt SO badly and we both started crying (her tears were a result of laughter…mine a mix of laughter and pain). Unfortunately, I couldn’t capture this on film so we re-staged the incident for a picture.


After our nap, us girls would usually go to the “Nautica Café”, just across the street from our apartment on the harbour to check our e-mail, enjoy a coffee, people-watch and of course, read. We would also go to Nautica Café for dinner. (We really liked it there.) We had the same waiter every night named Gerald. He was from Albania and was just wonderful.

After dinner, we would go for a little stroll and have some gelato!



We repeated this for 7 days. It was absolutely fantastic! It was so nice to get to really know a town and figure out where things are and just relax. I definitely appreciated being in the same place for more than 2 nights. There was one day when Ingrid, Kristen and I took a trip to the island of Paros.
Let’s just say that I am very glad we didn’t stay in Paros. There really wasn’t anything to do. It’s a nice boat ride over, but there really wasn’t much to do once we were there. We did some souvenir shopping, went out to eat, and stopped for a drink in the afternoon but we were happy to get back to Antiparos when we did.



One afternoon, the four of us also went to the infamous “cave” on the island. It was actually a really cool experience. We walked 100m underground (which is really crazy to think about) and though we were sweaty and tired after walking all over it for an hour it was an awesome sight and the view outside the cave was really nice as well.







On our last night, we got a little dressed up (we were channeling our experience on cruise ships, I guess) and went for a little stroll before dinner. The Café was really crowded that night because there had just been a big swim from Paros to Antiparos (just over 1000m) so everyone was gathered around the shore cheering everyone on, and then celebrating at Nautica afterwards.




Essentially, our time in Antiparos was absolutely wonderful. Great people, great town, great apartment, great view. Everything was so fantastic and I definitely want to go back there! Next stop-Dubrovnik, Croatia!