After our adventure on the 4-wheeler the day before, we had a pretty slow, relaxing morning on day 3. We went out for our new favorite breakfast of Greek yogurt, fruit and muesli, and then came back to the hotel to mess around on the Internet and plan our day. We were pretty slow and lazy, though, and even fell back asleep for a bit. Once we were up and ready to get going, we had a tough time settling on how to spend the rest of our day.
Ultimately, we decided we needed to get out and move a little, so we chose to take a journey down the Byzantine Road. The Byzantine Road is an old stone-paved trail stretching about 4 km between the villages of Lefkes and Prodromos. Most people start the walk in Lefkes and hike downhill to Prodromos; however, because we wanted to end in Lefkes, we challenged the norm and went the opposite way (against our taxi driver's precaution.) After the cabbie dropped us off and vaguely pointed out the beginning of the trail, we walked around a bit wondering which trail-like path to take but finally found it. (This is one case where we didn't want to take the road less traveled.) As we began, we made a bet about how many other hikers we thought we would see. Luke bet 3 while I bet 0. I won. And it makes perfect sense. While the hike wasn't too long, offered great views and ended in the cute village of Lefkes, it was extremely hot. The views were beautiful of course, but the landscape was pretty arid. I would imagine it is a much more beautiful path in the spring when everything is lush, green and flowering.
Once reaching Lefkes, we pretty quickly stumbled upon a quaint little restaurant run by three generations of women (grandma, mom and daughter) specializing in savory and sweet pies. I wish I'd taken a picture of the menu because it was handmade, so unique and told the story of how they began the restaurant in the early 90's. We could see into their kitchen, and it looked just like a normal, home kitchen. Nothing fancy or "restauranty" about it at all. When we ordered (from who I thought to be the mom of the three), we only had a few options. We were early and several of their dishes were still in the oven. We chose the cheese pie, and oh my goodness, it was amazing. The crust was homemade, flaky and full of sesame seeds. I think this is when you say, "It was to die for!" It was so good that after walking through the village a bit (where we happened upon a Greek funeral procession), we went back for dessert. This time we ordered wrong. We got the chocolate option thinking it would be a pie with some type of equally wonderful crust, but unfortunately, it was a cake. It was good, just not what we were hoping for. After scoping out the other tables' orders, we realized we should have gone with the orange pie or the butter pie. After those indulgences, we should have walked home, but instead, we opted for a taxi and called it an early night.
Day 4 we took another little boat out to a different beach, where we did some novice kayaking and soaked up a bit more sun before jumping aboard a rocky fairy to Crete. Enjoy pics from days 3 & 4 below!
Ultimately, we decided we needed to get out and move a little, so we chose to take a journey down the Byzantine Road. The Byzantine Road is an old stone-paved trail stretching about 4 km between the villages of Lefkes and Prodromos. Most people start the walk in Lefkes and hike downhill to Prodromos; however, because we wanted to end in Lefkes, we challenged the norm and went the opposite way (against our taxi driver's precaution.) After the cabbie dropped us off and vaguely pointed out the beginning of the trail, we walked around a bit wondering which trail-like path to take but finally found it. (This is one case where we didn't want to take the road less traveled.) As we began, we made a bet about how many other hikers we thought we would see. Luke bet 3 while I bet 0. I won. And it makes perfect sense. While the hike wasn't too long, offered great views and ended in the cute village of Lefkes, it was extremely hot. The views were beautiful of course, but the landscape was pretty arid. I would imagine it is a much more beautiful path in the spring when everything is lush, green and flowering.
Once reaching Lefkes, we pretty quickly stumbled upon a quaint little restaurant run by three generations of women (grandma, mom and daughter) specializing in savory and sweet pies. I wish I'd taken a picture of the menu because it was handmade, so unique and told the story of how they began the restaurant in the early 90's. We could see into their kitchen, and it looked just like a normal, home kitchen. Nothing fancy or "restauranty" about it at all. When we ordered (from who I thought to be the mom of the three), we only had a few options. We were early and several of their dishes were still in the oven. We chose the cheese pie, and oh my goodness, it was amazing. The crust was homemade, flaky and full of sesame seeds. I think this is when you say, "It was to die for!" It was so good that after walking through the village a bit (where we happened upon a Greek funeral procession), we went back for dessert. This time we ordered wrong. We got the chocolate option thinking it would be a pie with some type of equally wonderful crust, but unfortunately, it was a cake. It was good, just not what we were hoping for. After scoping out the other tables' orders, we realized we should have gone with the orange pie or the butter pie. After those indulgences, we should have walked home, but instead, we opted for a taxi and called it an early night.
Day 4 we took another little boat out to a different beach, where we did some novice kayaking and soaked up a bit more sun before jumping aboard a rocky fairy to Crete. Enjoy pics from days 3 & 4 below!
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| Self timer put to good use. |
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| Please ignore the shirtless girl. It was soooo hot, and we were the only ones on the trail. And I wanted to include it here because it is the only pic we have with the sea in the background. |
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| Lefkes in the distance. |
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| Luke's favorite quote, "It's about the journey not the destination." Unfortunately, he has to remind me of this too often. |
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| Lefkes again in the distance. I love the white buildings. |
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| This sign would have been helpful at the start of the trail. Oh, wait. We went backwards. |
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| The stairs leading up to our little gem of a restaurant. We didn't even know we were about to have the best (and only) cheese pie of our lives. |
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| Cats were roaming freely everywhere in Greece, and they were always small kitten like. We never did figure out what they did with the adult cats. |
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| On the boat heading out for our last beach visit in Paros. |
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| Adios, Naoussa! |
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| A sweet old lady was kind enough to take our picture. |
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| What's that you see, Captain? |
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