I'm Never Walking Again
Okay, dinner's done (except maybe for dessert). After the grilled feta (it was double-bagged in foil with a slice of tomato), I had calamari stuffed with peppers and feta. The food's been great so far. It helps that I've warmed up to Greek cuisine over the last couple years.

Today was probably my most indulgent food day--I ate out twice! For lunch, I had more spanikopita, plus a dessert called kataifi, I think. It was chopped nuts rolled into semicrispy bird's nest-type noodles, doused in syrup. It was good, except that it reminded me of fruit cake.

Anyway, I was probably only this hungry today because of the walking--I think around 15km. Or however far three hours of near continuous walking will get you.

I wish I could figure out if these guys at the other table are related or in an ooky May-December relationship. The older one has a rang, the younger has a "hip" mullet, and they're both floating between English and French.

So when I woke up today (a little after 10), I decided I'd take a bus to a trail for Mt. Zeus, finish by early afternoon, then sunbathe back by the hotel. The ticket agent told me which stop I wanted, and I found the appropriate bus driver, but I guess the problem was only asking if he went to Agia Marina, and not asking if he'd tell me when we got there. So I missed the stop by about 8km, and I ended up in Apiranthos. Having not had any coffee, I decided to get some and have the aforementioned lunch. I wandered around town for a bit after lunch, but it was a pretty small village. I decided to walk back to the Mt. Zeus trailhead. But over an hour later, when I got there, I was pretty tuckered out. There had been a nice breeze, but it was still full and constant sun. I went up the trail a bit, but I only made it to the first point of interest--a spring. I replenished my bottle with the cold water and turned back. I continued on to the next town, since it was closer than Apiranthos, and I knew where its bus stop was. But then I got there and felt bad I hadn't hiked as intended, so I kept going to the next major town, Halki. I thought it was only 2km away, but it took considerably longer to get there. I had been thinking about touring the local distillery--one of the only places in the world where citron grows. But I arrived at the same time the bus was scheduled to pass through, so I bought a Kit Kat ice cream cone (just a Kit Kat buried in a vanilla cone) and plopped down. Citron liquor isn't widely exported, since the crop has lately een poor, but I saw it in Athens, so I'll pick some up on my way back.

So I made it back to town, but I didn't actually know where my hostel was. It was in a neighborhood full of hotels that were mostly only distinguishable by the paint color on the shutters. They picked me up from the dock last night (after midnight), and I hadn't paid attention when I left. After guessing blindly for 15 minutes, I managed to find it by systematically walking up and down streets, one by one. By that point, I only had about 1.5h of daylight, but I took it sprawled on a towel at the nearby beach.

And afterall that, plus the food in my stomach, I'm pretty beat. I'm going to try to stop in an internet cafe on the way back, but it really wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't.

Labels: bar trip, Naxos (GR)

- posted by roger @ 9:53 PM