Greece Trip: 05/02/08 (Fri) -- Naxos
We had a nice stay at the Piraeus Dream Hotel. Here are pluses and minuses:
+ Great rate on booking.com -- better than the hotel would give us calling on the phone and bargaining in Greek.
+ Great location re: the port. A cab isn't absolutely necessary as it's a doable walk. It's also close to METRO station.
+ Desk staff is helpful
+ The hotel has free wifi for guests, which is frequently not the case in Greece.
+ The breakfast room is excellent.
+ The bed is EXTREMELY comfortable (although I could have slept on just about anything horizontal at that point).
+ Room decor is pretty cool actually.
+ There are non-smoking rooms. This is rarely the case in Greece.
- The immediate neighborhood is kinda scary looking and the views aren't much.
The thing to keep in mind about staying here is that you're only there because you need a stopping point either before you catch a ferry or after you arrive from a ferry. It's NOT a destination. But it's a restful bargain of a hotel that has everything you need.
Callie and I were up extra early to run down to the port and double check the departure time of the NEL fast ferry to Naxos (the Aiolos Kenteris I), and to figure out where it is. Nice looking boat! Mission accomplished.
Back to the hotel for breakfast. Taxi is booked to ferry. It's not necessary (the hotel is within walking distance), but it (in theory) gives us a little more time to relax. Or so we thought. Taxi driver proceeded to drive around like an idiot, AWAY from where he needed to go. We finally directed him to the boat (ASIDE: Many Greek taxi drivers seem to drive around unnecessarily -- probably good for their fares, but not good if you are tight on time). We made it onboard with a few minutes to spare. It shouldn't have been that close. Greek ferries generally do NOT wait, so missing it would have sucked.
The NEL fast ferry is REALLY nice. Airplane-style seating, but roomier and more comfy.
(8:15 am or so) The seats are very calm. Almost glassy. Good journal updating time....
(10:15 am) And so a few hours into it, we are passing the Blue Star Paros, which was the first ferry out to Naxos this day (it left about 35 minutes before ours). It's slower and cheaper. We opted for more sleep at slightly more expense.
(12:15 pm, Arrival at Naxos) After the ferry arrival (disembarkation!), we call the hotel to arrange transfer, and catch a taxi per their instructions. It seems like a roundabout trip. We pass Picasso's, a Mexican restaurant on Naxos. No kidding. Taxis driver laughs when I say "We have lots of Mexican food in Houston TX, we travel thousands of miles to Naxos, and there Mexican food). (ASIDE: We would see this driver and his silver Mercedes zipping all around Naxos CONSTANTLY during our stay. Kinda funny).
ZZZZZzzzz....
(Even later yet) Everyone is finally up. We head back to the old city. We wander to the old castle, and debate the bozouki concert, but 25 euros each seems a bit much, even with drinks. It's not like we haven't heard bozouki before, although it's proving to be hard to find live bozouki IN Greece, which is odd.
Dinner at Callie's lamb restaurant, Niko's, was okay. The barrel red wine was... okay, as was the calamari. The lamb was dry, only so-so. Great view, but honestly the food was not the best we've ever had.
Dessert at Rendezvous, however, was MUCH better. And we went overboard -- it cost more than dinner by the time we were done! We also had Citron, the native Naxos liqueur. Blech. Nasty!
We decided to retire to the hotel, but Callie and I opt for an Ouzo nightcap at the beach bar by the hotel -- miraculously, still open this late even during the off season. It wasn't Plomari, but it was okay Ouzo. Back to the hotel!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/02/08 23:59 | Travel | Technorati
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