Naxos Tips: How to reach an obscure peaceful beach

Naxos Tips

Naxos is the largest island in the Cycladic region, it can offer you various kinds of activities, famous for sandy beaches and picturesque villages. But, what about these travelers that are looking for serenity and tranquility?

If you want to find the place where time can stop, you have to wait…From Chora of Naxos, there is a bus heading towards the northern part of the island only on Mondays and Fridays. You could also rent a car. But why don’t you wait?

You usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for.

-Craig Bruce

Imagine this. It is Friday (or Monday) and you are waiting for the bus. It is noon and you are watching the port, ancient artifacts and the people that are walking under the hot sun. When the bus for “Apollonas” is here, you will notice that is full of local people. You have a huge backpack with you. They will be probably holding a shopping bag.

Naxos Tips: Where to stop?

You will need to ask the bus driver to stop at “Abram”. The beach of Abram is your destination and definitely not a popular one.

The journey itself is majestic as you will travel a scenic route which stretches along the top of steep cliffs which are punctuated with small coves and attractive beaches. After 20km into the journey, the bus will stop in the middle of the main road and all you have to do is to walk to the beach. During your bus trip, you may wonder if it was the right decision to visit this place. The next bus will arrive in 4 days. But anyway, these days it seems like you are constantly waiting for something.

In a world that we are always in hurry, you can once allow the time just to pass.

At the end of the path, you will discover a secluded and remote cove and its exceptional natural beauty as the blue of the sea mixes with the green of the trees in a wonderful combination of colors. It is sandy with small pebbles and calm waters at its northernmost end near the rocks. The landscape is majestic and wild. Search for a small tree that will offer you shade.

Naxos Tips: Taste the food!

The food tastes like your mother made it. Take a look around and you will notice the vineyards, olive trees, and fig trees. You can grab to taste some grapes. Its fertile soil has enabled Abram to be self-sufficient in terms of agricultural products.

From the tavern which is right on the beach, you will taste food which is produced in Abram and recipes who belong to the grandmother of the owner. This hospitable family is running the tavern and after a while, you will feel part of this family too. I can recollect with clarity a memory at this terrasse on the Aegean where the visitors were drinking homemade wine and tsikoudia. They laugh, they socialize, and they celebrate together their birthday’s and life in its entirety. It is hard to imagine a better place on earth to meet people and watch the sunset together.

Naxos Tips: Be ready for surprises

In the end, I am sure that you will not want to leave a place that feels like family in such a short time. You will not want to miss the smiley people and the stunning sunset. Be aware that there is a great chance you will want to stay longer than you expected.

The greek Sculptor Rokos have illustrated his summers in Abram. It is about the person, the nudity, nature, the sun and the sea. It is about the small church on the east side of the beach. It is about how a place can be transformed into an entirely unique experience.

Naxos tips — Art dedicated to this place

But finally, you will leave. You will grab your backpack that now is heavier, full of new friends and unforgettable experiences and you will walk to the main road. You will feel calm, sad and happy. You will wait again. But this time not for the bus. You will just wait for the next time you will see “Abram” again.

“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life”

– Oscar Wilde

Visit Akrotiri, An Archeological Treasure in Santorini

Archeological treasure

“I do love these ancient ruins. We never tread upon them but we set our foot upon some reverend history”

John Webster

Traveling can be a lot more than we think. Walking through the same streets that the habitants of Santorini on 1.500 BC were walking, is definitely charming and invaluable. But, what makes it a once-in-a-lifetime-experience is the fact the 3.500 years old town of Santorini remains uninfluenced by time.

On 1967, the excavation of Akrotiri, known as the “Pompeii of Santorini”, brought to light a perfectly preserved city which was at the zenith of its power and its wealth when it was destroyed in the mid-second millennium BC. The settlement that its name means promontory, is located at the southwestern part of the island and it is a real promontory.

Pre-historic timeline

First signs of habitation in Akrotiri date back to the Late Neolithic Period. By the Early Bronze Age, there was a settlement in Akrotiri that was expanded in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, becoming one of the main urban centers of the Aegean. But, nature had other plans. The growth in the town ended at the end of the 17th century BC, when its inhabitants left due to powerful seismic foreshocks. Then, the volcano erupted. Volcanic material covered the town and the rest of the island, preserving the buildings and their contents. The volcanic lava is the element that both destroyed and protected it for so long.

What happened to the people of Santorini is a mystery, because no skeletons were found. The “previous” island of Santorini was destroyed or submerged. Your visit is an archeological treasure hunt.

From afar, all you can see is the familiar dry landscape of Santorini and a stoned path. Some trees will offer you their relieving shade. You cannot notice ruins. Just a kind of a roof structure. This roof is the shelter of your “treasure”.

Why are people still going there?

The archeological site is only a small part of the town of Akrotiri but is more than enough for the visitor to feel its majestic energy. The houses are large, multi-storeyed, with a big staircase that leads you to the terrasse. The houses of Akrotiri speak of an affluent society and a cultivated standard of living. This is confirmed not only by the wonderful frescoes that adorn at least one room of each house but also by the latrine facilities in some houses! There are squares and system of streets at the same level as the ancient town. You can almost hear the locals of 1.500 BC talking and organizing their everyday life.

There is an opinion from some historians that this place was the inspiration behind Plato’s story of Atlantis.

{It is about a fictional island that at the end is falling out of favor with the deities, submerging into the Atlantic Ocean.}

Veritably, you are not going to solve the mystery of Lost Atlantis by visiting Akrotiri. Maybe you will love a little more the lost cities and their stories.

In the end, mysterious stories are made for permitting the imagination to finish the unwritten parts.

So, do your job, imagine and create your own unique story of Akrotiri.

The colorful beaches of Santorini

A story for Santorini

Beyond the classic Greek blue and white, Santorini is an island of orange and red, purple and yellow, green and pink.

The little buildings of the settlements are painted with pastel colors. The cliffs made up of layers of volcanic rock and soil, are banded with bright hues. The color palette of Santorini is extraordinary and majestic.

when history is connected with volcanoes…

In the beginning, about two million years ago, Santorini used to be a small non-volcanic island. Scientists are expressing the opinion that about two million years ago, volcanoes located underneath the Aegean Sea to the west of Santorini began generating volcanic emissions.

Prior to 1620 BC, the island of Santorini was built up by layers of lava created by overlapping shield volcanoes. Furthermore, it had experienced three significant eruptions that formed overlapping calderas.

Around 1620 BC, the fourth and latest major eruption created the present-day islands and caldera bay of Santorini Volcano.

Volcano as a gift

The volcano is not only responsible for disasters and catastrophe but also for the special volcanic soil. Nature offered to Santorini the most impressive natural color mixing and texture combination. In the foreground, the caldera cliffs show some of the extraordinary colors of the volcanic rocks and the flora that thrive in the mineral-rich soil.

A beach for every color

The volcanic origin of Santorini is also obvious at the beaches, which come in a variety of hues. A glance at a map looks like a passage from a modern painting Russian avant-garde: Red Beach, White Beach, Black Beach. The pebbles and sand come from hardened lava, and the colors vary depending on which geological layer has been exposed.

Red beach _ In The Shadow of The Rocks

The hue of the massive rocks at Red Beach comes from iron deposits. The landscape is full of scale and color contrasts. The view of the huge, almost vertical, volcanic rocks and the small, reddish pebbles will take your breath away. The combination of the red rocks, the turquoise water and the black sand of the shore give the impression of outlandishness.

White beach _ Swimming In a Lunar Landscape

A small beach carved into the side of the mountain with white cliffs as background. The rock formations are gorgeous and the white against the deep blue sea is stunning. In the water, there are plenty of various sized rocks. You can swim beside them or even climb on them if you want to discover a kind of your “personal” moon.

Black Beach _ Lying on The Lava

Due to the former intense activity of the volcano, you can find plenty of beaches with either dark black sand or black pebbles. The black beaches were formed because when lava contacts water, it cools rapidly and shatters into sand that consists of tiny fragments of basalt. So, by visiting them you can easily enjoy lying on lava and swim in warm waters because lava acts as a heat absorber.

Travelling is about all kinds of pleasure. I think that the most powerful one is the “pleasure of the unconventional”. To see, to feel, to experience, to live something that is not expected to.

So, if the “pleasure of the unconventional” is when you live what is not expected to, then the unexpected is definitively the wild and unique beauty of a beach on Santorini.

Why are Cyclades white?

Cyclades: White and Blue Aesthetic

When someone is asking about Cyclades Islands all that you can think about is white and blue.

Blue is the sea and the sky. White is every single cubed-shaped house. White is the church that stands out of the rocky ground and the paved paths of white villages.

The scenery is the absolute example of minimalism, but it can indicate more than a minimal aesthetic.

Cyclades Islands weren’t always white

It is known that in ancient Greek art and architecture there were used colors made from plants and flowers. In the Medieval era, when the Aegean islands had a huge problem with piracy, the villages were surrounded by walls. The only color was one of the rocks and the earth, so they were less visible and safer from the pirate invasions.

History is the key

In 1938, the Greek dictator ordered to paint all the buildings with lime, a white antibacterial material, so it could stop the spread of the epidemic disease of cholera.

In 1955, the Queen Frederica of Hanover presented to the Greek Prime Minister a photo of some perfectly-conserved white houses of Mykonos. She suggested white as the “trademark” of Greek islands.

1967 – 1974: The military government commanded to paint everything at the islands white by law. Even the islands that weren’t white before, were forced to change their local identity and to follow the ethnic style of blue and white combination, along with the colors of the Greek flag.

What about now?

Now, the white color is not obligatory. For locals living in the islands, it means cleanliness, clarity, and protection from the heat because is reducing the solar absorption.

But, what does the white color mean to us?

Does it matter if white exists because of past epidemic diseases, the desire of a Queen, political reasons or a touristic branding? When you are witnessing the scenery of Cyclades Islands it is impossible not to fall in love with the beauty.

You can’t help but be in love with the forms, the textures, and the way that the sunlight is reflected on the surfaces. Finally, you have to admit that all of this is a matter of material and color. A matter of white color.

“The white color of the lime made the picturesque unity of the settlement. As a theatrical scene: as if everything was created by only one hand.”

Le Corbusier, modernist architect