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Hello, my lovelies!
I hope you and your loved ones are safe during this crazy times! As the world is slowly going back to normal with travelling and in general, I decided to tell you about an island that will always hold a special place in my heart and that is Paros, Cyclades Islands.
Last year we decided to visit the magical Cyclades Islands (most famous of which are Mykonos and Santorini) and more precisely a not so mainstream one of them, mainly Paros island. I know I’ve said this before, but when you see the photos you will believe me that this island is definitely the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to! Gorgeous white houses, colorful flowers everywhere and endless sea view!
Honestly, I never expected to see and experience a place like that!!! Everything looked like one of those famous Greek island paintings and right there in the middle of this fairytale (actually in the middle of the Aegean sea)…
WE GOT ENGAGED!!!
My now fiancé had done the impossible to be able to actually propose to me while scuba diving in the middle of the sea, surrounded by ONLY fishy-wishy looking witnesses! It was more than unbelievably emotional experience!!! /see more in our video/
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To be honest, I always thought I would suspect something like this would happen, but I never did! It was truly the most magical surprise and I still get happy tears when I think of that moment! I would be forever grateful for this fairytale experience and for my lovely fiancé for creating the most magical and unique moment for me!!!
After sharing this emotional moment with you, now it’s time to go back to the actual travel guide!
Travelling
We decided to fly from Sofia to Athens and then directly Athens-Paros, but we’ve checked that you can also get a ferry from Athens (bear in mind that when the weather in Paros gets super windy both flights and ferries are cancelled). Once we got to the Athens airport and I saw the tinyyyyy airplane that we were about to board towards the island, I was terrified… As I expected the flight was pretty scary and bumpy, but once you land, you get to this super small but cute airport (imagine even smaller than the local Mexican or Indonesian airports). However, this island hides so many mesmerising places that it was honestly worth it!
Furthermore, to freely explore all the gorgeous places, I truly recommend renting a quad bike or a buggy so that you can explore the entire island, while having fun in a very traditional way of travelling.
Naousa, Paros
Located right by the sea, Naousa is one of the biggest and definitely most lively towns on the island. Therefore, we decided to book a hotel there so that we can freely enjoy all its restaurants, cafes and shops without having to drive every night.
The town was magical, it had small cobble streets filled with flowers, traditional Mediterranean houses and lovely shops. The food there was amazing too and I truly recommend trying the local Cyclades type of grilled octopus (I will share all our favorite restaurants in a different blog post).
Lekfkes, Paros
The traditional village of Lefkes was the first capital of the island and is therefore withholding numerous historical buildings, churches and tavernas. Here you can definitely see those picture perfect white blue houses, surrounded by unique Mediterranean decorations and the traditional for the Cyclades islands gorgeous flowers (bougainvillea)!
When you plan your trip bear in mind that the village is built amphitheatrically with probably thousands of stairs and mostly direct sunlight, so it’s better to visit it in the late afternoon (not like us right in the middle of the day).
Kostos, Paros
Next is one of the smallest, but yet the cutest (at least for me) village of Kostos. It was literally just us and the cats there, which was so romantic and peaceful. The village is famous for its unique church with the flowers. It was definitely so beautiful!
Marpissa, Paros
This village definitely reminds me a lot of the “Mamma Mia” movie with its tiny cute streets, all-white vibes and main square by the church. It was definitely not crowded but the cafes were full and you could definitely feel the amazing local atmosphere!
Prodromos, Paros
Last but not least is the gorgeous village of Prodromos, located about 7km from Naousa. It is a very tiny cute village with such Mediterranean feel. Entering the village, you should park you quad outside and enter through an arch with a vaulted roof.
Apart from the amazing white houses, tiny chapels and my favourite flowers ever, in this place you can actually take byzantine path, which is a beautiful road paved with marble plates surrounded by olive plantations and vineyards connecting Lefkes and Prodromos.
To be honest, I’ve been contemplating about writing this Paros travel guide for quite a while, firstly, because of the current Covid situation and secondly, because this trip was probably the most emotional and personal so far! However, I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful for your next travel plans to this mesmerising place!
To end this blog post with a smile, I decided to share with you some funny parts of our magical engagement dive. To start with me thinking that when stopping at the chosen underwater location, my fiancé would make me touch some interesting fish and terrifyingly showing him I want to leave; him thinking that he lost the ring forever when a bubble came out of the ring box (as our instructor said this is a huge risk underwater) to actually having professional divers ready to save me if I literally drawn from euphoria! Amazing, right!!!
Paros was honestly one of the most beautiful and special places that we’ve been to and I truly hope you all have the opportunity to visit it! Real life fairy tale!
In the next blog post I will tell you about the unbelievable sandy beaches with turquoise water and our favourite yummy restaurants on the island!
Like this post if you want to see more travel stories like this on my blog and share with us in the comments some of your magical stories and places around the world!
