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Paros is the transportation hub for the group of islands known as the Cyclades . The Cyclades being a group of islands that form a circle around the mythological important island of Delos . Paros has the trademark white washed houses with picturesque balconies overlooking clear blue water. Paros is a relatively flat island with scenic harbor ports. I think I saw one of my most spectacular Greek sunsets on Paros. Paros is a nice island to visit. Therefore, it gets numerous tourists from all over each year and has swank boutiques for the tourists. Paros is also fairly arid and wind swept. Poros is nothing like that. Poros is located in the Argosaronic gulf a mere 50 yards from the Argoid coast. The major shipping channel in facts passes in between this fifty yard straight, causing the water on that side of the island to undertake a peculiar green hue. It is lush with pine trees and it gets ample rain. It is protected in its gulf and no one would ever accuse it of being flat. It is one of five islands in this group. Hydra is well known and popular. Sammonosili is a mere 50 yards from the Corinth Highway outside of Athens and therefore very industrialized and the least popular as a tourist destination. Aegina and Spetses and Paros make up the middle fairly equally to one another. Each of the islands in the group has the same natural history and similar human history to one another. Therefore, the islands are all quite similar but each one is also unique in its own way. But enough about other islands. This essay is dedicated to Paros. Poros is made up of two small submerged mountain tops joined by a small bit of land and does not have a significant, Roman, Ottoman, or Greek history. It is said to be the island of Poseidon, but this was most likely one of his small cult islands. Poros does not have an architecture that makes it known throught the world. These things have saved it from mass scale tourism. However, being so close to Athens, and the Argoid coast, it is a very popular location to visit with Greeks. In a way, Poros is very similar to its famous neighbors of Hydra, Aegina, and Spetses. As I mentioned it is a submerged mountain. During the last ice age, it towered over the land bridge that is now the Argosaronic Gulf. The current climate, along with a fertile soil, made it ideal for pine trees to grow and cover the slopes of the mountain tops with lush, green trees. The climate is relatively cool in the morning but gets quite warm once the rays of the noon day sun hit. With the proximity to Athens, it is a popular day getaway, even more popular than Spetses and Hydra because it is only an hour away. However it is also quite different in other ways. The architecture is not the same as the other islands. In fact there is not one distinct style. It varies greatly. They have freely welcomed cars onto their island, with car toting ferries bringing the iron beasts from the main land 50 yards away. Hydra only has two garbage trucks on the entire island. Spetses has a some cars but they are not encouraged. On Poros, cars are very welcome and a popular way to get around. Most of the islands are one, single mountain top. Paros is a little hill with a much larger neighbor and possibly the other Argo-saronic islands.. The little hill is covered with houses however there is little development on the larger portion. So what is there to do on Poros? There are several things to do on the island. Poros town is a nice town to walk along, watching the boats go by at a snails pace and to sit and drink coffee (a major Greek pastime). With no one style, it is interesting to walk the streets and to see what "pops up". The harbors clock tower is a well known landmark on the islands but not outside of them. There are massive pine forests in which you can hike through(I think). In fact one goes right up to the beach, reminding me of Lake tahoe. Then there is what I chose to do. Bike ride. Not the moped but a ten speed bike. There were two sites I wanted to see and I planed to bike to both of the. The first is a Cartharian monastery. The brothers have fled to a more peaceful location, however this very attractive monastery still exists. Hidden in pine trees, and overlooking a scenic bay, I can imagine why the brothers chose this place to live their lives in solicitude. The other place was the temple of Poseidon that was on the top of big mountain. Why did the dorics build a temple to the sea god on the top of a mountain I do not know. But it was there and I was going to see it. On Spetses, a hilly island, I rented a very well conditioned 15 speed mountain bike. It was meant for going off road. It was a very comfortable ride on the island. On Kos, I had a tour bike. Not meant to go off road but there isn't much off road to do. The island is basically flat so you don't need gears. On this island, I stoped at the first bike shop and picked up a shoddy ten speed where the guy could not adjust the seat to my height. Going to the monastery was not that bad. It was a short trek along the harbor then up a gentle incline to a small shelf overlooking the beautiful blue water and covered by lush green pine trees. The ride there was very short and under the cover of trees. My next goal was the top of the larger mountain. On my own bike this would have been an easy trip. On the bike I rented on spetses this would have been easy. However, I was on a bike with a seat which was too low. I got quite a workout going up to see the temple. It must have taken two hours to work my way up to the top. Resting quite often in the shade or getting off of the road because of the speeding cars. The site of the temple gives you an impressive view of the sea, which is perhaps why it was there. However, most of the stones it was constructed with have gone elsewhere to be used for only Poseidon knows what. There was one good thing about the location of the temple. I got to ride my bike down the northern side of the island. This was quite worth the trip up to the top. Around each turn I was awarded sweeping vistas of the blue gulf of argolis. I returned to have lunch outside of town under some a canopy of pines. (No this is not the pine island!) It was hear I learned that pronunciation is very important. I asked for a salad in Greek. I was brought sardines. When I brought up the error the guy did take them back and gave me a salad. I spent the rest of my day swimming and people watching. Overall quite a nice day spent on yet another of the 700 Greek islands. Contact info: |