Paxos

 Although not actually an island that featured on our original itinerary we had heard so much about Paxos that it seemed a shame not to go. Having the flexibility to do what we wanted was brilliant and we took full advantage of it, setting off on the morning ferry.
 We were worried that it would be overrun by tourists but found ourselves pleasantly surprised. The ferry was full with mostly elderly Greek locals, who I noticed to my delight were often absentmindedly fiddling with strings of wooden beads - something that my dad said was a common sight all over Greece in the 1970s-80s but that I on my own travels had never seen on mainland Greece before. The islands remained more traditional than the mainland I found, for all the tourism that they received, and it was interesting to travel with someone who had seen Greece in a very different time, and to see the changes that time had wrought.

Our arrival in Paxos started with a positive note as I looked over the side of the boat and saw shape which for a moment I thought might be a rather lost diver, but I realised a second later was a pod of dolphins around the boat! With this wonderful start, we docked on the little island and headed north for the town of Loggos. We made a small stop when a middle aged local lady asked us for a lift into town, and then decided it was about time for lunch (although the sea was tantalising).

I gained a small companion throughout lunch who stared at me beseechingly (this would become a theme throughout restaurants in Greece on our trip). He eventually gave up and went to bother other tourists in hopes of better luck.

Even with the distracting kitten, the food was excellent as always (I was especially taken with these eggplant mozzarella rollups)

The town itself was breathtaking, right on the water and with beautifully coloured houses. My only regret was not spending a night here, as I imagine it must have been wonderful once dark fell. 

As Paxos was so small, (in fact the smallest of the Ionian islands) we discovered that finding accomodation was difficult. Having looked at both Booking.com and Airbnb and having no luck on either, we ended up finding a random website and biting the bullet, booking a place for the two nights we were spending on the island, for fear of finding nothing else. Although always a risk, on this occasion it turned out to be the best decision ever, as we soon discovered we were staying in a ridiculously reasonably priced villa which proved to to be stunning. 

Not only was it huge, not only did it have a balcony and turn out to be an entire house, it also had views of the sea, and even better, private access across the road to a tiny cove which was almost always empty for us to enjoy. 

We took full advantage of the balcony and enjoyed eating out there as the sun set (although we did have to share it with many mosquitos unfortunately). Paxos was shaping up to be one of my favourite places yet!