THE NAXOS GUIDE PRESENTS A WALK THROUGH THE PAST AND PRESENT OF NAXOS TOWN

The present in the above title is now very much the past.  If you want, follow this walk and let The Guide know any changes - the best will be published.

You stand at the foot of the steep stairs, your bags around you, old, black-clad Greek women pushing, with urgency, passed you and wait for the tail-gate of the ferry to lower to let you to step out onto Naxos Island for the first time.  Noise and petrol smells as most of the lorry drivers in the cavernous hold ignore the injunction not to start their engines until it is their turn to leave.  More shouting from the crew and, perhaps, one of the sailors climbs up onto the tailgate to throw out a rope. Everything seems total confusion but, you think, they have done this thousands of time before and must know what they are doing - don't you believe it.  When you have made this journey several times, you learn not to join the crowds charging down the stairs as soon as an island is announced - you can be downstairs for 20 minutes.  Instead stand in the stern and watch the docking, timing your descent to coincide with the tailgate touching the ground.  One time we stood on deck and saw something out of the "Navy Lark" (OK, young people, striplings under the age of fifty, might be reading this - The "Navy Lark" was a radio show in the fifties and sixties about a shipload of very incompetent RN sailors).  It must have taken them about three quarters of an hour to land, steaming back and forth, ropes pulling them this way and that.  At the time I said the Captain must be drunk or asleep, thinking I was joking - alas, after the sickening sinking of a ferry off Naxos a few years ago - I might well have been right.  Now, there is some sort of order, the embarking passengers and vehicles held back until disembarkation is just about complete.  Then, passengers pushing on as soon as the gate is down, vehicles exiting at the same time as foot passengers,  a crowd on the dock made up mainly of people shouting - "RUUMMS, RUUMMS", lorries, laden with marble, cattle, potatoes, driving ahead regardless and all seen in a blinding white light (assuming you're not on the night boat) and a steady wind blowing dust into your face.  Very exciting.  Now there is a booth where you can get rooms, private or in a hotel and all the mini buses from the various establishments are kept to the end of the jetty.  You hoist your bags, shake your head at the offer of rooms, smile apologetically and begin to walk towards the town.  Now the heat hits you, not noticeable on board with the sea breeze, passing on your left, then, a grotty, little ouzeri with octopuses hanging to dry in the sun, now, quite a posh little café, the Provlita.  I'm sure it's still the same tourist-hating man running it with, now, just a touch more grace.  

If you take your time and you're off the 2 pm boat, when you reach the end of the jetty, the hotel buses will have dispersed, the lorries off to make their deliveries, the Greeks greeted and whisked away and the town, then, will be back in siesta mode and, even now, will seem quiet, hot and dusty.  In the little square at the end, the island buses gather and, just the other side of the little park on your right, you'll find taxis.  If you look to your left, you will see, on a small knoll, the Portara or temple gate looking more impressive than the tiny silhouette as seen from the boat.  There is a row of cafés and tavernas on the short road leading to it and, the furthest from you, was once the much lamented Remezzo's which, since it opened, was the first stop off the ferry.  Taking its place is, what I'm sure is an excellent substitute, The Portara, which still has the views but lacks Barbara and Yianni.  The one at the end of the row, Relax, was one of the first Western-type restaurants when it was run by Doreen and Costas.  Now we have not our allegiance to Remezzo's, we must try it again.  Turn to your right and head for the Paralia, passing the taxis.  A road leads off to your left, the main road out of town, the way to reach the rest of the island.  Look down it and, a few yards up, the road forks and, in the arms of the fork, is bar, which, then, was everybody's first stop, Lalos Bar, that we talk about at length elsewhere, now, a posh, Greek bar-club.  You bypass it and find the square which used to be THE square, now supplanted by, what we call, the top square which you'll visit later.  Look-up just before getting to the square and you'll see the perfectly sighted balcony of a bar.  Now, well-worth a visit in its incarnation as Babylonia, pleasant, friendly and, if you're looking for the gay scene on Naxos,  I suppose this is it, but not the only reason for a visit.  A seat on the balcony for sunset is recommended.  Then, it was the original site of The Last Resort (slogan:  Naxos is The Last Resort) run by Adrian and Ray (short for Raylene?  She was from New Zealand).  A bar with that name has moved around ever since and been run by different people - it now seems to be combined with Santé at the other end of the Paralia.  Adrian and Ray didn't make any money - they, like Chez Nick, didn't seem to charge anyone - I used to turn up with my own bottle of "bomba" Greek brandy, offering to at least pay corkage but usually refused.  STOP PRESS - Pav originally set up this bar!

Sometimes, in the early years, Lalos Bar would be my second stop, for from a hole in the wall by the entrance to Babylonia (a few yards into the square) they used to sell granita.  One year, parched from an overnight flight and the ferry trip, I rushed (fast amble) for my usual fix of this delicious, crushed-ice drink to find that it, like so many prized places on the island over the years, had packed up shop.  Captains, not called that then, was the in-place with, at all times of day and night, a dexterous waiter whose feats of dodging through the tables and chairs with loaded trays, was all the more impressive as he had a plastic arm.  Look up the street at the top corner of the square, the start of Old market Street - and you will see, now, a greengrocers where, before, you would expect a friendly greeting from Adonis the butcher (see below) and, to the right, an old-fashioned haberdashery where we learned it was not necessary to bring towels to Naxos as this shop sold soft, fluffy ones dirt-cheap.  The alley between its ghost (a tourist shop) and the Jazz Café (The Guide looked away and this has become another gift shop), player of fine music, lead and leads to The Loom, but we'll come that way later, returning, now, to the Paralia.  

As we walk down, a street goes off to the left and, as we won't have time to walk it all later, from here we'll point out a few landmarks.  A posh, new wine shop, Takis, dominates next door to his jewelry shop.  Gone now, I think, is the newspaper shop on the corner and definitely, there are no longer hand-knitted jumpers hanging in proliferation from several shops.  A few doors along is the Blue House, an excellent ouzerie and, on the other side, was has been over the years, a taverna for cheap, good, Greek food.  You will also find along this street, public loos and showers.  Alas, that late night rendezvous, Toast Time, faded away a few years ago.  Late off the ferry, you could always get something to eat there, choosing from the variety of trays ingredients at a few drachs a throw, to make up your toasted sandwich.  And, if desperate, you could negotiate the narrow spiral staircase to the loos above.  If you wanted to, rather than wander the streets munching, you could sit at an uncomfortable table but with an excellent view over the harbour.  Almost opposite is Matthiassos, home of very sticky sweets and pastries, jams, honeys, biscuits, wines and spirits.  The barber still cuts away here, next to Apolafsis (STOP PRESS: He'd gone in 2003 replaced by a much-needed gifte shoppe).  Follow the alley by the side of Matthiassos for the route to the other end of town, avoiding the Paralia.  As you come into the wider street, by O Nikos' fish tanks, to your left, under an archway, is an alley to explore later, taking you into the maze of alleys making up the old Venetian town surrounding the Castro.  You'll come across several tavernas, a bar or two and various little shops and, also, some rooms.  Opposite O Nikos is a gift shop once run by Yanna, Lalos' sister and, further on, to the right, his house, or, rather, his mother-in-law's house.  The little bar, Notos, now derelict, was once run by Eftimia, daughter of the "Captain" from the square.  But, back to the Paralia.

The front is now smartened up, having been widened over the years.  Now, the old road is a pedestrianised, refreshingly free from cars - or so the motorbikes think as they roar up and down it.  Also, be wary of the quieter and so more insidious mountain bikes speeding along ridden by manic children.  And anyone else who feels like driving down it.  Still. this is the volta area between the shops, bars, cafés and restaurants and their pavement extensions.  A new, more or less one way street has been pushed back to the sea.  A pavement has been constructed for seaside promenades with recessed lighting and curved, stone seats but is, really, all a little above its station.  During the busiest months of the year, this road is closed and, sometimes, there are hordes of police around to enforce its closure.

All the old tavernas are still lining the front but most have smart, awning enclosed extensions.  The food, however, in some of them, has still remained just as bad - they are trading off the daytrippers, their "authentic" Greek look (octopuses hanging to dry) and the atmosphere to remain in business.  And talking of atmosphere, one of the great improvements is that, now, the stench of sewage does not overpower you along here on hot nights when the wind is from the sea.  Look up and you will see the balcony of Sanoudos where Hubert,  a German visitor, used to play the piano, where, from early on, visitors went if they wanted a degree of sophistication.  Go here for a drink at sunset.  Some of our old favourites are gone now.  O Anemenos, an ouzerie where you could get excellent mezes, Mark no longer stands outside Cocos, Zaki, the owner, has gone to Athens and it has transmogrified into some other establishment, the Symposium is now a good beer and pizza place (actually, now some sort of children's play room) - but others have taken their place.  Retracing our steps back along the Paralia, we find Irinis, Il Girasole, Kellari and Diogenes; hereabouts, where we're now standing, is the Esperanto (where I had the strongest espresso I'd had since a railway station near Naples.  Coffees at Esperanto come with a small bottle of mineral water - nice touch).  Now we approach Rendezvous Pastry shop (known to us and a few others as "pantyboys".  The first time we saw the name this was our true misreading of the Greek rendering of Rendezvous - pantyboy) and, somewhere about here used to be Matthiassos, the first proper supermarket on the island, and, just beyond, the site of Giorgos' Polypoleion or everything shop - we'll pass his resited shop later. 

So, you pass many smart, new bars, chemists/photography/book shops, some old hardware shops, banks, tourist offices - including Naxos tours for your plane tickets to Athens - ice-cream parlours, even a fast food place, Goodys.  Mourn the 2003 passing of the flip-flop, leather sandal shop replaced by a shoe shop of great opulence and priceyness.  Take time as you stroll to look at the ferry timetables and trips offered, for, perhaps, you might fancy a day or two on one of the smaller islands or Amorgos or a day trip to Santorini, easily done on the inter-island ferries.  On other days, try dodging up and down the little alleys and stairways that lead off the Paralia - you won't find anything extremely exciting but it's still interesting, but we haven't got time for that today.  Note as you pass, the terrace of El Greco and make a promise to yourself to eat there one warm evening and, now, read the menu of the Flamingo before we make a diversion from the Paralia down the road by the Flamingo.  We must make a decision now - is this to be a long or short diversion?  If long we will turn left and go up the hill, short we'll follow the road to the right.  We'll go left.  The entrance to Flamingo is on your left, on your right, several old-fashioned shops including a leather workshop where the surly craftsman will repair your luggage - strongly but it'll look awful.  Litsa's rooms on your right, the parish church on your left.  For the last couple of years her rooms haven't been as good as they were, since her husband died but worth having a look at again to see if they've gone back to their previous excellence.  You have to be impervious to noise, however, to stay there - the Papas broadcast their church services very loudly, interspersed with the ringing of bells.  In the little square you'll find fairly quickly on the left is a baker who bakes on the premises.  Don't look for it yet but continue up the hill.  A low, little house on the left that seems to be nestling down so as not to be seen was once Lalos and Wendy's.  Once pass this, below the telephones, is what is now a curry house run, so it is said, by a sister of one of the actresses in the "Bill" but was originally Chez Nick's and, later, was Dolphini Bar, owned by a German who lived on the Island for many years but run, when it was our favourite, by Jan or Yianni now of Rent a Car Union in Naxos Travel.  I don't know how they run the place now but it might still be one of the most peaceful places on Naxos to sit and have a bottle of wine.  (Now a tapas bar).  Lots of ghosts for us here.  Almost opposite, if you want, are steps up to the Castro and To Kastro, a restaurant favourite of the Germans but, if they haven't swamped it, try and visit.  Just beyond is Oniro but we will come back to that from a different direction later when we visit the sight of Bakliarakia.   For now we'll retrace our steps and go down to Flamingo again.

Okay, we're back to where we turned off the Paralia.  Go to the right this time and, to your right, where they is a small taverna, is where Thomas Grill used to be - huge amounts of good food for next to nothing - and, pass by the jewelers, the fast food shop and ice-cream parlour (perhaps stopping for some of the ice-cream) and, to the left in a short street was where Tomas moved to.  A favourite place to go, particularly when windy, to put up with the bad temper of Thomas for the sake of his charming wife, oval, freshly cooked chips and, in those days, liver.  Also, it was amusing to watch the embarrassment of strolling tourists when they realised this was one of the only dead end streets in Chora and the many different ways they tried to show that they knew all along that their was no exit from this street.  Alas, another casualty of time and taxes, just a sad, empty shop there now.  Return from this dead-end - we only went down there to look at a tree - and follow the curve of the road.  On the left, the Frianderie where it was fashionable for several years to go for a morning croissant and coffee, on the right the small garden belonging to one of the cafés - we've never been sure which one.  Adele, of Adeles, the clothes shop advertised by all the dressed dummies outside, is probably sitting at one of these cafés.  Visit her shop, once Kings, for reasonably priced summer clothes.  Above her shop is a bar that used to be Makis' Place, a much better place now though we can't remember its name.  Opposite is Jam that used to be The Corsair much frequented in the early 80s by Liverpuddlians for some reason.  Now we are coming to one of our main recommendations, Katerinas, with tables on either side of the street we're walking up - the big place on the corner. For years we didn't venture into here for it was a kafeneon that seemed to be a retreat for the natives with tourists not welcome.  Then one year, we noticed it had transmogrified into Katerinas Burgers and, one summer, we spent many hours in there watching the Seoul Olympics.  Although the fish, salads, veg are all good we're sure that you would still find, as we did back in '88, that the grilled meat is the main attraction.  Mike does a very decent house wine, makes you drunk, though - fast food and ice-cream parlour now.  On the other corner is, now, another expensive, designer shoe shop.

Go back to Adeles and down the narrow street passing her shop back to the Paralia. Another good ice-cream shop on the corner.  In the Paralia, among several pleasant cafés is Naxos Tours with Jan ensconced in a kiosk representing the Car Union of Naxos.  Continuing along the last bit of the Paralia.  We pass various cafés and shops glancing into the window of Tinas which has been there for ever and for many years seemed to have the same clothes on display.  We're at the end of the Paralia proper where, in the busiest months of the year, a barrier is put across the road to stop all traffic.  Turn left, passed the new bank, and you're in the Champs Elyssée - nothing much in it until we reach Katerinas except Joe's clothes shop on the other side of the road.

Head for the beach along (Old) Post Office Street - so-called, believe it or not - because the Post Office used to be here.  First turning on the left once held The Southern Cross, jointly owned by a group of Australians, civil servants, who'd given that up to try something completely different.  It was doomed for failure as you'd walk passed briskly, checking inside and, if **** was behind the bar, turning and going in.  If one of the other partners was there why, then, you moved swiftly onwards.  After they left it had a brief continuation as Bizarre but was too out of the way to catch on except for a few "trendy" sorts.  We still send Christmas cards to one of the group, Glen, but have not heard back from him for several years - get in touch, mate.

Just as you reach the square, on the corner to the left, now, a much needed gift shop, was Fotis.  An excellent establishment, the only then - and now there is none - vegetarian restaurant on Naxos.  Ian worked there and helped to make it very successful and popular.  We always believed that he introduced two innovations - drinkable barreled wine and, against the disbelief of Foti, served the white wine properly chilled - well, perhaps not properly but, as we all like it, ice-cold.  The foreign workers, before their evening stints, used to gather here as the Six (?) O'clock Club.  In those days, you could sit outside there with a pichet and, like Piccadilly Circus, everybody you've ever known would pass-by eventually.

Through what some call now the Main Square - to us the top square or, just, where Dallas Supermarket is, waving to Nikos, MiKelis and Roberto at Scirroco then down the right hand street to the beach.  Before leaving the square, however, several things to do:  Look back to the carhire shop on the corner of Post Office Street and you might see Fili still sporting his bandito moustache as he did in the days when he was one of the habitués of Lalos Bar - though it's grey now.  Buy something from Dallas just because it's about the last of the original supermarkets and one of the first where they were quite polite to tourists:  Glance up the left hand fork to see O Nikos which used to be - along with the, alas, closed O Christos and Katerinas Burgers (now Grill) - the best place for grilled meat on the island.  It was very much a local place then, cooking all manner of offal and animal parts.  One story:  An English lad came in when we were there and, seeing them on the grill, ordered a sheep's head (yes, you read that right) and exhibited great chagrin when told that they were to order only.  He sat down for just something ordinary (knitted sheep gut, perhaps) but, imagine his joy when they had a cancellation and could give him head.  We sat and watched him, with grunts of pleasure, chomp his way through it to the last brain cell.  Where were we?  Yes.  Passed O Nikos, on the left, Montreal Pizza, again, the first of its kind on Naxos.

Walking to the beach, many memories down this street.  Papagellos, now Picasso, on the right, the second place, after Dieters, to bring European food to Naxos.  Look down the side street after this to see Ian (Sven, Fu Manchu) and Lotta in  (Now up for sale) which used to be (confusingly) Picasso before the feud with Papagellos.  Ian and Ted are, together with the Co-op, Gracie Fields and Lisa Stansfield, theEast West most famous (only?) products of Rochdale.  During one of this pairs' amazing adventures, they went to Hong Kong where they taught English to children - so one of their legacies is a number of now-adult Chinese speaking English with a marked Rochdale accent.

Continuing, there were several good bars down here at one time, such as Saloon run by a chap from Egypt where they played excellent jazz.  On a corner to the right is a big car-hire business but this was Medusa (later, painted pink, it became the Pink Panther), Naxos' first nightclub where one went after the bars shut, usually with the bar staff and owners.  The Medusa could hardly have made money - most of its clientele had already had far too much to drink to consider buying anymore.  Opposite, now, is a new Italian place - Susanna's, very good.  Down the road a bit is the Oasis, until recently The Red Lion, that used to serve food all night long so, after even Medusa had closed, one could retire there for supper/breakfast to set yourself up for the busy day ahead.  A little further down two tavernas opposite each other vie for your attention - O Faros and Poseidon.  They are both very good but O Faros does have a nice vine-covered garden whereas Poseidon has a charming English girl whose name I can't remember for the moment.  Try both if you have the time.

We take a side street (perhaps passed East West then turning left at the bottom) to reach the Town Beach by Nissaki.  Not an umbrella in sight, then, although the old man with the pedaloes was there than as now.  This year (2003) there seems to be return to the past - the posh boardwalk has been wrecked in several places by the storms of the last winter and once more a river winds across the beach.  That's further along, however, here we are standing by the excellent beach taverna, Kavouri, a good setting for a meal under a full moon.  Then there was a bar/taverna here - possibly, it might still have been Kavouri.  Anyway, a table of disgusting drunks, 2 Germans, 2 English, made  a spectacle of themselves one afternoon, drinking so many bottles of retsina, that their table became so filled with empties, they had to move to another one to make room for more bottles.  I seem to remember that then we - sorry, I mean they - danced hand in hand the length of the Paralia.  Makes you ashamed to be German or English.  They might even have sung.

Admire on your left the elegant white and blue of the Asteria Hotel standing where once stood Asteria Disco.  It has a connection with the defunct Bakliarakia via Hendrix who ran or runs all three.  Even before the disco, 20 or more years ago, there was a row of beach huts where, for a few drachs a night, you could stay, providing a welcome feast for the hordes of mosquitoes.  A few years on and the heavy beat of Asteria Disco resonates through the night making sleep impossible.  Another few years goes by and the corner bar is drooping with insouciant French, girls all evenly tanned to showoff their white bikinis, masses of jewelry, hair straight from the hairdressers, make-up perfect; the lads with medallions, a cigarette, á la Jean Paul Belmondo, being smoked sneeringly.

 Continue along the town beach.  A stagnant river used to come to an indecisive end in the beach here once, giving an excellent breeding ground for the mosquitoes mentioned above.  This year (2003), after the fierce rainstorms during the winter leading to extensive flooding and destruction, the river has appeared again, meandering through the sand, and to such good effect that it upended a section of the boardwalk.  Such a surprise when this - the boardwalk - luxurious addition to the beach appeared a few years ago!  No longer the hazardous journey, picking your way among the lethal umbrella stands at night or slogging through the soft, slopping sand.  Now, like flaneurs, one can stroll all sophisticat, along heading to your favourite spot.  Were there any other tavernas, then, apart from Flisvos and Paradise?  Tratta, perhaps, if not an original, has been here a long time.  Now, so many new bars and tavernas to choose from, many looking attractive and inviting.  First look to the knoll, seawards, where castellatting its summit is the Big Orange, Portakali.  A business taking over this hillock was, initially, an occasion for much irritation, as this was considered common ground where you could go for solitary sunbathing.  We might see - as the result of one of my frequent, bad ideas the ghosts of my brother and I sleeping there.  Arriving after 2 am we found the town shut down for the night and I decided the knoll would be a good, out of the way place to try to sleep.  Several hours of misery ensued, bitter cold and the continuous attention of mosquitoes.  See below for another bad idea.  Rumour has it that this establishment was started by some people from Santorini in copy of their bar there called, initially, Francos.  We have never seen it being much used but perhaps it comes into its own during the peak months.  Friends kept on telling us it was very expensive but, the times we've been there, it has seemed no different from anywhere else.  Excellent views but the house wine was very disappointing.  

We pass Tratta, not stopping for we are heading to our home from home, Paradise.  Further along is Flisvos which was, when we first came to Naxos, the in-place for the local Greeks but we soon discovered Paradise and, over the years, we have quite often siphoned Flisvos customers into here.  They would pass but see us sitting outside and come to join us for a while, then others would come until we had quite a party going.  Paradise is just the most peaceful place to while away your life.  It has not changed much; OK, slight changes.  The charming little boys are now adults, running the place with children of their own.  The serving bar has moved from the back, next to the garden, to the front.  Steps and platforms, central bars, night-clubs have come and gone.  Still, however, it's blue and white, arches still frame the sea and Mamma is still there and still the same tapes from 25 years ago are occasionally played. Still the best place to while away a feckless day in the sun or, even, as now, in the pouring rain, snug and waterproof.  Choosing inside and whether to sit in the sun or shade, in the window to watch the beach activities or further back near the lily-filled garden just so you can see sky and sea framed in the archways?  Wherever, you're sure of an enjoyable, soporific, lotus-eating time, ice-cold retsina to hand and you'll find everyone working there charming, although, at times, droopingly exhausted.  As we sit we can remember the various club incarnations Paradise had at night - Sky, Pasarella, what else?  Braving the umbrella stands, often we had tumbled out here - usually arriving too early and leaving before the clubs warmed up.  Remembering half-Swedish, half-Greek Angeliki working behind the bar .... Reluctantly we finish our retsina and continue our walk.  Looking back we see sitting at the tables, lying outside on the beach, the shadowy figures of everyone we've ever known on Naxos.

 We look into Flisvos in passing, full of sporty types nowadays to see if the wishing well is still there but, instead seeing it as it was a few years ago when Ian and Lotta ran it with, one summer, the help of Vicki.  Sometimes then we tore ourselves away from Paradise to have a few litres of wine in there to chat to them and catch up on the gossip.  We've come to the end of the beach so turn up the side of Flisvos to go back to town - but, before that, another of my bad ideas.  Tantalisingly, from town and the town-beach you can see, on the far headland, below the Stelida, a sandy beach and I always wanted to get there.   So, this day, then, if you look, at the end of the beach, just by the little off-shore island (wadeable to), there is a low-seeming cliff.  A quick scramble along this and you are at this beach.  Oh yes!  We, no  I, thought it would be an easy traverse, no Everest climbing.  So off we set in shorts and sandals and soon were forcing our way through the thorns of mesquite, on our right, crumbling, sheer drops and it went on and on, round each outcrop another expanse of cliff until we finally reached the beach  not deserted as we expected but with several groups who had strolled over along the main road and then down a sandy track - which I didn't know existed, thinking it inaccessible from the land side.  Now it has a small conglomerate of white houses climbing the hill behind it and it has acquired a name - Mandari.  Back to passing by Flisvos.

We now come up on to the main road just opposite the road that leads to Fikas Hotel.  We turn left passed the pretty sprawl of Naxos Port Hotel and have a choice of routes to town.  We could take the first turn left and walk a country lane (when there were no hotels here somewhere in these fields was, I think, the much-signposted Aspro Spiti - White House - whether it is still existing I don't know and, even, what it used to be - a hotel?) and find our way through a wind of residential streets.  Or we could take the next left just after the pastry shop, Rendezvous, and by the side of the cinema.  This way we'd soon come to the excellent new bar, Heaven (We seem to choose very similar places, Paradise, this bar and, in Athens, Eden), the police station, a couple of good supermarkets, a computer business and then to places we've mentioned before, Montreal Pizza and O Nikos for this is the top road out of the square, the way taxis use to get to town.  We'll continue along the main road.

There is not much of interest here, dusty and traffic so hurry but take care.  We can either carry straight on or take the bendy road on the left, not much to choose.  We come out to a crossroads with ahead, slightly to the right, the huge, new cathedral and the hospital.  Ahead to the left, the road that loops round the back of the town to come back to the Paralia by the old Lalos bar.  Going that way you'll find Atlantic Supermarket and Matthiasos Village (with Angeliki at reception) and not a lot more until you get back into town.  Turn right and you're in the scruffy, industrial part of town but, in a few minutes walk, you're back in the countryside and might come across Platanos - the genuine bouzouki place. We are going left, back into town.

Our first stop is, as promised, George's supermarket to visit Jackie whom you might remember from the years when, with Barbara, she ran Proteas Hotel or, before that, with Christina, Odyssea, the replacement of Lalos bar.  Once again we catch up on the gossip then continue to town.  This is the place for a lot of the local shops, pets, bathroom fixtures, lighting and an excellent taverna, Galini.  Where the road curves to the left to become the Champs Elysées, is what we - and others? - call Johhny Walker corner because, for decades a large, old-fashioned, tin poster advertised this.  I don't know whether tourists are welcomed by the locals who use the tiny kafeneon there but, occasionally we see large, hairy Germans sitting there enjoying the "authentic" ambience of a "real" Greek cafe.  Down the street are a mix of old-fashioned shops and those catering to the more up-to-date such as mobile phone and electrical shops.  Particularly of note is the cheese shop which you can recognise immediately and from a distance by its smell.  A good souvenir used to be the well-made cheese baskets and the shop sells a great assortment of loose herbs, spices, nuts and many other things. Beware, however, for, despite its old-fashioned Greek look, the proprietors know the value to tourists of everything they sell.  We are in sight now of Old Post Office Street (the first street to the left also goes to the square and, apart from a florist, local shops and a glasses shop which does repairs, there is not much of interest there) so we'll dodge off to the right into another labyrinthine mass of lanes.  Unlike most of the rest of town, if you choose the wrong turning, you might come up a against a dead end or be forced to go in a direction you don't want to.  If you choose right then you'll come either to the old Dolfini bar or to Oniro and The Castro.  Take a look at Oniro, a bar/restaurant on several floors of a fine old house.  Make a note of where it is and come back one night.  The Castro is also well worth a visit both for its food and the lovely view over the harbour but you'd have to come early - it's usually packed with, mainly, Germans.  Close to Oniro, we can't give directions you just come across it, you'll hear, round a corner, the ringing of a bell and the babble of voices, the sounds of people eating and the background music of the best of pop.  But, turning the corner, all you find is the sad, neglected patch of ground, with still hanging the forlorn once gaily-painted gourds, that is all that remains of the excellent Bakliarakia.

Go back and passed The Castro through the archway and into the Castro.  Spend a morning exploring, finding the Cathedral, at least three museums - see Tours and Places of Interest - the old door and the bougainvillea and morning glory covered lanes.  Nothing much has changed up here over the years, just a few of the houses have been renovated and some opened to the public.  So, take any way down, we are going to finish by going along Old Market Street.  Quite possibly, you'll walk down the steep, pretty, geranium-filled street that used to be Cat Street where you always used to be able to find families of kittens hiding behind the pots or basking amongst the flowers but, now, alas, there are very few.  Every few years, some madmen, it seems, poison the cats forgetting, in their stupidity, a cautionary tale from history.  The cats on Naxos were breeding out of control so the town council decided to get rid of the lot, paying a bounty for each tail produced by the killers.  And, yes, of course, next year the town was overrun by a plague of rats who proceeded to empty the granaries and do all the other unpleasant things that rats do.  They had to quickly reintroduce cats.  We, thus, come to The Loom.  Pop in to see the Aladdin's cave of historic Greek artifacts and clothing that Kathy has accumulated and look through her clothes for sale or go over the road to her other shop and browse among the superior souvenirs she has.

Into Old Market Street with its costume-jewelry shops, greengrocers and mini-markets.  Wander round the lanes and you will come across Manolis Garden Taverna that used to be our favourite and where Lalos' father was a frequent "customer" liking the place so much that, wanting to share, he once (at least) rode his donkey into it.  Close by; Schooner Bar rivaled Lalos Bar - very hippy, dark with incense and cushions on the floor.  More difficult to find (or have they occupied the same site?) is Naxos Café where Anita used to hold champagne breakfasts and served dirt cheap, pleasant open wine with mezes.  Now run by the chap who had Savvas Hotel.

I'm getting fed up with this walk - I've been on the go all day and all I can remember having is a little retsina at Paradise so we'll finish this at a gallop.  Back to market street and wave into Vassilis at Georgios and Chris and their two sons, Stefan and Laki - perhaps even seeing their twins, Maria and Alexia and granddad Ted.  I think we'll come back here shortly to eat - it's always been one of our favourites.  Down to the square and see whether the bar at the far side has opened.  It's been many things, a couple of years ago a French couple had it trying to make it Parisian and very good it was but it didn't prove popular and so didn't last.  The best incarnation was as The Last Resort, Mark II, run by Jim and Mick and Dave, the gathering place for all the foreign workers.  Now, wander the lane leading off the top, to the left, of the square with a couple of quite good ouzeries but pause at Fragile and hear the raucous bonhomie of the time that Christina ran it as Tony's bar while the eponymous Tony presided over the Loft, a later manifestation on the site of Lalos/Odyssea.  Together with Dave and Trista she made it the place to go, ranking for its short life with Lalos, Chez Nick and Vegerra.  Unfortunately, like Nick, Chris forgot more often than not to charge her customers looking on them rather as guests.  It only lasted two seasons.  Further down is the ghost of the much missed O Christos where you could get the best chicken, fish, souvlaki, off the grill, and chips on the island.  We will finish by sitting at an imaginary table outside Lalos, looking down to where, on the right, was once Dieter's German restaurant with its multitudinous bric á brac.  Oh no!  I've forgotten to go to Vegerra, (gone) Med Bar, Ocean Club, Lalos' fish restaurant (gone) and all the other places at the other end of the Paralia.  Never mind, some other time.  Of course you've probably all ready been to Vegerra and realised, of all places on Naxos, it's one place that has changed little over the decades.  Demetri's still there (not true), although now married to Catherine and with several delightful children but the bar's still the same - pounding music, "beautiful" people drooped over the bar by the main entrance but a peaceful, pretty garden (maintained by his mum), ideal for an early or very late bottle of wine.  I remember going in there straight off the boat, about 2 am, and just having the one brandy catching up on the gossip - and not understanding why I was getting so drunk.  Every time I turned away from the bar D. was topping up my glass!  Fool that I am, I didn't notice - the next day Christina told me what he had been doing.  And then, of course there was Florins upstairs, now Classico.  And it was down in Vegerra that I first had the pleasure of meeting Barbara who was running Florins, the same who, with her husband Yiannis, had Remezzos. 

And then there's the Meltemi and Island Bar, Gregory's, the souvlaki shop and ......  Enough.  If you have anything you want to add, e-mail us at memories .