My wife and I have been travelling to Greece on and off for over 30 years. In fact we spent our honeymoon on Santorini and Crete. However, during this time the Greek Islands have changed greatly, and like many other countries, much of this change has been very unfortunate, resulting largely from the ravishes of uncontrolled speculative development as seen in poor quality apartment blocks and one off houses. Thus, large areas of Crete, Rhodes and even Santorini are virtually indistinguishable from bland holiday destinations anywhere in the Mediterranean. However, I am glad to report that Paros Island has escaped much of this construction blight and has retained much of its intrinsic charm. My wife and I are therefore looking forward to returning to Paros again at the end of May and are especially looking forward to visiting Nouassa, Lefkes Village and Antiparos Island. I was wondering therefore, why Greece and this island in particular has retained such pleasure for us over such a long period of time. The answer i feel lies in the quality of the sunlight and its reflection of the white washed houses and painted doors which gives a magical brilliance to the narrow flat stoned alleyways of both Parikia and Nouassa. This is however, greatly enhanced by both the friendliness of its people and the beautiful seaside setting of the whole island. Thus, at a time when publicity for Greece is dominated by their financial woes as a nation, it is worth recalling that the beauty of it's landscape, the quality of it's natural food and the friendliness of its people still grows undiminished. Hence, I would have to say that in summer at least, I like to keep my soul in Ireland but my heart belongs to sunny Paros.
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