Milos - Greek Islands

We arrived at the port of Milos and were greeted by our host Petros. This seemed strange, as the internet advertised we were only 150m from the port. He loaded us into his car and gave us a half minute orientation around town and we were there, the drive took less time than loading the car. After dumping our stuff we headed back to the port for dinner. There is quite a bit of a selection but we choose a mamma and papa type restaurant which was overlooking the port. We had bread and Taziki dip, Greek salad and a Mousaka which was really good so we were thinking of Lyn as we ate. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and collapsed happily knowing we didn’t have to be up early in the morning. After a huge sleep in we finally got out of the room at about midday. Petros gave us a map and basically planned three full, jam packed days of sightseeing for us. This being said he quickly sent us on our way because there wasn’t much of the day left. We headed for the bakery to get some breakfast and swung past the bus stop to see when the next bus was to Plaka and realized there was one about to leave. After a rash decision we jumped on realizing that we were not wearing the best shoes or had enough water for the day. First stop in Plaka was the café. Neither of us function very well before caffeine so it is a necessity we are slowly learning to budget for. Having that out of the way, we headed up castello hill to a church with views of the whole island. On the way up we bumped into an English couple who had been on the bus, we would bump into them a few more times today. The views were fantastic and we had the place to ourselves which was nice after our last two stops were very busy cities. We headed back down the hill and headed for the next town down the road. Here there were some Catacombs and an ancient theater to see. When we arrived, the Catacombes had just closed, damn Greece and their 3pm closing times. The ancient theater was nice, but in the middle of restoration, and in the area was also the site of where the statue of Venus de Milo was discovered. We continued down the road to a traditional port village, where the houses were built into the cliffs, on the beach. The ground floors of the houses were garages to store boats and fishing gear. We walked along the shore line escorted by one of the local stray cats that was intent on getting some pats, it is amazing how friendly the stray animals are in Europe. As it was getting late, we thought we had probably missed the last bus, so headed home across country dirt roads. It was not a long walk and had some nice churches and views along the way. For dinner back in town it was souvlaki time, ‘a souvo a day…’.

Petros the owner of the hotel had suggested we should do a sailing boat tour around the island to see some of the coast line in areas which are not accessible by road. He’s a local so knew better than us so off we went. The boat was not very big but only had 5 passengers including us and the two crew members John and Joanna. It was a nice warm sunny day, although as we sailed out of the bay the breeze was a bit chilly.

We cruised along the coast, past the towns and villages we had walked through yesterday. There was a number of small fishing villages like the one we had seen. There was some spectacular coast line and rock formations. Soon John pulled the boat up in a secluded bay where it was time for a swim. Jumping off the boat into the water was a very cold shock, I thought the water was meant to be warm? We swam around the bay with our snorkels, not a lot to see but still fun. The beaches had nice sand, and was a chance to warm up.

Our next stop was a beautiful cove with sheer white cliff walls, clear blue water and a series of caves and rock formations to explore. Again it was off the side of the boat into the water for a swim, this time we swam through a cave which bought us out the other side of the cove back into the sea.
Back on the boat we enjoyed a beer and pasta lunch (not so greek!). While we dined, John was trying to start the little dingy we had towed all the way out here. After an hour of trying he accepted it wasn’t going to start. John and the 5 guests still piled into the boat, only it had to be powered by the oarsome Damien. We paddled around and through a few more caves and coves. Finally it was back to the sailboat to head back to town. Everyone had a turn at captaining the ship on the way home. Then we spent the rest of the journey drinking cold beers in the sun on the front of the boat. Back at the Hotel we were joined by Laura and Morris, the English couple we had seen the day before. We had drinks on our balcony before heading down the street a souvlaki. They will be travelling around Greece for about 3 months in total. We had decided we needed some wheels to explore the island a bit better. There seem to be different laws concerning the licensing needed to hire motor bikes on each island which meant we couldn’t get a scooter on Milos. This meant it was either a tiny gutless car or we could spend a little more and get an awesome buggy for the day. You only live once so the buggy won. Our first stop was an amazing beach called Sarakiniko which consisted of wind sculpted white rock formations. There wasn’t much sand to lie on but the crystal clear water contrasting with the white rocks was stunning. It also had the added attraction of cliffs to jump off into the water, which by the way was very cold! We spent most of the morning here, lazing, swimming and taking heaps of photos! From there we drove along the coast, visited a few more beaches which were also very nice and then ended up in a small seaside town. This had a nice beach with trees on it which had been painted white of course, a not so subtle reminder that you are still in Greece! In this sleepy town we had a coffee in a café right by the water, Frappe, Greek Style. We got chatting to the waitress who was lovely although not from this island.
In the afternoon we visited a couple more nice beaches before spending some more time lying in the sun and swimming. It was then time to return the buggy and head back to the hotel. We ate dinner in the same restaurant that we had been to on our first night. The food was great again, the old guy was lovely and gave us free dessert and raki shots. Then it was time to get some sleep, before our early ferry ride in the morning.