Milos & Syros Islands

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MILOS

Our first greek ferry trip was an experience. Not much English was spoken over the crackly PA system & you had to be alert so as not to miss your stop. We went with the slow ferry instead of a speedier option, plus a deck spot instead of air conditioned comfort, to save cash. This would become the norm.

We arrived early at the docks to save a spot, 7am (5am wakeup call !). We spread ourselves out & tried to get some sleep, knowing that a full day travelling awaited. One of the locals didn't appreciate me sleeping on the seats & decided to perch himself next to me when I sat up to mind the bags, whilst Di went to the bathroom. I tried to lay back down with him sitting next to me but it was a bit cramped. After a while I felt a few knocks on my legs but believed them to be accidental. When I received a full on whack I knew something was up. I asked the guy what his problem was but he just smirked. I decided to sit as close as possible to him. I played my ipod loud, sang a little, whistled loudly, jigged my leg & clicked my pen. He was annoyed but wouldn't budge. After a few hours he finally left...

We stop at approx 4 islands before reaching Milos. Each is amazing in terms of their brilliant blue waters, beaches & overall scenary.

As we had no accomodation booked we headed straight for the tourist office. The best they could do was to provide us with a list of private dwellings that we could contact to try & arrange something. That seemed a bit hard so we tried our luck with the band of hagglers that meet the boats. The first guy that I spoke to wasn't much chop but the next one had something in our price range. It was decided that he would drive us to the place & show us the room, & if we weren't happy - drop us back to where we met. The place was nice & clean, within walking distance to the main town & came with a bathroom, fridge, air con & tv...sweet. We agreed to a price & settled in. This was absolute luxury when compared to the dorms we had been in.

The first thing we did was go scooter shopping. Every second shop hires them out so we spoke with a handful & went with the best price. 10 euro per day plus fuel seemed ok to me. The scooter was great. We had the freedom to travel all over the island without having to depend on the limited bus services. The tourist office was able to point out the best beaches & off we went.

The water was quite chilly but fantastically refreshing. We spent full days travelling the island in search of remote beches. We spent a few hours at each in order to find the best ones. Each was different which was great. We came across sandy beaches, pebbly ones, rocky ones, some looked somewhat like beaches back home, others were carved into cliffs, other resembled the surface of the moon. It was a tropical paridise. Welcome to the Greek Islands !!

Our original plan was to stay on Milos for two nights, but this turned into three when our ferry was cancelled due to high winds. Apparently it was the windiest it had been for many years. The faster boats tend to be cancelled before the slower ones. This can be a painful experience, especially when you don't learn about the cancellation until late at night & have already checked out of your accomodation. Luckily I kept the card from the place we stayed at, gave them a quick call, & they came down & collected us straight away. Although communication was difficult we tried our best to express our thanks.

We used our extra day to explore the remotest areas of the island & to revisit some of our favourite beaches. Our boat wasn't due to depart until 11:30pm. It was a nervous wait. It was late, but better late then never. Next stop Santorini.

SYROS (19th August 2006)

TBC

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