The Cyclades unravelled

I’ve been to Greece twice before, once when I was 18 years old, the summer just after graduation I went sailing with a friend and her family. We spent 2 weeks on a sailing boat island hopping, swimming, sailing, visiting towns, playing games, anchoring in beautiful bays, more swimming and I remember this as one of the best holidays I’ve had, maybe also because of the ultimate freedom feeling between high school and start of university. My second time in Greece was to celebrate a wedding anniversary of my parents in 2014, we went to Athens for a few days of culture and then to Santorini for beach and island life. I also have great memories from that trip, amazing Athens and its ancient Greek wonders and Santorini – despite its very touristic part – a beautiful island with a great holiday vibe (and a jet ski ride :-)). All in all, the bar was set pretty high, but the 2,5 weeks I’ve spent in the Cyclades have been every bit as great as my previous Greek memories!

Where to start with a visit to 5 different islands… on the one hand it’s an easy summary when you look at the recurring architecture of white houses with blue window frames, similar cuisine with lots of fish, octopus, feta, grilled vegetables, etc., blue seas, sandy beaches and olive and fig trees scattered around the islands. But on the other hand, each island had its particularities, differed from the others and felt like small adventures within this bigger trip. When I started writing this blog, I made a chronological summary of what we had done and seen on each island, but then it felt more like a diary than a – hopefully – interesting story about my impressions of the islands so I rewrote the whole thing and decided to focus more on the highlights of each island, which – yet again – turned into a very long monologue… so please feel free to send me an update of what you are doing through any communication channel!

But before I start, let me briefly introduce you to my travel companions. Yes, one travel companion transformed into two! First, Renske, a friend I’ve known since my first day at university in September 2005, we go way back to say the least. My second companion was a bit more of a surprise…Floor, a good friend of Renske was by one of the biggest coincidences in Greece at the same time as us after having travelled through Scandinavia and the Balkans by camper van. Floor decided to take the boat from Athens to the Cyclades with her van and visit Naxos and Paros together with us so for 6 days I went from a solo traveller to a traveller ‘en groupe’. It was great being in such great company and having the feeling of belonging to a little group instead of the usual ´dinner for one please´. As a bonus Floor had just been to Albania and Montenegro so I could ask her for all the first-hand advice I wanted to prepare the next leg of my journey and I believe I’ve made a new friend (double bonus)!

Mykonos

So let´s dive in, Mykonos and its highlights! I guess the first one is when I walked down to the port of Mykonos town and could discern a familiar face in the crowd of people getting of the boat: so happy to see Renske again and start this holiday together we had been talking about for so long!

I had read that Mykonos is the Ibiza or Saint Tropez of Greece, I’ve been to neither, but I think I can still confirm that this comparison might be correct. It’s an island mostly focussed on ‘seeing and being seen’, chilling on sunbeds on the beach by day and drinking cocktails at fancy beach bars by night. Some people might find this hell on earth and others their nirvana, I think I will settle somewhere in the middle. We spent 3 nights sleeping in a ‘studio hotel’ in the centre of Mykonos town and although this town is charming and beautiful it almost feels like Disneyland with all it’s perfect shops, restaurants and beautiful (clean) cobbled streets. I really enjoyed walking the small streets and just watching people go by in their summer outfits, varying from super fancy designer dresses and bags to very tacky fishnet dresses covering as little as possible. One of the fashion highlights must have been a guy walking by wearing a t-shirt saying ‘vaxed & waxed’, perfectly capturing the spirit of the times… 

Mykonos is all about sunsets and there are many different options, I think we got a good mix of the different options. On the first night we made a reservation at a restaurant with a little balcony in an area called Little Venice with a first-class view on the Mykonos windmills and of course the sun setting in the sea. For our second sunset we decided to give the most famous beach bar on the island – Scorpios – a go. I tried to make a reservation for the ´sunset area´ (I’m not kidding, this exists, and people stand in line to enter this area) a few days before, but this was obvious wrong planning from my side, I should have done it at least a month before, but planning too far ahead is not my forte, so no reservation for us. In the end, we still managed to get in, have a seat at the bar, a cocktail and a snack and watch all the extravaganza parade around us. On our third Mykonos night, we went for the very chilled out version: a late afternoon swim and then hang out on the beach with a corona and just watch the sky changing colours.

To balance out the beach time and try to absorb a little history, we visited the neighbouring island of Delos, a tiny island where according to Greek mythology Apollo and Artemis where born and nowadays one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. Next to that, to us it also became a new reference point or scale for temperature for the rest of our trip in Greece. It was so extremely hot on Delos, we visited the island around midday (not our choice, these were the only available boat time) and by the end of our visit of this rocky island with no shade and with stones ruins everywhere, we had melted into puddles of sunscreen. From then onwards it was easy to indicate on a scale from 1 to Delos (Delos obviously being the warmest) how the temperature was. All jokes aside, it was an interesting visit and a nice intermezzo from all the Mykonos craziness, and I guess you can’t go to Greece without having seen at least one Apollo-related site… little did I know at that moment that by the end of my 2,5 weeks on the Cyclades, I would have seen many more Apollo temples or towns call Polonia or Apollonia for that matter; there is no escape from Greek mythology!

Mykonos was a great start of this island-hopping tour, it’s definitely not the most beautiful island we’ve seen in terms of nature, authenticity or charm, but Mykonos town is the epitome of a Cycladic town with its cute white plastered houses and churches with blue domes, cobbled streets and colourful bougainvilles and it’s a great place to dive into the holiday vibe and enjoy the beaches by day and all the restaurants and bars at night. Naxos bring it on!

Naxos

After Mykonos we took a ferry to the nearby island of Naxos, the biggest islands of the Cyclades and known for a more relaxed vibe. My best memory of Naxos is the host at our hotel. Zacharoula welcomed us with so much good energy and enthusiasm about her island (she is from Naxos but has been studying in Athens – she is a baker!) that she made our stay unforgettable. Next to some great tips about restaurants (each one was spot on), places to visit and things to do, we also spend some time just chatting and Renske and I actually felt a little sad to leave her (we nicknamed her Zachie and have been talking about her for the rest of our trip).

South of Naxos lays a group of smaller islands called the Small Cyclades and we had read that these were really worth a visit and that a sailing trip from Naxos town is one of the best ways to do so. Easy said, easy done, Renske, Floor & I booked a trip and were super excited to spend a day on a sailing boat and swimming in the transparent sea. Unfortunately, the wind had decided otherwise and to avoiding having to spend a full day motoring to these islands, we motored (and sailed a tiny bit) to Paros to stop at little bays and swimming spots. Diving from the boat in the crystal-clear water and spending a day on a boat with only a small group was great, but we were a little disappointed not to have seen the Small Cyclades and to have gone to Paros instead where we were going anyway 2 days later. We’ve already decided we will have to come back to do this over!

Thanks to Zachie, we had some great meals on Naxos, varying from the biggest stuffed squid ever (with feta and vegetables), a swordfish souvlaki big enough for the 3 of us to share, butter soft roasted lamb, tapas on a rooftop bar and crispy pancakes with Greek yoghurt, honey, fruit and a green juice for breakfast at a lovely brunch spot. Safe to say, we didn’t starve…

To keep up with the Greek mythology and to burn some of the meals mentioned above, we decided to rent a car (light blue little barbie car) and drive up to the centre of the island where a hike up to Mount Zeus starts, the highest peak on the Cyclades (1001m). Although we really tried to get there as early as possible to avoid the heat, but because of a long breakfast (it’s still a holiday) and the car rental procedure, we started walking up at 11.45, needless to say that the ‘avoiding the heat’-plan completely failed… it was a really tough hike that took us much longer than expected because of the steep rocky terrain you had to climb up (and then down, even worse), but the views over Naxos and other islands were absolutely spectacular together with eagles flying low over heads as if they were performing a dance only for us! We spent the rest of the late afternoon having lunch in one of the very cute little mountain villages in the centre of islands and buying souvenirs made from Naxos marble.

Naxos was great – I warn you I’m will actually be saying that about each island – and less hyped than Mykonos, which gave it a more easy going vibe. I’ll be back…

Paros

From Naxos we moved on to Paros taking yet another ferry; ferries are the best way to travel between the islands. This time however it felt like a VIP treatment as Floor was travelling with us from Naxos to Paros and we could join her in her van and board the boat driving instead of walking. This was way more relaxed than carrying a heavy backpack and waiting in the sun until you are allowed on board. A first taste of the #vanlife I’ve been seeing so much of on social media in the past year and a half!

On Paros we stayed in the little port town of Naoussa in a hotel with a pool overlooking the town. Naoussa is a more relaxed version of Mykonos town but more glamourous than Naxos, it still has a little luxury air and some beautiful shops but less high-end and more local Greek brands of dresses, jewellery, and summer shoes. And of course a nice mix of restaurants, bars and cafes to keep everyone happy.

Same as with Mykonos and Naxos, we stayed 3 nights and 2 full days on the island. One of the days we spent touring the island with Floor in her van. We drove around the island following the coastal road and stopping at nice spots for a short walk, a coffee, a village tour, lunch on the beach and some shopping; it was a great way to see as much as possible of the island. The next day we decided to use our own legs as engines and recreate a walk from the town of Lefkes crossing through the middle of the island to Dryos, on the south-east coast of the island. We had seen a specific walk on a Paros hiking website offering a guide (the path is difficult to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for) and lunch, but this was quite expensive and not available on the date we wanted so I decided for one day to become Paros Pauline and studied all the websites, apps and blogs to be able to recreate the exact route we wanted to take. I had found a website of a guy who had put the path in writing with explanation such as ´after a sharp hairpin turn you will see an abandoned fridge on the side of road, turn left even if it doesn´t look like a path´… I´m quite proud to say that despite the sometimes unclear instructions (apparently 100m is not the same distance for everyone) we managed to complete the whole route and walked along a part of a beautifully preserved Byzantine path that still exists on the island. I thought the Cyclades would be all about beaches and laying in the sun, but the incredible views, all the olive, fig and pomegranate trees within reach, a small church appearing out of nowhere, the fact that we didn’t see anyone else along the way and going on this little adventure together with Renske and Floor, made this hike one of the highlights of Paros and I would dare say also of the whole 2,5 weeks in Greece!

After walking up and down for 3 hours, we were right on time in Dryos to get a coffee to go and catch the bus back to our starting point in Lefkes and have a well-deserved lunch! Lefkes is a beautiful and very picturesque little town with a maze of cobbled streets, white plastered houses, churches on every corner and bougainvilles spilling over walls, but then which town on the Cyclades wouldn’t fit this description? Yet, each time we visited a new village I was amazed over and over again by how beautiful and peaceful each village is, I could easily see myself sitting on the steps of my own little white house with blue (or green) window frames with a coffee in the shade of a fig tree (what’s better than being able to have your favourite fruit within reach?!) and just enjoy watching people walk by.

Same as Naxos, I will have to come back to Paros because we didn’t have time to visit Antiparos and well also just because it was such a great island!

Sifnos

Sifnos was the biggest and best surprise of all the island we visited! Although I still can´t decide which island I preferred most, they all had their perks, Sifnos was really a special one! I can´t say if it was because of the really nice hotel we had with the most amazing view over the island and the sea from the restaurant and pool, the fact that the island is very small and a bit off the beaten track and therefore has a special vibe to it, one of the best lunches we had (pasta cacio e pepe but instead of pasta it was squid cut in the shape of tagliatelle, heaven!), the cute town of Appolonia with the BEST bakery/cookie shop EVER (think little marzipan balls covered with hazelnuts or pistachios), or the very relaxed afternoon we spent on sunbeds on a beach with someone bringing us drinks and lunch.

One of my favourite days of this Greek trip was on Sifnos when in the morning (or actually end of the morning when of course the sun was already blazing) we walked from our hotel through the countryside to the village of Aparanthos and then Appolonia (the ‘biggest’ town of the island). It was a beautiful walk and Appolonia ended up being one of my favourite towns of the Cyclades, just the right number of nice shops without being over the top, a couple of good restaurants and bars, not too busy and as mentioned above the best bakery ever with mouth watering cookies and other Greek delicacies. I’ve added some photos, but they don’t do the shop justice, so you’ll all have to go there to see for yourself and I will happily join you :-)! After our customary post breakfast but pre lunch coffee break (we had so many iced coffees and espressos), we decided to walk back to our hotel to get our swimming things and then again walk to the village of Kastro. That might have been a little bit too much of walking, we arrived at a restaurant on the beach in Kastro mid-afternoon completely overheated (scale from 1 to Delos, an 8,5), dehydrated and starving. But the upside was that it could only get better from that point, and it did, after a delicious grilled fish and some vegetables, we went for a dive in the sea from a concrete platform on one side of the little cove we were at. It wasn’t at all a touristic swimming spot; we had this tiny bay to ourselves, and it felt like time stood still and ultimate happiness being able to jump in this amazingly clear and blue water and just enjoy this perfect moment; real freedom.

Sifnos was simply great, no other words needed!

Milos

Oh oh Milos, I think we started on the wrong foot… first of all the transfer from the port from the hotel wasn’t there when we arrived and we had to take a regular taxi (can you imagine?!), then our hotel room was rather small (but beautiful nonetheless), the breakfast was quite disappointing, pillows not too good, it was very very very windy which meant that the boat tour we wanted to take had been cancelled and all the northern beaches were off limits for swimming and summer dresses weren’t really an option anymore. The struggles were real… ;-) After a first day where we had to overcome these huge disappointments and realise that we were being drama queens, Milos did make it up to us or maybe the other way around, we made it up to Milos because Milos doesn’t have to apologize to anyone.

We rented the oldest version of a Fiat Panda that you can imagine (windows didn’t even open) and toured the entire island, I think we drove to every possible corner of the island that’s open to rental cars. There are some areas that are off limits because of very bad roads and the Milos viper (endemic specie to the island of Milos). I thought at first that we weren’t allowed in these areas to protect the tourists from being bitten by the Milos viper, but it appears that I shouldn’t always put myself first as this restriction is to protect the viper from humans invading its territory and disturbing its tranquil viper life. Lucky viper, it has a beautiful island to live on!

Thanks to Renske’s amazing driving skills (this is not sarcastic, it’s quite a challenge driving on the narrow mountainous roads of the islands, let alone the tiny very steep uphill streets of the villages where you cannot pass with two cars) and navigator Pauline, we discovered all the different landscapes of Milos. Contrary to the other islands we had visited so far where there is a sense of unity in each island’s looks, Milos has very different types of spectacular landscapes. On the southern coast the beach of Fyriplaka is backed by high cliffs with rainbow colours of blue, pink, green and yellow dropping straight into the sea with a tiny strip of beach. After an adventurous road down to the parking lot, the view left us speechless… On the northern coast, the swimming spot of Mandrakia looks like a white lunar surface with all white polished rocks from which you can usually jump in the water or lay on in the sun but now where the stage of huge waves hitting the shore and making it an even more dramatic visit. When looking out the window from our hotel we had a view on huge cliffs looking a bit like the famous Etretat cliffs in Normandy. This is not to mention the more ‘ordinary’ rocky and mountainous landscapes with olive trees and bushes that are common to all the islands or the quaint little villages with white houses, churches with blue domes and colourful bougainvilles, etc. – you know the drill by now – that dot the Cyclades. Although we didn’t spend as much time swimming and on the beach as we had planned to, Milos has so much more to offer and is really a great island to go touring; the landscapes won’t bore you a second!

Every evening it became a sport to find the less windy restaurant for dinner, trying to hide behind the plastic wind shields installed everywhere to keep the tourists out of the wind and sand. During the day shorts and t-shirts were fine, but at night instead of our nice flowy summer dresses we changed to jeans and our warmest sweaters. Not as glamourous, but the outfit fortunately does not impact the taste of the food :-).

Our 2,5-week Greek island hopping trip ended slightly differently than expected, no endless aquatic or beach activities but instead discovering the island itself. In retrospect, Milos really has the most diverse and perhaps even most beautiful landscapes of all the islands we have visited, just a shame that we weren’t able to see it under perfect weather conditions and get to see the beaches and caves you can only reach by boat. A good reason to come back! And I really would love to come back!! The whole Greece trip has been smooth sailing, figurately speaking that is, people have been so nice and welcoming, the islands are beautiful, there is so much to see and do and the food is delicious; I really loved the whole package! We’ve already been talking about how nice it would be to do a longer sailing trip around some of the islands, always good to have the next holiday in mind before the last one ends…

Almost the end of this blog

I still have so many anecdotes and things I would like to tell you about the Greek islands, but this blog has to come to an end at some point… just a couple more last random thoughts and questions that I couldn’t leave out and then I promise I will stop typing!

• Could we please implement in the Netherlands the following two great Greek inventions: 1) the half litre house wine you can order in a carafe at every restaurant (cheap and good!) and 2) the small desserts you get almost every time on the house at the end of a meal?
• Why do they put so much onion in greek salads, are there people who eat all the onions?
• There are more churches on each island than statues of lions in Skopje (see blog on Skopje, Macedonia). I’m not kidding, tiny Sifnos alone has 360 churches, one for each day of the year! And they are all as charming and cute and preferably built on top of a cliff or rock to make them look even prettier with the sea in the background.
• ‘Neh’ means ‘yes’ in Greek, I found out after a very very confusing conversation where I was still under the impression that the Greek ‘neh’ and the Dutch ‘nee’ had the same meaning. I spare you Renske’s jokes about this afterwards. 
• On Sifnos I had some Greek raki and Scottish whiskey on the same night thanks to the hotel owner and his welcome drink and Terry and Pete, a Scottish couple who had a bottle of whiskey in their suitcase (lesson number one: never travel without a bottle of your favourite drink, it will always come in handy to make new friends!).
• After 2,5 weeks of going out for lunch and dinner every day, I believe that we’ve eaten all the pulpo you can find, tried all local cheeses (still loving feta), had all the grilled vegetables, fried courgette and tomato balls with yoghurt sauce you can find on the islands and tzatziki and olive oil is now flowing through my veins instead of blood. It’s a good thing I’m not going cold turkey in the Netherlands and could continue on a quite similar diet in Albania.
• My favourite word in Greek is ‘lipon’, which means ‘well’ or ‘so’ for the silly reason that it sounds like ‘ippon’, the judo equivalent for a KO in boxing…

Hugs and kisses from Dubrovnik, Croatia!