Milos

After a 5 hour boat ride to Milos' port of Adamas and very little sleep the night before, M and I were hoping to find a hotel very quickly. But rather than the usual greeting by dozens of men holding up boards advertising their hotels, we were met with a bustling tourist office, lined with people struggling to find a place to stay.

Milos island was filled to capacity...there wasn't a single room available. At the tourist office, M and I met two French girls who'd gotten in on the same ferry as us and were also looking for a place to stay. We decided to all look for a place together, so we hopped in a taxi and headed for the town of Pollonia.

(More squid the Greek way in Pollonia)

One of the girls and I stayed with the luggage, while M and the other girl went in opposite directions to find a vacant hotel room. They both came back with nothing, except the French girl had been told by one guy at a hotel to come back in an hour or so, as they would maybe have a free room for 4. We went for a bite to eat and a cup of coffee, headed back to that hotel to harass the guy at the reception, but still, he couldn't tell if the room would be available or not.

We arrived to Milos at 11 am, and it was 6 pm by the time we finally got that hotel room in Pollonia. I was so happy I was about to lunge across the reception desk and hug the poor guy we harassed. For 120 euros a night, it was a good deal for the four of us. Meanwhile, we'd met a couple of French guys who had been on the island for 2 nights and had slept on the beach because they couldn't find a place to stay.

(Pollonia harbour)

As M and I walked back from an early dinner that evening, one of the French guys spotted us and asked us if they could take a shower at our place. We happily obliged, and ended up going out with them for drinks later that night. They ended up crashing at our place as well, albeit on the floor :) At least they had a roof over their heads!

Next morning after breakfast, we headed off to a beach (of which the name I forget). It was a gorgeous, burning-hot, pebbled beach. We walked to the end of it where it was the most secluded and enjoyed the gorgeous view. M, one of the French guys and I swam out along the coast for about an hour or so, until we reached a completely secluded beach, stopping off in little grottos on the way there.

(Gorgeous beach...name I forget?)

I didn't think we'd make it back alive...I'm not the most athletic of people and we were really quite far off from where we'd started. We began the trek back after resting on the secluded beach for a while, and rather than swim the whole way, we hiked most of it on the coast's really raggedy rocks. I cut myself more times than I care to remember and scraped my butt on those rocks a fair amount of times. Seriously, I didn't think I'd make it back. We swam against strong waves the last 15 mins, and I was this close to giving up...but we made it! And it was quite an exhilirating experience.

Back on shore, we headed to a little Greek restaurant overlooking the beach. We headed back to Pollonia while the guys went back to their newfound hotel room in Adamas. They picked us up later on that night and we went out to a bar in Adamas, then we set out to look for a club for a little boogie. Strangely enough, it seems the nightlife happens outside on the streets rather than in the clubs, where people line the walls with their drinks and socialise.

By 4 am I was famished so we headed to a little creperie, and I only got to bed by 7 am. Three hours later we were up and headed for yet another beach (forget the name again!). I slept in the shade most of the time, until we headed off to Sarakiniko beach to watch the sunset. WOW! That beach is quite unusual as it seriously looks like the surface of the moon. It's a white rock beach that is a true testament to Milos' volcanic nature. The sunset was even more spectacular than in Santorini.



(Sarakiniko beach)

Later that night, we were off to Milos' capital, Plaka, for dinner and drinks. It wasn't too much of a late night as the next day, we'd planned an all day boat excursion to see Milos' most beautiful beaches, that are inacessible by land. We were off at 10 am and stopped off at 3 different spots. We couldn't stop saying 'wow'. Really, we were in complete awe of the island's beauty and diversity.



At the first stop we swam about in the caves for about an hour. Next stop, Kleftiko, was a 2-hour one, with lunch on the sail boat. The last stop was a half hour long at Agio Dimitrio. Only the pictures can do justice to the beauty of those places.

(Kleftiko)


(Our sail boat)


(I've yet to see more beautiful waters...)

(Church at Agio Dimitrio)

By 7 pm we were back on dry land and had to get showered and ready for our overnight ferry ride back to Athens at 11pm, in order to catch a boat to our last destination, Spetses, in the Saronic Gulf islands. The two French guys were on the same ferry back to Athens; we found a few free seats and ended up crashing until we reached Piraeus at 6 am. I am truly surprised I did not get sea-sick after being on a boat all day and then all night.

It was goodbye to the two Frenchmen in Athens, and M and I caught the boat to Spetses shortly after.