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From The Volcano To The Butterfly: Astypalea
Past the uninhabited island left shining white by the mining of pumice, the Dodecanese Pride catamaran powers on across the waters towards the first stop at Kos Town. Out here on deck, the wind rushes, the sun shines and the fountains of pure white surf make furious patterns in our wake, and we are thankful that the crossing isn’t quite as rough as we were told it might be. Until, that is, after Kos, when we are all shepherded inside as the next stage of the journey will be too lively for passengers to stay on deck, and what follows is ninety minutes of rocking and rolling and lurching over…
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Nisyros And Its Amazing Volcano
Tilos has been wonderful, our best stop so far, and it’s not without sadness that we board the cool looking Stavros ferry and leave whitewashed, bougainvillea dotted Livadia behind. But we always say…move on while you still love a place, so we’re being true to our travel principles on this one. Unusually for islands in the Dodecanese, Tilos has a comparatively flat centre between its spectacular peaks, through which the main road of the island runs north to south. This fertile plateau was created by a gigantic fall of pumice and ash belching from a volcanic eruption of enormous proportions on the neighbouring island of Nisyros, our next destination. Nisyros…
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Chalki: Less Wind, More Chill
Sophia and her friend, the Greek islands’ answer to Mrs Brown and Winnie McGoogan, are sitting on the steps chatting, as they usually are, as we say our goodbyes and head off to the ferry port. “Always take your key”, she had told us when we arrived, “because I never know what time I sleep”. Such is island life. After the Greece mainland, the large island of Crete, and the pleasant buzz of Karpathos, we are now looking for something more remote, more peaceful, so with our first glimpse of what lays before us as the ferry pulls into the tiny island of Chalki, the smallest inhabited island of the…
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Crete: More Of The Western End
Dawn is greeted at our apartment in the same way as it is throughout Hania, with the cacophonous rasping of a billion cicadas, in all our travels we haven’t ever heard a day-long chorus at a decibel level such as this. But dawn also heralds consistency: August in Crete is a delight of clear blue skies throughout the day, we are yet to see our first real cloud in seven days here. Mercifully though the heat is less intense than during the heatwave on the mainland: days here have varied between 32 and 38 but the cooling Meltemi wind blows in each afternoon to make every day just simply lovely.…
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Crete: The Western End
We’re sure lots of travellers do this, but we have a tendency to give nicknames to bars and cafes rather than call them by their real name. This nickname may be governed by the location (bus bar or corner bar) or by what we ate or drank (fish bar or aperol bar) or something we saw or heard there (dog bar, tree bar, reggae bar). So we begin our last evening on Serifos at Ugly Woman Bar, gazing out over the evening waters and wishing we were staying longer. But events outside of our control have brought about a rethink and we are off to a new destination. Our journey…
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Serifos, And A Rethink
The first inkling we get that our calculated risk may not pay off is when we disembark the ferry on Serifos at just after 9am. Backpacking on the Greek islands is easy out of season, but this will be our first attempt at it during August when the islands are at their busiest. Not knowing what the effect of COVID travel restrictions will be, we’ve decided to risk it and see how it goes on the first island and make our judgments from there. And then we get that first clue: not a single room hawker on the quay waiting to meet the ferry. The lady in the office marked…
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Photographic Memories #22
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories… Photo #22: Folegandros We all have a liking for photographs of old buildings, dilapidated walls, tumbledown doors and the like, and pretty much all travellers have a growing collection of such shots. This one captures something slightly different for, as you can see, the building is for the most part well maintained, but has a down at heel section which oozes considerably more character than the…
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Uncovering Andros
Hiking on the beautiful island of Andros, the “island of water and dreams” and the “princess of the Cyclades”
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Kini: Time To Unwind
The village of Kini, on Syros, is indisputably holiday atmosphere, with three beaches and a cool vibe; beach bars, sunshine and clear sea. And so our first day here is a chill day, the only interruption to beach time being our favourite Greek lunch, small fish and retsina. It’s time for a break. For those of you obsessed with Fitbit stats, Michaela’s Fitbit tells us… Saturday 30,338 steps, 11.83 miles Sunday 18,631 steps, 7.25 miles Monday 18,579 steps, 7.25 miles Tuesday 17,877 steps, 6.99 miles Wednesday 26,049 steps, 10.16 miles. Alternatively, Phil’s Fatbit tells us of beer every day, a litre of wine between us each night, more bread each…
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Tinos, Land Of Chapels, Windmills and Dovecotes
Exploring the chapels, windmills and dovecotes on the beautiful Greek island of Tinos
