Milos

Our trips tend to develop kind of organically.

Over the past months we had been trying to figure out where to spend some relaxing time in Europe before visiting Anthea’s friends and family in Ireland.

We are both used to relaxing on warm tropical beaches in Southeast Asia.  It’s cheaper out there than North America or Europe, the weather is nice, and the water’s nice and warm.

We had kicked around the idea of Greece, but neither of us knew much about it. We knew they have been having economic problems and the Syrian refugee crisis has been especially rough this year. We knew Greeks could use the business, but could we really feel ok having a vacation in the midst of such tragedy?

I consulted with some friends who knew more than I did about the political climate and everyone said, “Go!”. It will be fine, and they really need visitors.

But we still didn’t know how to choose a destination. There are well known islands like Santorini, but we generally don’t enjoy destinations with crowds of tourists.

We heard good reviews of Naxos and Paxos, but it wasn’t clear from looking at the web what the atmosphere was really like there.

It can also be kind of tough to do research online because Greece still uses the Greek alphabet, so there is often no universal way to spell words using the English alphabet. Frequently there are three or more common spellings of the same word or place name.

Fortunately, just when we really needed some guidance, Anthea met a Greek man who seemed to have similar sensibilities to ours. He suggested we go to Milos, a little known quiet island in the Aegean Sea southeast of the mainland.

We started looking for information but, as usual, there wasn’t much. We learned that, although the island has an airport, there are only a couple of very small planes that fly there every day - maybe not even every day. There is ferry service from Athens, but it’s a long slow ride in most cases.

This had all the makings of a nice quiet place.

We did some research and booked a little boutique hotel called Kapetan Tasos in the small fishing town of Pollonia that is known for its tasty seafood restaurants. Then we just smiled and crossed our fingers.

As we took the short thirty minute flight from Athens, we both looked down over the desert-like landscape and wondered if we had made a mistake. We had intentionally chosen this more arid environment, mostly void of green vegetation, over the southern coast of Italy, because we imagined it would be more relaxed. But looking at the beaches from above, it seemed like the sun was bright and hot and there wasn’t much shade to be seen.

We landed at the tiny airstrip and the airplane pulled right up to the door of the single small building. We ambled off into the empty terminal, picked up our bags and approached one of the three taxis waiting outside.

The very laid back and big-boned woman taxi driver knew our hotel and brought us straight there for a flat fee. Along the way, we were mostly alone on the road. There are only a few roads on the island, and most of the time they are empty except for the occasional car or tourist on a rented motorbike.

At the hotel we were met with an empty reception. Apparently they close for the afternoon, but within a few minutes the friendly hostess/manager arrived, apologized for our wait and brought us directly to our room without any check in formalities. She was more concerned that we relax and freshen up. With her limited English, she assured us we could take care of all that later.

Our room was lovely, comfortable, and stylish. We had a view from our patio to the deep blue Aegean Sea about a hundred yards away. There was a quiet beach there. We could have probably stayed in Pollonia the whole time we were there. The town itself is comfortable and charming (here is some arial footage). But we wanted to explore the island a bit.

Over the next few days, we rented a motorbike and followed a tourist map to several suggested beach locations.

Each stop had slightly different feel.

Firiplaka Beach was popular. It had a cool little beach bar playing lounge music and some shady thatch beach umbrellas dotting the long sandy beach with warm shallow water.

Firopotamos Beach was a small pebbly beach shared with about ten one-room fisherman shacks that seemed to have been upgraded to cool little vacation homes. Each was built above a tiny garage door right on the water to store a small boat.

Sarakiniko Beach looked like a different world. It was a system of what seemed like white sand dunes that have petrified into powdery contoured cliffs. There was a camera crew there filming a low-budget reality show called Global Games. Apparently there had been some kind of competition there earlier that day and they were having their award ceremony. It was certainly one of the more picturesque places on the island.

Aghia Kiriaki Beach was on one of the furthest reaches you can reach by paved road. There are other more remote beaches, but you need an easily available all-terrain vehicle to reach those. Because of the longer distance there were hardly any people on this long lonely beach, and so folks seemed to feel a bit more comfortable shedding a few more clothes.

Even though we had been concerned about the shade situation, every beach always had some kind of shade - either from a small shady desert tree or from a local who was willing to rent you a shaded chair for a few Euro and sell you some refreshing drinks to boot.

There are something like seventy beaches on the island. We only made a small dent in the number we could have have visited had we been more ambitious.

There are a few small towns we passed through from place to place. I wasn’t expecting much from the towns, but some of them were quite cool. All of them adhered to the stereotypical greek island architecture with their white stucco and blue window panes.

On the way to visit Klima, the ancient Greek town ruin with an ancient theatre where the Venus de Milo was discovered, we passed through Trypiti, a miniature town hanging off the side of a tall cliffside above the sea. The adorable town was a series of winding cobble stone roads and little cafes with tables overlooking the water. 

Adamantas is the main ferry port for the island. It has lots of tiny shops and restaurants for tourists. It is also home to a hot springs and thermal bath spa once mentioned by Hippocrates in one his medical texts. We had to check it out. I never miss an opportunity to visit local hot springs. The one woman who ran it was a little bit peculiar, but we definitely came out relaxed and refreshed after some steam rooms, a water massage, and the warm mineral baths heated by the volcanic island innards.

We mostly ate meals in Pollonia. Neither of us was too sure what to expect from small town greek restaurants, but we were never disappointed. Judging by the busy fishing boats and the daily specials, the seafood was clearly very fresh. They seemed to specialize in a local flavor of delicious fish soup and we also saw some locally caught squid and octopus specials. But there was also a wealth of other varieties of fish, muscles, and grilled shrimp.

The suggestion with most meals was to start with bread and some kind of spread like tzatziki, hummus, or fava bean mash. Every restaurant also seemed to provide cheap carafes of local wine.

By the end of our trip, it became clear that, at least here on the island (but maybe in all of Greece), it is customary to bring you more than you ordered.

Every time we felt full and satisfied and asked for our bill, they would bring something else to eat or drink first. Sometimes it would be a digestif drink. Sometimes it would be some cold sweet yogurt with fruit. Sometimes it would be a pastry. But there was always something - without fail.

The generosity did not end with food though. The friendliness and hospitality consistently went above and beyond our expectations at every step. It also didn’t seem like obsequious pandering to tourists. It seemed to be cultural. They are just nice.

When I rode my motorbike to the hotel to pick up our backpacks, before I could park the bike, the woman at the desk ran up the stairs smiling and carrying my pack.

The guys who rented us our motorbike offered to give us a ride to the ferry port all the way across the island so we didn’t have to take a taxi. Our driver wouldn’t accept any money or any tip after the ride. He just laughed and said, “No, no! You are good people! But no!”

Milos was just the kind of easy going experience we were hoping for and satisfied all of our needs for the week. It also gave us our first taste of Greek culture which left a very warm impression with us both.