MILOS

After spending nearly a week in white washed and tourist laden Santorini, we are ready to explore a new side of Greece, and we are doing that just a two hour ferry ride north on the island of Milos. It is part of the same island chain that Santorini belongs to, but it is far less developed in its tourism and is famous for its unique beaches. Considering we tend to most enjoy more relaxed and authentic travel destinations, we’re all looking forward to exploring Milos, though we enjoyed Santorini.

Day One: Arrival

After we pick up our rental car, meet with our Airbnb host, and get settled, Hannah and I go to find the parking lot in town. It’s just down the street about a quarter mile, and it’s open to the public for free. It’s really just a patch of dirt, and sometimes people park “creatively.” As we make our way back after dropping off the car, Hannah and I walk along the beach and the string of restaurants along the water. We peruse menus as we go, looking for anything that might be a viable option for dinner. Eventually, we stumble upon a seaside sushi restaurant with a vegan menu, which includes fried tofu, vegan garden rolls, and vegetarian dumplings. We text our parents to join us and get a seat to enjoy our first seaside meal of many in Milos.

After dinner, Hannah and my mom go back to our apartment. Hannah hasn’t been feeling great all day and we are just realizing that she is probably sick. While my mom and sister walk back, I go with my dad to explore Pollonia’s peninsula. My dad spotted a church at the end of it that he wants to find, so we set off on a short walk to the other side of the bay. Along the way, we stumble upon a beautiful sandstone cliff beach that has a great view of sunset. We walk down the stairs to get lower on the cliffs, near the water, and explore tide pools, geological formations, and watch the waves hit the rocks while the sun goes down. As soon as the sun is below the horizon, we hurry to the small church to see it before dark, then make our way back to the apartment.

Day 2: Groceries, Pollonia Beach, and Sunset

This morning, Hannah still has a fever, so we take a slow and relaxed start to the day. Eventually, my mom and I go to a grocery store 15 minutes away to stock up on breakfast supplies, snacks, and ingredients for a few homemade meals. I think this might have been my mom’s first time to a foreign grocery store, and it was fun to shop around with her. We can’t find any gluten-free bread or crackers, but we find some tortillas and a taco kit with seasoning, salsa, and corn shells—a surprising and useful find. Another score was pasta made from chickpeas. Other than being much smaller than grocery stores in the United States and having carts that require a coin to be unlocked, the grocery store is pretty standard. Well stocked on food, we drive back to Pollonia—where our apartment is—and make lunch for everyone.

In the late afternoon, it is time for us to check out the beach just a two minute walk from our apartment. My parents go to a restaurant along the water to try some local cheese while I frolic in the water (really, I am frolicking and it is wonderful). The rocks along the water line are uncomfortable to walk on, though mostly smooth from centuries of oceanic tumbles, so once I am in the water I stay put. Not far from the shoreline, bobbing boats are tied to buoys but nobody seems to go out very far. It’s a shallow beach and people seem to enjoy staying where it’s a little warmer and they can touch. I venture out a bit further and have the very surreal experience of swimming not far from the tiny port when the large ferry ship (large compared to a fishing boat) comes in from the next island over.

My parents wander over to the beach, and my dad goes for a swim with me before we go back to our apartment to pick up Hannah for sunset. I am determined to do something to get her out of the house today and sunset last night was gorgeous. So, I get the car and drive the family there and to the small church on the point. We notice a small fishing boat using the limestone rocks that stick out into the water as a natural harbor, driving far into them for protection and docking for the night along one of the rocks.

Day 3: Tsigrado Beach

Today Hannah feels marginally better…at least she doesn’t have a fever and it’s time for a little adventure. It is HOT here, so we get an early start to the day. Our plan is to go to a beach called Tsigrado. It’s just a few miles south of where we are staying, but to get there, we have to drive all the way back to the port town we arrived in yesterday then south because there’s no road along the coast on that part of the island. This beach got our attention because of its tiny size and unique location. The only way down to the postage stamp of a beach is to descend through a very small crack in the cliffs above it, using two rickety ladders and a rope. The beach itself is tiny and from pictures I’ve seen it gets very full, but we are here early. When we arrive, there is only one couple, and they are on their way out. The ladders to get down are a bit more difficult than they looked online. The top ladder is missing multiple steps consecutively, making for quite a reach; then the sloping canyon between is covered in loose sand, and the bottom ladder is very tall. My dad and I go first, throwing things off the ladder onto the beach, so we don’t have to balance them on the way down. Hannah is a superhero coming down the ladder, not feeling well, but being a good sport anyway. By the time we are all on the beach, Hannah is wiped, so I set up a bed for her with towels and she goes to sleep while my mom lays in the shade. My dad and I hop in the water and swim out to where it’s deep. The water is so clear that you can still see straight to the bottom. Here we do an aqua jogging workout together and watch as people start descending the ladder and filling up the beach, like ants who found a particularly exciting crumb. Boats come by too, some pulling obnoxiously far into the bay, and eventually, a kayak tour fills half the beach as well. My dad and I are grateful for the kayak tour because their guide takes them into a sea cave, which we never would’ve found on our own. We follow them at a small distance but decide not to go into the cave so we don’t bump elbows with them. When our work out is over, we swim under a sea arch as we make our way back to the beach. Somehow inside the arch, where the light shouldn’t reach, the water shone the brightest green. It’s surreal to see the light shift through the water.

Now it is very busy and the shade from the cliffs is almost gone. With the sun getting higher in the sky, it’s definitely time to go. We go to the bottom of the ladder to make our way out, but there’s a constant stream of people (read: ants) coming down. After watching the line maintain five or six people no matter how many came down, we eventually ask someone to wait so we can leave. Hannah is a trooper, but barely makes it back to the car. It’s time for some air-conditioning, naps, and food.

Day 4: Sarakiniko and Mandrakia

Sarakiniko is perhaps Milos’ most famous beach. I can understand why. It is entirely made up of waves, dips, and towers of limestone cliffs right on the clear blue and deep water. We arrive early, at about eight, and we already think it’s busy. There are about 10 cars parked above the beach, and people mill about as we make our way through the cliffs toward the most popular part of the beach. Along the way, we walk around a dip in the cliffs that’s filled with shallow water and has a tiny beach at the end. Just beside the tiny beach, we find a network of caves carved into the cliffs. Interesting. Perhaps a pirate treasure hiding place? Probably not, but Milos was home to many pirates back in the day. We continue walking along the other side of the dip to find the best spot for cliff jumping. There are already many people here, so we watch them to understand the best way to go about it. The cliffs are at a slant and reach out over very deep and calm water, so this may be the safest place you could possibly cliff jump. To get out, you swim under a sea arch into a small hole in the rocks that opens to the sky and has a rock tall enough to let you climb out onto the cliffs. I plan to start small and warm up into a bigger jump, but Hannah, who’s back in action, decides no way. She decides we should jump together from one of the higher points along the cliff. Initially, I try to go with her, but I admittedly chicken out and let her go alone. After I get a warm-up jump in from a lower spot, we do jump together from the higher place. The water is so clear you can basically snorkel without putting your head underwater.

Dad joins in with a jump of his own, and he and I do an aqua jog work out. We go around the cove, where these cliffs are, around a point between land and a small rock formation in the water, and back to where the dip in the rocks is. As we reach the beach’s dip, a large pirate ship-looking boat carrying many tourists comes between the land and the rock formation as well. Everyone on board waves and probably thinks we are crazy.

We turn around to head back to the jumping cliffs, and as we make our way between land and the rock formation, a giant mast on the other side of the point comes into sight above the cliff. The little passage here isn’t huge, so I am immediately concerned we are going to get smooshed by the tourist ship. A guide in the boat yells to us as it approaches “Do not worry, you will be fine!” Apparently I looked about as calm as I felt. Sure enough the boat passes without issue, leaving nothing but wake to disturb us. I finish up, do a few more jumps with Hannah, and wrap it up for the morning. It is getting hot, and we thought the beach was crowded when we arrived, but geez it is chaos now. People are everywhere—in the water, walking along the paths, climbing the cliffs—everywhere.

After a brutally hot afternoon in the port town of Adamantas (we ended up getting spa treatments just so we could be in their air conditioning), we are exhausted and have a homemade dinner in the air conditioning of our apartment. We finish just before sunset, and Hannah springs into action to get us to Mandrakia, a small fishing village that we wanted to see earlier today but we couldn’t stand the heat. We have 30 minutes before the sun will be down, and the village is 20 minutes away. Hannah and I sprint to get the car from the public parking area, pick up our mom (dad isn’t interested), and wind our way to the village. We watch the sky light up in beautiful shades on the way. Sunsets here make the sky look like pink lemonade.

We pull into the parking area a few minutes after sunset, only to realize a cliff blocks the view from here anyways. No matter, it was fun to have some urgency. The village is so small that at least five could fit in a typical American shopping mall. Colorfully painted steps lead to the rocks over the crystal clear water. Colorful old boathouses-turned-living-quarters line the water’s edge and three women swim and chat in the small bay where the boats dock. The water is filled with fish and looks so inviting that Hannah and I are tempted to jump in fully clothed and freshly showered. There is one small restaurant in town and it is buzzing, but the real action happens just outside it, where a litter of stray kittens are playing amongst themselves.

Day 5: Boat Trip

Milos is famous for having an incredible coastline, but very large swaths of it are inaccessible by car. Taking a boat is one of the best ways to see the wilder parts of the island, so today we are adventuring out on a five hour boat ride that will end with sunset. It is a 20 person boat, and we are the first to arrive at the meeting point. According to the company’s greeter that meets us, Americans are always early. That’s a surprise to us. She also thinks Hannah and I are twins, then that I am the older sister. We have been getting both of those a lot on this trip.

Gradually, other groups of guests begin to arrive and each one has such strong and particular dynamics, making for highly entertaining people watching. A family from Oman arrives, two parents (the mom is originally from the Bronx) who look for shots immediately after arriving and two little kids who are unchecked and almost goaded on by their parents. Next comes a family from Cyprus, all adults and one teenage girl who clearly would rather be going anywhere but a catamaran cruise on the world famous coast of Milos. Then, a group of three young Australian women arrives. Two sisters traveling with a friend, and based on their energy and comments to one another, they are not good travel buddies. A few minutes before everyone is supposed to be here, a group fromSouth Africa arrives, a mom with her young adult daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. The mom’s lips are bursting with filler underneath a full face of makeup. They aren’t here for long before she whips out her phone and starts recording a video of her daughter’s boyfriend, interview style. He clearly feels more of a need to impress than her daughter because, when the daughter’s turn comes, she gives one word to the camera and is done. Last to arrive is a couple from the United Arab Emirates. The man is friends with the dad from Oman, and the women are meeting for the first time. The couple is running behind which provides a lot of entertainment, as the mom of the family from Oman warns the greeter that their friends will be late with harsh but insincere admonishment (“It’s absolutely unacceptable. I told them we wouldn’t wait”). Every individual group has some intense dynamics going on. Putting all five together on a boat for five hours? This will be some critically acclaimed people watching.

We board a bus to drive to the other side of the island, where we will get on our boat. On the journey we witness some very impressive bus driving when our driver manages a three point turn with a mere three or so inches between the bus and a parked car. Then, a tiny raft that can hold about five people before dunking under the waves shuffles our motley group from shore to the anchored boat in a comical number of trips. This operation is definitely less oiled than our catamaran cruise in Santorini.

Finally, with everyone safely aboard our very small catamaran, we set sail. We pass Tsigrado Beach, the tiny one we had to get to with ladders and ropes, and realize just how small the crack we descended through is.

Eventually we anchor in Kleftiko, an area along the coast with tall cliffs, coves, and sea arches. The name means “Theif,” given for the pirates that often used the nooks here to conceal themselves or their spoils. We swim around the caves and arches until our boat honks once, the sign for dinner, and we head back for a deliciously cooked meal made on the boat.

We stop at one more swimming spot as we continue to make our way along the coast. The water is freezing but a few people swim nearly to shore while an impromptu dive-off-the-side-of-the-boat contest starts up. The captain toots the boat’s horn to tell each participant to go, then yells a score when they pop their head back above the water. The caption is convinced to participate and lets the 6 year old girl from Oman toot the horn for him. She does it liberally. The captain tells us it’s time for the dives to be over so we can speed off for sunset. The sun is getting pretty low in the sky. As we sail away, we hear a few shouts from the water. Oops, the captain left three people who had swum toward the shore behind.

With everyone on board, we head toward Klima, a tiny fishing village turned tourist accommodation hotspot and our sunset site. Our timing is revealed to be a bit off when the sunset begins while we are half way to the village, but after pausing to watch from a random spot in the ocean, we do a drive by in the dusk light to end our trip.

Day 6: Back to Athens

Today is our last in Milos before we catch our ferry at 5:00 PM back to Athens so we can catch our flights out of Greece tomorrow. We have to check out at 11:00 AM, which leaves us out in the (very very hot) heat of the day. We haven’t been to the catacombs of Milos yet, and the promise of being underground and out of reach of the sun is enough for us to make that our priority for the day. When we arrive, however, a chain blocks the entrance. It closed at 11:30 AM to protect visitors and employees from the extreme heat. Apparently you can’t escape the scorching sun anywhere.

Now we realize we are just above Klima, the small fishing-village-turned-tourist-haven we saw from the boat last night. The day won’t be a loss if we can explore down there, heat and all. We plug the village into Google Maps and Hannah starts the drive through very confusing, steep, and narrow streets. My dad navigates for her because I am exhausted from being sick all night (it seems whatever Hannah got was contagious). After about 15 minutes of confusing wrong turns and going in circles, the effort to get to Klima is aborted in favor of finding an air conditioned or shady restaurant near the port to wait until our ferry arrives.

Just past the port is a small beach club/restaurant where my family has lunch while I try to sleep with my head on the table (I’m definitely still not feeling well). After awhile the smell of food is making me nauseous and the table isn’t exactly the best pillow, so my dad hooks me up with a chair on the beach to sleep off my sickness while everyone else plays hand after hand of Rummy 500. That may be one of the best beach naps of my life.

Finally it’s time for the ferry—a quick (2.5 hour) jump over to Athens. Unfortunately, once we arrive, it ends up taking us another 2-2.5 hour to get to our Airbnb between walking from the port to the metro, the metro, and actually getting into our apartment. I immediately flop in bed, grateful not to have puked for the whole journey, while my parents have a crisis about leaving for home while I am sick and headed to Albania. I say “Mom, I’m sure there are hospitals in Albania” in (weak) consolation to her concerns about my lack of appetite before passing out for the night and leaving Hannah to assure my parents we will be fine in Albania, our 20th country!

Food

• Cheese - Cheese is a big thing here in Greece, and my mom makes sure to try the locally produced hard and soft cheeses. The soft one comes with a warning that it is unpasteurized, and my parents find the hard one to taste unlike any other cheese they have had.

• Watermelon pie - A waitress suggests this to us and says it is one of her favorite foods, so we have to try it. We have no idea what to expect, but we get what looks sort of like a piece of cake (but tougher) and has a cobbler-type taste. Strange but yummy.

• Koufeto - A traditional desert in Milos that’s often served at weddings. It is sort of like a pumpkin jam. It is interesting to learn about but I wouldn’t recommend it for anything beyond education.

• Baklava - A delightful remnant of the Ottoman occupation in Greece. Very sweet, very sticky, very tasty.

• Imam Bayildi - Eggplant stuffed with tomato, onions, and garlic and cooked in olive oil until it melts in your mouth. Delicious! 10/10 would recommend. Another Ottoman food.

• Fish - You have to try the local food (my mom decides). She and my dad split a fish caught 40 minutes from the restaurant, which was deboned at the table.

• Sorbet - This one speaks for itself. The lemon sorbet is incredible and so thick.

• Greek salad - My mom’s go to for the trip. Cut peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, and olives with soft cheese.

• Hummus and pita - Need I say more?

Dinner Spot on the Water

First Night Sunset

Church at Pollonia’s Point

Fishing Boat

Pollonia Beach

Second Night Sunset

Tsigrado Beach

Imam Bayildi

New Friend at Dinner

Fish Caught 40 minutes from Re

Watermelon Pie

Koufeto

Sarakiniko Beach

Sarakiniko Beach Caves

Sarakiniko Beach Caves

Sarakiniko Beach

Sarakiniko Beach

Sarakiniko Beach

Sarakiniko Beach

Mandrakia

Mandrakia

Mandrakia Kitten

Kleftiko

Kleftiko

Lava Rock meets Limestone

Lava Rock meets Limestone

Sea Cave Beach

Boat Ride

Boat Ride

Boat Ride Sunset

Klima - Boat Ride

Beach Nap