Island Life
We've been in Greece now for about ten days now and are loving every second of the sun, sand, and of course the delicious Greek food. We arrived via ferry from Bodrum, Turkey to Kos, Greece. Since then we've been hopping around the islands enjoying how each spot has its own unique charms. However, all boast beautiful beaches and the white buildings with blue trim that one imagines when thinking of the Greek islands.
First was, as we said above, Kos. It is home to the tree that Hippocrates supposedly taught under, and it also holds some interesting ruins. Unfortunately, it was raining like crazy during our one and only day there so we didn't see much other than several coffee shops and a couple of gyro restaurants. In the evening we boarded another ferry for the 5 hour trip to take us to the Cyclades Islands.
The ferry, one of the Blue Star Ferry's boats, was fantastic. It was huge -- 9 stories -- and contained a fancy restaurant, several cafes, lounges, and sleeping cabins. We found ourselves a comfortable corner to stretch out in. They even offered rentals of mini-DVD players and movies, which we decided to splurge on. Around 2 a.m. we arrived in Syros and found our way to the Ethrion Hotel. The room was really nice and had a balcony overlooking the historic town center. Syros, as the hotel owner George (so far our experience seems to indicate that most hotel owners in Greece are named George) explained to us, is perhaps the least touristy of the Cyclades. George also told us that the island had the first high school in Greece.
We spent two days exploring Syros. We hiked up the steep hill of the town to visit the town's very pretty Catholic Church, we hung out in the town's main piazza in the evening and watched local families gather there so there children could play in the big square, and we drank coffees and had lunch in some of the nice restaurants along the port. We also took a bus to another part of the island and discovered some quiet beaches and took a long walk along the coast. There we found a small cove with a rocky beach hidden from the main road.
After Syros it was off to Naxos. Naxos has a really nice town, and we found a great, and cheap hotel to stay at called the Windmill Naxos. The hotel owner, George (of course), was extremely nice. The room had a small kitchen and we had a nice balcony. The weather started to get quite warm and we spent one day on the beach here. Another day on Naxos we rented a car and explored the rest of the island. The landscape on the islands is actually quite barren -- a result of overuse of the land from farming and grazing animals. Apparently olive trees and goats are the main culprits, both of them causing severe erosion over the centuries. The coasts are very pretty--a mix of rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and clear turquoise water.
After Naxos we boarded another ferry to take us to the island of Koufonissi -- part of the "small Cyclades," a chain of tiny, sparsely populated islands. Koufonissi is truly teeny -- we could easily walk from one side to the other--and it holds only a handful of hotels and restaurants. We had a very low key day there, taking long walks along the water and through the small town. And Benny had a delicious meal of teeny (surprised?) fish -- dee-licous!
Everywhere we've been we've found that the people in Greece have been really nice and very generous -- at restaurants we regularly are given a complimentary after dinner drink or dessert. The travel agent who sold us our ferry tickets in Kos offered to store our luggage for the day for free, and at each hotel we have had pickup service from the port. Everyone is also eager to share their knowledge of Greece with us, and to find out what we visited while on their island.
This morning we headed back to Naxos, where in a few hours we will catch another boat, this time to Santorini. We have a little over a week left in Greece. Most of it we plan to spend on the islands, and then a couple days in Athens. Then its off to our last destination, Paris! Over our last couple of weeks we are also hoping to do a couple of posting about what we've been up to with all of our free time -- books, the best (and worst) of what we've seen, done, and consumed, etc.
