Greece

Onto our last (and potentially our favourite) country, Greece! Our flight from Palermo to Athens was with Volotea which we again only paid for two checked bags at 20kgs. Our bags weighed 20.4 and 20.1kgs and they didn’t even bat an eyelid nor did they weigh our carry-on either. As an airline, they had a disclaimer when purchasing tickets that due to the situation in the Middle East, they might have to change the ticket prices to cover the cost of fuel, which they ended up needing to do. The extra cost was something like $9 per person so I thought this was quite reasonable (and entirely transparent of the airline too).

We arrived in Athens at 1:15, got our bags at 1:45 and debated on which way to get to the port. Taking the bus is about a 1.5 hour journey, whereas the train is a 1 hour journey – we opted for the latter, but wished we did the former. We had just missed the 2:00pm train, so had to wait another 35mins for the next train, and the worst part? The trains were packed so it was standing room only for the entire hour journey. The train cost €9 each, one way. In hindsight, we should’ve just caught the bus.

Both the train and the bus drop you right by Piraeus port – we got there at 3:30 and our boat (Blue Star ferries) was already waiting (despite not departing until 5:30pm), so we dropped our suitcases off before getting some snacks for the ferry. The ferry was incredible – it was like a cruise ship. There were 7 floors, restaurants, cafes (both with plenty of vegetarian options), and shops on board with plenty of additional seating from your assigned seating. Because we got on the ferry early (around 5pm), we set ourselves up on one of the lounges where we stayed for the entire 4 hour trip – something that went by quickly because of the comfortability of the boat. I managed to take a nap before smashing out one of the blog posts I’m most proud of recently – Lessons I wish I knew as an aspiring footballer.

Getting off the ferry was like a scene from the end of the world – the drawbridge to the ferry slowly lowers, while everyone is waiting, suitcases in tow, to get off as quickly as possible. Apparently in peak summer, it’s even more hectic. We arrived in Paros at 10:30pm and I was worried that it was going to be too late to be meeting our host. Until I saw how lively the town (Parikia) was. We were taken to our tiny home – a super stunning cycladic house with one room literally with only the bed in it. Both our suitcases and backpacks had to be stored outside because there wasn’t any room inside. But we had a beautiful terrace and sunbed where we spent most of our downtime anyway. One of the first things that shocked us about Paros was that the plumbing is terrible so you can’t flush your toilet paper. Yes, you read that right. So everything goes in the bin. And bins have to be emptied, as you could imagine, fairly regularly!

Because we were wide awake (and so was the town), we went and grabbed a gelati although it was no where near as good as the ones we had in Italy (so we didn’t bother trying again for the rest of our trip). In the morning, I left Jas in charge of finding a café for coffee as a lot of the reviews basically said “anywhere is good for coffee in Greece” and “you MUST try a freddo espresso or freddo cappuccino!”. We went to a place called ‘morning morning coffee & sandwich’ for coffee and at first, we weren’t sure about it, but the owner (Costa) said, “Hello ladies, yes this is the place! It isn’t the most instagrammable place, but I do know good coffee and good service!” He was such a breath of fresh air, and the coffee was delicious too. He was so welcoming and hospitable, always offering us a free bottle of water (because you can’t drink the tap water) or ice for our Yetis, as well as offering to answer any questions we might have about the island too. We ended up taking up his offer that afternoon, just asking him about local beaches and things to do / see.

We spent the rest of the morning exploring Parikia and the stunning assortment of shops while grabbing breakfast at Mana Mana. One of the best parts about Greece? Cats were everywhere! We even had our own personal cats at our accommodation (okay, they were the host’s cats) but every time we got back from being out, they were there waiting for us. We went to Cannelait – which we actually thought was a café, but turned out it was more of a bakery (at least the one in Parikia was), so we only bought a cinnamon bun (but it was so good we came back every day for another). In the afternoon, we took Costa’s recommendation and walked 40mins to Marcelo beach along the ‘goat path’ – not the path Google Maps takes you – which was a really pleasant walk. We stayed here for a couple of hours until the sun was setting before heading back and grabbing dinner at Yiannoulis Taverna. Jas ordered a falafel souvlaki and I ordered a haloumi one and we shared a tzatziki with bread. My god the food was incredible! And super cheap too – only €3.5 for each of our souvlakis. Safe to say, we came back here every day too…except for the day it was closed.

For the Wednesday, we wanted to explore Antiparos. There are a couple of ways to get there – you can either catch a ferry directly from Parikia for about €7, or you can catch a bus to Pounta for €2.2 and then a ferry across for €1. We opted for the latter, but had to look up the bus timetable first as the buses run about every 45 or so minutes pre-peak summer. While we waited for our bus, we grabbed our morning coffee then some sweet treats from Ragoussis Bakery – the orange cake here was phenomenal. When we arrived on Antiparos, we settled for brunch at Elia Kafenes and then wandered through town before camping at Paralia Sifneiko beach.

We found Antiparos to be a bit anticlimactic but I think that’s because we didn’t get a quad bike or a car to really explore it. It’s very similar to Paros, just more expensive. Given that we were only going to be staying for a few hours, we tried to negotiate a cheaper price for a quad bike, but the rental companies only offered a 24 hour price (€50). That night, we decided to sleep outside on the sun bed. Especially because the weather was so pleasant. To no surprise, we were accompanied by two cats. We did have to move back inside though as soon as the sun came up around 7am as 1. it was insanely bright and 2. it was already getting very warm.

The next day we went to Santa Maria beach but had to got to Naousa first. In Naousa, we had an incredible breakfast at almond – delicious food and really cool branding. While waiting for our bus to Santa Maria, we explored a little bit of Naousa but it seemed to be a town more suited for the Instagrammers and influencers. When we got to Santa Maria, we walked for about 20mins before we settled on a cove that we had all to ourselves. We had bought ourselves a snorkel at one of the souvenir stores for €10 so used that to swim around the cove, read and relax. Given that the buses don’t run super frequently, we had to somewhat plan our day. We had the option of returning at 4:30 or 6:15 – we opted for the latter as we only arrived at 2pm and were having such a lovely time in the seclusion of the cove. Before catching the bus back to Parikia, we grabbed some loukoumades from ‘To Paradosiako’ and these were delicioussss! So much chocolate and super crispy. This tied us over until we got back where we had, you guessed it, souvlaki again. When something is that good, why change it?! Shortly after we returned to our rooms, our host brought us up some fresh fetta, tomatoes, and olive oil on bread with Greek wine too. The wine tasted very much like a fortified wine so we only managed a sip, but the gesture in itself, was extremely generous.

For our final day, we had a slow morning as our ferry wasn’t until 6pm. We asked our host if we would be able to please leave our suitcases there during the day (or somewhere else) so we didn’t need to pay for storage and she agreed because she didn’t have anyone checking in that day. We spent the day buying some last minute souvenirs – olive wood gifts from Olive Tree, olive oil from Paros Natura – Traditional Greek Products, and some jewellery too. Some shops were very reasonably priced, while others were very expensive. We saw a really cool t-shirt we wanted to buy for a customer back home, but it was €40 (for a white t-shirt with a little saying on it for a baby). Other than shopping, we also went swimming around Parikia port – the beaches aren’t the nicest around here but it was a way to cool off during the heat of the day. Our ferry to Milos was supposed to depart at 6:10 but ended up being delayed until 7:10, which then pushed our arrival into Milos to 8:30pm.

Our first point of call in Milos was picking up our car from Anastasia car rental. We were recommended this company from our Booking.com host and the Google reviews were fantastic. We only booked a week in advance (but had been looking for a few weeks prior) and the cost had not increased despite it getting closer to our arrival. We paid €225 for 5 days and that came with full insurance too. Anastasia was extremely helpful about showing us what part of the island we could and could not visit (given that the car was not a 4WD – it was a fiat). Basically, you can’t explore the west side of the island. We were also told that we had a free park at the car rental place every time we drove into Adamantas.

Given our research, we decided to stay in Pollonia as people had stated it was accessible to a lot of beaches, quieter than Adamantas, and had really good restaurants / cafes. Our accommodation, Villa Mary Ellen, was right on the point of the island (so it was extremely windy). The host who met us was not very likeable – grumpy, dismissive, and impatient. The room was also not what was displayed on Booking.com – we were told we would have a kitchen (as per the photos), but turns out those were photos of other rooms. Fun fact – Booking.com makes it nearly impossible for you to query any reservation concerns with their circular customer service. Their only solution is for you to contact the booking company (which was not an option given the manner in which we were greeted). Milos is also the same in regards to not being able to flush your toilet paper. But if you go in the ocean or in the shower, you’ve taken care of 50% of your needs to relieve yourself! We were a bit peckish on arrival, so ventured out for a little snack - loukoumades from Susuraoa. In comparison to the loukoumades we had in Paros (To Paradosiako), there were more in this batch but less chocolate and more oil.

For the first two days that we were in Milos, the weather report stated that there would be strong northerly winds. The advice given to us and the advice we read online, is that wherever the wind is coming from, go to the opposite side of the island. I.e. for northerlies, you want to head to the southern part of the island as the beaches there will be sheltered by land. Given the wind, we decided not to have a beach day but explore the towns instead. We went to Deck for breakfast – it was highly recommended by many people. The coffee was excellent, but the food was only okay as there weren’t a lot of vegetarian options.

We drove to Adamantas to explore the port and the shops as well as grabbing some lunch (a caprese sandwich from Gregory’s) and a second coffee too. We then headed to Klima, a fishing village known for all of its colourful houses. The drive down here was not overly enjoyable – really steep and narrow, so you have to drive very carefully. The colours of the houses were how sailors used to identify their boating garages from their neighbours. Not many of them are still used as fishing huts – most are very expensive Airbnbs. Regardless, they were stunning. We ate our sandwiches on the pier, before jumping in the water for a swim. Our next stop was Plaka where we again explored the town and the many shops. One of the recommendations we read about was dinner and/or drinks at Utopia to watch the sunset, but people recommend you get there before it opens to ensure a good seat. We got there at 5:40pm (it opened at 6pm) and had front row seats to the sunset…that never happened. Firstly, the sun didn’t set until 8:40pm. So our two appetisers and one main course didn’t exactly keep us entertained for 2.5 hours. Secondly…cloud covered our entire view. We managed to draw out our meals for 2 hours before we decided to call it and head home at 8pm – the sunset was not going to magically burst through the apocalyptic clouds.

For our second day in Milos, we went south to Tsigarado. We grabbed coffee again at Deck, but decided to have Greek yoghurt with granola and banana in our room, because well, we were in Greece! You would think that the price might reflect the availability of the product…but it did not. Same with Greek salads. We struggled to find affordable Greek yoghurt whilst we were here. Given that we were creatures of habit, we went back to Gregory’s to grab a couple of caprese focaccias to take with us to the beach, along with some snacks. Tsigarado is not exactly known for the beach, but more the trek down there. If you do a quick Google, you’ll come across a wealth of reviews from people saying it’s not safe, don’t risk your life etc. Is it dangerous? Depends on your level of adventure. There are two sets of ladders, one which has a few missing steps. But – it has rope as its replacement. It’s a little bit scary for anyone with a fear of heights or potentially for shorter people (who can’t reach the next step), but plenty of non-athletic looking people made it down. There is a sign at the top though that literally says 'The descent to the beach is at your own risk' so well, do as the sign says.

The beach was stunning. We loved every minute of it. There’s not a lot of space as it’s a pretty popular beach, but few people seemed to stay longer than an hour. It’s in a little secluded cove with plenty of places to go snorkelling. After a few hours of sun, swimming, reading, and eating on repeat, we left to head to the neighbouring beach Fyriplaka, just because we were in the area. This beach wasn’t overly exciting – it probably looked better from above annnd I got bitten by something in the water so we left pretty quickly after that. We headed back to Adamantas for a souvlaki from Let’s meat Souvlaki. Despite Pollonia having a lot of restaurants, they appeared to be more fine-dining than casual fare whereas Adamantas offered a lot more of the latter. After dinner we went to our apartment to watch the sunset with a few accompanying friends (who I admittedly may have bought cat biscuits for) before walking down to Kivotos ton Gefseon to have the most delicious mud cake for dessert.

Our third day was boat day! One of the things we were looking up when we arrived on the first night was a boat tour as it was highly recommended by people when staying in Milos for a decent amount of time. Because we don’t drink, we didn’t want a boat that included alcohol in the price, nor did we want to be on a boat for 10 hours. So we opted for a semi-private speedboat (the speedboat is important if you don’t want a whole day on the water) with snacks included. Note: semi-private actually means 25 people, not 10. Given that we were getting snacks on the boat, we only grabbed a coffee and pain au chocolat for breakfast. For our tour, we arrived at 8:30, ready to depart at 9. They had to change the itinerary slightly because the winds the day before meant the boats were on the south side of the island rather than in Adamantas. The staff tried to pitch it to us that we’d get to see more of the island this way, but it also meant we didn’t get to pass by Klima village from the boat (which was in the itinerary).

Our first stops were Kleftiko and Sykia beaches with the incredible volcanic rock formations and caves. These were stunning snorkelling destinations – with all snorkelling equipment supplied by the boating company. The Kleftiko caves were apparently used by pirates as a hideout whereas Sykia cave is the biggest in Milos and is a fantastic photography spot. One of the things we were told when we first got on the boat was that we weren’t allowed to jump from the rear because of the ladders and propellor – so we had to jump from the balloons on the side of the boat. The other thing we were told is that the back of the boat can get slippery (we didn’t have shoes either because we had to take those off as soon as we got on the boat). During our stop at Sykia, Jas was in the water ready to take a video of me diving in from the boat. Except, I never did. I walked on the balloons, only to slip from nearly 2m up and crashed heavily on my shoulder. My first thought was fuck, I’ve dislocated my shoulder or I’ve broken my collarbone. Then, how are we going to travel home in two days and will our travel insurance cover this. Once those initial feelings of catastrophising settled, I then managed to self-assess. Can I move my arm? Yes. Can I move my shoulder, yes. Good, nothing is broken. Meanwhile, the staff had no idea what to do. They just offered me a can of beer to ice my shoulder and said that I would be fine. Fortunately, no serious damage occurred (grateful for my sturdy bones and my ability to fall less-than-gracefully) so I was still able to participate in the rest of the boat tour.

Two of the things included in our tour from Viator were underwater and drone pictures. Our next stop was at a hard-to-access bay on the West of Milos where the captain took these underwater photos of us snorkelling. It was also where I managed to find a perfectly formed cowrie shell 5m underwater! Our final stop was Kalogries beach – a really pretty greenish bay with transparent shallow waters. I loved this beach. The only problem was that we had all started to get a bit cold from the water – it was still early in summer so the water temperature wasn’t overly warm. This is also the spot where the company took some really cool drone photos of everyone – which you get access to at the end of the tour (for free). All up, it was a really enjoyable experience (minus the fall) and we got to see some incredible parts of Milos that we wouldn’t have been able to by ourselves. The tour cost €135 each, so about $220.

After the tour, we got back in our car and went to Mandrakia beach where the famous Medusa restaurant was. As expected, there was a bit of a wait, fortunately it didn’t take us longer than 15mins to get a table for two. We ordered fried feta with honey, fresh fried potatoes, and fried eggplant – safe to say this place probably isn’t the best for vegetarians! But the feta was delicious. And the beach here was stunning too.

Given that it was still early in the afternoon, 6:30pm by the time we finished dinner, we decided to head to Sarakiniko to watch the sunset and maybe jump from the cliffs. The rock formations here are out-of-this-world incredible – it’s like being on the moon. There are lots of different places to jump from on the rocks – some a lot higher than others. And with so many people doing it, you know it’s safe sooo we joined the party. Jas needed a little coercing, but we (two strangers included) managed to convince her to jump too. While we were watching some brave (or stupid?) people jump and perform flips off the rocks, we managed to befriend some English people. We got talking and really enjoyed their company before finding out they were also staying in Pollonia but didn’t have a car. So we naturally offered them a lift and found out that they were leaving on Wednesday too, on the same ferry that we were on. Much like meeting Irma in Holland, we loved meeting Jo and Steve.

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Jumping from Sarakiniko caves

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Our final full day in Milos also happened to be my birthday – I had left the day up to Jas to plan, but had one small request – to please make sure I wasn’t hungry throughout the day. For those who know me know, I get veryyy hangry! Although we went to Sarakiniko the night before, one thing that was recommended to do in Milos was see Sarakiniko during sunrise. So we got up at 5:30am (I was rudely awoken at 3am by Jas being unwell), made our way back to the lunar caves, and arrived about 30mins before official ‘sunrise’. Safe to say, we weren’t the only people with this idea! The sun shining on the volcanic rocks was incredible – I would highly recommend this. We stayed for about an hour before heading back to bed. Jas unfortunately wasn’t feeling overly well – so we had a really slow start to the morning. Grabbed some coffee (from Deck again) and treats (the most delicious orange cake) from Kivotos ton Gefseon, then went to Papafragas caves for a swim. We could easily have stayed here for hours, snorkelling, swimming, jumping from the rocks, and relaxing, but by this time I was getting a bit hungry. We drove to Katrami for breakfast but ended up not eating as there wasn’t anything vegetarian, so we settled for breakfast in Adamantas at mangata – I had an avocado, scrambled egg brioche sandwich while Jas had a smoothie bowl. Our next ‘official’ event wasn’t until 5:30pm, so we had a few hours to kill before then. We went to Firopotomos, which was a really nice place to relax and snorkel – I spent about 30mins swimming to the other side of the cove to explore the boat garage before swimming back. We were enjoying ourselves until a massive wave came and submerged all of our belongings! So at this point, it was time to go. Also important to note, driving down here was quite narrow and steep with not an abundance of parking.

We had a few snacks (fresh fruit mainly) and a coffee from Katrami before heading back to Adamantas for a sunset kayaking tour that Jas had book on Get Your Guide. On the booking, it told us to get there at 5:15pm for a 5:30 departure and that it would be a 3-hour tour. Because of this, we decided we’d wait to have dinner until after the tour. The only problem? The host didn’t arrive until near 6. But, we were the only ones on this tour so the semi-private ended up being a completely private tour which was really nice. We asked the host a lot about the island and he explained the history. He also stated that June is the best time to come to Milos because it’s when the weather is the best (least amount of northerlies) and it’s not as busy as July and August. He also stated that departing from Pollonia (instead of Milos) is his favourite kayaking tour because of the what you get to see on the route to Klima. Despite Jas being nervous about her kayaking abilities, the host exclaimed that we were the fastest kayakers he’s ever had so we were well ahead of schedule. We arrived at Klima village at around 7, so had an hour and a half before we would depart again. We went for a swim and snorkel but got a bit cold in the water so spent the rest of the time on the shore, talking with the host and two other tourists. He offered us a ‘snack’ then asked us to guess the main ingredient. The sun started to set at 8:30, which is when we got back on the kayaks (the host admitted he lost track of time). By this point? I was starving! Motivated to get back so we could get some dinner, we paddled quickly, trying to enjoy the views while we could but within about 15mins, we were paddling in complete darkness. He said to us at 9 that we were way ahead of schedule so didn’t need to paddle so quicky if we didn’t want to…I’m not sure what part of arriving at 9:30pm is the 8:30pm listed on the itinerary for the evening! He was incredibly nice though and super knowledgeable, just wished that we had been informed of the itinerary prior to arriving so we could have organised food accordingly.

The restaurant that Jas had looked at taking me to looked really nice, O! Hamos! Tavern – it had a daily hand-written menu, but unfortunately with how hungry we were (mainly me), I thought it wasn’t wise to go to a fancy restaurant that only had one vegetarian option and would probably take 30mins to get the food. So we opted for souvlaki at the place near our accommodation, Apollonio Grill House, and ate it back in our room before we started packing for our trip home. One of the things that kept us entertained at night was watching the world cup – the time difference meant that games often started around 10 or 11pm and we could watch at least a half before going to bed.

For our final day, we had a bit of a slow start as our ferry wasn’t until 12pm and we had returned our car seamlessly at 10am. We grabbed breakfast by the port and had a 3.5-hour ferry back to Athens with our lovely English friends keeping us company the entire time. The ferry we took was nothing like the Blue Stars Ferry we initially took – it was tiny and you had designated seats that you were required to occupy for the entirety of the journey (there were no communal areas anywhere else other than on the deck on top of the ferry).

When we arrived back in Piraeus port, we had the option again of a train or bus (or a taxi), but decided on the bus given that we had no rush to get to the airport. Before catching the bus, I bought my last freddo espresso at Rail cafe and a vegetarian baguette before walking back to the bus stop where guess who was waiting?! Our English friends. The bus took about an hour so we arrived at the airport at 6pm. Way earlier than we needed to be there given that our flight wasn’t until 10pm, but the alternative ferry had the ferry arriving at 6:15pm (assuming no delays), then a train/bus at a minimum of an hour. We had read reports that Athens airport can be busy and 3 hours is strongly advised. Because we were there more than 3 hours before our flight, our gates weren’t open yet to drop our bags off so we helped ourselves to some dinner from one of the many restaurants and watched replays of world cup games on the big screens.

We were flying home with Malaysia airlines via Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur because of the (still ongoing) war in Iran. Admittedly the Qatar flight was a lot more appealing – only 19 hours of travel compared to 27, and arriving at 8pm Thursday night rather than 7am Friday morning, but safety was our primary concern. Our first flight was incredible – despite only being a short 1.5 hour flight, they had the World Cup streaming live so we were able to watch the latter end of the England game. Our flight from Istanbul to Malaysia, however, didn’t have the games streaming. We then had five hours to kill in Kuala Lumpur and really struggled to find food / coffee – we managed to find a pizza place and paid for a 30mins massage chair which helped to pass the time. Our last flight to Adelaide was seamless, as was customs, despite us having quite a bit of food and coffee that we had acquired overseas. Of the different airlines I’ve travelled with recently, Qatar, Emirates, Thai airways, and now Malaysian airlines, I still think Qatar offers the best vegetarian food (as they are the only ones that allow you to choose just a normal lacto-ovo option). All the other airlines though, offer the perks of 30kgs in economy (Qatar only offer 23kgs and have ridiculous prices for additional baggage). We arrived home at 7:30am to a nice welcome party of Jas’s family and our first stop was, of course, the café for a feed and coffee!