Sunday 23rd June
We boarded our ferry from Naxos to our next destination on our Greek Island holiday, the island of Ios!
We were herded onto the ferry into the cargo/ car section in a flurry of chaos. They're in such a rush to turn the ferries around that they don't even really stop. There was a delay and some confusion on the port about which ferry was turning up first and a poor lady had got on our ferry but wasn't meant to. Here we are standing on the ferry and the lady realises she's on the wrong ferry and asks to get off, the crew start to drag her off and she's trying to run back the other way into the boat to get her bag and they're trying to pull her off, she escapes grabs her bag and then starts to run off, the boat is already pulling out of the dock at this stage and the big door starting to lift and close, one of the crew grabs her bag and runs ahead of her with it, the lady loses a thong, turns around to grab it while being half pulled off the boat but they make it! It was WILD.
It's a really short ride from Naxos to Ios and in no time we are heading back down from the decks to the cargo area all lined up ready to offload from the boat. It honestly felt like what you see in the movies where the army or something are getting ready to run/march off the back of the cargo planes, it was such a strange experience.
We arrived in Ios and were picked up in a mini bus by the hotel we were staying at, Avanti Hotel.
Wow! Already Ios is beautiful, but completely different to Naxos. It's so hilly! We wind our way up the narrow streets of the island from the port to the little town on the island that we were staying in and OMG I think we have scored the best accommodation on the island! It looks amazing and so fancy!
We're just of the town of Chora which we purposely chose so we could have the amazing view back over the town! It's incredible! It looks exactly like a little Santorini!
I cannot believe this accommodation! It's insane!! It's like a resort but we're not paying much for it at all!
We checked in and were shown to our room which is incredible! We looked at each questioning whether they've given us the right room its so good! And bonus, brekkie is included!! What?!! When we were booking it, to book it with brekkie was too expensive, we figured we could do our own breakfast for much cheaper, but when we arrived they said it was included! Amazing!
Once we'd finished marvelling at our amazing accommodation we walked into town to get some lunch and water (you can't drink the water on the islands).
We pretty much had the island to ourselves, all the restaurants and cafes were shut until later tonight and there was no one about, it was so cool! We found a little bakery and got ourselves a greek pastry each and a few litres of water. It is incredibly hot here, it has to be well into the 40s so after a little wander through the streets we headed back to the hotel for the afternoon.
After our lunch we spent the afternoon staying cool in the worlds DEEPEST pool and chilling on the couches by the poolside. It is so beautiful here!
It was such a fun afternoon splashing around the pool and relaxing on the couches.
Later on in the evening once the temperature had dropped we headed out to find some dinner.
Mum and dad had very kindly treated us to going out for dinner for the nights that we are here on Ios to experience the greek food culture!
We found a lovely little family restaurant on one of the cute pedestrian streets nestled in the hillside. It was so lovely, the people were so friendly and it was the most delicious traditional greek food, mmmmm, I honestly think greek is my new favourite cuisine.
We started with an entrée of a dip called Tyrokafteri with bread which was incredible, it was like a greek feta and sweet red pepper dip, so tasty!
We followed that with moussaka, essentially a greek lasagne and rose. And can you believe the rose comes in a little jug?!
The food was absolutely divine! Thanks so much mum and dad!
Apparently Ios is a bit of a party island, which suits us absolutely fine, we get the island to ourselves during the day and we eat earlier than they do. We were some of the only people in the restaurant, we were eating at about 7/7:30 and people were only just starting to show up when we were leaving! And our hotel is far enough out of the main town that we don't hear the noise, so essentially it's like we've got a private island!
With very full tummies we wandered the streets seeing how it all starts to transform at night and eventually made our way back across town to our apartment where we slept in absolute luxury.
Monday 24th June
We started the day off with our free buffet brekkie!
The view from the breakfast room was absolutely incredible! We peacefully sat looking out at this spectacular island while munching on pastries, savoury croissants and greek yogurt, honey and fruit. I do love a good buffet breakfast!
We then set out for a wander through the town to explore the island.
We weaved our way through the streets and up a hill on the edge of the town to see some traditional windmills that are one of the signature icons of the Cyclades.
They were really cool, although very obviously not operational anymore. The view up here was awesome as well. We could look back out over the hill that was our little town, covered in white buildings and then looking out the other way it was brown barren farm land. The islands are so fascinating!
We then went exploring all the cute streets, weaving and winding and just getting lost in them.
At the very top of the hill there is a blue and white domed church which we decided to try and get to. We came to a lot of dead ends and at one point walked past a restaurant and got talking to the guy running it who was standing out the front and we decided to come back for dinner. We told him what we were up to and he gave us directions to get to the church!
We found our way up and it was just so spectacularly greek!
We kept walking to the tippity top of the hill to a row of three more little white churches which were beautiful.
It is so pretty up here and had spectacular views over the ocean, port, beaches and the rural land behind us!
It was getting too hot to be out exploring so eventually we made our way back down the hill and bought some pita bread, hummus, and tomatoes for lunch and took them back to the hotel, changed into our swimmers and ate our lunch sitting on the lounge beds by the pool.
We spent the rest of afternoon swimming and lounging by the pool, where we may or may
not have fallen asleep in complete bliss before jumping back into the pool again.
Later on in the evening we got ourselves ready and headed out to dinner at the restaurant we passed earlier in the day, The Nest. It was amazing! Again it's another family run restaurant with most of the produce freshly grown in their own garden and the grandmother makes all the food! Between us we had an entrée of croquettes, followed by traditional stuffed tomatoes and stuffed aubergine. Sam tried a greek beer and I had the worlds fullest glass of rose!
It was so delicious we were blown away! They were so friendly and so pleased that we'd come back like we said we would, they looked after us so well and then at the end they brought out some complimentary greek cake! It was so good! It was like a sponge cake that was cold, but wet. Not soggy, just wet like it had a citrus soak through it or something, it was absolutely amazing and so refreshing!
With very full bellies we made our way back to our hotel. The sun was setting when we arrived back so we decided to climb the hill behind us up to the little church on the top of the hill and watch it. The view up here was amazing and the sunset was gorgeous! It didn't come out in the photos but the sun was massive and a super deep red like the photos you see of the great African sunsets, and the colours in the sky were amazing!
Tuesday 25th June
We started our day off with an amazing brekkie again before setting out to explore some more.
We sun-screened up, packed our bags and walked down to the port town to collect our ferry tickets for tomorrow (yep for some unknown reason we had to get physical tickets for this one).
We then caught the local bus to Mylopotas beach.
Mylopotas beach is THE beach on the island, it is an incredibly beautiful beach with absolutely crystal clear water.
Surprisingly for how hot is was the water was quite cool!
We spent a few hours at the beach swimming and taking in the beauty that is the greek islands.
The buses are really irregular and don't really stick to a schedule so when we'd had enough we kept an eye out for a bus and when we saw it coming quickly jumped out of the water and ran up to the stop. We caught the bus back into out town and then walked back to our place.
We had our lunch sat on the sun beds snacking on our pita, hummus and tomatoes. We then spent some time lying by the pool reading before jumping in and swimming around for a good while, having fun splashing about.
We headed out later in the evening for dinner, and because it was just so good last night, we went back to the same place for dinner again. They remembered us and were thrilled that we'd come back! The food was divine again, we shared a stuffed aubergine tonight and a greek salad and they brought out free cake at the end. I love it here!
After an amazing meal we had a wander through the streets at night, starting to see it all come alive, everything open and more people buzzing about. Once we made it back to our accommodation we spent the evening sitting on our balcony listening to Mamma Mia and watching the stars.
Wednesday 26th June
We were up before the sun today, bags on our backs sadly heading down to the dock to catch our ferry back to Athens.
Our ferry was a very very windy and bumpy 7 hours back to Athens.
The last couple of weeks on the islands have been some of the best weeks ever, it has been so incredibly amazing and so relaxing! I've loved every minute of it, it has certainly been a highlight and I'd be back in a heartbeat. Bye for now Greece!
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