There’s Only One Road…

Our morning started early with a 5:30am subway trip to Piraeus, the main Port of Athens. The metro opens at 5:30am and it is Sunday, and so we expected a deserted station and a quiet port while we boarded our early ferry to the island of Milos. To say we were mistaken would be an understatement. The train and port were a jam-packed swarm of chaos; backpackers and families and cars and even pets teemed everywhere we looked. But we had reserved seats so we boarded with relative ease and settled in for the ride. Diane said she was feeling better but was still a bit feverish and glassy-eyed so we gave her more medicine and in an hour she was back to her happy self again.

Leaving Piraeus

Random island inhabited only by wind turbines and the guy that fixes them.

Upon arriving in Milos at 11:30, we pulled together all of our stuff to disembark. The crew was hurrying us out for the ferry to make room for other ships, so we were a bit flustered already when I looked at D just in time to see a gush of blood drain down from her nose. We grabbed some napkins and desperately tried to stop the bleeding as the herd of people funneled us like cattle out of the ship. Diane’s bloody napkins flew everywhere in the windy port, and the hot sun beat down on us as the crowd behind us pushed us along. We finally made it to a tiny Oasis of shade when I realized…I don’t know where to pick up our rental car. The reservation said “Port” but here we were and there was no office for Milos Cars and no one holding our name on a placard. Diane was still bleeding profusely and Melina had on a brave face but was clearly worried. Worst case scenarios ran through my head (fever + nosebleed = smallpox? Lupus?) but Zach calmly talked D into letting him hold her nose closed to stop the bleeding. I ran around frantically trying to find Milos Cars or our shuttle to no avail. But when I returned to my family in that tiny square of shade they were calm and rested and no longer bleeding. Phew.
We managed to find the rental office and got quick directions to our hotel: “Follow this road to the town of Plaka…there’s only one road!” Ha. If that is true, how is it we made multiple wrong turns on the supposedly 10 minute trip?? Oh well, we checked in and regrouped at our adorable apartment. The manager gave us directions to walk to a good place for lunch (“just follow the road you came in on!”) and to drive to a nearby beach, (“follow the road! There is only one road!”) and we headed out, pretty darn sure of ourselves.

Again, what do these people think “one road” means?? This island is a spiderweb of roads and alleyways and switchbacks and driveways and unpaved pathways with little signage and NO shoulders. It is a miracle we made it to lunch and the beach at all! Thankfully, lunch was delicious and the girls loved their octopus and calamari. The Plathiena beach was glorious…clear and calm and turquoise blue with colorful rocks littering the shore. We played for about an hour then hopped to the next beach, Firopotamos, which we call the “Hippopotamus Beach.” This beach wasn’t as clear and sandy but the setting was idyllic in a tiny harbor overlooked by a postcard perfect chapel and ruins topping a hill. 

We don’t have any pictures of the beaches because we used our old waterproof camera, but tomorrow we will bring the good one. Sorry!

After some time in the water here, we headed back and only 8 wrong and 3 u-turns later, arrived back at the apartment. Our plan to grab a light dinner at the supermarket was derailed since the market is closed on Sundays, so we joined the crowds in Plaka to watch the sun set and share some tavern food and watermelon before bedtime. 

A church in Plaka

View from Plaka on Milos

Voyagers

Goofy poses in Plaka

Daddy & D

It was at this point that I realized Diane has been totally  fine all afternoon with no  medication, and even her appetite is back. Thankfully, we seem to be out of the woods on whatever she had, and chances are it wasn’t lupus.

I am racing to finish this, as I somehow only slept for an hour and a half last night and am hanging on by a thread. How was this only our second full day in Greece? It seems like we’ve been here a week already!