Milos is all about the beaches. Wow. After grabbing breakfast and other supplies at the local market, we ate, packed for the beach, and headed out. Today I ditched the gps and dusted off my old-fashioned map reading skills and it paid off. Almost no wrong turns using the paper map! Our first stop was Sarakiniko Beach, an otherworldly landscape of white rock and blue ocean. It was a photographer’s paradise, as evidenced by the small sampling of Zach’s 200-some pictures below.
Sarakiniko Beach
The hike down to the beach
Crazy rock formations
Cliff diving (we did not do this!!)
Caves where we assume boats used to be kept
We played here for hours, swimming and exploring the vast system of caves and the cliffs smoothed by the wind where 20-somethings from Italy and France jumped screaming into the sparkling water below. On one of these walks Diane and Melina asked to stay behind and play at the shore but at the last second D ran up the trail and joined me and Zach. When we returned some 10 minutes later, Melina collapsed into sobs in my arms! She hadn’t seen D go with us and had spent the entire time frantically searching for her. “I thought I lost her!” She wailed. Poor girl! She is a good big sister.
At lunchtime we hiked back up to the parking lot and had hot dogs and a salad from a food truck. The heat is intense here but in the shade it is magnificent, and we perched on a bench for about an hour just munching and laughing and enjoying the view.
We got back in the car and wound our way up the coast, stopping to check out other beaches the way. One favorite was Papafragkas Cave, which included a dramatic drop to the water and caves where pirates used to store their booty. We deigned to make the descent when we saw the sign, but it didn’t seem to have an effect on the other beachgoers:
Note the people walking down the cliffs (don’t worry Dad, we did NOT do this!)
A few people have described the cities of Milos to us as follows: “Adamas is the port, Plaka is the cultural capital, and Pollonia is…the third largest city in the island.” With this rave review we weren’t expecting much, but when we arrived in Pollonia we were pleasantly surprised with a gorgeous beach in the harbor! The water was so clear and calm it was like looking through glass. One of my favorite parts of these beaches is that the water is so salty you can float with no effort at all, and the girls delighted in “driving” Zach and I through the water by pulling a big toe while we floated serenly under the blue sky.
Beach in Pollonia’s harbor
Our paper map showed something called “Poseidon’s Throne” at the top of the peninsula in Pollonia, so we abandoned the car and walked the length of the town, stopping to look in tide pools and chapels along the way. The throne was a geothermic rock formation that looked out to sea. Melina reluctantly agreed to have her picture taken in front of it but wouldn’t go any nearer for fear she would anger the good of the sea. “MO-OM! Don’t you remember the gods get very angry when mortals dare to sit on their thrones!” Well. At least she is calling herself a mortal now, and not the demi-god daughter of all three major gods.
Poseidon’s Throne in the distant background
We walked a little farther to a teeny tiny cove. The rocks in the water were covered in spiky sea urchins a few meters in so swimming wasn’t in the cards, but the shore was a treasure trove of gorgeous multi-colored rocks, tiles, shells, and sea glass. Diane was totally obsessed with the sea glass, so she and Zach hunted for about an hour while Melina and I explored another beach just steps away in the next cove.
On the way back to the apartment we stopped at some random caves that we thought were part of some prehistoric ruins but later found out were just storage for a youth hotel and local farm. Oops. But the highlight of that stop was a giant mountain goat fenced into a cave that jumped out at us quite suddenly. He then proceeded to stare at us with his crazy goat eyes. “Mommy, what is that thing under him?” Melina wanted to know. Oh don’t worry sweetie, that’s just the goat’s giant erection. I guess he was hoping we were lady goats coming to call…?
When we got back to the apartment we feasted on cheese and salami and bread and greek honey and apricots, and then the girls played with the owner’s neice, 6-year old Vivian (Diane kept referring to her as “Fibian”). They colored, exchanged gifts (D even gave Vivian some of her precious sea glass), played with a local kitty together, and shared some fresh figs (which the girls didn’t like but were very polite about). As we left to go into town they both separately whispered to me, “I don’t think she speaks English!” I pointed out that no, she probably doesn’t, but then, neither do they speak Greek. I love that it took them at least an hour of playing to figure this out.
We went back to Plaka to try the local specialty, watermelon pie. I can’t even describe it. It wasn’t overly sweet, was covered in sesame seeds, and had almost and apple pie quality to it with a buttery, carmelized crust. These was also an amazing cream/cinnamon/vermicelli/pistachio thing which the girls preferred as it was much sweeter.
As we finished dessert, Zach pointed out all the people watching the sunset on a hill high above town and half jokingly asked, “what do you girls think about climbing that mountain?” They pondered this for a moment and to our great surprise, both decided that yes! They wanted to climb the mountain. So we did. We had missed the sunset, but the 360° views of the island were still spectacular.
The last bit of sunset
That is most of Milos behind us (Melina took this)
Chapel above Plaka
Overlooking Plaka
Guess what the plan is for tomorrow? More beaches!!
Traveling Together 