My little sister Claire and I were doing spring break in Greece together! Catch up and read Part 1 here.
We left Athens after grabbing some breakfast, frappes and yogurt and pancakes (gotta have some variety!) and successfully grabbed the metro to head to the airport on time. We landed in Milos around noon and walked out of the even smaller airport with no plan in mind. We had about 8 hours to kill before we had to catch the ferry to Santorini at night. Taxis to the beach that we wanted to go to were about €20 one way. We went back inside and I asked how much it would be to rent a car for the day. Since it was only €5 more, and we both knew how to drive stick shift (shout out to our Grampy for teaching us!) we grabbed our car and headed off for a day of fun!
It felt so good to drive again, it’s one of the things I miss most being in France.
the flight attendants on the flight only spoke to us in Greek and thought we were 100% Greek!
We pulled up to Sarakiniko Beach and walked for about 10 minutes as the landscaped turned more and more white and barren. It truly seemed like we had landed on the moon! The sand dunes were blanched white and the blue sky was a perfect contrast. We explored the dunes and felt the water before laying out in the sun for a bit and soaking in the Aegean rays.
[sea] you soon, Sarankinko!
We then decided to drive into Plaka, the capital and largest city on Milos. The town was even more barren than Mykonos and we couldn’t find a place open to eat or even sit. It really was off-season. Claire thought she saw a taverna that was open a little down the road as we drove in, so we set off. We walked into this taverna and all eyes immediately turned to us, I’m pretty sure we were the first tourists on the island for the season! We sat town and tried to order from the waitress who clearly did not speak English (at least by this point we had learned how to to say hello, yes, thank you ... the basics!). Our food came out and it was delicious, as one would expect from a local place. We sat and relaxed as the locals around us kept ordering small plates, beers, and ouzo! Mezze is really the way to go.
We decided we would just camp out in the taverna until our ferry ride later that evening. The table next to us ordered us some ouzo and waved us over to show us the proper way to drink it. It’s like pastis in which you can pour it over ice and add water to make it a little less strong. We also learned the traditional way to drink ouzo and not get super drunk is to stick a piece of octopus in it so it soaks up the alcohol! Plus, then you get a fun snack at the end.
Sadly, our fun evening in the taverna had to come to an end and we drove back to the port to drop off the rental car before we headed to Santorini. We walked over to the port terminal and found it strangely empty. After wandering around, we decided to stop in the travel office where we picked up our tickets to ask about the ferry since it was only supposed to be leaving in 10 minutes. The woman said that the ferry was going to be about 2 hours late so we grabbed an ice cream and a spot at a café and settled in until 10 pm. Our new Greek friends from the taverna even texted and called us since they too learned the ferry would be late and made sure we were ok!
We finally boarded our ferry and headed straight for some couches to try to get some sleep. The ferry ride was long, but we were able to get a little sleep between the stops on the different islands. We made it to Santorini at around 3 or 4 in the morning and our hotel van picked us up for a 10 minute ride into Fira before we promptly passed out on our hotel beds …
We woke up the next morning around 11 am feeling a little less tired than at 4 am the night before (-er I guess the morning!). We checked in and headed out to grab some food in the town. We fueled up before we headed out to the square heading out of town to start our walk to the other side of the island to Oia! We found the trail and headed out, stopping every few meters to take pictures of the gorgeous views of the sea and the white houses.
We met up with a mother and daughter when a section of the trail was closed about an hour in and found our way back to the path that passes the famous “3 bell Church”. Shortly after, we found ourselves with a new group of hikers - some recent graduates who were all traveling together for a few weeks.
We ended up doing the rest of the hike with them. The first half of the hike was more like a walk, and then suddenly we were walking down some steep hills and back up steep hills with loose rocks! And (of course) the Glick sisters were quite underprepared with no water. We finally made it to Oia about 3 hours after started- very sweaty and ready for some water. We chugged about a liter each and said goodbye to our new hiking friends.
we didn't twin on purpose ...
We wandered around the cute town and baffled at all the college-aged spring breakers taking their Insta pics on the white walls or on a church’s roof. The sun slowly began its descent and we decided to skip the nice restaurant we found for some gyros and beer sitting on some steps instead.
We had about an hour to kill before the bus took us back to Fira and we continued our little walk around Oia and stopped to chat with some local cats. The bus ride back was absolutely packed with people and we ended up standing in the aisle of a coach bus for the 20 minute ride. What a wild time!
so many new paw-some pals!
The next day was mostly chill with lots of good food! We started at a little cafe for some yogurt and coffee, then got another coffee to go! We wandered around looking for some baklava and more frozen yogurt. After popping in a bar for happy hour and getting some souvenirs for our parents and friends back home, we grabbed one last gyro and a Greek salad before heading to the airport.
bak[LOVE]a greek food so much!
We landed about an hour later in Athens and took the metro about halfway into the city to our Airbnb for the last night in Greece. The next morning we flew to Brussels, had a waffle, beer and some fries, and then hopped on our (delayed) bus to Paris to meet our grandparents!
waffle-y wedded to this gaufre with spéuculos
It was so much fun having my little sister come over for spring break and I was so glad I got to see her and travel with her. We always talked about going to Greece together and I was excited we made it work. Can’t wait until our next adventure together! <3
Ευχαριστώ Greece!
