The wind picked up a little bit today, but that was fine. Having now been to Iceland where it was blowing us off the side of a mountain, this minor 19mph wind out of the Northwest was nothing. We did know a little bit about the wind. Later in the summer, it gets very windy, particularly for the north-facing coastline (where we are). I guess it’s like the Santa Anas in California. The wind made the sea look a bit more violent, but other than that, it actually felt kind of nice in the intense sun.
Our first stop was something we didn’t even know about until this morning. Nicole was doing a google image search for Milos and a very colorful town on the water showed up. The image that Nicole found didn’t have a caption and could just as likely have been on another island. Like Nev Schulman, we sleuthed our way to a name and location on the western side of the peninsula where we were.
Its name is Klima and it required some very exciting driving to get to. It was a “two-lane” one land road with many twists and turns. A few times we saw an oncoming car, and there was really no place to pull off to the side. In one instance, I reversed back up the hill to a spot that was marginally wider. The other car and I both pushed our side mirrors in and were able to get by each other. We reached the town, which miraculously had a fairly sizable car park considering the road we had just conquered.
It was a quiet little town on the coast. It appeared that some of the buildings might be boutique hotels, though unclear if they were in use. The whole stretch of buildings looked a bit tired and worn, which added to its character. After a short walk around Klima (it was small), we got back in the car and braved the narrow and winding roads back up the hill.
There is an ancient theater here as well as some early Christian catacombs in this part of the island, but neither were large or that impressive, so we continued onward to Papafragas Beach. Fun fact: also on this island was the discovery of the Venus de Milo. Of course, that is now in the Louvre in Paris, but its name “Venus de MILO” makes a lot more sense now knowing that it’s from Milos.
Papafragas is essentially where the water has created some caves and arches into the rock face. The waves were quite strong, so not exactly the day to frolic in the ocean and swim underneath natural arches and things, but we did take a few photos.
After having breakfast for lunch at the same outdoor café we ate at yesterday, we continued back out to Sarakiniko to lounge for a bit. The wind was again creating some strong currents in the water, so compared to yesterday the waters weren’t very inviting. We relaxed on a smooth rock next to the water nonetheless observing the others around us as they no doubt were observing Bricole, everyone’s favorite celebrity couple.
We eventually made our way back to the Perla to relax some more on our balcony and regroup before going out for dinner. It’s slim pickings in the town of Pollonia. Now normally, there are more restaurants to choose from, but there are several that have yet to open. Furthermore, while tourism elsewhere such as Santorini may be surging back to pre-pandemic levels, Milos tourism is a bit . . .slow.
We didn’t want to eat at the same place as last night, so we debated a while before choosing the place immediately next to it. Nicole had pasta and has acquired a taste for fried feta. I had a Greek salad with chicken souvlaki. We polished it off with some local wine and were given some yogurt on the house.
According to the reviews of the restaurants on TripAdvisor, it’s nearly impossible to get a table during normal times. That’s just hard to imagine given our experience here. It was nice and quiet without hundreds of other people surrounding us and we had a very nice dinner without the hordes. Alas, this is a problem for the local restaurant industry. Earlier for lunch, the waiter said he was ruined because the strong wind was driving the few people who would eat there away.
We, Bricole, are good patrons, however. And having been to Iceland, this wind is nothing. After returning from dinner, the sun set, and we went out once more to just take in the neighborhood. Many of the nearby hotels are also still closed, but they looked quite fancy. Around the corner from where we are staying are a series of properties that are most likely out of our price range.
I would add, however, that we have the biggest balcony by far. Take that! We watched the sky change from pink to dark blue as day turned to night. We made a loop through town and back to the Perla before taking on the sobering task of repacking all of our clothes for our flights tomorrow back to the United States.
passports & pepto bismol 