One night in Athens and then Arriving in Milos

Today we said good bye to Italy, and headed to Greece. We flew from Rome to Athens for the ridiculously low price of 58 Euros per person on Alitalia. They even offered us free food on this short two hour flight. (Are you listening North American carriers?)

We had the option of taking the express bus down to the port area of Piraeus for 5 Euros a person, or taking a cab for 50 Euros. We were just too lazy to figure out the bus, and took the taxi. Our taxi driver was quite hilarious and interesting, which I think was worth the 40 extra Euros 😀 He said quite a few insightful things, but I'll only share with you my two favourites...

1. Other countries have sent us half a billion dollars to help our economy, but the only way it will get better is if we figure out how to fix it ourselves. Otherwise, we will just keep needing help.
2. After he smiled and waved at a guy selling flowers in traffic. "There are so many refugees. He might have kids he is trying to feed. We have to remember they are people."

In between these wise nuggets of information we could see his head bobbing while he danced as he drove 😀

We decided to stay in the port area of Piraeus rather than downtown because we arrived in the evening and were heading out on the ferry to Milos the next day. I had read online that Piraeus was "a hole"... but we discovered that if you are down by the marina, it is actually quite nice. I'm glad we didn't end up downtown, because our taxi driver told us the roads to downtown were all closed because of a three hour demonstration.

We stayed at Hotel Phideas, which was only 75 Euros for the night. It seemed quite new, had a modern bathroom, a nice bed, fast free wifi, a free shuttle to the port,  and even a safe in the room (we haven't seen many of those in Europe lately!) The room was a bit small, but had a nice big balcony to make up for it!

I wouldn't pick Piraeus as a destination for a holiday, but it was just fine for an overnight before heading out to the islands. We found quite a few restaurants and shops, and had a nice walk around the marina.

We purchased our ferry tickets ahead of time because they had assigned seats and only sold a certain amount of tickets.The price they were charging at the port was the same as I paid online. When we arrived to exchange my confirmation for the tickets we found out the ferry had a schedule change and was leaving 45 minutes later. Apparently they had known this for weeks, but didn't email us to notify us. Thank goodness the time didn't change in the other direction. We probably would have missed it! Lesson learned: double check your ferry times before you go!

While we waited out in the sun Steve bought us some ice cream treats. He picked mine because it was called "Rodeo"... and he knows I like to say "It's not my first rodeo!"... but this time it was 😀

The ferry ride to Milos was a little over 3 hours, on a boat similar to the Clipper that goes between Seattle and Victoria. If you are prone to seasickness like I am, I recommend taking the anti-nausea pills because even though the water was smooth it was a bit bumpy. The ride was fine (if not a little hot... the AC was not turned up very high and it was well over 30 degrees). Due to the fact that it was a fast ferry, you were not allowed out on the deck while it was moving; hence, no fresh air! They had a little cafe to buy treats and drinks from, and amused us by playing Mr. Bean on the TV. I suspect they chose it because you don't need to understand any language to understand the show!

We had pre-arranged a ride from the port to our hotel (14 Euros for the two of us) and the driver was waiting with our names on a sign when we arrived. It was a longer drive than I expected as it turns out that Milos is bigger than I had originally thought.

When we arrived at our hotel (Villa Mary Elena), our host Themis, met us outside and took us right up to our room. He explained all about the room, and then showed us on a map all the things we might like to see. Somehow, we lucked out and got a room with a nice big balcony overlooking the ocean. I think they all have an ocean view, but I really think ours is the best 😀 This is the view from our room!

We decided to walk right over into Pollonia (the town where we are staying) to find some dinner. It is a short 10 minute walk to the restaurants that line the bay. It was difficult to choose as they all looked so good. My only disappointment, was that not one restaurant had a bowl of olives as an appetizer. That is one of my favourite memories of our last time in Greece.

We finally chose one, and were very happy with our food. It was all delicious, and we had a nice view over the water towards the sunset.

I can't tell you the name of the restaurant because I forget, but if you are looking for good food head to the one with the baby blue chairs by the water.

We could probably just be happy sitting out on our balcony staring at the water, and enjoying the delicious Greek food at the harbour, but we are also looking forward to exploring more of Milos tomorrow!