Tuesday

Greece In June

My cousin Mindee and I spent a wonderful week exploring the island Sifnos in preparation for her wedding that will be held there next summer. 


Compared to Mikinos and Ios catering to the younger crowd looking to party, Sifnos is a much more laid back island with quiet beaches, lush hills ideal for hiking and luxury hotels and restaurants.  Sifnos caters to the foodies and familes...making this the perfect location for Mindee and Peter's wedding!

Throughout the week we met with the wedding planner, decorator and makeup artist and had many incredible meals along the way.
Sifnos is proud of their island specialties like creamy goat cheese, slow cooked lamb (8 hours in a ceramic pot) and chickpea balls and soup. 
Everything on this salad, from the olive oil to the goat cheese, was produced on the island

I'll share a few pictures and traveling tips for if you ever find yourself in Athens or Sifnos.
We happened to arrive into Athens on the day that protests and riots were taking place.  If you pay attention to world news, you might recall Greece's economic crisis. So, instead of taking the convient bus that runs from the airport to the city center, because rioters were blocking the streets, we took the underground.  First bump in our trip, no big deal.  We make it to our wonderful hotel, Hermes Hotel where we stayed for one night before making our way to the island.  I recommend this hotel if not only for the amazing breakfast and perfect location to the old quarter, Plaka.

Dinner in the Plaka

Up at 6 am thanks to jet lag, we walk up the hill through the winding alleys between ancient stucco homes to the Acropolis 

It's 9 am on our way down the hill from the Acropolis and an old wobbly man on his way home from an early morning grocery run yells and points behind us, "Acropolis, that way!"
"We went!" I replied
We actually would recommend hitting the popular places before the tourists and sun come out

We took the 5 hour ferry to Sifnos and stayed in the port town Kamares for the first night on the island
Alk Hotel is nice and conveniently located

Boy fishing for dinner in Kamares Bay

Kamares Sunset

We then spent the next 3 nights in a small town on the other side of the island called Platis Yialos.
We stayed at Kohylia, a lovely hotel right smack dab on the water

My 2 favorite Greek dishes:
Grilled octopus and dolmas at our hotel's restaurant

The deliciousness makes up for the terribly slow service

Painting the famous blue shutters 

On our walk down to the tavern for dinner

No comments:

Post a Comment