Intimate Sikinos

Sikinos was an intimate experience. We'd read that although the island boasts no party atmosphere, you could experience an untouristic Greece. If you were lucky, locals would even break into song. We certainly found this to be true!

Curious Dave became intrigued by Sikinos on the ferry ride to Santorini. We briefly chatted with a man frantically preparing to return to Sikinos - an island he had camped on and fallen in love with 20 years prior. We had planned to go from Santorini to party island Ios, but instead bypassed it for sleepy Sikinos. It's a small island with lively locals, but no party scene, internet or bustle. Sikinos is wonderful to look at -there are man-made stone wall after wall which used to show agricultural demarcations.

Coming off the ferry to Sikinos we were approached by people with 'domatia)/rooms signage. We went with a lady who had rooms 300-400metres from port. Although they were slightly a longer walk than 300/400 metres the Floga rooms were nice.

Sight-seeing wise, Sikinos is a strange creature. First of all, we tried fruitlessly to find the famed beach only accessible by boat owing to the road being under construction. We went down dirt tracks on the scooter anyway couldn't find it. We got some cute friends instead - two dogs ran alongside us for kilometres!

Nice ass and orai vizia (nice boobs)

This donkey was trying to grab me!

I'm a donkey - left my camera in Sikinos.

It's now being posted to Perth. Enjoy Dave's pics for now!

We found the Kastro/old castle which is a village/ block of old houses and buildings connected to the Hora (village centre). It's amazing how you notice the difference in wealth and age as you pass into the Hora. Some people still live in the Kastro area - dilapidated buildings and donkey sheds are still up for grabs.

We had one big day of exploration - saw the Episkopi and St Ayios Georgios chuch at the dead end of the island. We only encountered two other people the whole time we explored them. They informed us that it was the hottest day in Athens - 44C!

Dining in the Hora/village centre was an awesome experience. We got souvlaki and a cheap jug of local wine. One guy at a table near us brought out a guitar and sang really nice island songs for most of the night. It was awesome! As we got up to leave we were stopped by a guy called Kosta who had quit his job in Santorini and was taking a break before he returned to an old job. We joined him for hours. He spoke English quickly but perfectly, and taught me a host of Greek expressions. When we swapped details, I recognised his surname and learnt he is first cousins with Greek singer Kosta Karofotis!

Food wise, Sikinos was pretty good. Disasterously, the island was lacking in gyros/kebabs - they only had skewered meat available. It was too small to boast a kebab shop so we explored local dishes. The Estatorio to Meltemi (Restaurant Meltemi) was nice for a simple spaghetti bolognaise. I ordered in Greek and the waiter was taken aback - 'your Greek is really good' he told me. When I was in Sikinos, I often got a great response because some people didn't speak English.

We found a nice cafe called Sunset Cafe, which we visited twice. First up, we had Soutsokakia which is Greek meatballs in a tomato sauce served with chips. The next time, Dave had a bougatsa/custard pastry and I had a nut cake (Karodypita). The second visit, we caught the sunset and once again it was gorgeous.