Sifnos - A Classic !

We boarded the boat at the port of Piraues near dawn, for a 7 hours ride to the island of Sifnos - a classic Greek island in the Cyclades group. We were met at the port by the hotel owner and he took us to his hotel in Apollonia town. He was a nice gentleman in his sixties, who offered us plenty of ouzo when we came back after dinner each night and we listened to his views of the world in front of a basketball match on TV. Classic !
We visited the seaside towns of Platis Yalos, Kastro and hiked for the whole day to the beach at Vathy (now that's really another amazing story, it's too long and we don't have time for that here). Simple Simon was right, we love the food and atmosphere on this island !

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Autumn In Athens

Mandy has this little trick of finding the best travel bucket shop in town; this time she found "Simple Simon" - a one-man-bucket-shop run by, yes, Simon in a basement in west London ! Simon arranged our flights and hotels for Athens and the lovely island of Sifnos, he swore he has been there and knew the owner since the war days (just kidding). We bought in and were off !
Athens lived up to its reputation as an ancient capital where arguably, the seeds of all western civilisation were sown. We visited The Parthenon and The Acropolis as well as Plaka where we enjoyed our packed lunch on the street corner (like real backpackers do) and dinner of moussaka, tzatziki (Greek cucumber yogurt), local sea foods and a bottle of Retsina (like normal people do).
Athens was however, covered in a layer of smog and nowhere was this more apparent than when we scaled the small hill of Lakavitos as you can see below. Time to head off to Sifnos where fresh air abound !

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