Sifnos day 1 (09/09/2009)

We were really excited to finally be on Sifnos because our entire trip was more or less planned around when we could get a fast ferry there (as opposed to the slow ferry that takes 8 hours... no thanks!). So, we managed to pack in quite a bit in the three days we were there.

On our first day there, we started by walking over a steep hill at the end of Platys Gialos, where we were staying -- Gigi had recommended a place on the other side of the hill called Lazarou. What we found was an amazing waterside cafe/bar that went down the hill on several levels, with the bottom level right on the water. The place was practically deserted, probably because it was getting late in the season for tourists. They were getting set up for a big wedding reception being held there that evening (we had overheard some of the participants talking about it at dinner the night before, and our downstairs neighbors were also involved in the wedding -- it seemed like everywhere we went, we couldn't get away from this wedding). We had lunch at Lazarou and promised the friendly waitress/cook/owner that we would be back the next day to take advantage of their free beach chairs and go swimming.


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In the afternoon we took the bus into Apollonia (the central town on Sifnos) and did some sightseeing there. From Apollonia we walked on an ancient marble path across olive groves to the Kastro (a medieval Venetian town like on Naxos). The path wasn't very well marked and turned into a dirt path after a while, and eventually we got lost and ended up tramping through some pastures. It took us a bit longer to get to the Kastro as a result, but the scenery was still beautiful, and it wasn't too hot. We walked around the Kastro and met a million friendly cats (who were clearly all related -- funny). After it got dark we took the bus back to Apollonia, had dinner and a stroll, then took a bus back "home" to Platys Gialos.




Click here for more photos from Sifnos, day 1!