GREEK ISLAND ADVENTURE

It’s time for the off again. Backpacks loaded, passports and paperwork sorted, early start tomorrow morning as we head off on our next adventure, our last paid holiday before retirement. We retire in December, then 2020 will see a year of travel as our long held dreams become reality. Tomorrow, Friday, will start in Kent and end, all things being equal, on the island of Tinos.

In one sense, we aren’t backpackers: we don’t do hostels or dormitories and, at our age, we aren’t on a low budget, thankfully. In another sense, we are backpackers. The thrill and excitement of finding a place to stay; the ease with which this enables you to enter and engage with local culture and spirit, is up there with the best that travel has to offer.

As far as the Greek islands are concerned, there is no better way to do it. Every island has something to offer, but if you don’t like it, you move on; if you love it, you stay longer. So tomorrow we will be back into that familiar pattern of hurrying to catch the earliest ferry, disembarking on the first island to face the collection of room hawkers thronging the dock, trying to spot the one with the best rooms and the best deal. Do you have a sea view? Can we walk there, from here? Are you in the Chora? How many Euros?

Once there, it’s on to researching the ferry schedule. Does the ferry run every day? Can we get to the next island on the day we want to? Is there a breakfast time ferry?

And then there’s exploring the island. Finding the bars, seeking out the restaurants, locating the picturesque beaches, seeing what hiking trails the island may have to offer, exploring the Kastro, peeping in the churches, uncovering its secrets. Only when we get to the wonderful city of Athens at the end of the holiday, do we know where we’re sleeping.  

We wonder how many retsinas we will have downed by then.