From Tinos to Syros: Island #2

According to the saying, you can get used to anything. So we reckon it works like this. You arrive on Tinos and the unbelievable wind is an amusing novelty for a day, maybe even two. If you’re here for ages, then you learn to live with it and it’s not important, you might even stop noticing it. Somewhere in between, probably at around the 5-day point, you’re at the point where you’re simply thinking please, just for one hour, stop. Stop this ridiculous wind, just for a short time. Please. We’ve been here five days and it’s how we feel!

So it’s kind of fitting that, after a fresh sardine and salad lunch in a windswept taverna, we board the ferry with the seas choppy and lively even inside the harbour walls. 

Tinos though has been lovely. The mostly rocky terrain is consistently spectacular, the mountain villages quaint and peaceful; its beaches few but welcoming. The sunshine soldiers on despite the wind, and such gems as green valleys and oversize dovecotes take you by surprise. The generous use of herbs considerably enhances the flavours of traditional Greek cuisine, and the fish at Panormos was to die for.

The Blue Star ferry to Syros docks at the island’s capital, Ermoupoli, a beautiful seafront town swept around a sumptuous bay. But this time we are heading away from the main town and across the island to the west coast village of Kini, nestled in a cove facing the sunsets. Our new host Yiannis proudly tells us about his island, then drops into our next home just a stone’s throw from the beach and its tavernas.

The first thing that hits us is….nothing. No wind, no Meltemi, no deafening roar. Just hot, still air, and the sound of the sea. Oh yes, bring it on. 

We take a first exploratory hike around the headland to the next cove, Delfini, a walk which includes a hazardous section negotiating a crossing of the nudist beach. There are some very brown bodies here, most with no white bits! 

And so we take fresh fish at one of Kini’s renowned fish tavernas and settle in for a few days in our next temporary home.