Last Day on Kythnos and on to Serifos
Today we are heading off to Serifos. However the ferry leaves in the later afternoon which gives us time to see a bit more of Kythnos Chora.
Once we pack we go and pay for our stay with Katerina who orders a taxi to pick us up ate 5.00pm. I must say that Filoxenia lives up to its reviews and I would highly recommend this as a place to stay if you ever head over to Kythnos.
This is our last opportunity to wander the pretty streets of the Chora. We cut through the Gazoza Café Bar from the main street and discover a new alleyway with the most beautiful painted pots. I don’t quite know how we missed this first time around.
The route to the outskirts of the village is so pretty and so quiet and we decide to continue walking up to Panagia Tou Nikous.
The views over the Chora are fabulous. Apart from the sound of birds and the cicada’s there is absolute silence. From this vantage point we could see an elderly man and lady tending their garden and a man passing along the edge of the field on a donkey. If you love a bit of solitude then this is definitely the best time of year to visit the islands.
Panagia Tou Nikous is deserted and feels a little forlorn but it is obviously cared for by someone. I can imagine that it transforms into the focal point for the whole village during festival time.
The slow walk back to Chora helps build our appetite and we decide to go to Gazoza Cafe Bar on the main street for lunch – a little bit of boho chic in the heart of the traditional Chora. Outside are upcycled seats made from pallets covered in brightly coloured cushions. A little meze finished off with some local preserved fruits is just perfect. One of the preserved fruits was lemon – the other we were told was called pergamondo but I wasn’t sure what this translated to. After a bit of a Google I discover that pergamondo is the fruit of the bergamot and is a cross between a lemon and a bitter orange.
We have another hour before we need to go down to the port and we spend this sitting on the balcony of our room at Filoxenia. We watched the light scattered clouds move across the landscape until it was time to go.
Katerina is there to see us off in the taxi. We had a wonderful stay at Filoxenia and it is definitely somewhere we highly recommend for location, high quality accommodation and the most excellent hospitality.
At the port we stop for a cup of tea before the ferry arrives. The café owner tells us that tomorrow a force 7-9 wind will arrive. He wasn’t sure of the time exactly but the big wind will be here tomorrow!
The ferry Adamantios Korais appears on the horizon and seems to take ages to arrive in port. It was running 45 minutes late and is the busiest ferry we have seen so far. Boxes of vegetables are frantically unloaded before we can get on board.
The Adam Korais set sail from the shores of Kythnos. Farewell Kythnos – I really hope to be back one day!
The ferry skirts the coastline of Kythnos down to it’s toe before heading further out to sea.
This was a great people watching opportunity. There were a group of North African/Middle Eastern young men larking about on the deck – hanging over the railings testing each others bravado. A small film crew were filming a grey hair man who appeared to be reading a book and intermittently looking out to sea. A couple of gypsy children were performing for the tourists – great photo opportunity for many but didn’t sit quite well with me photographing children without parental consent.
The sun began to set as we approached Serifos. Turning towards the harbour we are plunged into dusk as the highest point of Serifos island is placed between us and the sun.
Disembarkation is a little chaotic again but we know that we are going to be picked up by someone the accommodation we had booked. We had done a little search on Trip Advisor and knew that we wanted to be in the port as opposed to the Chora this time. We had chosen the Serifos Palace as it was offering a duplex apartment with sea views AND breakfast for a very reasonable price. 20+ years ago the opportunity to preview and book rooms on the fly wasn’t even a thought. You’d turn up on an island and take pot luck with whoever sold their room to you best!
After 10 minutes a little van arrived with Serifos Palace written on it. A lady greeted us and opened up the back for our luggage which was placed in the back with bags of spilled cement. The lady didn’t speak much English but did mention a restaurant called Gialis along the harbour that seemed to be associated with the Serifos Palace.
The van took us up over a bit of a steep hill or rather more of a brough, but we were at the Serifos Palace in about 5 minutes. The apartment was split-level and had a small bedroom upstairs with a separate shower. Most of the upstairs space was taken up by various balconies which, had it offered a sea view would have been brilliant. Standing on tip toes on one balcony you could just about see the sea. Yes the room upstairs is small but perfectly adequate as a place to sleep for someone.
It is so early in the season that we are the only people staying in the Serifos Palace which is quite nice. However, as the first visitors of the season the shower room upstairs did have several mosquitoes flitting around. Our first mission was to get rid of all the mosquitoes and plug in the bug basher! I would be there first target of someone to bite!
Before the lady left she showed us how to switch on the hot water and also asked us what time we’d like breakfast and we agreed 9.00am. We decide to keep the luggage in the large room downstairs and to also use the downstairs shower which seems to have been refurbished more recently. The kitchen was basic but functional with a small dining area and again lots of patio space at ground floor level. We’re exhausted, and from the balcony there doesn’t appear to be any sign of life in terms of a local taverna or shops so we stay in and drink wine and eat biscuits!
